Under the #yosoytalentoJ, the initiative aims to compile witnesses of a group of young Spanish people under 36 that have spent 6 months or more in Japan. The purpose of Talent J is to draw a map of Spanish young talent in Japan, to connect it and inspire others in a simple and accessible way for everyone.
Through the website: http://talentojota.com/, all their experiences will be included as a way to discover richness and difficulties they must face for the cultural differences between Spain and Japan. This way, all those who would like to study martial arts in Japan, can learn the best tips from Ainhoa Calaf to learn Kyudo,a typically Japanese martial art. For those dancers who would like to establish themselves in Japan, Lucía Vázquez from Madrid can tell them how it took her almost 3 yeras to find her place because there are not add panels and without a contact network it is difficult to begin.
In Talent J, there is also room for young people interested in technology such as Carlos Naranjo whose passion for videogames attacted him to Japan and he has ended up working in videogame development in the city of Kyoto. As well as little gastronomic anecdotes like the handball player’s, Victor Hugo López, who tells us how he lost 3 Kg in his arrival to Japan because he didn’t know how to use chopsticks or Laura Maraver from Barcelona who after living in Japan has started up a shop devoted to selling kimonos with a workshop where she teaches kitsuke (art of wearing kimonos) and wasai (Japanese traditional sewing).
From the Spain-Japan Council Foundation, all those people who fulfil the requirements to be part of this community to be able to create a network of contacts and especially to portray the diversity of young talent linked to Japan, from sports people, engineers, artists to business people or students. They all have an interesting experience to motivate young people to discover Japan. For the director of the Spain-Japan Council Foundation, Eva Garrido: “Talent J would like to value what it means to have prepared young people to approach the called “century of Asia”. Tehy will create future relations among both countries. Isn’t it worth learning about them and inspiring others?”
The objective of Talent J is to bring 100 young people together to understand what studying or working in Japan with its joy and difficulties involves for a young person. The information compilation will be published at the Talent J website as well as in several videos. Also a book presented as a part of the 150th anniversary celebrations at an event in January 2019 that will count on the presence of representatives of both countries together with those of Talent J.
The Spain-Japan Council Foundation is a non-profit private institution, created in 2001 whose mission is within the framework of what’s called Public Diplomacy. In the purpose of improving and spreading our image and presence as a country in Japan, it collaborates with the Administration and especially with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.
