International Awakening

Member and journalist Kanoko Matsuyama explains the pivotal influence of the United States on her life.

I grew up right by Nara Park and went to a local school. When I was 14, my parents sent me to the United States for a year as an exchange student.

At that time, I was quite a rebellious child, so it was a perfect time to be away. My father was a member of the Rotary Club and we hosted exchange students at our house. It was my first contact with the outside world.

I lived in Denver, Colorado, which was my first experience of living outside of Nara. I remember I didn’t understand anything anyone was saying. It was pretty overwhelming and I cried for hours and hours the first night. The school was fairly diverse, something you don’t see in Japan. The first two or three months, I was lonely.

I became a completely different person by the end of that year. Before, I was very shy and wasn’t very good in my studies. I also learned to appreciate my parents, so we became much, much closer.

Also, I was lucky enough to live with one family with three children, and I got along with a couple of the sisters. They taught me that it’s important to have a goal in life, and then you do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. One of the sisters was great at sports, she was smart and really popular…and she was determined to go to university. That’s when studying made sense to me.

The experience in the US completely changed me. I became more social and outgoing, joined the student council and did activities with exchange students. That year really made who I am today.

When I was 16 or 17, my dad hosted a journalist from NPR [National Public Radio] in my home. She was doing a story on Japanese women and stayed with us for about 10 days. That was another life-changing experience. I thought what she was doing—finding out about society and interviewing people for a story—was really fascinating. And I decided that that was what I wanted to do with my life.

I found a journalism course at Sophia University, and that’s how I came to Tokyo. Sophia was fascinating. There were people like me who had spent time abroad and international students as well. I was able to find a part-time job at NHK, in the news section, through my university years. All of a sudden, I felt more comfortable.

I wanted to study abroad again, and I went to Georgetown in Washington, DC, on an exchange program in my third year. There were so many inspiring, competitive, smart people. One thing it taught me was how people have different perspectives and there’s no one answer. That’s something I always remind myself professionally.

I eventually joined Bloomberg [news agency] 10 years ago, and it was a lot of on-the-job training. When I look back, no matter how hard it was, every single step was necessary to reach where I am today.

As told to INTOUCH’s Nick Jones.

Image: Enrique Balducci