After graduating from GraSPP in 2011, I found a position at an incorporated administrative agency that conducts international cultural exchange. After working in two departments in Japan, I gave birth in Norway, where my husband lives, and took three and a half years of childcare leave. Upon returning to work, I took up a post as deputy director of the Manila office in the Philippines, bringing with me my daughter, then three, and my son, then one and a half.
After graduating from university, I knocked on GraSPP’s door out of a desire to work in the nation’s cultural policy. Like the friends I sat side by side with in the study room of the Second Administration Building, I initially studied for the civil service examination, but my intention to aim at being a specialist rather than a generalist gradually became clear, and I ultimately set my sights on Japan’s only specialized institution for international cultural exchange. Compared with classmates working at ministries and international organizations, I think I chose a considerably more relaxed career. Having studied abroad in Denmark in high school and in Norway in university, I may have been influenced somewhere along the way by the people of Scandinavia, who treasure family above all else and make each day fulfilling without straining themselves.
In my daily work of planning and implementing arts and cultural exchange projects and supporting academic institutions that research Japan, requests of every kind come in from counterparts in government, the private sector, and academia. At such times, I try to recall the perspectives of policy analysis and negotiation studies I learned at GraSPP, asking which policy tools would allow me to support the goals they hope to achieve while ensuring mutual benefit. Reading academic papers and grant applications from research institutions is also part of the job, and my experience of taking courses in other faculties while enrolled and engaging with literature from a variety of fields has served me well.
In a complete change from my childcare-leave days, when I was raising children in Oslo while attending university, in Manila I am a middle manager leading a team of just under ten people. From the projects I am in charge of to human resources, accounting, and general affairs, my scope of work is broad and my responsibilities have grown, but strangely enough, even when I first returned, I felt no blank or stress. Management positions with wide discretion make it easy to control one’s own workflow, and I find them highly compatible with the work of being a mother.
I can only call it good fortune that I gave birth in Norway, said to be the best country in which to become a parent, and was able to return to work in the Philippines, said to be the most gender-equal country in Asia. Even in Norway, where women’s participation in society is well advanced, more women than men work shortened hours after childcare leave, and it has been pointed out that this leads to career stagnation. The result of my wish to take on the same work as before giving birth was a posting to Manila, leaving my husband in Oslo. The change in environment from Scandinavia to Southeast Asia was a big one, but I was grateful for the spirit of my supervisor, who offered me a duty station where babysitters are easy to hire and where I could work full-time even with infants in tow; and since there had never before been a female staff member taking an overseas posting straight after childcare leave, I also wanted to create a “precedent” within the organization.
During my two years at GraSPP, I had many opportunities to meet practitioners both on and off campus and talk with them personally, and from the example of such people, my own ideal lifestyle became clearer. With whom, where, and doing what? If you know clearly what you want, I recommend pursuing an environment in which it can be realized.
At the venue of an event we organized
July, the Philippines-Japan Friendship Month, is our busiest season. The children are on a two-month summer holiday in Norway with my husband
