Difficulty finding employment

I was very busy this week. I wrote my paper on Silk Road diplomacy last month, but I had to alter some parts of it and to add some explanations. Also I must find a job.

I have not found a better job than I experienced before. I was rejected after a job interview at an NGO office in Tokyo. Because my supervisor of an MA programme in the UK advised me to find a job at an NGO office, I thought that I applied for it if there was a vacancy on the staff. Probably I am suitable for an NGO staff in Europe and the US. However, Managing Director of the NGO argued that I am unique among the applicants for the staff. He said that Japanese NGOs are different from European and US NGOs. Why are they so? Especially the NGO for which I applied is the international NGO adopted and registered by the UN. Unbelievable!

Chairperson of the Board of the NGO argued that some applicants said that they needed some experiences as the NGO staff in order to get a job in an international organisation, but she did not want to lose the staff. There are many applicants for the NGO because someone who has the experience as an NGO staff is advantage for getting a job at an international organization. Actually I thought that if I would be hired as the staff, I would seek the way to find a job at an international organization.

I thought that if I would be the staff, I could contribute to increasing the level of the NGO. I was willing to engage in the job, but this turned to a dissapointment to me. From the first, they invited me to the job interview because I used my connections, but I got a disappointing result. However it may be all right, because the work at the NGO office is very hard. An annual salary of the staff is from 2 millon to 3 million yen, take-home pay is about 160000 yen a month with no pay for extra work that is recognised as volunteer activities.

I applied for a job at a temporary agency. I do not want that people do not have a negative image of the job, because temporary agencies have various kinds of jobs. Of course temp for a day is cruel.

I received an email from editors of the book on Silkroad diplomacy at the end of last month. The editors asked me that I made some changes in my paper. Actually, I had a little time to write the paper because the paper would not be my main work, I could not get fee for it and also I could have no advantage for me to find a job. I have to get a job by myself. I had my back against the wall, and therefore I might have abnormal mental state. But I decided to do this work by the middle of this month because the editors are very enthusiastic about it.

I went to the National Diet Library from Tuesday to Thursday this week. On Wednesday the 6th, I passed a person whom I saw somewhere on the street from the subway station Kokkaigijidoumae to the library. Probably the person is a member of parliament. I would like to shake hands with him, but I was smart not to do so because someone who had a TV camera walked several metres behind him.

I did not go to the library for a long time. Recently, some systems of the library are much more convinient for the users. For example, the way to request for materials was changed; this enables them to get materials and copies for a shorter time than before, though it takes about half an hour from requesting a book or journal to getting a copy. It is the same that they have to walk around in the library, for example, from the book or periodicals counters to the copying centers, this is good exercise for me, though.