“Kagawa, Like a Second Home”
About Angela
Angela graduated from Sheffield University with a Dual Honours Degree in Japanese and Economic History and worked as PA and interpreter for two major Japanese Companies in the UK.
After becoming self-employed, she worked as Co-ordinator and Interpreter during the construction of the Japanese garden at the International Garden Festival in Liverpool.
She went out to Japan as the first Coordinator for International Relations on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET) where she worked at Kagawa Prefectural International Affairs Office in Takamatsu, Shikoku for one year. After that she co-ordinated various visits to the UK for Government officials and local education, and continued her long standing relationship with Kagawa Prefecture so that in 2003 she was the only non-Japanese person to be nominated ‘Cultural Ambassador’ to Kagawa Prefecture, and this role has been renewed every two years.
In this capacity she was invited to give some lectures in 2010 at a special symposium held on the islands of the Seto Inland Sea.
In March 1990 she was invited by the Japanese Government to work for them as an 'International Liaison Officer' at the Japanese exhibition at Expo '90 in Osaka, looking after Royalty, Prime Ministers, Ministers, Ambassadors and Consuls. This Exposition involved 83 countries and 55 international organisations and attracted over 23 million visitors.
Between 1990 and 2005 she worked as Commissioned Representative for the Organisation for Urban Greenery and Technology as a Co-ordinator and Interpreter, where she co-ordinated many visits by landscapers, town planners, lecturers around the UK, as well as acting as an intermediary and co-ordinator for several major projects including the restoration of the Chokushi-mon gateway and the creation of a Japanese landscape at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, for which she was awarded the Satoh prize in June 1999 for International Relations by the Parks and Open Spaces Association of Japan.
In November 2001 she was awarded the prize for International Relations by the Urban Green Space Foundation of Japan for work co-ordinating the Japanese Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show during Japan Year in the UK, which won a gold medal and the award for the ‘Best in Show’.
She has worked as an interpreter with a distinguished Japanese landscape architect Professor on Japanese gardens for over 15 years, accompanying him all over the UK, France (Japanese/French interpreting) and Australia when he gave a series of workshops and seminars as part of a Fellowship he had been awarded.
She was awarded the highly prestigious Japanese Ambassador’s Commendation for services to Anglo-Japanese cultural relations in January 2007.
She has taught Japanese at all levels at John Moores University and International Baccalaureate Japanese at Broadgreen International High School. She also teaches tailor made Japanese courses and advises about doing business in Japan to business people going out there. She is past Chairman of the Japan Society North West.
Her love of all things Japanese began when she enrolled on the UK's first modern Japanese language course at Sheffield University in the 1960s. After leaving university, she worked in the headquarters of a Japanese trading company in London for four years before moving back to Liverpool where her cultural work started.
She acted as an interpreter for Japanese landscape gardeners working at the 1984 Liverpool Garden Festival and also as part of the Anglo-Japanese team who restored the Japanese Arch at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. In 2001, the International Year of Japan, she became involved with the restoration of the Japanese garden at Tatton Park and also the development of the Japanese entry at the Chelsea Flower Show.
Her outstanding language and diplomacy skills mean that she is also in demand in Japan. In 1987, she was the only person from the UK out of 38 people worldwide to be appointed a co-ordinator for international relations on the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) programme's innovative International Relations programme.