 Marc Sklav, the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea program. Today we're going across the sea to Japan to talk with Ronda Morioka. Ronda is the manager of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association's secretariat, which is located in Tokyo. Ronda and the IPBA bring lawyers together across the sea from all over the world. Next April they will be bringing lawyers together in Tokyo. I've asked Ronda to discuss her personal and professional life in Japan, the IPBA's inherent value to lawyers, and the upcoming April IPBA annual meeting in 2024 in Tokyo. Ronda, welcome. Aloha. It's good to see you. How are you? Hi, Marc. Thank you so much for having me on the program. I'm really doing well, and it looks like you are us too. Well, we've had some issues today in Hawaii with rain, but the rain is good too. It's better than having a drought. So let me get started and ask you a few questions. I mean, you live in Japan now and you work there and you play there, as I understand. How long have you done that? How did that get started? What's your background in coming, getting into Japan? Well, I first came to Japan in 1970 when I was a child. My family spent three months in Kyoto where my aunt lives, and we had a really good time. There's a picture of me and my sister. It's not cultural appropriation in our Yukata because my mother is Japanese, so I think I can wear the Yukata OK. And we went to the Osaka World's Fair that was held there. Many, many times I had really, really great memories. And then after that, the next time I came to Japan was in 1987, and I spent two weeks in Japan, also in the Osaka Kyoto area visiting relatives, visiting family friends. And then I decided that while I really liked Japan, I would like to live there and maybe learn more of the language, learn more about the culture, about that side of my family background. And then came to Japan again in 1988 to 1989. At that time, it was easiest to be an English teacher in order to get your foot in Japan. And then I went back to the States once and came back in 1992. And I've been living here since 1992. And so you have a cultural background, a family background that intrigued you, but also you kept coming back. I did coming back, yes. And now you live in a town nearby Tokyo, where exactly do you live? And what is your background there? Where do you live? I live in a small farming village on the side of a mountain. Actually, there's two mountains and a valley and the population is about 14,000 people. I ended up here because there are two ski resorts nearby and I really like skiing. It's about two hours outside of Shinjuku on the west side of Tokyo. And I really love it here. It's very calm and peaceful. Lots of nature surrounding. It's just a fantastic place to live. You can see a picture of my house. I was taken a few weeks ago in the fall. So it's just a fantastic place. I can't imagine living anywhere else. Beautiful home. It's a beautiful country. It's like, you know, the wild west in a way. I mean, it's just very nice. Yeah. So it's a farming community. Yes. Okay. And that's where you live. And you also, I guess you work out of your home. Is that it for the IPDA? Correct. It's too far for me to commute into the office in Tokyo. So I've been working from home ever since I've lived here. I moved here in 2009. So it's been about 14 years. Okay. So the interesting thing I want to ask you, I know you were a US citizen, but you're now a Japanese citizen. How did that come about? Why? What did you do to do that? Well, a lot of factors went into the decision and I thought about it for many, many years. The longer I stayed in Japan, the more I felt disconnected from the states. Of course, I have family there still. I'm still connected closely with them, but the states has changed a lot in the last 30 years. And I'm not going to lie, the political situation was one of the factors as well. I felt like I couldn't live in the states anymore. And it felt like a good time to be more, I guess, be more entrenched in Japanese culture and Japanese life. And I thought a good way to do that would be to become a citizen. And I, yeah, I'm very happy that I did. That happened last year. And some of the IPDA members that knew me my previous life from before, my name used to be Ronda Lundin, but I changed my name in the process as well to Ronda Morioka. Sorry for the confusion, everybody. Oh no, that's interesting. And what was it hard to become a Japanese citizen? I don't know if it was hard, but there is a long process of submitting documentation to the Regional Legal Affairs Bureau. You go there first for an interview. They ask you why you want to become a citizen. You fill out some paperwork. One thing I thought was interesting was they asked if any of my family members would be opposed to me becoming a citizen because they thought that may be a deterrent and they didn't want to cause conflict. But fortunately, my family was all very supportive. And then at each stage, they tell you which documentation you need to hand in. You hand it in. They interview you again. They tell you what more documentation you need. And this process is repeated over several months. And then finally, when all the documentation is to their satisfaction, then there's a review process. And the review process, they told me it takes about 12 months to 18 months. But fortunately, I got my approval within four months. I think it's because where I live, the Regional Legal Affairs Bureau is not so busy, so there probably weren't that many applications at the time. I see. And it sounds to me like what you're saying, too, is that you are looking for a peaceful life, too. And something that maybe takes some pressure off you in a way from what you had before. Well, one thing is, I was a permanent resident before. So basically, I could do everything that a Japanese citizen could do except vote. And I'm really involved in the local community. And at some point, I would like to be involved in politics perhaps in the future. And I thought becoming a Japanese citizen was the first step. Okay. So what do you do in the community? What type of activities are you doing within the Japanese community? Well, in the town in which I live, it's called Fujimimachi in Nagano Prefecture. And we have 39 administrative districts. And the district in which I live is the 39th. It was just established in 2011. Although the town was established in the 1940s, I believe. So we're brand new. And since the beginning, I've been on the board of directors, basically, holding various positions. And I held the position of, it's called a village chief, kind of the head of the district for three years. And various positions such as sanitation head, cultural manager, things like that. So I've really, really been involved in the local community. And you sent some photos, too. There's a few photos of you doing various activities. What are those? Well, I'm also the vice chair of the local international exchange association. And the photo here is actually at one of those activities. And the gentleman with me is a Nagano prefectural assemblyman, who is from this area. And he's very, very supportive of local activities. And I've known him for many, many years. And right when I became a citizen, he asked me to be on his board of directors as well. So I'm in the women's group on his board supporting his campaign. He was just reelected last year for another term. So he's a very, very popular assemblyman in this area. And the next photo? Oh, besides my committee involvement, I love to run. And every, I'm not fast, I'm slow, I'm middle of the pack runner, but that's fine as long as I can keep moving. And every year I tried to join about 10 running events. This year I did four 10ks, four half marathons, a 29k around Lake Kawaguchi at the foot of Mount Fuji. And then the photo was a vertical run, which is basically up a local ski hill and then up to the top of the mountain. And that's one of the most challenging events, but it's really, really fun. And that's the group of people that I run with usually. I don't think I could ever do that. Okay, the next photo is an interesting one. Oh, yes. I'm also on the board of directors of the Japan Wolf Association. And this is a real wolf, although it's not alive at this time. But this was taken at the International Wolf Symposium in 2018, which was in Minnesota, my home state. And on the board of the Japanese Wolf Association, there are several of us, but I've just been assigned to be in charge of the YouTube channel. So we'll be making a YouTube channel very soon. It's going to be called Dakara Okami, which means, and that's why wolves. So we're going to be doing interviews with hunters, nature experts, farmers, anyone who's impacted by the lack of wolves in Japan because the last wolf was seen in 1905. And since then, the wolf, the deer population has exploded, wild boar population has exploded, and they've devastated a lot of the forests in Japan. So the Japan Wolf Association's main goal is to reintroduce wolves into Japan, just as they did in Yellowstone in the States. That's interesting. I mean, you do a lot of different activities. You're really into Japan life, and I can tell you speak Japanese, which is obviously good. Now, I want to talk about the IPBA and what is, you know, I know the IPBA, I've been involved in the IPBA since the inception, but let's tell our viewers, what is the IPBA, what's your involvement, and how does it help lawyers? What goes on with the IPBA, the Inter-Pacific Bar Association? Correct. Well, as you know, as one of the founding members, you can probably speak better than I can about the IPBA, but the IPBA is the foremost international bar association for commercial lawyers in the Asia-Pacific region, and it really offers an opportunity for those living in the region, lawyers living in the region, or practicing in the region, as well as those with interest in the region from other parts of the world to get together and discuss legal trends in their jurisdictions, that focus on the Asia-Pacific region. You know, I've found it to be very helpful, too. I mean, the contacts you make, the professional and social contacts is great, because you can call up lawyers from all over the world who you've met at these IPBA events, and they'll help you, because they know you, they met you, and so the IPBA, yeah, I agree, it's just a great thing for the region and for the world, and for lawyers who want to be involved in doing work in those areas, and making contacts. And that is absolutely correct, and I think one of the main positive parts of the IPBA is the level of friendship. That's one of our main goals, is to bring people together as friends, not just as, you know, business contacts, and because we're rather small, right now we have about 1,200 members. We're much smaller than other international legal organizations. It is really, really easy to become friends with other members, and our annual meeting and conferences, any kind of regional event we have, they are all like family reunions. Yeah, when you go to an event, it's like, I like to think of it as hugs over hand shakes, so you see more people hugging each other than shaking their hand, so shaking hands can be very impersonal, but when you see people hugging each other, and it's a warm hug, it's a true hug, it's just really, really nice. And, you know, the annual meetings are great, and we had to cancel the one earlier, I think 2019, previously scheduled for Tokyo. Now, in April of next year, 2024, we're scheduled to have our annual meeting in Tokyo, the IPBA. What's going to happen? What's that about? And I think we have a little image of the annual meeting invitation. Right, the upcoming annual meeting and conference will be held April 24 to 27, 2024, and it was supposed to be held in 2021, but of course, COVID kind of put the kibosh on that, and we had to rearrange some of the annual meeting and conference venues, so we went to Shanghai, we actually canceled the conference one year, this year we had it in Dubai, and now we're having it in Tokyo. And can I talk about the theme? The theme is New World, New World, New Wisdom, and when this planning started for this conference, the theme was actually Wisdom for the next 30 years, because it was supposed to be the 30th annual meeting and conference, but there was a discussion and they changed the theme. Everyone's been impacted by COVID, it has become a new world because of that, and this is a really, really good time to start moving forward with new ideas, with the wisdom that everyone has gathered from the difficulties over the past couple of years, and this will be a really, really great time for everyone to come together and discuss and plan for the future. And you've been involved in a lot of these events, a lot of the annual meetings, and you sent several photos, and why don't you run through the photos of what goes on at these annual meetings and what people do and why it brings everybody together as a family? Well, the first day prior to the conference events are the council meetings, so meetings of the IPBA officers and other council members, and there are always four meetings during that day, and it's all day from morning until night, so the council... That's the first photo. Correct, correct, that's the first photo. And the council actually right now is 81 members, so we have 15 officers, there's jurisdictional council members, out-large council members, regional coordinators, and committee chairs and co-chairs, which comprises 81 people in total, so it's quite lively and active meeting, and at those meetings, the business of the association is discussed, finances and things, how to move forward, what projects to have, status of current projects going on, so they're very lively meetings. And then the next photo? Yes, the next photo is actually from one of the committee sessions, it was a round table session. I think this was a couple of years ago, perhaps Singapore, I can't remember exactly, sorry, but there are over 50 concurrent committee sessions, generally seven committee sessions at one time, over eight time periods, so about 50 to 56 sessions at every conference. One complaint we have is that there are too many sessions, good sessions, and everyone wants to attend everything, but unfortunately due to time constraints, because our conference, basically the bulk of it is over three days, we can't fit everything in, but that's a good thing to have, I guess. People want more, but there is plenty already. And then, yes, sorry. There's also some other activities, you have golf, right? So there's a golf tournament? Yes, there's a pre-conference golf tournament and then a post-conference golf tournament, and generally there's about 30 or 40 members that attend those. And I guess that the Tokyo golf is already full and there's a waiting list, so anyone who wants to play, please contact the secretary and we'll put you on a waiting list, but it's a very, very popular event, there's a lot of golfers in the IPBA. Okay, so that and the photo you put up was at the end of the golf tournament, is that? Correct, correct, yes. And you can see that is a very relaxed atmosphere. It's definitely not, you know, a golf tournament. Well, there are really, really good golf players. I won't say that it's not for professionals, but there are super good golf players, but it's also a very friendly competition. And then talking about friendships, there's the next photo that you got, what's that about? That, I chose this photo because I think it really expresses what the IPBA is about. Members from various jurisdictions just having fun. I mean, you can just see the look on their faces is, you know, it's not staged, everyone is like this, arms around each other, hugging each other. It's just the atmosphere of the IPBA. That's great, and these are all lawyers. They're all lawyers, yes. Okay, now, we're going to be in Tokyo for the IPBA in April 2024, beginning on the 24th of April, right? Correct. Now, tell us, you sent some photos of that you took of the Tokyo area. So let's go through those, and tell us what's special about Tokyo as a venue for the IPBA's annual meeting. And it's not just Tokyo, it's all Japan actually. Right, right. Japan has a lot to offer in the way of tourist spots. Of course, Mount Fuji here, which was taken the day before I did the 29K around the lake at Mount Fuji, beautiful, beautiful area. Mount Fuji is the symbol of Japan, the tallest mountain, the tallest volcano. So anywhere around Mount Fuji, you can get there within an hour, hour and a half from the Tokyo area is good. This is Tokyo Tower at night. Tokyo Tower is actually modeled after the Eiffel Tower in Paris, as you can see. But it's one of the main attractions in Tokyo. It's not the tallest tower anymore. There's another one called Sky Tree that has overtaken it. But Tokyo Tower also has its charms. And this is right in the center of Tokyo in the Roppongi area. And this is so sorry, I always mess up the name Sensoji Temple, which is in the Akasaka area. Some of you may know the entrance to it, which has a large Japanese lantern within a gate. And there's a shopping street called Nakamise that leads up to the temple with all sorts of Japanese souvenirs and food left to right. So that's one of the main tourist spots in Tokyo. I love going there. Every time I go to Tokyo, I've gone there. So, okay, the next one. Hey, and the next one is from Edo Muran. Edo is the name of the old Tokyo Capitol. And this was a small, it's a touristy spot, but it's actually quite interesting, just outside of Nikko. Nikko is outside of Tokyo by about two hours by train. And that's where you can find the Sino Evil, Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, Monkeys, which is basically a carving on the side of a temple building. But the Edo Muran is nearby, and it has a lot of attractions that show the old Japan. So it's really interesting from a cultural perspective to see what older Japan was like. And so there's social activities, there's meetings of lawyers talking about legal topics, there's golf, there's a lot of sightseeing that can be done, and there's a lot of fun that can be done. How do lawyers register if they want to go to the IPBA annual meeting in Tokyo in April 2024? Well, there's an official conference website and you can search IPBA Tokyo 2024 on your browser or there's a QR code right there, so pull it up on your phone and you can conduct registration right there. So using that QR code will work. Okay, well, that is helpful for people, they can just take it right from there. Now, we've talked a lot about all your experiences, your life, your work, your fun, social activities, that type of thing in IPBA. What does living in Japan mean to you and what words of wisdom would you have that, based on your life experience in Japan and maybe cultural Japanese ideas, what have you learned, what would you like to tell the audience, especially during these difficult times, and the IPBA is a great place to get together. That's a lot to pack into a one minute wrap up, but living in Japan is very meaningful for me personally, just because I've got the background of my mother being Japanese, so it's meaningful to me. She's expatriated from Japan and she lives in the States now, so it's kind of a reverse import, I guess there's a phrase in Japanese, so I was born in the States and came here, she was born in Japan, went to the States, but for me it's very, very meaningful and I really appreciate that I've been accepted in the community. I know a lot of foreign residents that feel they're not accepted sometimes and you'll always be a foreigner, but for me I feel like I've been accepted and that's really, really heartwarming for me, that atmosphere around this neighborhood in particular. I have to say honestly, when I first started working for IPBA, which was in 2009, I was actually intimidated. I'm not a lawyer, I have no legal background, I felt like oh my gosh, how can I support and serve this community of international lawyers? I don't even know how to talk to them, but the community is so warm and welcoming, everyone is very down to earth. I enjoy hugging everyone as well. I feel like I'm a part of the IPBA even though I'm just the secretariat. And so that experience you've had with the lawyers, that says a lot. The fact that I mean, lawyers I guess can be intimidating and they can appear like they're authoritarian or something, but you're telling me that's not the case, is that this is more like a family? Is there a word in Japanese that would describe that? In Hawaii we say ohana. Right, right. All kind of a group of family members and that's how I feel about a lot of the IPBA members that I've become friends with over the years and I'm sure you know a lot of them and is that how you feel too? I definitely feel like it's a family and I feel part of the family as well. So I feel very, very welcome by the members, by the lawyers, by the officers, council members, everyone. I can't imagine doing anything else. Everyone knows that I love my job. So I think the IPBA will be stuck with me for the foreseeable future. Couple closing questions. Who is the president of the IPBA now? Current president is Richard Briggs from Dubai and he will be president until the annual general meeting in 2024 when Miyuki Ishiguro will take over. Okay, yes, I know her. And then after that where are the plans for the IPBA? Yes, after that in 2025 we're going to Chicago and the person who is in charge, the vice president is Michael Chu from Chicago. Okay, great. Yes, and I know Michael too. Okay, great. Well look, Ronda, I appreciate all of your insights and your discussion that we had today and I am really looking forward to seeing you in person in April in Tokyo. So thank you, Mark. Aloha. Aloha, thank you. I'm looking forward to seeing you as well and everyone.