Profile

My official title is “First Secretary (Nuclear)” at the British Embassy in Tokyo.

I normally work for the National Nuclear Laboratory in the UK. However, a few years ago I was lucky enough to take part in an exchange where I worked for two years in a Japanese laboratory. When the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in March 2011, and caused the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power station, I was asked to go over to the British Embassy in Tokyo to see where the UK could help. I thought I would only be here for 6 weeks, but I am still working in Tokyo 4 years later.

I have learned some Japanese, and it helps with the communication – if you can talk to someone and trust them, then you are much more likely to believe what they are telling you, and accept the assistance. Because I have a technical knowledge it is easier to speak to the people who run the power station and understand what help they need.

To be honest – I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do when I was a school – so I just focused on doing something I was interested in, and kept doing it to see where it took me. Often I would finish one thing and have no idea what I was going to do next. For example, when I finished University and wasn’t sure what to do, but I got a phone call from someone I’d once met at a conference and they asked if I wanted to work for him in America. I though it sounded quite interesting, so ended up working over there for a couple of years, which was great!

I ended up in Japan because I took the opportunity of going on an exchange programme many years ago – I had no idea it would lead to me working at the British Embassy, it just sounded interesting at the time………

It is interesting working somewhere which is 9 hours ahead of the UK. It means that when I go in to work in the morning, everyone has been sending me emails while I have been asleep. I deal with anything urgent, however I know the UK won’t wake up for ages, so nothing needs to be done immediately.

I then usually have meetings with Japanese companies and the Japanese government, discuss what difficulties they have and if we have any companies or organisations which can help.

I lot of the work I do is about meeting people, and connecting people. I have to make the meetings interesting so that they want to hear more about what the UK can do to help. Because I am working at the British Embassy, I am able to contact many people in the UK, and connect them with the right people in Japan. I have managed to get the UK and Japan to sign a number of agreements which means the right people meet each other regularly.

I often organise big meetings – which is a lot more complicated than it sounds. Imagine organising a party with 150 people who don’t speak the same language. You needs to make sure there are interpreters, and enough space for everyone, as well as making sure they are fed, and don’t get lost trying to find the venue….

Getting people to meet and interact is just as difficult for adults as it is for teenagers, it can sometime be like those parties you go to when all the boys stand against one wall and the girls stand against the other…

I have developed some skills to get the scientists from the UK and Japan to start talking, and create the right atmosphere to get people to start working together.