Ian Martin Ropke

115-8 Jodoji Nishidacho, Yoshidayama, Kyoto 606-8417, Japan

Tel/Fax: 075-202-9383 (Cell: 090-5895-8425) iropke@gmail.com

Highly motivated, disciplined, flexible, creative executive and problem solver with many years of experience in Japan. Passionate about work; love challenge and responsibility. Meticulous, conscientious, and very reliable. Dedicated, first and foremost, to my clients and their specific needs. Feel comfortable working as part of team but also have a strong preference for independent work between different teams or disciplines. Have above-average people and communication skills. Well-informed, knowledgeable and proficient over a wide range of disciplines: technology, literature, film, history, design, psychology, philosophy, aesthetics.

Professional Experience

Founded Your Japan Private Tours (1992- ) to provide customized services to foreign businesses and travelers interested in Japan. Your Japan Private Tours assists businesses and travelers coming to Japan: we set up specialized tours and provide all kinds of advanced and on-the-spot logistics/services throughout Japan with our primary business taking place mostly in the areas around Tokyo and Kyoto. We have worked with executives and individuals from a number of American (Fannie Mae, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Prudential Life Insurance) and British corporations (British Areospace BAE Systems; coordinator and lecturer for BAE's Tokyo/Kyoto cultural module seminars; 2001; 2003; 2005; 2007; Feb. 17-21, 2010), as well as many affluent individual travelers and their families over the years; www.your-japan-private-tours.com

Cultural communications lecturer at Ritsumeikan University (1999-2009), Koka Women’s University (1999-2005 ), Seian University of Art & Design (1998-2005), Ryukoku University (2008-2009). Taught a wide range of cultural and English communication skills to undergraduates; these include written communication and spoken.

Editor-in-Chief of the Kyoto Visitor’s Guide (1994-2009; presently editorial consultant under the pen name Mark Wild) and the Osaka Visitor’s Guide (1993-1995) at Ad Brain Corporation, Kyoto. Oversaw and controled nearly every aspect related to the monthly operation of the guide (kyotoguide.com). This includes all strategies connected with editorial issues, writing of all content/copywriting, photos, and, increasingly, control of graphic design and image factors.

Senior editor and copywriter at Intergroup Corporation, Osaka (1988-1992). Editing and copywriting at the Kansai region’s largest translation and editorial firm for a wide range of clients: everyone from Panasonic and Sharp to Osaka City and UN-funded environmental organizations.

Education

The University of Southern Queensland, Australia: Masters of Applied Linguistics (2005-2007).

The University of the State of New York, NY, USA: Bachelor of Science, 1998; minor in literature, through correspondence courses at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah as per the accredited standards of the University of the State of New York.

University of Waterloo, Ont., Canada: 1980-1983, 1986-1988; electrical engineering, computer science option; co-op program; successfully completed first and second year, then took three years off and traveled around the world; finished the first half of my third year, with a 74% average and then withdrew from the program, for purely personal reasons, to return to Japan and resume Japanese studies and specifically woodwork (Shinto animistic sculpture and furniture).

Foreign Languages

Fluent, culturally and linguistically, in Japanese (spoken and written), German, and Swedish.

Community Leadership

Created and founded (1985) the Kyoto Connection—initially as poetry forum, followed by the addition of music and drama—as a way for foreigners in Kyoto and internationally-minded Japanese to come together, on a monthly basis. The Kyoto Connection was a huge local success and was held regularly until the end of 2000. It appeared in Pico Iyer’s novel, The Lady and the Monk. Through the influence of the Kyoto Connection, similar events were founded in Osaka and Tokyo.

Founded (1997) and funded the Kyoto Cinema Club a local non-profit video club for the foreign community in Kyoto; every title featured English subtitles (all foreign videos in Japan have Japanese subtitles; Japanese films have no subtitles).

Worked as a volunteer environmental, holistic paradigm activist (1989-1995) with a number of local and international groups, including support work and participation in small, but important international conferences and events involving, among others, Fritjof Capra (Elmwood Institute, Berkeley) and Jerry Mander (Public Media Center, San Francisco).

Publications

Historical Dictionary of Osaka and Kyoto, Scarecrow Press, Inc., Lanham, Md. & London, 1999. Planned, researched and wrote a 321-page historical dictionary of Osaka and Kyoto.

Personal Information

Married; have one child, a daughter (born in 2003). Holder of Canadian and EEC passports. Passionately interested in woodwork and sculpture: studied Japanese woodwork with a master in Kyoto for 8 years.