LAND OF THE EVOLVING SUN

When I joined The Straits Times in June 2012 as a rookie journalist, I had no aspirations or illusions of becoming a foreign correspondent, let alone in a country I barely knew or felt any special connection to.

- Walter Sim

TOKYO -

I grew up with Sega arcade games, Tamagotchi digital pets, Nintendo Game Boys and Sony Walkman players, and have fond memories of the now-defunct Sogo department store near my childhood home in Tampines.

But I did not understand the Japanese language or fully appreciate the country's deep cultural influence. Japan seemed like a nation past its prime, its economy overtaken by China, its pop culture eclipsed by South Korea.

Then six months into my job, I visited Japan on a holiday for the first time. I went to Tokyo, where I was enamoured of the sights, sounds and buzz of the world's most populous region.

I signed up for weekly language classes and, four years later, when I was offered a posting as The Straits Times' Japan correspondent, I didn't hesitate.

More than three decades earlier, in May 1982, the paper had launched its Tokyo bureau. Announcing this on Page 1, it described Japan as "the world's most efficient industrial power". It was opening an office there to monitor the nation's growing economic influence and to cover "the controversial question of whether Japan will play a greater role in maintaining the security of Asia".

This purpose remains relevant today.

Since taking up the role, I've reported from disaster zones and diplomatic summits, and interviewed people across the length of the Japanese archipelago, from Shiretoko Peninsula in the northeast of Hokkaido to Yonaguni in the south-west of Okinawa.

The Japanese frame time by imperial eras, and I witnessed the dawn of the Reiwa era in 2019 when Emperor Akihito abdicated the Chrysanthemum Throne and was succeeded by his son Naruhito.

The new era has been marked by a more confident Japan on the global stage, eager to champion a rules-based international order.