Looking Up From Down Under

After varied experiences in Japan, Ian Brazier ends up serving as Australian consul in Design City

In a way, Australian Consul Ian Brazier has been looking up most of his life.

Geographically, at least.

Brazier moved with his family from his birthplace in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, to Papau New Guinea, where he lived until he returned to Australia attend boarding school. His interest in Japan and its language was kindled at university, and he declared Japanese his major. During his sophomore year, at age 19, he decided to see first-hand what was going on �above� him.

�I took a year off to come [to Japan] on a working holiday to reconfirm my interest,� Brazier explains. �Before I committed myself or my life to a particular course of study, I thought it would be a good idea to see if I would actually like it here.�

Brazier did like Japan, but returned to complete his university studies in Brisbane. After a few months of interim study at Sophia University in Tokyo, a stint on an exchange program and a year at Komazawa University, also in Tokyo, he entered the real working world of Japan, that of a salariman.

�I didn�t really want to go back to Australia,� he says, �so I started looking for a job here. Like all graduates, I started visiting companies. The one that I liked most and seemed to like me most was Suntory, so I joined them.� He stayed at the beverage giant�s Tokyo offices for five years.

At the end of 1994, Brazier once again went home, where he put in a year working for the Queensland government -- in the area of trade with Japan -- and completed an MBA.

His frequent travels up and down the latitudes came to a halt when he accepted his current position at the Australian consulate in Nagoya, located on the eighth floor of the Ikko Fushimi Building in Naka Ward. It�s a job he likes for many reasons.

�The idea of serving [my] country appeals to me,� he says. �And everything I�d learned and studied and experienced so far seemed to had been getting me ready for a job like this. Also, the idea of more responsibility appeals to anyone who�s young and ambitious; to actually take control of a post.

Brazier says postings at the Australian consulate usually run three or four years. This gives a consul enough time to assimilate into his host community, make the appropriate contacts necessary for business and consular needs, and establish foundations upon which future consuls can build.

But what exactly does a consul do? Brazier says his duties fall into two primary categories, business and consular.

�Say a Japanese company needs a source for a certain [Australian] product. We would work with them to try and find appropriate Australian suppliers. Similarly, if an Australian company came up here wanting to sell [products or services], we try to put them in contact with the right people.�

This business end keeps Brazier tuned in to the wavelength of the global economy; the consular end, he says, keeps him honed in on more down-to-earth considerations, such as passports, marriage papers and the diverse needs of exchange students. He says it�s this side of his work that humanizes his job.

�It�s quite emotional sometimes to be the one contact point for a family [in Japan] or friends in Australia who don�t know what�s going on and have no idea of the system here. Trying to help them makes you feel good. I don�t believe I�m a saint, but it�s a nice feeling to be able to help people, and it�s a dimension of the job that I didn�t know existed before I actually started doing it.�

Brazier is careful to point out that being a consul bears no resemblance to being a psychiatrist or surrogate mother. The scope of what he and his three assistants (two Japanese and another Australian) can do is limited not only by protocol but by real-life situations.

�I�m not trained as a counselor,� he says. �As a port of last call, we�re here to try to offer some assistance to people. I really think we�re a resource to put people in contact with others that can help them better. We�re not real estate agents, we�re not a child-minding center. But hopefully we can help people who know what they need to find, help them find it more quickly than they would otherwise.�

One thing Brazier does want to do is help Japanese people better understand his country, which he believes is seen here as a continent-sized amusement park. Japanese parents sending their children abroad, businesspeople who want detailed information about opportunities and tourists are just a few of the people with whom he hopes to construct ties. Though Australia does enjoy a healthy reputation as being �trustworthy� (ranked second next to Canada in a recent Japanese survey), Brazier wants to broaden its image.

�Unfortunately, a lot of the imagery that�s positive -- the golden beaches, the koala bears -- conjures up an image of Australia being this great zoo and golf course and beach resort, which is a very nice [image]. But is only a very small part of Australia.�

Brazier says that Australia�s burgeoning automotive, high-tech and shipbuilding industries are contemporary businesses that could soon overshadow the more traditional exports of sugar, grain, seafood, fruits and vegetables. (Fact: A lot of the soba being slurped in Japan comes from Tasmania.)

Despite their differences, Brazier says, Australia and Japan will be forever linked by economic and cultural exchange.

�Japan, I think, is still a little bit exotic. It�s a very different culture, but it�s not as distant as it used to be. We want to help establish business ties and to help Australians living here to help themselves.�