We here at J-List are dedicated to to bringing Japan and the Wst closer through shared popular culture. We have great respect for Japan and want to bring Japanese culture, in whatever form we may, to the world, and provide a bridge between the two cultures. Thanks for checking out our site.

J-List is a limited corporation (yuugen gaisha) based in Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, Japan. Gunma is located 30 km from the geographic center of the main Japanese island of Honshu, about two hours by slow train from Tokyo, and is known for mountains, clean water, hot springs and cold, strong winds in the winter (kara-kaze). It's also known for strong-minded women (my wife, the president of the company, made me write that). Isesaki (pop. 140,000) is the hometown of "Touch" artist Adachi Mitsuru, a manga artist that not many Americans know very well; it also has a very nice Ferris wheel and roller coaster about three minutes from J-List.

My name is Peter Payne, and I taught English as a Second Language in Japan for four years. I enjoyed teaching ESL and have some advice on my homepage for anyone wanting to teach in Asia. Be sure and check out the "You've been in Japan Too Long" list located here.

I got interested in Japan like many Americans, by watching Japanese television shows when I was young and impressionable. Not content to just like the country, I studied Japanese for four years at San Diego State University, then came here, yearning for that mythical day when I finally would "learn Japanese." (Some postulate that I left America because I committed some heinous crime.) I've lived in Japan since October of 1991, and have loved nearly every minute of it. You can see some of my life works, including links to translations of the two Kimagure Orange Road novels I have translated, on my personal homepage. If you are into anime and happen to know (or want to know) about a wacky fan-dubbing parody group I am a part of, check out the Seishun Shitemasu homepage.

Kaori-chan is the "flower of the workplace" here at J-List, providing a splash of beauty to our day. (We live in Japan, so we can say that without getting in trouble.) She was born February 27, 1975, right here in Isesaki, Japan. She's a former student of mine, who is smart and can speak English very well. She passed level 2 of the STEP Test (known as "Eiken" here in Japan), and majored in Office Automation (nanchatte!*) at the vocational school we both used to be a part of. She graduated from the same high school as my wife, Isesaki Commercial High School. She thanks J-List readers for the many proposals of marriage, but regrets to say that she is spoken for. Her email address is here.

* Roughly, "Just kidding," in Japanese.  

Chiharu is my lovely wife, the cruel taskmaster who keeps us all in line at J-List. She studied English for two and a half years in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and Los Angles, and has had many interesting adventures in the U.S.

Meet Tomo Fujita. A former teacher of test English at a Japanese cram school, Tomo's interest in the Internet and promoting Japanese pop culture all over the world was a key reason he wanted to work with us. At age 23, Tomo's main love is movies, and he's seen just about every film you can name. He's a big Kubric fan, and his favorite book is Catcher in the Rye. Email him here.

 

This is Yasuhiro Nieda, aka "Nieda-kun," the newest employee at J-List. He studied for two years in Philadelphia, and his English is great. He works evenings as a singers a hip hop night club. Before coming to J-List, he worked for "Sun Produce," an agency that put on fashion shows, where he worked with Miyazawa Rie and Hirosue Ryoko (two very famous model/idol/actresses in Japan). Email him here.

 

 

Harumi-chan is the new smiling face in the J-List packing room. She wraps your orders with care, making sure that everything goes smoothly and orders are filled accurately and in a speedy manner. A lovely "Gunma Bijin*" who makes J-List a better place.

* a Gunma Beauty