After the IIA was established in the late fall of '95, the IIA News began to be published out of the International Affairs Office here in Freude (The Inuyama International Sightseeing Center). The Coodinator for International Affairs in the Kokusai Ka, Julia Bartels (photo above left), began to translate articles from the IIA News and put them into the Inuyama Newsletter, as a service to foreigners. It became her personal mission to help internationalize the community in this way.

Julia's friend Sally Wakasugi (who had already lived in Inuyama for nine years without any English newsletter; second photo from left) wanted to help her. She got involved by the second issue, starting the column called the 'Reader's Forum' to give foreigners a place to voice their thoughts, problems and experiences.

Before putting out the third issue they publicly solicited volunteers to help in producing it, although Julia still did most of the computer work. Their vision expanded to collecting material in order to write original articles, in addition to translating parts of the IIA News. The newsletter grew from 12 pages to 20. From Summer, 1999 we expanded to the current size of 24 pages. From Issue 10 on, one volunteer began designing our own homepage for the Internet, and another has kept it up for the past eight years.

Julia went back to Germany in July of 1997, handing over the reigns of editorialship to Sally, at which point the Newsletter's main staff became solely volunteers, rather than the responsibility of the next Coordinator of International Affairs. Sally carried on as editor for five years. Due to health reasons, she finally had to resign her post and reduce her workload to writing an occasional article and proofreading English translations. When she decided to retire as editor, the Freude office staff graciously recognized the editorship should be a paying job and included it in the duties of the CIR again. The next editor became Ralf Schumacher (third photo), and after his position ended, the new CIR, Stefanie Sellmer (last photo), came on board and is in her second year.

We solicit mail, comments, readers' opinions and feedback via our e-mail address. The number of volunteers involved in producing the newsletter has fluctuated back and forth since we began, but fortunately, whenever an appeal for more help is published, new volunteers appear, ready and willing to pitch in.The current Newsletter staff consists of 20 to 25 people; ten of which actively work on each issue. There are many things to do as a volunteer. Some write regular columns and articles. Others work on the layout and homepage, using computers to arrange everything. After compiling an issue, it must be printed up, folded, and mailings prepared.

We try to print most articles in English and Japanese, but have expanded the City News, Editorials, Calendar and Announcement pages to include Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese versions, too. Keep your eyes peeled for the occasional Indonesian version, or a blurb in Korean, as well. If you ask at the Freude office, you can arrange to have the newsletter sent to your home. Otherwise, one must pick a copy up at any one of the many public spots around town where a pile of them is regularly put. Currently we produce an issue once every three months.