Gene Otani, a Japanese national who attended an international school in Kobe throughout his youth, had to take Japanese lessons as a salaried worker when he realized he needed more skill in reading and writing.
Convinced that "communication is everything," Otani, now a main anchorman for the "NEWSLINE" program on the NHK World English-language channel for overseas viewers, gives foreign residents in Japan the same advice he gave himself — take Japanese lessons.
"If you want to live in Japan happily and successfully for a long time, please take Japanese-language lessons," Otani, 45, born to a Japanese mother and part-British and part-Japanese father, said in an interview.