The JET program marks its 15th anniversary this year. Today the country's largest teacher-exchange program, it all started from the simple dream of a young British banker called Nicolas Maclean.
It began with an inspired conversation one afternoon in October 1976 on the steps of a ruined temple in Nara, where Maclean, on a business trip to Japan, sat with his friend, John Hamilton, a former banker who had come to Japan to teach English.
The two friends were arguing about what could be done to improve the sad state of affairs between Britain and Japan. Relations between the two countries were in crisis. Japan was aggressively penetrating European markets with consumer products, and British industry was unable to compete. Public hostility was brewing and compounded with lingering feelings of animosity from World War II. The two countries stood on the verge of a trade war.