If the U. S. had Ann Landers and Dear Abby, and Britain had Marge Proops, then Japan had Jean Pearce — someone who transcended the title of “columnist” and became a media icon for generations of readers.
If the United States had Ann Landers and Dear Abby, and Britain had Marje Proops, then Japan had Jean Pearce — someone who transcended the title of “columnist” and became a media icon for several generations of readers.
From 1964 to 2000, Pearce’s columns, Readers’ Exchange (1964-75) and Getting Things Done (1975-2000) , were a staple of The Japan Times. For foreign nationals living in Japan in the pre-internet years, the columns were a must-read. In a warm and witty style, she served up information on myriad topics, from the mundane to the life-changing. You never knew quite what to expect when you turned to Pearce’s page, but it was always guaranteed to be a good read.
If a column sparked interest or contained information that you thought might come in handy, you cut it out for future reference. Although it may seem hard to believe to those raised in the internet age, there were surely many foreign nationals out there with a notebook stuffed with clippings from Pearce’s columns. The dearth of information in English back in those days can be seen from the fact that The Japan Times published two volumes of Pearce’s columns in book form in the mid-1970s, under the title “Jean Pearce’s How to Get Things Done in Japan.”
Beverly Findlay-Kaneko fondly remembers Jean Pearce from her time working in the newspaper’s op-ed department as a copy editor.
“When I worked at The Japan Times in the 1990s, my department handled her column. She called and dropped by every so often with a smile on her face. Her columns always arrived in ‘eco-friendly’ packaging — recycled envelopes. We all went to The Japan Times 30th Anniversary Gala for Getting Things Done, and I knew she had been in Tokyo for a long time. But, I am still surprised she was 96!”
Reflecting on how she came to write the column, in June 2000 Pearce wrote: “There had been a Q&A column running in The Japan Times for several years. A few days after I arrived in Japan, it was announced that the writer was leaving. Someone else had already been hired, but when she left, I had a phone call from the paper — by then I knew several of the people who worked there — and my first column appeared three days later. I only missed one deadline in the next 36 years. I was overseas and the mail was delayed.”
For every reader whose query made it into a column, there were many more to whom Pearce replied privately. (A personal reply was sent on the condition that a stamped addressed envelope had been enclosed with their letter — postage costs would have been astronomical if Pearce had covered them herself.
