BEHIND THE BYLINE • MOTOKO RICH

Interview by Lara Takenaga

The Reader Center has started a new series of short interviews, Behind the Byline, to introduce you to Times journalists. Is there a reporter, photographer or editor whom you would like to get to know? Tell us in the comments section.

Motoko Rich straddles two cultures as our Japanese-American Tokyo bureau chief. Landing the job almost three years ago meant returning to the country where her mother was born and where she had spent part of her childhood.

A reporter for The Times since 2003, Motoko draws on her dual identity to bring nuance, empathy and “fresh eyes” to our coverage of Japan and the Koreas. Here, she discusses the challenges of interviewing Japanese people, her alternate dream job and how her two children help her see the world.

What do you enjoy most about working in Japan? What is most challenging about it?

Japan is a country where people keep their public and private selves completely distinct. They have words for both: “Tatemae” refers to behavior or words used in public; “hon’ne” is the word for your true feelings. I think what I enjoy most — and what is most challenging — about working in Japan can be expressed by those two words. I really do relish that feeling of getting to know a source well enough that I feel like they are letting me in on “hon’ne,” but there are many times when I wonder if all I am getting is “tatemae.”

How has your background, as a half-Japanese woman who grew up in the United States and Japan, informed your work?

I have written a little about this before. Because of my background, there is no question that my curiosity about Japanese society is personal as well as professional. I am driven to understand this place, and to help our readers understand it, in a nuanced, nonstereotyped way (no stories about anime-obsessed men marrying robots!).