Ep. 19: 日本の職場で多様性に対する課題とビジネス上のメリット with Tomomi Hainu

09/08/20 • 50 min

Business Karaoke Podcast with Brittany Arthur

In this episode, we're joined by Tomomi Hainu from Career Fly. Tomomi supports international women who, as the name suggests, are looking for their career to take off in Japan. In this episode we explore how she leads a business-based dialogue with C-level leadership on the benefits of diversity in their workplaces, as well as, share strategies for both, foreign talent and the Japanese companies who hire them, on how to build an ecosystem of collaboration where everyone has a voice and uses their unique strength for the good of the group.
This episode is in Japanese but if you're interested in the insights. Check out the show notes for a link to an English article.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did and don’t forget to share your feedback with me on your favorite social platform.
Let's begin!
Below are some timestamps of our conversation so you can quickly navigate the topics most relevant for you.
Key Takeaways
💡03:00 | What is diversity and reflections on why Japanese brands have a strong international presence yet, low international diversity in their talent pools.
💡07:48 | Leading a dialogue around diversity as a leader in Japan.
💡14:00 | How to model leadership to your domestic employees around foreign talent.
💡24:30 | Responsibility foreign talent plays and actionable strategies to aid in a smooth transition.
💡44:11 | Recommendations for both foreign talent and Japanese companies in moving forward.
Thank you so much to Tomomi for so generously donating her time and expertise to this on-going discussion. Connect with Tomomi, on LinkedIn or visit the Career Fly website.

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Previous Episode

Ep. 18: E-Commerce, Digital Transformation & New Business Opportunities in a Post COVID Economy with Evan Burkosky

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In this episode, we sit down with Evan Burkosky and take an anecdotal approach to exploring the evolution of e-Commerce and digital transformation in Japan. Evan is the Japan country manager for Dynamic Yield, where he channels 2 decades of e-commerce insights to improving the customer experience (CX) by digitalizing the internationally renowned customer service concept of Omotenashi. We begin the conversation with a very candid recap of entrepreneurship and learn about Evan's experience as being one of the first evangelists of e-commerce and the digital economy. We then dive into the some of the non-obvious influencers behind the slow adoption of technology among Japan Inc. while giving equal focus to the tangible opportunities that present themselves to businesses who can stomach risk.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did and don’t forget to share your feedback with me on your favorite social platform.
Let's begin!
Below are some timestamps of our conversation so you can quickly navigate the topics most relevant for you.
Key Takeaways
💡 03:30 | A personal journey of almost 2 decades in e-commerce
💡 35:05 | 10 years of growth in 90 days & the internet democratizing the playing field in Japan.
💡 40:00 | Social shifts and the wider impact on consumer behavior.
💡 45:30 | Challenges for Japan Inc. in responding to the pressure of COVID-19.
💡 51:00 | Non-obvious barriers to digitalization; natural disasters.
💡 55:40 | The ultimate goal of a corporation and trust ecosystem of the sub-contracting structure.
💡 1:02:50 | New business opportunities and mindset barriers to digital transformation
💡 1:20:20 | What's next?

Connect with Evan on LinkedIn.

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Ep. 20: Career Lessons that Inspired the Humorous Manga, “The Salaryman” with Michael Howard

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Michael (Mike) Howard was a journalist-turned-businessman in Los Angeles before he joined the Tokyo salaryman brotherhood in 2008 where he now works full-time as a product manager at an American technology company. In this episode, we explore the stories and experiences behind Mike's book and now manga, The Salaryman, which is a humorous memoir from a Tokyo American who tried and failed to fit into Japanese office culture for almost a decade. The Salaryman is an immigrant's story from a land where there are few immigrants, with even fewer being crazy enough to do what the Mike did: become a real train-cramming, brow-wiping, late-night overtime-working, passed-out-drunk-on-the-train-ride-home salaryman.
Mike's book serves as a partner to anyone striving to do meaningful work in foreign environment. A particularly interesting moment in this episode for me, was the story of reverse culture shock when Mike was sent to America as an expat from Japan.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did and don’t forget to share your feedback with me on your favorite social platform.

Let's begin!
Below are some timestamps of our conversation so you can quickly navigate the topics most relevant for you.
Key Takeaways:
💡03:15 | Salaryman Book and transforming a blog to a book
💡09:10 | Navigating the complex ecosystem of traditional Japanese companies as a foreigner.
💡15:30 | When to move on; being able to identify and then execute on what's important to you.
💡20:15 | Navigating contracts in a "contract-fluid" environment and negotiating non-financial benefits.
💡32:18 | How to identify and connect with mentors who see value in your work.
💡37:30 | Connecting with manga artist and a surprising partnership.
💡43:30 | The lessons of reverse culture shock and what we can learn when we"go home" to a city that may be not "home" anymore.
💡51:45 | Future of a Salaryman in Japan.
Find Mike's book here; https://www.thesalarymanbook.com.