Japan's Top Business Interviews Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

"The team's the most important thing." "I didn't listen very well." "I thought I had most of the answers when I didn't even know the problem." "Treat them as they want to be treated." "If I screwed up, it's also my job to go to the team and say, 'Hey, I screwed up and we're going to change.'" Jim Weisser is President and co-founder of SignTime in Japan, a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and long-time participant in the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. He arrived in Japan in 1993 after studying chemical engineering and briefly working in a chemical plant, then began his career in the country as an English teacher in Yokohama before moving into computer consulting and internet infrastructure. During Japan's early internet era he worked across multiple roles at an internet service provider, later joined Enron's broadband business, and then built a consulting practice that led to the launch of PBXL, a hosted business telephony company that was eventually acquired in 2015 by a business that later became part of Cisco. After helping his team transition through that acquisition, he returned to entrepreneurship and co-founded SignTime, an electronic signature platform designed around Japanese workflows, including hanko culture, ringi-sho approval flows and practical adoption at the gemba. His career arc reflects unusual adaptability in Japan: from English teacher to technical operator, founder, exit entrepreneur, investor and software builder, with each stage sharpening his view that leadership in Japan depends less on forceful direction than on judgement, humility, consensus-building and patient execution. Jim Weisser's leadership philosophy was not formed in a classroom. It was forged through a series of reinventions in Japan: from English teaching to internet infrastructure, from startup failure to acquisition, from operational leadership to SaaS product design. That lived range gives his perspective unusual credibility. He does not romanticise leadership, and he does not pretend he got it right the first time. In fact, one of the most striking themes in the interview is how bluntly he describes his early mistakes. He admitted that he did not listen well, overestimated the value of his own answers, and underestimated how much weight a leader's words carry in a Japanese workplace. That self-awareness becomes the foundation of the larger lesson: effective leadership in Japan is not about becoming less decisive, but about becoming more inclusive, more deliberate and more accountable. His account of Japan pushes back against simplistic stereotypes. The country can look highly hierarchical from the outside, yet execution often depends on alignment far below the top. A president's approval does not automatically move an idea into reality. Decisions are shaped through nemawashi, quiet pre-alignment, and through the practical logic of ringi-sho style circulation, where the proposal is stress-tested across functions before it becomes formal. For foreign executives, that can feel slow, indirect or even evasive. Weisser interprets it differently. He sees it as a system optimised for social durability and operational legitimacy. In that sense, what appears to be risk-aversion is often disciplined uncertainty management. Japanese organisations do not necessarily reject change; they reject poorly socialised change. That distinction matters because it reframes why global leaders struggle. Many arrive with a hero model of leadership: define the vision, make the call, push execution. Weisser has enough self-knowledge to recognise that he once behaved that way himself. Over time, however, he learned that command without context fails in Japan. Employees need room to interpret, absorb and support the direction. They also need psychological safety. In a defect-sensitive environment, even a mildly negative comment from the boss can be amplified. The leader who wants innovation must therefore reward initiative, model learning and publicly own mistakes. His example of apologising to a team member after sending an email in the wrong tone captures this beautifully. Accountability is not weakness; it is cultural permission for others to act. His current venture, SignTime, becomes a practical case study in decision intelligence and local design. Rather than forcing a Western e-signature model onto Japan, he and his team built around the lived realities of hanko, sequential approvals, gemba resistance, paper habits and contract storage needs. He also looks ahead: blockchain-based smart contracts, AI-generated contract summaries, reminder systems and digital twins of approval workflows all point to a future in which technology helps organisations make better decisions without violating the social logic of how work is actually done. For Weisser, the ultimate lesson is clear. Leadership in Japan is not about overpowering uncertainty. It is about reading it well, involving people early, translating vision into natural process, and ha

"Trust is really the only currency that is the beginning and the end of pretty much every human relation." "You give trust first, before you get trust." "I want to make sure that the least empowered person in the room can have a great idea and the best idea will win." "You need to be the fuel for their sparks." "If you give them permission and you will never punish them for honesty." Brief Bio Wolfgang Angyal is President of Riedel Japan and one of the rare foreign executives who has built a long leadership career in Japan from the ground up. Originally from Austria and trained in the hospitality industry, he first came to Japan in 1985 as part of Austria's delegation to the Skill Olympics, where he won a gold medal in hotel and restaurant service. That early success left him with a strong affinity for Japan, shaped by childhood exposure to judo and an early fascination with Japanese values such as humility, respect and discipline. After returning to Japan in 1988 to teach at a hospitality school in Osaka, he experienced the kind of early cross-cultural mistakes that many foreign professionals make, later describing himself as an elephant in a porcelain shop. He then moved into sales, promotion and business development, first with Riedel's importer in Japan, then within a large Japanese corporate distribution environment, and later across Asia-Pacific from Sydney, where he helped expand the brand into multiple markets. In 2000, he returned to Japan to establish Riedel's wholly owned local operation, beginning with a JETRO rental office and one secretary. Over time, he built the business, integrated acquisitions, developed talent, and led Riedel Japan into one of the company's most important markets. His career arc reflects adaptability, patient localisation, and a deep commitment to understanding how leadership actually works inside Japanese organisations. Wolfgang Angyal's leadership story in Japan is not the story of a foreign executive arriving with a polished playbook. It is the opposite. His path began with technical excellence in hospitality, but his real advantage turned out not to be technique. It was trust. As a young Austrian competitor at the Skill Olympics in Japan, he noticed that while technically stronger rivals insisted on doing everything themselves, he relied on local assistants. That instinct to trust others, even across a language barrier, helped him win gold and gave him an early lesson that would later define his leadership philosophy in Japan. That insight deepened when he returned to Japan and made the classic mistakes of an outsider who does not yet understand the culture around him. Rather than romanticising those failures, he treats them as foundational. They taught him that leadership in Japan is rarely about force, status or personal brilliance. It is about reading context, slowing down, and building the kind of consistency that makes other people feel safe. In a culture shaped by consensus, nemawashi, ringi-sho thinking and strong uncertainty avoidance, the leader who moves too abruptly may get compliance on the surface but withdrawal underneath. His commercial career reinforced the same lesson. Selling Riedel in Japan was not straightforward. Wine culture was still emerging, homes were small, and the product category itself was unfamiliar. He had to educate the market experientially, often in Japanese, one relationship at a time. Later, when he worked inside a large Japanese corporate group, he discovered that change first had to be sold internally before it could be sold externally. That is a classic Japan lesson: before the market says yes, the organisation itself must align. Consensus is not bureaucracy for its own sake. It is often the mechanism by which commitment becomes durable. When he eventually returned to launch Riedel Japan as a stand-alone operation, his challenge shifted from market development to leadership at scale. He had to recruit for an unknown foreign brand, absorb acquired teams, move from a family-sized company to a tribe-sized one, and learn to be comfortable being the boss. His language around this is strikingly unpretentious. He does not describe leadership as charisma. He describes it as getting comfortable with accountability while keeping the soft side of human connection intact. His most distinctive contribution is his view that leadership in Japan begins with trust given in advance. Rather than waiting for loyalty, he extends it first. He believes Japanese teams often respond strongly when trust is explicitly communicated, not merely assumed. From there, he builds predictability, psychological safety and honest feedback. He is willing to kill his own ideas publicly so better ideas can win, especially from less empowered people. That is not weakness. It is disciplined ego management. In a culture where employees may hesitate to speak up, the leader's job is to create the conditions in which sparks appear. The ultimate task is not to be the source

"the most important thing, I mean in Japan, for business, is to hire the right people" "the keyword is gaining trust" "you need to allow people to make mistakes" "the personal relationship in Japan are extremely important" "learn the language" Lorenzo Scrimizzi is the President of Carpigiani Japan and an Italian executive whose career in Japan spans more than two decades across multiple industries. Originally trained as an engineer, he first arrived in Japan on a two-year assignment connected to precision equipment for the automotive sector. What began as a temporary posting evolved into a long-term career after he became captivated by Japan, changed jobs twice, married, and built his professional life in the country. After his first role in manufacturing, he moved into a startup focused on consumer accessories such as handbags and suitcases, then joined a trading company importing mainly organic food products from Italy. He credits that trading-company period with sharpening many of his core business skills. In 2002, he was recruited to lead Carpigiani Japan during a pivotal transition from joint venture to fully owned subsidiary. A native of Bologna, where Carpigiani is a well-known company, he stepped into the CEO role at a moment that required adaptability, cultural sensitivity, and resilience. His experience reflects a rare mix of technical training, commercial pragmatism, and long-term adjustment to Japanese business expectations. Lorenzo Scrimizzi's view of leadership in Japan is grounded less in abstract theory than in lived experience. Over twenty-six years in the country, he has learned that success is rarely determined by strategy alone. It comes instead from earning trust, reading context accurately, and building organisations around people rather than forcing people into rigid structures. His story illustrates how foreign executives in Japan often arrive thinking they are managing a market, only to discover they are really managing relationships: with staff, customers, headquarters, and the culture itself. One of his strongest themes is recruitment. In Japan, he argues, leadership begins with hiring the right people, yet this is also one of the most difficult tasks. Foreign firms can be seduced by surface signals such as strong English ability, only to discover that language fluency does not always correlate with judgement, commitment, or execution. By contrast, some of the strongest contributors may speak little English but deeply understand the business and the customer. That insight leads to a broader principle: effective leadership in Japan requires looking beneath appearances and recognising substance. Scrimizzi is equally candid about the challenge of engagement. He sees relatively low engagement in Japan not as a simplistic character flaw, but as a structural and cultural issue shaped by education, hierarchy, and social expectations. Japanese employees often value pride in the company and belonging to a team more strongly than many Western executives realise. If that emotional connection is weak, engagement falls. For a foreign-owned company, this becomes even more important. People need not only job security but also a reason to identify with the organisation. His remarks on decision-making reveal a nuanced understanding of Japanese business practice. He does not portray Japan as irrationally conservative. Rather, he describes a system shaped by uncertainty avoidance, consensus, and the reluctance to step outside established boundaries. In practice, this resembles the wider logic of nemawashi and ringi-sho: before action comes alignment, and before initiative comes social permission. That can slow innovation, but it can also improve quality and internal cohesion when managed well. What stands out most is his belief that leaders must create safety for action. If people are punished for every mistake, they will neither innovate nor surface problems early. Allowing room for error, encouraging reporting, and keeping communication channels open are central to his management approach. In that sense, his leadership style combines consistency with flexibility. He believes in clear expectations, but also in adjusting roles to fit talent. In a small organisation, that agility becomes a competitive advantage. Ultimately, Scrimizzi presents leadership in Japan as an exercise in disciplined empathy. Language matters, but so do body language, observation, patience, and humility. The foreign executive who succeeds is neither the outsider who refuses to adapt nor the outsider who tries too hard to become Japanese. The one who succeeds is the one who remains authentic, respectful, and alert enough to understand what is really happening beneath the surface. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Scrimizzi sees leadership in Japan as fundamentally relational. Results depend on trust with employees, customers, and headquarters. Personal relationships carry unusual weight, and leadership cannot

"Japan is different and hard." "It's consistency, it's sustainability of the vision and the theme that's going to matter." "You couldn't be the super-God sits up in the ivory tower." "Leadership is about inspiring people to go somewhere that they wouldn't necessarily go on their own." "Respect the history and the culture that is Japan." Brief Bio Bob Noddin is the CEO of AIG Japan and a long-time Asia business leader whose career reflects deep adaptability across cultures, industries, and operating environments. His connection with Japan began in 1982 as a college exchange student at Kansai Gaidai in Osaka, where early exposure to Japanese psychology, history, language, and society gave him an unusually strong foundation for later leadership in the country. After returning to the United States, he joined Citibank with ambitions for an international career, but when a planned transfer to Japan fell through, he moved to AIG instead — a decision that shaped the next three and a half decades of his professional life. His AIG career took him across Asia on a series of increasingly complex assignments. What began as a short-term posting evolved into leadership roles in the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan, giving him broad exposure to different operating cultures while sharpening his ability to lead through ambiguity, restructuring, and growth. He later returned to the United States as Global Head of Operations and Technology for AIG's property casualty business, overseeing a vast international footprint before asking to return to Asia during the financial crisis. Back in Japan, he took on major leadership responsibilities during a period of merger integration, organisational reform, and national crisis, eventually leading one of the company's most important markets worldwide. Across that journey, he developed a leadership philosophy grounded in visibility, trust, resilience, and the need to adapt global expectations to Japan's distinctive business culture. Bob Noddin's leadership story in Japan is not one of a parachuted-in foreign executive trying to impose a template from head office. It is the story of a leader who spent decades earning the right to run one of the most complex roles in AIG's global portfolio, while learning that Japan rewards patience, consistency, and human connection far more than slogans or imported management theory. His perspective is shaped by a rare combination of early academic immersion in Japan, long operational experience across Asia, and direct accountability for large-scale businesses in crisis, integration, and transformation. What stands out most in his account is the distinction he draws between knowing that Japan is different and actually leading effectively inside that difference. He describes a country and corporate environment shaped by structure, seniority, collaboration, and extremely high standards of quality. Those strengths helped build modern Japan, but they can also create friction when an organisation needs speed, innovation, or bold change. In that context, the challenge is not simply strategic clarity. It is how to move a system conditioned by nenko-style seniority, uncertainty avoidance, and deeply embedded consensus habits without triggering organisational antibodies. Noddin identifies the real obstacle not as frontline employees, but as what he calls the "thermal layer" of middle management. This layer absorbs direction from above, filters it, softens it, delays it, and often protects the existing culture from disruption. In Japan, where seniority and harmony remain powerful forces, this buffering function can become a major drag on change. His response was not dramatic confrontation, but patient cultural triage: identify the people already leaning towards a more proactive leadership style, invest in those who could develop into that style, and separate them from those who were simply dead wood or actively cancerous to progress. His approach to change is strikingly practical. He introduced role-play into management development, studied how Japanese executives in other industries handled transformation, and used visible examples to normalise reflection, experimentation, and ownership. He also changed recruitment, insisting that professional-track hires speak at least one additional language, not because English alone mattered, but because exposure to another language and culture expands thinking. That decision reflects a core belief running through the interview: that leadership in Japan requires widening mental models, not merely importing foreign practices. Technology and innovation appear in his thinking not as abstractions but as tools that must be paired with psychological safety. People will not propose better systems, digital improvements, or new customer models unless they believe failure will not destroy them. In a culture where a mistake can carry a disproportionate social cost, he made a point of publicly taking responsibility when

"Everyone wants to play for a winning team." "You've got to go to war with the army you've got, not the army you wish you had." "In Japan, talk is cheap. Nobody really pays attention to what people say. They pay attention to what people do." "My philosophy is every employee should be a shareholder in the firm." "This is a marathon, not a sprint." Mike Alfant is the CEO of Fusion Systems and one of the more established foreign founders in Japan's technology sector. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, he studied computer science and spent roughly a decade on Wall Street in technology roles before being sent to Japan by Security Pacific during the late-1980s bubble era. What began as a short assignment became dozens of return trips, a permanent move to Tokyo, and eventually the launch of his first company, Fusion Systems, in 1992. That original firm built software for trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, grew without outside capital, and was sold in 1999, creating meaningful upside for management and employees alike. Bound by a five-year non-compete in fintech, he broadened his experience by launching or backing businesses across Japan, mainland China, Hong Kong, Australia, and the United States. Over three decades in Japan, he has built a reputation for adaptability, entrepreneurial stamina, and community leadership, including senior roles in major business and civic organisations. His career reflects an ability to adjust to Japan without pretending to become Japanese, while still creating organisations that local employees, partners, and clients can trust. Mike Alfant's leadership story in Japan is not a neat theory assembled in a boardroom. It is a long, practical exercise in adaptation, stamina, and self-awareness. Arriving from New York with a strong technical background and Wall Street experience, he initially assumed that good ideas, hard work, and energy would be enough. Japan quickly showed him otherwise. In the early 1990s, a foreign entrepreneur trying to recruit Japanese staff into a start-up during an economic downturn faced not only market scepticism, but deep social uncertainty. The challenge was not merely business risk. It was uncertainty avoidance at a human level: employees and their families were being asked to leave established structures for an unknown future led by a non-Japanese founder. What changed the trajectory was not a dramatic reinvention, but a gradual sharpening of judgment. Alfant learned that leadership in Japan depends less on verbal persuasion and more on visible consistency. In his framing, people watch what leaders do, not what they say. That makes credibility cumulative. Every hiring choice, every response under pressure, every act of fairness or impatience becomes part of the operating environment. In a culture shaped by consensus, nemawashi, and the quiet influence that often precedes formal ringi-sho approval, trust is built through behavioural reliability rather than rhetoric. He also learned that the motivation architecture inside a Japanese organisation differs from what many Western executives expect. In New York, he had been used to obvious competition for promotion and reward. In Japan, that ambition was less overt. Rather than complain about the team he wished he had, he built with the team he had, combining mission-driven foreign hires with process-oriented Japanese professionals. That hybrid became a practical leadership model: articulate the destination, build a process strong enough to support execution, and keep moving. Perhaps the most distinctive element in his philosophy is ownership. Alfant believes employees should share in enterprise value. He deliberately dilutes himself over time, not out of sentimentality, but because aligned commercial upside creates seriousness, loyalty, and repeat relationships. He wants people to feel they are not simply working for a founder, but for themselves, their colleagues, and their clients. That belief sits alongside a realistic understanding that founders must still protect the company through governance, repurchase rights, and disciplined hiring. He is equally clear that ideas alone are overrated. Customers, not internal brainstorming theatre, are the most reliable source of innovation. Leadership therefore becomes less about performance and more about disciplined listening, decision intelligence, and execution. Technology matters, but only when it solves a real client problem. Digital twins, process visibility, workflow systems, and other tools can sharpen organisational judgment, but they do not replace it. In that sense, Alfant's Japan story is not about becoming local in a superficial way. It is about staying authentic, respecting Japanese business culture, and committing to the long game with enough resilience to earn trust over time. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leadership in Japan stands apart because legitimacy is earned through conduct more than declaration. Alfant's experience sugg

"this job is really primarily a people job" "if you get the right people, you don't have to spend a lot of time micromanaging; get out of their way and let them do their thing" "you have to be the type of boss that people are not afraid to bring bad news" "you all have everything you need to be successful at Dow" "if you treat Japanese people with integrity, trust, respect, like you would want to be treated like anywhere else in the world, you're going to be fine" Brief Bio Peter Jennings is President of Dow in Japan and Korea, overseeing a multi-billion-dollar business and thousands of employees across both markets. He joined Dow as an attorney and spent twenty-seven years in legal roles before being unexpectedly tapped for senior business leadership. Before moving to Japan in 2012, he served in Hong Kong as general counsel for Dow Asia Pacific and later returned to the United States for several senior assignments. His transition from legal counsel to country president reflects a career shaped by adaptability, deep institutional knowledge, and a strong people-first philosophy. In Japan, he became Dow's longest-serving president in the market's history, leading cultural renewal, leadership development, diversity initiatives, and a more open, internationally minded operating model inside a long-established Japanese organisation. Peter Jennings presents a compelling case that leadership success in Japan does not begin with technical mastery, perfect language, or rigid adherence to stereotype. It begins with trust. When he arrived in Japan in 2012, one year after the Tohoku earthquake, he came not as a traditional commercial operator but as a long-serving Dow lawyer with deep corporate knowledge and international experience. That unusual path could easily have created distance between him and a highly experienced Japanese leadership team. Instead, it became an advantage because he did not arrive pretending to know everything. He arrived listening. His early approach was simple and disciplined. He met leaders individually, asked about their biggest issues, wrote everything down, and focused on how he could help. In a market where nemawashi, ringi-sho, consensus-building, and careful internal alignment still shape decision-making, that restraint mattered. Rather than impose a foreign leadership template, Jennings worked to understand how trust and respect are earned locally. He recognised that formal authority in Japan means little unless people feel safe enough to speak candidly. Over time, the proof of progress was behavioural. Senior staff started challenging him privately after meetings. Employees began dropping by for coffee or lunch. More importantly, people brought bad news earlier. For Jennings, that was a decisive signal of culture change. He argues that if people fear punishment, information gets buried. In a high uncertainty avoidance environment, leaders must reduce the interpersonal risk of honesty before they can improve decision quality. That is where leadership and decision intelligence meet: better outcomes come from better information flow, not louder authority. He also reshaped the leadership bench. Over several years, Dow Japan moved from a more traditional senior male model towards a younger, more diverse, bilingual, bicultural team. Jennings takes particular satisfaction not in personal advancement but in seeing talented people, especially women, promoted into larger roles. He frames leadership as removing obstacles, securing resources, and backing capable people rather than controlling them. That is a significant shift away from hierarchical supervision and towards empowerment. Another major insight concerns engagement. Rather than accept low survey scores as a fixed Japan problem, Jennings replaced abstract annual questionnaires with thirty small-group focus sessions built around four direct questions. This surfaced practical barriers that a standardised survey missed. In effect, he moved from broad sentiment tracking to grounded organisational sensing. That approach resembles a more human version of modern management tools such as digital twins or data-led diagnostic systems: the aim is not data volume, but usable insight. Jennings remains optimistic about Japan's future because he sees a new generation less constrained by inherited conventions. He believes many younger professionals want accelerated careers, global exposure, flexibility, and merit-based opportunity. His lesson is clear: leadership in Japan works best when it combines respect for consensus with encouragement for initiative, local sensitivity with global openness, and humility with conviction. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leadership in Japan is shaped by context more than cliché. Jennings suggests the distinctive challenge is not that Japanese teams are uniquely difficult, but that trust must be earned carefully and consistently. Consensus matters, and leaders must respect the logic behind nemawashi

"The key thing is that the leader needs to be able to identify where those turning points or tipping points are so that they don't become a bottleneck in that process." "In most cases, I feel like I only have about 30% of the necessary information to make me comfortable to make that decision." "Consensus in a Japanese sense is that a little bit of everyone's idea is taken and included in the final solution so that everyone feels that they've been part of the final solution." "If you want to be successful in business in Japan… it's patience, persistence, and politeness." "In Japan you can do anything. It's just that it will end up taking twice as much time and ended up costing you twice as much money." Brief Bio Ross Rowbury was President of Edelman Japan, a leading local business through a decade of rapid growth from roughly 20 people to more than 80, making it one of the largest foreign PR operations in the market. He first arrived in Japan as a Rotary exchange student in high school and later returned after university to build his career across banking and securities, spending around nine years at a major Japanese broker before moving to foreign brokerages. After a short attempt at entrepreneurship, he shifted into the communications industry by leveraging his finance background in financial PR, eventually moving into senior leadership and today running the Japan business of Edelman, one of the world's largest PR firms. Ross Rowbury's leadership story in Japan is shaped by longevity, humility, and a practical acceptance that "certainty" is often a luxury leaders do not get. Having first come to Japan as a teenage exchange student and later returning to start his professional life in finance, he learned early that competence alone does not automatically translate into followership in a Japanese workplace. His first major leadership role arrived in his early thirties, when he was tasked with turning around a loss-making department. The performance goal was simple—make it profitable—but the cultural context was not. Every team member was at least a decade older, and the age hierarchy that can silently govern influence and legitimacy became a daily force. Resistance was not only about ideas; it was about identity, pride, and perceived loss of face. The experience produced intense stress, yet it also forged an enduring lesson: authority must be earned through results, relationships, and an ability to read the room—what many describe as kuuki. His move into PR introduced a different leadership terrain. Unlike finance, where outcomes can feel "black and white," consulting work is creative, negotiated, and relational. Rowbury found it easier to lead by showing value through client work and solutions, particularly as experience and seniority reduced the friction of hierarchy. As Edelman Japan grew, his leadership challenge shifted again—from personal execution to organisational design. He describes the organisation as a living thing whose needs change over time, and he highlights a classic scaling trap: the leader becomes the bottleneck. In early growth, he joined every pitch; later, he stepped back to create space for others. The transition hurt—losing 15 pitches in a row tested resolve—but it ultimately built a stronger, more independent team. Rowbury's current phase is defined by complexity: the industry's digital disruption, the need to hire specialists from different backgrounds, and the cultural integration required when "the same words can mean very different things." Even simple labels—like "project manager"—carry multiple definitions depending on whether someone comes from PR, advertising, or operations. In that environment, leadership becomes a translation exercise: aligning language, expectations, and pace, while creating a shared operating system that preserves commercial standards. His approach leans on repeated "fierce conversations," explicit apology when he missteps, and a deliberate embrace of diversity in working styles. Across generations, he observes that expertise no longer belongs to tenure alone. Digital channels can invert authority, as younger team members may see the modern pathway to attention and amplification more clearly than traditional leaders. That reality raises the bar on transparency and trust. Employees want to understand why decisions are made, and they want to participate—pressures that pull Western-led organisations toward Japanese-style inclusion, closer to nemawashi and ringi-sho thinking, even when speed still matters. Ultimately, Rowbury frames leadership in Japan as patience with ambiguity, persistence without aggression, and politeness that protects relationships—paired with the courage to make decisions with incomplete information and to keep learning, even after decades in the country. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Rowbury highlights that leadership legitimacy in Japan is often influenced by unspoken social structures—particularly age hierarchy a

"The trust part is very important." "Change was a dirty word." "Anything controversial was normally me." "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity." Paul Hardisty is a finance-trained executive (CPA) who began his career in Melbourne and became CFO of a group of fashion brands across Australia and New Zealand, including Davenport, with licensing and distribution experience across brands such as Calvin Klein and Carhartt. In 1999, he joined adidas, initially slated for Indonesia just as Jakarta's riots erupted, before ultimately leading adidas Indonesia for five years. He then spent six months in India addressing corruption issues, before moving to South Korea for more than six years, scaling the business significantly. Hardisty's long-held ambition was Japan, and he relocated with his family to lead adidas Japan, where he spent around a decade and helped drive major growth. His career arc reflects repeated adaptation across markets, cultures, and organisational scale, culminating in leading one of adidas's most sophisticated and strategically scrutinised country operations. Paul Hardisty's leadership story is a study in scale, trust, and the mechanics of change inside a complex, matrixed multinational. Having built a finance foundation in Australia and then taken on consecutive country leadership roles across Indonesia and South Korea, he arrived in Japan with a reputation for delivery and a clear-eyed sense that every market has its own "bucket of challenges". Japan's challenge was not drama; it was magnitude. The jump in organisational size, headcount, and global attention required him to rethink how a leader stays close to the business without drowning in it. Hardisty's early focus was listening: diagnosing issues, filling structural gaps, and building a strategy that could plug into global direction without losing local relevance. He frames trust as the non-negotiable foundation — not uniquely Japanese, but especially powerful in Japan when earned through consistency and "walking the talk". This trust, once established, becomes the lubricant for cross-functional cooperation and the antidote to silent compliance. He is candid about engagement measurement and how it can mislead headquarters. Rather than treating scores as a simplistic international comparison, he focused on patterns, feedback, and the real operational drivers behind sentiment — restructures, headcount freezes, and incentives. His most controversial move was transparency: explaining the scoring system, challenging extremely low scorers to reconsider fit, and even enabling anonymous external applications. The point was not punitive; it was cultural clarity — engagement matters, but so does the integrity of the team environment. Hardisty also leaned into pride as a motivational engine. In sport, brand affiliation and national moments (such as major tournaments) can transform "company" into "identity". He institutionalised that energy through internal competitions, event tickets, surprise guests, and subsidised sports clubs, making motivation tangible and social. Where his approach becomes especially instructive is in diversity and global mobility. He resisted the idea that Japan must be led only by Japanese, or that Japanese leaders must stay in Japan. By placing non-Japanese local hires throughout the organisation and building pathways for Japanese talent to take overseas roles (including shorter three-month rotations), he pushed the company beyond passive consensus into practical internationalisation — a form of organisational nemawashi performed through staffing architecture rather than meeting-room persuasion. On innovation, he names the core friction: uncertainty avoidance and the comfort of repeating proven routines. To counter that, he used incentives, anonymity, and then a structural breakthrough — a business development function reporting directly to him, acting as an internal project-management and strategy engine. It reduced "not my job" resistance, spread ownership, and accelerated decision flow in a ringi-sho world where approvals can slow momentum. Ultimately, Hardisty's Japan lesson is not that Japan is "impossible". It is that Japan rewards leaders who operationalise trust, make change safe to attempt, and build systems that carry strategy through the middle layers to the front line. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Hardisty sees Japan as different in flavour, not in degree. The distinguishing feature is the strength of trust and loyalty once credibility is earned. In a consensus environment shaped by nemawashi and ringi-sho processes, alignment is powerful, but it must be cultivated deliberately and communicated repeatedly at scale. Why do global executives struggle? He argues many leaders struggle because they over-index on stereotypes and get "brainwashed" by received wisdom — what cannot be done, what must be done, and why Japan is supposedly

"Everybody having a shared sense of purpose and shared values… is just absolutely imperative." "I trust you, and I start from the perspective of trust." "I would always caution Western leaders… to not just fill up empty space." "Getting buy-in from a Japanese team is really hard. But… once you get buy in… you absolutely over-perform." "Identify who are the biggest obstacles… and move them immediately and publicly." Harry Hill is an American entrepreneur whose career in Japan began by chance and grew into one of the country's most recognised direct marketing success stories. His connection to Japan started in college after discovering Shorinji Kempo, which sparked an interest in Japanese culture and language. After studying Japanese for two years, he moved to Japan and worked as an English teacher, including a posting in Gifu Prefecture. A major turning point came when he worked as an international coordinator for a regional expo, building relationships with businesses across Gifu, Nagoya, and the wider Chubu region. After a short stint in New York as a bond trader, Hill returned to Japan in 1990 and began building businesses by spotting "holes in the market," including work as a sports agent and grassroots exchange initiatives. In Nagoya, he co-founded a relocation and real estate services company for multinationals. His most significant chapter came with Oaklawn Marketing and Shop Japan, where he spent around two decades shaping Japan's TV shopping and direct marketing landscape. Under his leadership, the business grew dramatically—expanding from roughly 15 billion yen to nearly 70 billion yen in annual sales, with around 1,000 employees. In 2009, NTT DoCoMo acquired 51% of the business, placing Hill in the rare position of leading a high-growth company inside a large, formal Japanese corporate structure. Now active in new ventures, Hill remains known for adaptability across industries and for a leadership approach shaped by building culture, empowerment, and sustained performance in Japan. Harry Hill's leadership story in Japan reads like a case study in adaptability—starting with accidental encounters and evolving into deliberate, high-stakes decisions across entrepreneurship, corporate growth, and cultural navigation. His early fascination with Shorinji Kempo led to a deeper interest in Japan's mindset: discipline, hierarchy, and the quiet social architecture that shapes how people organise themselves. That curiosity eventually turned into action—learning Japanese, moving to Japan, teaching English in Gifu, and then shifting into business after exposure to the Chubu region's commercial networks during a major expo. Hill's defining strength is an instinct for recognising market inefficiencies and cultural leverage points. He describes his work in terms of finding "holes in the market" and building solutions that fit the local context without fetishising Japanese exceptionalism. His belief that "people are people" becomes a strategy: focus less on what is uniquely Japanese and more on universal human needs—then customise execution with local sensitivity. This approach carried through to the growth of Shop Japan, where direct marketing and TV shopping became a platform for shaping entirely new product categories, particularly in home fitness. Yet the interview's most valuable leadership content emerges not from growth numbers, but from Hill's hard-won understanding of culture and execution under pressure. He recounts the challenge of building sustainable performance in a call centre environment—an area often defined by churn, stress, and transactional management. When turnover ran as high as 15–20% per month, the business could still be profitable, but it was unstable and costly. Hill's solution was cultural engineering: building shared purpose, professionalism, and empowerment so the work became meaningful, not merely repetitive. That emphasis on meaning also becomes a decision system. Hill talks about integrity as something employees can only judge through transparency and consistent action—particularly in Japan, where leaders are often physically and symbolically removed. He also flips a common managerial assumption: rather than demanding people "earn trust," he starts by giving trust and uses accountability as the mechanism that sustains it. For cross-cultural leadership, Hill offers a practical warning: Western executives often rush to fill silence, mistaking reflection for disengagement. In Japan, silence is frequently where thinking happens—where consensus-building and informal alignment (nemawashi) begin. The result is a leadership style that prioritises listening, synthesis, and decision clarity—then insists on execution. He frames this through his acronym VICES—vision, integrity, competency, efficiency, and sustained success—designed both as a checklist and a caution against ego. Across startups and conglomerates, Hill's core lesson remains consistent: leadership in Japan is less about charisma a

"First thing I'd say is do it… just throw yourself into it." "Spend the first ninety days getting to know the people… listening… before acting." "Communication here is more high context… there's a lot of reading between the lines." "Trust is doing what you say you would do." "A leader is someone who takes a strategy and a vision breaks that down into habits… and empowers people to execute." Grant Torrens is an Australian recruitment leader and long-tenured Hays executive who became Managing Director of Hays Japan after a two-decade, multi-country journey with the firm. He joined Hays in London in 2006 through its graduate program—initially as a jobseeker who "fell into recruitment" like many in the industry—working a demanding hedge-fund desk in the City. After navigating the Global Financial Crisis, he took a career break to travel across Southeast Asia, where a short visit to colleagues in Singapore turned into a relocation, leveraging Hays' global internal mobility and his transferable financial-services recruitment expertise. ] Years later, he was offered the Japan role—but COVID-era border restrictions meant he effectively "ran Japan from Singapore" for about 15 months, relying heavily on his Japan leadership team and building data-driven management systems to lead remotely. When he finally relocated to Tokyo, he focused on deep listening, high-clarity communication, and change management—while guiding Hays Japan through a strategic shift toward stronger service for Nikkei clients and hiring more Japanese nationals, including team members who don't work in English. Grant Torrens' leadership story is built on three threads: global mobility, remote-first problem solving under pressure, and culture-building at the intersection of Hays' global norms and Japan's high-context communication. He joined Hays "by accident" in London—starting in financial services at a moment when the City rewarded performance and speed, then learning to survive and adapt through the post-2008 shock. The early lesson that carries forward is pragmatic: when conditions change, your approach must pivot too. That mindset shows up repeatedly in his later Japan leadership—especially when COVID delayed his physical move and forced him to lead Japan from outside the country. During that "remote with a capital R" period, Torrens deliberately upgraded the mechanics of decision-making: he turned raw sales and activity data into usable management information, taught himself Excel at a much higher level, and used those insights to create sharper, more useful conversations over video calls. It's a very modern leadership move, but grounded in a classic idea: if you can't rely on presence, you rely on clarity—data clarity, expectation clarity, and communication clarity. Once on the ground in Japan, his operating principle remained "listen first." He emphasizes that many leaders arrive, see processes that look "wrong," and try to replace them with headquarters logic—only to discover later those practices existed to serve customers and local realities. His antidote is explicit: spend the first ~90 days learning, not executing change. In Japan specifically, he adds two important nuances: (1) communication tends to be high-context—direct bluntness that feels "normal" in Australia/UK can land badly in Japan, and (2) trust is tightly linked to process—nemawashi and broad involvement matter, even if it slows decisions compared to London-style speed. On culture, Torrens frames "Grant culture" as mostly aligned with Hays culture after 20 years inside the firm—but he still sees leadership latitude inside the umbrellas of global standards and Japanese expectations. His chosen lever is change: he wants a culture where change is less feared and more celebrated. That includes giving people "permission" to try, treating mistakes as learning data (especially early), avoiding public blame, and celebrating wins so innovation feels worth the effort. He also highlights the practical friction of language and meaning: even company values can translate oddly, so global messaging must be adapted carefully to remain faithful—especially as Hays Japan expands its Nikkei-facing business and hires more Japanese-only speakers. Q&A Summary Why did you choose recruitment—and how did Japan happen? Recruitment wasn't the plan; it was an opportunity in London when he was unemployed and out of options. Japan was always in the background (he studied Japanese), but Singapore became the stepping stone because it was an easy transition into Asia—English-speaking, same company, and the financial services sector was transferable. How did you lead Japan while stuck in Singapore during COVID? Two pillars: a supportive Asia boss and a strong Japan management team. Personally, he built better reporting/insight systems—turning "raw data" into actionable information—so he could manage outcomes without relying on physical visibility. How do you build trust in Japan? He treats trust as universa

"Don't be the loud foreigner who just says we do this and this and this." "It's okay to make mistakes if you identify them, if you learn from them in the future." "If you have an open mind, just listen first." "You cannot spend enough time on just talking and communicating with people." "For me, right now a leader is somebody who helps employees to achieve the potential, their mission." Beat Kraehenmann is a Swiss-born electrical engineer who moved to Japan to change the trajectory of his life and immerse himself in Asia. After studying at a technical university and working in network engineering at Swiss Railways, he relocated to Japan independently, began full-time language study, and built early career momentum through contract roles before securing permanent employment as a network engineer. A long-time university friend working at Levitronix connected him to the company when the Swiss headquarters needed someone who could bridge Japan and Switzerland across language, culture, and technical detail. He joined Levitronix Japan around twelve and a half years ago and became Managing Director roughly a year later—his first formal management role. Under his leadership, the organisation expanded from four people in one location to a thirteen-person team spread across five offices (from Tokyo through Ogaki, Kyoto, Fukuoka and Kumamoto), supporting demanding customers in semiconductor and life sciences manufacturing with magnetic levitation pump technology designed to reduce particle contamination in ultra-fine production environments. Beat Kraehenmann leads Levitronix Japan at the intersection of Swiss engineering precision, Japan's uncompromising quality expectations, and the realities of scaling a specialist business across multiple regional offices. Levitronix is a Swiss company producing fluid control devices—especially pumps for semiconductor manufacturing and life science production—where particle avoidance is mission-critical. As chip structures push deeper into nanometre ranges, even microscopic contamination can become catastrophic, and the firm's magnetic levitation approach is positioned as a practical advantage in an industry that prizes stability and repeatability. Kraehenmann's leadership story begins with a deliberate personal disruption: he chose Japan because it felt safe enough to navigate while still offering a gateway to broader Asia, and he committed to language learning on the ground. That same pattern—commit, learn, adapt—shapes his approach as Managing Director. He describes leadership less as command-and-control and more as enabling others: providing the means, information, and training so employees can succeed without dependency on him. In Japan, where consensus-building (nemawashi, ringi-sho) and uncertainty avoidance often influence decision velocity, he emphasises communication discipline: listening, checking understanding, and creating the time to align—especially across non-native English environments where misunderstandings compound quickly. He also frames long-term commitment as a trust accelerator, both for customers and for employees: staying power matters in Japan, and reliability is read as intent. A defining cultural bridge in his management is psychological safety around learning. Levitronix's stance that mistakes are acceptable when identified and learned from runs counter to "no defect" instincts that can dominate Japanese quality mindsets. Kraehenmann doesn't dismiss that instinct; instead, he contextualises it with real-world examples of fast growth, supplier constraints, and even customer admissions that quality issues are a daily struggle. The message is not "mistakes don't matter," but "learning matters more than denial"—a practical compromise that maintains credibility with Japanese expectations while keeping a smaller, faster-moving organisation functional. As the company expanded geographically, he encountered the classic distributed-team problem: "frogs in wells" with limited visibility into each other's context. His solution is deliberately flexible—more meetings when communication gaps appear, fewer when the system stabilises—paired with careful hiring for autonomy. He also differentiates customer engagement from template-driven "Japanese" presentations, pushing teams to stand out through demonstrations and tactile proof, while still respecting relationship norms. And while AI dominates headlines, he notes semiconductor's conservatism: innovation must serve stable mass manufacturing, not disrupt it for fashion—though decision intelligence, digital twins, and data-driven reliability will increasingly shape how suppliers prove value without threatening uptime. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leadership in Japan is shaped by long-term orientation, relationship continuity, and high expectations for reliability. Consensus processes (nemawashi, ringi-sho) can be invisible to outsiders yet decisive in outcomes, and leaders must work with cultural u

"If we can sell it in Japan, we can sell it also in other countries." "The first thing I believe is honesty, especially in difficult situations." "The word "musukashi" is not allowed anymore in our company." "When an engineer is working at the customer and he cannot solve the problem… even if time is up, he would not walk away." "You need to give them… a safety rope." Joerg Bauer is the Representative Director of Heidelberg Japan, leading a business that provides industrial printing and packaging solutions across software, machinery, and consumables. Trained in electronics and data processing, he joined Heidelberg early and built his career at the intersection of engineering, customer service, and operational transformation. He first came to Japan as a young engineer—curious about Japanese manufacturing and culture—and expected a three-to-five-year stint that became a decade. After returning to Germany for several years, he relocated again to Japan in 2008 and has remained since, spending the majority of his professional life in-country. Over nearly four decades with Heidelberg (including his student period), Bauer progressed from technical roles to sales support, then into major integration work as a project manager during corporate merger and SAP rollout, later becoming IT business manager. Back in Japan, he led initiatives such as introducing an online shop for consumables—initially resisted internally as "not possible in Japan"—before moving through service leadership and sales leadership. In November 2019, he became the top executive in Japan, drawing on long-term relationships, practical bilingual experience, and a clear view of how global standards must be delivered through local Japanese expectations. Heidelberg is not a desktop-printer brand; it is an industrial backbone for companies producing packaging, books, and brochures—machines that can stretch 30–40 metres, weigh dozens of tonnes, and require deep integration of mechanics, electronics, and software workflows from PDF to professional output. In Japan, where customer expectations for precision and service are famously demanding, Joerg Bauer describes the market as a proving ground: if a solution succeeds here, it can succeed almost anywhere. That mindset shapes not just product quality, but operating tempo—such as rapid call-back expectations and a service culture that must feel uncompromisingly Japanese to the customer. Bauer's leadership story is inseparable from cultural translation. He sees genuine overlap between German and Japanese monozukuri—high-precision engineering and pride in build quality—yet emphasises that working methods diverge. In his view, Japanese competitors historically excelled by targeting operators' pain points and incrementally automating "the hardest parts" of a process. Heidelberg's approach leaned more holistic, sometimes slower, aiming for a unified system rather than a patchwork of quick fixes. That contrast becomes a leadership lesson: Japan often rewards kaizen and immediate usability, while global headquarters may prioritise system architecture and standardisation. The leader's job is to bridge both without triggering organisational paralysis. He also treats Japan's "zero defect" instinct as both strength and tension. Perfection is culturally persuasive, but defining "perfect" is complex—especially in areas like colour, where human perception varies and measurement systems (LAB values) can create a more rational definition of quality. Bauer frames this as an executive's communication challenge: aligning printing companies, their clients, and internal teams around what quality means in measurable terms, without dismissing the cultural preference for flawless outcomes. Internally, he is candid about the real constraint: uncertainty avoidance. When teams say "muzukashii," they often mean risk, status loss, channel conflict, or fear of being linked to failure. His response is practical: find early adopters, run controlled trials, protect participants from reputational downside, and then scale what works. As the top executive since 2019, he anchors trust in honesty—especially during difficult periods involving financial pressure and restructuring—while resisting the temptation to hide behind "Japan is different" as an excuse. For Bauer, effective leadership in Japan is not softness; it is clarity, preparation (nemawashi), and a consistent safety rope that makes innovation feel survivable. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leadership in Japan is uniquely shaped by consensus-building, nemawashi, and a deep preference for harmony that reduces surprises. Bauer's experience suggests that outcomes improve when stakeholders are aligned before formal decisions—similar to ringi-sho logic—because it lowers execution risk and face-loss. The practical implication is that leaders must invest earlier in communication, even when it feels like "over-communication" to global executives. Why do global executives st

"The purpose of my business is not only bake and sell, because we are introducing… culture or food habits of France to the Japanese people." "Japanese people don't buy baguettes because they don't know how to eat it." "After twenty shops, I needed to change my mentality to be the new type leaders." "I have responsibility for the life of the workers." Shu Kimura is the founder of Boulangerie Maison Kayser Japan and a fellow Rotarian. Born into the Kimura family, whose ancestors helped introduce bread-making techniques to Japan via Nagasaki (Dejima) in the 1600s, he chose to build a separate path rather than continue the established family business. He studied law at university, then worked in insurance for six years in market development before deciding to become a baker. He trained in the United States in Kansas, studying wheat science and fermentation chemistry, then worked as a baker at Amy's Bread in New York City. He later went to France to train closely with artisanal baker Eric Kayser living near his home as a private trainee before being invited to become a business partner to bring the brand concept to Japan. Kimura built the company in 2000 and opened the first Japan store in Takanawa in 2001. Over time, he grew the business to dozens of locations across Japan, leading hundreds of employees while navigating Japan's distinctive customer habits, service expectations, and people-management realities. Shu Kimura's leadership story is a case study in translating a food culture—not merely selling a product—into a market with different habits, assumptions, and decision styles. He entered baking after a first career in insurance, then rebuilt himself through technical study of fermentation and wheat science in Kansas, practical craft in New York, and high-intensity apprenticeship in France. That blend of science, craft, and commercial pragmatism shaped how he approached Japan: with conviction about quality, but equal focus on "how to sell" in a society where bread is often treated as a one-hand snack rather than part of a shared table. His early strategic insight was not that Japanese consumers disliked baguettes, but that many simply lacked a usage framework. That is a leadership lesson in market education: changing behaviour requires storytelling, context, and repeated micro-demonstrations. Sampling hundreds of baguette slices daily, Kimura used seasonal moments—Christmas and New Year's gatherings—to help customers discover bread as a centrepiece of hospitality. The result was not incremental improvement but a demand inflection point: the product did not change; the meaning did. As the company expanded, Kimura's definition of leadership evolved in stages: hands-on labour at one to three shops, charisma and founder-driven momentum from four to twenty, and then a deliberate shift from "activist and baker" to architect of systems, accountability, and culture. This transition mirrors a broader Japan leadership truth: scale forces leaders to move from doing to enabling, from individual mastery to organisational capability. Kimura also highlights a practical contrast between European-style top-down authority and Japan's preference for shared understanding and bottom-up execution. Rather than merely issuing task-level directives, he argues that people in Japan need the whole picture first—the total view—before work can be broken into puzzle pieces. This aligns with consensus dynamics such as nemawashi (pre-alignment) and ringi-sho (circulating approval), where clarity of purpose and social alignment can matter as much as speed. In an uncertainty-avoidant environment, trust is built through repeated communication: purpose, targets, role clarity, and recognition systems that show personal growth. Technology appears in his leadership thinking not as novelty, but as operational resilience—sales planning, ordering, loss control, and cross-application data transfer. The strategic point is decision intelligence: reducing waste and stabilising performance through better signals, with the potential to build digital-twin-like visibility into demand, production, and staffing over time. Yet Kimura remains grounded: culture, education, and human motivation are the levers that keep quality consistent across many locations. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Kimura frames Japan as a context where leadership effectiveness depends on shared understanding, not merely authority. He contrasts European "boss is boss" top-down control with a Japanese style that works better when leaders explain the total view of the company first, then break it down into actionable pieces. In practice, that means investing heavily in communication of purpose, targets, and role boundaries—an approach consistent with consensus-building patterns such as nemawashi and ringi-sho. Why do global executives struggle? He implies the struggle often comes from applying familiar command-and-control habits in a market that expects alignment, cont

"I listen and I also am always very transparent." "Who cares about what people think about me?" "If my boss, my future boss, thinks that I'm capable, I must be." "Leadership is really defining where we're going, whether it's the end state or whether it's a goal." Mika Matsuo is a Japan-based executive and former AIG Japan CHRO known for repeatedly stepping into unfamiliar roles and delivering change. Born and raised in Japan but educated in an international school environment in Yokohama, she took an early decision to build a global career, studying at Tufts University in Boston and completing an MBA at the University of San Francisco. She began her career at Citibank Japan during the build-out of its retail business, where exposure to strong, international leaders shaped her standards for integrity, preparedness, and opportunity-taking. After earning Six Sigma Master Black Belt credentials, she moved into an internal consulting role at JPMorgan Chase during the post-merger integration period, then joined Tokyo Star Bank as Head of HR without prior HR experience—learning labour law, restructures, and culture change in real time. She later expanded her scope as Head of HR for Asia Pacific at Moody's and returned to Tokyo Star Bank to lead the retail business, navigating crisis leadership after the March 2011 earthquake. She joined AIG to help integrate AIU and Fuji Fire & Marine, later serving nearly a decade and attributing successful integration to clear leadership direction and a "build a new company" mindset. Today, she contributes through board and advisory work, drawing on a career defined by adaptability in Japan's complex corporate environment. Mika Matsuo's career arc reads like a deliberate challenge to the usual Japanese corporate script: international education, overseas degrees, and then a sequence of high-stakes roles where she often began as an outsider to the function, the business line, or both. Rather than treating those gaps as liabilities, she used them as leverage—asking questions early, leaning on strong teams, and creating trust through transparency. The result is a leadership style that is calm under uncertainty, candid about limitations, and built around listening as a strategic discipline rather than a soft skill. Her formative years in global finance gave her two lasting advantages. First, mentors who rewarded capability over status helped her internalise a belief that many professionals—especially women—struggle to adopt: if the organisation has decided she can do it, she can. Second, she saw how quickly culture shifts when leaders normalise openness, practical delegation, and continuous learning. Those lessons mattered most when she moved into Japan's banking transformation era, where legacy norms around hierarchy, gender expectations, and "we've always done it this way" thinking still dominated. At Tokyo Star Bank, she helped introduce practices that would be routine in many gaishikei firms but were disruptive inside a traditional Japanese bank context—removing women's uniforms, supporting spousal transfers to preserve women's careers, and encouraging leave for study and volunteering. The aim wasn't cosmetic modernisation; it was building a more transparent, sustainable system that could attract and retain talent. That commitment to sustainability becomes a recurring theme in her advice: organisations that still depend on extreme overtime, weekend obligations, and performative busyness are not structurally built for the future workforce Japan needs. A defining moment of her leadership development came during the March 2011 earthquake response, when she saw high-performing teamwork replace individual heroics. With a Sendai branch that had to reopen under Ministry of Finance expectations, her role shifted to decision-making, prioritisation, and supporting a team that was independently executing critical actions. That experience reinforced her belief that leadership is not doing everything—it is creating clarity, building trust, and letting capable people run. Across roles—from HR transformation to business leadership to post-merger integration—she returns to the same core: authenticity paired with respect, vulnerability as a trust-builder, and an open mind that actively checks bias. In Japan, where consensus-building (nemawashi) and formal approval flows (ringi-sho) often shape outcomes, her approach offers a practical bridge: respect the process, accelerate it through clarity, and build followership by being transparent about goals, trade-offs, and constraints. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leadership in Japan is uniquely shaped by the need for trust, respect, and collective alignment. Decision-making often relies on consensus-building through nemawashi and formal pathways such as ringi-sho, meaning leaders must manage time, stakeholders, and expectations while maintaining harmony. Matsuo's emphasis is that respect for Japanese ways of doing business is non-n

"I think curiosity is very important. When you're curious about something, you listen." "You have to be at the forefront, not the back. You can't, hide behind and say, 'hey, you know, guys solve it', right?" "When they trust you, beautiful things happen." "Ideas are welcome. You know, ideas are free. But it's got be data driven." Tomo Kamiya is President Japan at PTC, a company known for parametric design and CAD-driven simulation that helps engineers model, test, and refine complex products digitally before manufacturing. He began his career in sales at Bosch, covering Kanagawa and Yamanashi with a highly autonomous, remote-work style that was ahead of its time, learning early that trust and relationship continuity—not brand alone—move outcomes in Japan. He later joined Dell during its disruptive growth era, moving from enterprise sales into marketing and broader regional responsibility, including supporting Korea marketing and later leading the server business, where his team hit number one market share in Japan. After a short consulting stint connected to Japan Telecom, he joined AMD to grow the business in Japan, then relocated to Singapore to run a broader South Asia remit and strategic customers. He subsequently led a wide Asia Pacific portfolio at D&M Holdings across multiple markets, navigating shifting consumer behaviour as subscription and streaming changed the fundamentals of product value. That experience led naturally into Adobe during its historic shift from perpetual software to subscription, where he led the Digital Media business in Japan (including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat) for almost a decade. Across this cross-industry arc, he has repeatedly adapted to business model change, regional cultural differences, and the practical realities of leading people in Japan—especially the need to listen deeply, build trust patiently, and step forward decisively when problems hit. Tomo Kamiya's leadership story is, at its core, a story about compressing complexity—first in products, then in organisations. At PTC, he sits at the intersection of engineering reality and digital abstraction: the ability to take something massive—a ship, an engine, an entire manufacturing system—and "frame" it into a screen so it can be simulated, stress-tested, and improved before any physical cost is incurred. That same instinct shows up in the way he talks about people and performance. In his earliest Bosch years, he learned that Japan's reliability culture does not eliminate the need for continuous trust-building; even a global brand can stall if the relationship energy disappears. His answer was to create value where the buyer's uncertainty lives—showing up, demonstrating, educating, and, as he put it, "sell myself," because credibility travels faster than product brochures. That bias for action stayed with him through Dell's high-velocity era, where "latest and the greatest" rewarded leaders who could anticipate market timing and organise teams around speed without losing discipline. Later, running regional remits outside Japan, he saw the contrast between Japan's "no defect" mindset and emerging markets that prioritised pace. Rather than treat one as right and the other as wrong, he learned to search for the productive middle ground: the discipline that prevents future failure, paired with the pragmatism that prevents paralysis. It is a useful lens for Japan, where uncertainty avoidance and consensus expectations can slow decisions unless the leader builds momentum through listening and clear intent. In his most practical leadership shift, an executive coach forced a hard look at his calendar: too much time on objectives, not enough time on people. The result was a deliberate reallocation toward one-on-ones, deeper listening, and clearer delegation—creating what amounts to a management operating system that improves decision speed because the leader knows what is really happening. He sees ideas as abundant but insists that investment requires decision intelligence: data points, ROI thinking, and a shared logic that gives teams confidence to commit. In Japan's consensus environment—where nemawashi and ringi-sho-style alignment often determine whether execution truly happens—his approach is to build trust through presence, make it safe for the "silent minority" to contribute, and then move decisively when critical moments arrive. Technology, including AI as a "co-pilot," can help leaders think through scenarios and prepare responses, but he remains clear that empathy and execution in the worst moments cannot be outsourced. The leadership standard, as he defines it, is simple and demanding: when things go south, step to the front. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leadership in Japan is shaped by trust-building, restraint, and the practical demands of consensus. Even when products are high quality and risk reduction is strong, outcomes often hinge on relationships and continuity. Japan's conse

"Leading a team is every time challenging, to be honest." "We need to make a small success every time." "There is no official language of the company. The most important is communication." "It's not if we will do or not. It is how we will do it." "Only people who are not doing nothing are not taking risk." Benjamin Costa is the Representative Director and Managing Director of La Maison du Chocolat Japan, overseeing a luxury chocolate brand founded in Paris in 1977. Trained in civil engineering, he moved early into action sports retail, becoming a pioneer in European e-commerce and customer trust-building systems during the internet's formative years. After senior roles growing multi-sport retail and online operations in France, he relocated to Japan with his Japanese wife, driven by a long-standing personal connection to the country developed through annual travels over two decades. In 2015, he became General Manager of the French Chamber of Commerce's Osaka office, then co-founded an international business development firm supporting market entry for European and Japanese companies across sectors including luxury, high-tech, culture, and food and beverage. He joined La Maison du Chocolat Japan in January 2020 to lead a strategic transformation—reconnecting with Japanese consumers, strengthening alignment with headquarters, and reshaping internal ways of working—while managing an all-Japanese team as the sole foreigner in the subsidiary. Benjamin Costa's leadership story in Japan is built on an unusual combination: an engineer's analytical structure, an entrepreneur's appetite for experimentation, and a deep respect for the social mechanics that underpin Japanese workplaces. As Managing Director of La Maison du Chocolat Japan, he is not merely "running the shop"; he is running change—balancing the expectations of a French luxury heritage brand with the uncompromising standards of Japanese customers. His approach begins with a clear premise: in luxury, "not perfect" is still not acceptable. For him, Japan is not a constraint on excellence; it is the benchmark that can lift the whole organisation. If a product, service, or process meets Japanese expectations, he argues, it will travel well globally. Costa treats trust as an operational asset, not a soft concept. Internally, he speaks about building credibility through "small success every time"—a practical rhythm that mirrors nemawashi and ringi-sho dynamics, where progress is stabilised through incremental validation and consensus. He also recognises that trust must be built in two directions: with the local team and with headquarters. In subsidiaries, he notes, distance and lack of informal contact can weaken confidence and slow decision-making. His solution is to tighten the relationship through evidence, responsiveness, and direct communication between functional experts—so Japan is not an isolated "castle," and headquarters is not an untouchable authority. He leads with a deliberately flat management style. Ideas can come from anywhere, and he is comfortable letting his original concept be reshaped into something better by the team. At the same time, he rejects the paralysis that can come from over-consensus. When deadlines are short, he reframes the discussion: the debate is not whether to do the project, but how to do it. That combination—openness paired with decisiveness—becomes his method for working with Japan's uncertainty avoidance without letting it harden into inaction. Risk, for Costa, is inseparable from growth. He encourages experiments, protects people when outcomes are imperfect, and focuses on learning to prevent repeat mistakes. Yet he is also candid: some people thrive in the former business model and struggle to keep pace with transformation. He treats that as fit, not failure. Ultimately, Costa defines leadership as elevating others—creating conditions where the team can move alongside the leader, not behind him, and where capability expands through responsibility, clarity, and shared wins. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Costa emphasises that trust and credibility tend to be earned in small, visible steps. Rather than grand announcements, progress is reinforced through incremental wins that allow people to align safely—an approach closely related to nemawashi and ringi-sho style decision-making, where consensus is built before execution. He also highlights Japan's high expectations for quality and reliability, which shape how teams think about accountability and reputational risk. Why do global executives struggle? He points to a common clash: headquarters urgency versus local reality. Executives arrive as change agents under pressure to deliver quickly, but Japan's organisational habits—consensus-building, precision, and risk sensitivity—slow the apparent pace. His advice is to listen first, move thoughtfully, then return to HQ with a strong, evidence-based case for what will work and why it will take time. Is Japa

"If you trust people, your life is very nice." "The bringing people together with one common objective needs to be carefully thought out and defining the processes very carefully needs to be thought out and don't imagine that the process will be figured out by the people themselves." "They are looking for a leader who is responsible, who can make the decision." "Be transparent." Brief Bio Armel Cahierre is a French-trained engineer who built a multi-country career across R&D, turnaround management, consulting, private equity-adjacent deal work, and consumer retail. After early technical work in Japan (including R&D exposure through Thomson during Japan's 1980s electronics peak), he returned to Europe for an MBA at INSEAD and moved into industrial leadership roles, taking on high-responsibility turnaround assignments in his late 20s across France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland. He later helped open a European office for a US firm pioneering semantic analysis for qualitative market research, working with major global brands. That experience led to entrepreneurship in eyewear (ski goggles and sunglasses), a subsequent exit to an Italian group, and executive-level work tied to licensing and Western European markets. After a period in California doing pre- and post-M&A consulting (including carve-outs linked to the Vivendi break-up), he returned to Japan, became President of Paris Miki, and later pivoted after a Cerberus transaction collapsed on the day of the Lehman shock. He then founded B4F in Japan, building a members-only, online flash-sales model that sources only through official brand channels and emphasises simplicity of operations, trust, and process discipline. Armel Cahierre's leadership story, is less a straight line than a sequence of deliberately chosen reinventions anchored by one constant: clarity of purpose and an intolerance for unnecessary complexity. As Founder and President of B4F, he operates a members-only flash sales platform focused primarily on fashion and lifestyle brands, with time-limited sales and controlled visibility designed to protect brand equity. The proposition is simple for customers and brands alike: members access discounts without prices being exposed to the wider web, and brands clear excess inventory without training the mass market to wait for markdowns. Operationally, the model leans toward discipline—no grey market sourcing, no parallel imports, and minimal exposure to foreign exchange or customs friction by buying and selling in yen. That preference for simple systems was shaped long before e-commerce. Early in his management career, Cahierre was sent into difficult turnaround situations and learned that the fastest route to recovery often begins with information-sharing and dignity. In one formative case, he arrived at a unionised boiler manufacturer with a catastrophic defect cycle and discovered frontline employees had never been told the company's true position. Once he made the economics and the problem visible, alignment followed—less because of charisma, more because people could finally see the same "game board". In Japan, he argues, the same outcomes are possible, but the route is slower and more socially coded. Ideas rarely appear instantly in open forum; trust must be earned, roles must be read correctly, and influence may sit away from formal hierarchy. Where some foreign leaders push targets and individual incentives, he sees higher leverage in process: process KPIs, well-defined routines, and a shared understanding of "how work is done"—a philosophy that maps cleanly onto kaizen, consensus-building, and the reality that nemawashi often precedes the formal ringi-sho. He also warns against confusing "culture" with "excuses": claims that "Japan can't do X" frequently hide uncertainty avoidance, fear of accountability, or simple inertia rather than any immutable national constraint. On technology, Cahierre is pragmatic and a little provocative. If AI is framed as replacing white-collar work, the CEO should not imagine immunity. The agenda, in his view, is training and judgement: equip teams to use AI well (as companies should have done with Excel and PowerPoint years ago), understand where it accelerates work, and retain human decision intelligence where context, responsibility, and ethics matter. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Cahierre frames Japan's leadership challenge as less about "mystical difference" and more about how alignment is formed. Teams often respond best to clearly defined processes and shared routines, rather than blunt target pressure. Consensus is frequently built informally first—akin to nemawashi—before decisions become visible through formal approval mechanics (the ringi-sho mindset), meaning leaders must manage the unseen steps, not just the outcome. Why do global executives struggle? He sees many global leaders bringing a KPI-and-bonus playbook that freezes people rather than mobilising them. When targets are

"Leadership is staying ahead of change without losing authenticity". "Trust is the real currency of sales, teams, and Japan's business culture". "Zeiss's foundation model is a rare advantage: patient capital reinvested into R&D". "Japan is less "risk-averse" than "uncertainty-avoidant" when decisions lack clarity and consensus". "Language is helpful for connection, but not the primary qualification for leading in Japan". Brief Bio Vincent Mathieu is the CEO of Carl Zeiss Japan, leading a multi-division portfolio spanning semiconductors, medical devices, microscopy, industrial quality solutions, ophthalmic lenses, and imaging optics. Originally from the south of France near the Basque Country, he studied business in Toulouse, then spent several years travelling and working across Morocco, Denmark, Ireland, Chile, and South America—discovering along the way that his core strength was building trust in sales. He first came to Japan in 2001 to launch and grow a new division, learning the realities of hiring, selling, and leading without fluency in Japanese. After returning to Europe for global and country leadership roles—including navigating a corporate receivership in the UK—he was recruited to Zeiss and returned to Japan for a second stint. There, he led a turnaround in the vision care business by rebuilding the team, premium positioning, and distribution strategy, then expanded to broader regional responsibilities before taking the top role in Japan, leading a larger organisation through compliance, regulatory, structural change, and remuneration reform. Carl Zeiss is often mistaken as "just cameras", yet the company's real gravity sits elsewhere: precision optics, industrial measurement, medical equipment, and the advanced semiconductor ecosystem that powers modern computing. Vincent Mathieu, CEO of Carl Zeiss Japan, uses that breadth as both a strategic advantage and a leadership test—because leading a portfolio business demands credibility across wildly different technical domains, from microscopy used by Nobel Prize-winning researchers to X-ray inspection systems supporting EV battery quality control. He also points to a structural difference that shapes Zeiss's long-term posture: the company operates as a foundation rather than a classic shareholder-led public entity, enabling sustained reinvestment into R&D and the patience required to develop complex innovations that may run at a loss for years before they become indispensable. In semiconductors, that mindset shows up in partnerships and breakthrough optics supporting lithography and EUV pathways tied to ever-smaller chips and AI-era demand. Mathieu's personal story mirrors the adaptive leadership he advocates. He describes an early uncertainty about career direction, a formative period of travel and "odd jobs", and a gradual shift into commercial roles where trust, not extroversion, became his sales engine. His first Japan assignment was a tough entry: conservative hiring conditions, limited language ability, and the slow build of distributor confidence—where one relationship took years to convert. Returning later via Zeiss, he expected a smoother "global" environment and instead found a familiar friction point: leadership without a shared language, competing internal politics, and the need to earn followership through visible effort. His approach was practical and gemba-oriented—going into the field with salespeople, learning enough Japanese to observe and debrief well, and leading by example rather than relying on title or hierarchy. In his current role, the leadership challenge is no longer a small turnaround team but a larger organisation navigating regulatory scrutiny, compliance expectations, talent gaps, and a shift from "box-moving" to workflow and digital solutions. He frames Japan's organisational reality as deeply sensitive to trust, transparency, and consistency—especially when change touches taboo areas such as pay. Whether the topic is performance-based remuneration, AI adoption, or organisation redesign, Mathieu returns to the same idea: leadership is change management plus authenticity. The most durable influence, in his view, comes from understanding who the leader is, then showing up coherently—because Japanese organisations may not offer immediate feedback, but they do evaluate whether words and actions match. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leadership in Japan is uniquely shaped by trust, time, and social proof. Decision-making often relies on nemawashi (pre-alignment), the ringi-sho approval flow, and a preference for consensus that reduces future friction. Feedback can be indirect, and the "real signals" may appear later, after relationships deepen. Why do global executives struggle? Global leaders often struggle when they arrive expecting predictable "rules" about Japan, or when they assume a corporate title will create followership. Without local credibility, language bridges, and contextual awareness of ho

"Come as you are works in Japan when leaders are also willing to read the air and meet people where they are". "Japan isn't as risk-averse as people think; it is uncertainty avoidance and consensus norms like nemawashi and ringi-sho that slow decisions". "In Japan, numbers are universal, but how people feel about those numbers is where real leadership begins". "For foreign leaders, kindness, patience, and genuine curiosity are far more powerful than charisma or title". "Women leaders who embrace their own style, instead of copying male role models, can quietly transform Japanese workplaces". Joanne Lin is Senior Director, APAC, for Deckers Brands, the American company behind UGG, HOKA, and Teva. Born in Taiwan and raised in Canada, she later completed her MBA at Boston University and began her career in Boston, working in a trading company and then at Merrill Lynch Investment Company. In 2000, she moved to Japan for family reasons and has since built a 25-year leadership career in this complex market. In Japan, Joanne first held senior finance roles, including Head of Finance for Reebok Japan and CFO for Aegis Media, where she worked on mergers and acquisitions. She joined Deckers over thirteen years ago as CFO for Japan and was later asked to step in as interim Country Manager for Deckers Japan. Today she is back in an APAC-wide role, responsible for finance and strategy across 15 markets, including Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. Her remit covers subsidiaries and distributor markets alike, requiring constant adaptation across cultures. Throughout her journey, Joanne has learned to reconcile a direct, North American style with Japan's more implicit, consensus-driven culture. Often mistaken for Japanese because of her appearance, she calls herself the "invisible gaijin", using that ambiguity to observe carefully, read body language, and bridge cultural expectations. Her leadership story is one of resilience, curiosity, and the quiet confidence to lead as herself in a country that often expects conformity. Joanne Lin's leadership journey began far from Japan. Born in Taiwan and raised in Toronto, she grew up immersed in North American directness, meritocracy, and straight-talking feedback. After completing an MBA at Boston University, she started her career in Boston, first at a trading company and then at Merrill Lynch Investment Company, building a strong foundation in finance. Numbers, ratios, and cash flows were her native business language long before she ever heard the phrase kūki o yomu — "reading the air" — in Japan. In 2000, she moved to Japan for family reasons, expecting to build a career but not realising how deeply the culture would challenge her assumptions about leadership. She entered the corporate world here without Japanese language skills and without local experience. Physically, many colleagues assumed she was Japanese, or at least of Japanese descent, and treated her accordingly. She jokes that she became an "invisible gaijin": expected to understand unspoken rules despite never having grown up with them. Early on, she discovered that in Japan, silence often speaks louder than words. Concepts akin to nemawashi — the quiet groundwork of building consensus before meetings — and the unspoken pressure to align with the group meant that decisions rarely came from a single, charismatic leader. Instead, she had to watch faces, posture and micro-reactions around the table. While she came from an environment where people said "yes" or "no" clearly, in Japan phrases like "I'll think about it" could mean "no" 80% of the time. Learning to interpret these signals became as important as reading the P&L. Her career advanced steadily through senior finance roles: Head of Finance for Reebok Japan, CFO for Aegis Media leading M&A, and later CFO for Deckers Japan. Over thirteen years at Deckers, she helped steer the growth of brands such as UGG and the fast-rising performance brand HOKA in one of the world's most competitive footwear markets. Eventually, she was asked to serve as interim Country Manager for Deckers Japan, an opportunity that tested her ability to go beyond numbers and lead entire functions including sales, marketing, HR and retail. Joanne's leadership philosophy is grounded in being genuine and transparent. She believes in explaining the "why" behind decisions, giving context, and aligning people rather than simply seeking agreement. She spends time helping non-finance colleagues understand what gross margin, discounts and operating income mean in practical terms, translating finance into everyday language rather than using it as a gatekeeping tool. Engagement surveys, where Japan often scores modestly compared with global benchmarks, have been a recurring theme in her work. Rather than blaming culture, she looks at how questions are worded, how norms shape responses, and then uses those insights to design practical remedies — from "lunch and learn" session

Deliver the win, then ring the bell. Make small mistakes fast; make big learnings faster. Think global, act local — but don't go native. Do the nemawashi before the meeting, not during it. Your salary is earned in the stores: go to the gemba. A 28-year Domino's veteran, Martin Steenks began at 16 as a delivery expert in the Netherlands. He rose to store manager, multi-unit supervisor, then franchisee, building his operation to eight stores by 2019. After selling his stores, he became Head of Operations for Domino's Netherlands, then CEO of Domino's Taiwan in 2021, and subsequently CEO of Domino's Japan. Previously he was Chief Orchestrator in Japan, focusing on operational excellence, culture, and scalable execution in one of Domino's most exacting service markets. He is known for hands-on store work, cross-training, "Friday F-Up" learning rituals, the Grow & Prosper bell for micro-wins, and quarterly "Go Gemba" days that connect HQ functions with frontline realities. Martin Steenks' leadership arc runs from a three-minute job interview at 16 to orchestrating Domino's Japan — one of the brand's most demanding markets for service quality. The connective tissue is execution discipline: he has run stores, supervised regions, built and exited an eight-store franchise, owned national operations, and led two country P&Ls. That breadth gives him pragmatic empathy for franchisees and HQ alike, which he leverages to align incentives, simplify operations, and insist that every back-office salary is ultimately "earned in the stores." Japan sharpened his leadership. Coming from low-context, fast-moving Dutch and Australian business styles into high-context Japan, he learned that meetings signalling agreement can still stall without prior nemawashi — the groundwork with middle management and other stakeholders. He now invests in pre-alignment, translating intent into culturally legible action: fewer big-room debates, more quiet lobbying, more ringi-sho style consensus building for irreversible decisions, and a clear bias to test-and-learn for reversible ones. Rather than trying to "change the culture," he adjusted himself — becoming more patient while preserving speed by separating decision types and sequencing alignment before action. His operating system is human and tangible. He set a weekly rhythm of learning with a "Friday F-Up" session, where leaders share mistakes and what was learned — a radical move in a high uncertainty-avoidance culture. He celebrates micro-wins with the Grow & Prosper bell to make progress visible, sustaining morale during long transformations. He bridged HQ–store gaps with Go Gemba: each quarter, every function works a store shift; IT discovers why a workflow fails at the point of sale, marketing sees campaign friction at Friday night peak, finance hears cost-to-serve realities. He personally worked in stores four to five days a month, especially during crunch periods like Christmas, leading by example and rebuilding trust through competence. Marketing localisation is equally pragmatic. Deep discounting can signal poor quality to Japanese consumers; "customer appreciation weeks" preserve value perception while rewarding loyalty. Community building is pushed to the store level — managers engage local clubs and schools to turn footfall into fandom. Cross-training makes delivery experts confident product explainers at the door, restoring a human touch in a world where >90% of orders arrive online. Ultimately, Steenks' playbook blended cultural fluency with decision intelligence. He aligned stakeholders through nemawashi, codified learning rituals, chose language and campaigns that respected local signals, and keeps strategy tethered to the edge where pizzas are made, boxed, and delivered hot. The title "Chief Orchestrator" wasn't just whimsy; in a business of many specialists, he conducted tempo, harmony, and timing — the difference between noise and music. What makes leadership in Japan unique? Japan's high service standards and high-context communication demand leaders who are both exacting and empathetic. Success depends on pre-work: nemawashi with middle managers, thoughtful ringi-sho style consensus for high-impact choices, and visible demonstrations of respect for the frontline. Uniforms (like Domino's iconic race jacket for store managers) and rituals create shared identity that motivates in a group-oriented culture. Why do global executives struggle? Low-context leaders often misread meeting "yeses" as commitment. Without groundwork, nothing moves. Impatience backfires in high uncertainty-avoidance environments; public criticism shuts people down. Leaders must separate reversible from irreversible decisions, secure alignment offline, and then move decisively. They should also avoid copy-pasting global marketing: in Japan, steep discounts can be read as "lower quality," eroding trust. Is Japan truly risk-averse? Japan is less risk-loving than many markets, but teams will take smart risk

"Care and respect aren't slogans; they're operating principles that shape decisions and client experiences". "Lead by approachability, using nemawashi-style one-to-ones to draw out quieter voices and better ideas". "Calm, clarity, and consistency beat volume; emotion never gets to outrank the message". "Consensus isn't passivity—done well, it's disciplined alignment that accelerates execution". "Confidence grows by doubling down on strengths, seeking honest feedback, and empowering the team". Akiko Yamamoto is the President of Van Cleef & Arpels Japan, leading the French maison's jewellery and watch business in a market it has served for over fifty years. She began her career at L'Oréal Japan, spending twelve years in marketing across brands including Kérastase, Helena Rubinstein, and Kiehl's, ultimately managing multi-brand teams. Educated in Japan with formative childhood years in the United States, she later completed a master's degree at the University of Edinburgh. Having led primarily in Japan, she now manages a multicultural team, drawing on international exposure, bilingual communication, and deep local insight to harmonise global brand culture with Japanese expectations. Akiko Yamamoto's leadership story is anchored in a simple premise: people follow leaders they can trust. That trust, she says, is earned through care, respect, and steady examples—not declarations. After a foundational run at L'Oréal Japan, where she learned the rigour of brand building and the mechanics of marketing leadership, Yamamoto stepped into the jewellery and watch world at Van Cleef & Arpels. There, she refined an approach that blends global standards with local nuance, ensuring the maison's culture of care resonates in Japan's relationship-driven marketplace. Her leadership style is deliberately approachable. Rather than "planting the flag" at the summit and expecting others to follow, she prefers to climb together, side-by-side. In practice, that means creating psychological safety, inviting dissent early, and spending time—especially one-to-one—to surface ideas that might be lost in large-group dynamics. She embraces nemawashi to build alignment before meetings, recognising that consensus in Japan is less about avoiding risk and more about creating durable commitment. Yamamoto's calm is a strategic asset. She is explicit that emotion can crowd out meaning; when leaders perform anger, the message gets lost in the display. In a culture where visible temper can be read as immaturity, she chooses composure so that the content of decisions remains audible. When missteps happen—as they do—she follows up, explains context, and converts heat into learning. The aim is not perfection but progress with intact relationships. For global leaders arriving in Japan under pressure to "turn things around," she recommends two immediate moves: become intensely reachable and cultivate a few candid truth-tellers who will share the real story, not just what headquarters wants to hear. Language helps, but fluency isn't the barrier; respect is. A handful of sincere Japanese phrases, consistent aisatsu, and an evident willingness to listen can narrow social distance faster than chasing perfect grammar. On advancing women, Yamamoto rejects tokenism yet underscores representation's practical value. Visible female leadership signals possibility; it tells rising talent that advancement is earned and achievable. Her own leap to the presidency required an external nudge, plus a disciplined shift of attention from self-doubt to strengths—past wins, trusted relationships, and demonstrated team outcomes. That reframing, combined with empowerment of capable colleagues, made the role feel both larger and more shared. Ultimately, Yamamoto treats "client experience first, results follow" as an operating model, not a motto. Decision intelligence—clear context, decisive action, and empathetic execution—converts consensus into speed. In her hands, culture is not a constraint; it's compounding capital. What makes leadership in Japan unique? Japan prizes harmony, preparation, and earned consensus. Leaders succeed by combining decisiveness with empathy, using nemawashi to socialise ideas before meetings and ringi-sho-style documentation to clarify ownership and next steps. Calm conduct signals maturity; approachability creates safety for frank input. Why do global executives struggle? Many arrive with urgency but little social traction. Defaulting to big-room debates and top-down directives can silence contributors and slow execution. The fix is proximity: sustained one-to-ones, visible aisatsu, and a small circle of candid advisors who translate context and sentiment. Uncertainty avoidance exists—but it's often rational; people hesitate when they haven't been invited into the reasoning. Is Japan truly risk-averse? It's less "risk-averse" and more "uncertainty-averse." When leaders reduce ambiguity—through pre-alignment, clear criteria, and explicit trade-offs—te

"Get your hands dirty: credibility in Japan is built in the field, not the boardroom". "Bridges beat barriers: headquarters alignment turns local problems into solvable projects". "Make people proud: structured "poster sessions" spark ownership, ideas and nemawashi". "Decisions at the edge: push market choices to those closest to customers, then coach". "Trust travels: clear logic, calm feedback, and consistency convert caution into commitment". Belgian-born power-electronics engineer turned global executive, Erwin Yseijin leads Semikron Danfoss in Japan with more than three decades across Japan, Germany, and Taiwan. Beginning as a hardware engineer in switch-mode power supplies and motor drives, he joined a Japanese semiconductor firm in Munich in 1989 and relocated to Japan in 1992, learning operations, production planning, quotations, and logistics from the inside. Subsequent leadership roles at Infineon included Japan and a five-year post-merger integration in Taiwan overseeing ~50 R&D engineers and close OEM relationships across PCs, routers, and wireless. After a gallium-nitride startup stint in Dresden, he joined Semikron, later Semikron Danfoss, leading APAC reorganisation, factory consolidation, and a direct-plus-distribution sales model, before becoming Japan President. Fluent in the technical, commercial, and cultural languages of the region, he specialises in aligning headquarters and local teams, and in building pragmatic, customer-led organisations in Japan. Erwin Yasvin exemplifies the hands-on leader who earns trust in Japan by showing up where problems live. His credo—"get your hands dirty"—is not metaphorical. When customers escalate issues, he goes with sales to uncover root causes and secure head-office commitments on the spot. That credibility shortens cycles in a market where 100% quality is table stakes and where the service "extra mile" extends even a decade beyond a nominal warranty. A European by training and temperament, he learned Japanese corporate practice from the inside in the early 1990s, when multilayered hierarchies still defined decision flow. Rather than railing against the pyramid, he mined its upside: leaders who rise through layers bring practical judgement and empathy for shop-floor realities. Yet he also streamlined speed by bridging headquarters and Japan—translating commercial logic, technical constraints, and customer detail into decisions the field can act on. He builds voice and pride through "poster sessions": monthly forums where team members present customers, markets, wins, and bottlenecks to peers. That design triggers nemawashi—quiet pre-alignment—and fosters cross-functional curiosity. By picking one or two ideas from each session and ensuring execution, he turns speaking up into visible impact. Decision rights sit with those closest to the market. Each salesperson owns one or two verticals—motor drives, wind, solar, energy storage, UPS—with accountability for target customers, competitive intel, product needs, and pricing. Headquarters supports with budgets for samples and after-warranty analysis, signalling trust with money. Where ambiguity or urgency is high—such as the 2022 exchange-rate shock—he decomposes the "working package" into digestible actions, avoiding paralysis. Mistakes are coached privately and framed as leadership accountability: if an error occurred, expectations weren't clear enough. Monthly one-on-ones, written agendas, and evidence-led conversations establish a durable logic chain that travels across language boundaries. Culture-wise, he neither copies a Japanese firm nor imposes a foreign pace. Instead, he articulates values—efficient workdays, transparent processes, skill development—while adapting compensation to local norms through a hybrid bonus model that blends guaranteed and performance-tied elements. Asked how outsiders should lead in Japan, Yasvin stresses credibility, example, and constancy: be present in the hard moments, don't over-promise, and speak in clear, digestible steps. In a country where consensus and detail orientation are prized, leaders win by aligning logic with respect—turning caution into momentum without sacrificing quality. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Japan blends layered hierarchies with high expectations for managers to understand field-level problems. Leaders gain status less by slogan and more by track record. Consensus is built through nemawashi and formalised via ringi-sho, with detail-rich documentation that honours uncertainty avoidance while preserving quality. The upside of layers is decision empathy; the downside can be speed—unless leaders bridge across functions and headquarters. Why do global executives struggle? Many push headquarters logic without translating it into local realities: customer expectations of zero defects; service beyond written warranty; and process fidelity (e.g., traceability standards) that must integrate into Japanese customers' own systems. Le

"Leading is easy. Getting people to follow is the hard part". "Listen first; don't pre-decide the outcome". "Japan is a Swiss watch—change one gear and the whole movement shifts". "Do nemawashi before decisions; ringi-sho is the runway, not red tape". "Bring people back to Japan—networks mature with the country". Chris LaFleur is Senior Director at McLarty Associates, the Washington, D.C. based strategic advisory firm. A career U.S. Foreign Service Officer, he served multiple tours in Japan—including Sapporo, Yokohama language training, and Tokyo in political and politico-military roles—worked on the staff of Secretary of State Al Haig, at the U.S. Mission to the UN, and at the U.S. Embassy in Paris focusing on Asia during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. He later became Deputy Director of the American Institute in Taiwan, returned to Tokyo as Deputy Chief of Mission under Ambassador Tom Foley, and served in Washington as the No. 2 in the Bureau of East Asian Affairs as well as a negotiator on alliance modernisation with Japan and South Korea. He was U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia in the Iraq War era, then Vice Chairman of JPMorgan Japan, and repeatedly served as President and Chairman at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ). Today, he advises global firms on policy, regulatory, and political risk across Japan and the region. Chris LaFleur's leadership journey tracks the evolution of U.S.–Japan relations and the realities of making decisions inside complex systems. Beginning as a vice consul in Sapporo, he learned that listening precedes leading in Japan. Hokkaidō's standard Japanese, the step-by-step pace of regional life, and daily immersion built linguistic and cultural pattern recognition. That foundation scaled when he rotated through Yokohama language training and the Tokyo Embassy, where politico-military work brought alliance management into focus: with bases, communities, and bilateral policy layered together, decisions were not events but processes requiring consensus and continuity. Shifting to Washington to staff Secretary Al Haig offered a crash course in how policy gets made, while the UN posting and a Paris portfolio on Asia sharpened his systems view across capitals. Taiwan unlocked dormant Chinese language skills and reminded him that capability compounds with context. Returning to Tokyo as Deputy Chief of Mission under Ambassador Tom Foley, he saw that organisational power is distributed: success hinged on local staff with deep networks, continuity across rotating Americans, and steady, trust-building communication with home offices that wanted speed while Japan required sequence. As Ambassador to Malaysia during the second Iraq War, LaFleur had to explain and persuade amid public scepticism—learning again that legitimacy is earned by hearing concerns first. Transitioning to the private sector as Vice Chairman at JPMorgan Japan validated a surprising constant: large companies decide like large governments. He expected neat, calculated choices; he found coalitions, trade-offs, and path dependence. The lesson for leaders: map stakeholders, solicit ideas early, and let nemawashi do its work before the ringi-sho formalises momentum. In consulting today, he helps global executives reframe "risk" in Japan as uncertainty to be worked through with decision intelligence—aligning goals, mapping interdependencies, and testing scenarios before locking in. Japan, he says, is a Swiss watch: its precision is an asset, but every gear is linked. Leaders succeed by respecting that system—sequencing conversations, checking downstream effects, and ensuring consensus is genuine, not assumed. Technology can accelerate this work—digital twins for processes, collaborative platforms for traceable sign-offs—but tools must fit culture. Above all, bring people back to Japan; networks—and trust—rise with time. What makes leadership in Japan unique? Japan's operating model is sequence over speed. Nemawashi aligns stakeholders in advance; the ringi-sho codifies consensus; and downstream interlocks across compliance, customers, and partners mean details matter before decisions. Leaders must treat decisions as journeys, not moments, and recognise local staff as the critical path to progress. Why do global executives struggle? Headquarters often assumes top-down approvals equal action. In Japan, meetings with "the top" rarely move the machine unless the working levels are engaged. Foreign leaders also underestimate uncertainty avoidance embedded in tightly coupled processes—the "Swiss watch" effect—so a small tweak can ripple across functions and clients. Is Japan truly risk-averse? It is more accuracy-seeking than risk-averse. The system prizes predictability because errors propagate widely. What looks like reluctance is often prudent scenario-testing. Reframe risk as uncertainty management: clarify assumptions, run premortems, and build reversible steps that preserve harmony while enabling change. What leadership

"Listening is easy; listening intently is leadership." "In Japan, trust isn't a KPI — it's earned through presence, patience, and predictable behaviour." "Leaders here must be gatekeepers of governance and ambassadors for people, culture, and brand." "Don't copy-paste playbooks; calibrate the boss, context, and cadence." "Win hearts first, then heads — only then will ideas and decisions truly flow." Loïc Pecondon-Lacroix is President and Country Holding Officer (CHO) of ABB Japan, responsible for governance, compliance, and the enabling infrastructure that keeps ABB's Japan entities operating within law, regulation, and internal policy. A French national educated primarily in sales, he built his career as a business controller and CFO across local, regional, and global roles, developing a reputation for process discipline and decision support. Before ABB, he spent a decade in the automotive sector, including senior roles at German powerhouse Mahle, where he moved between France, Germany, China, and Japan. His first Japan posting was as a general manager in the automotive industry; his second brought him back to Tokyo, where — after his spouse's executive opportunity catalysed the move — he was recruited in-market by ABB directly into the CHO role. What makes leadership in Japan unique? Japan is a high-context, consensus-first environment. Leaders must prioritise nemawashi before ringi-sho, invest in psychological safety, and value presence over performative activity. Engagement is not a survey score but an accumulation of trust signalled by consistent behaviour, calibrated communication, and respect for cadence and etiquette. Decision intelligence here blends informal alignment with formal governance so progress sticks rather than bounces. Why do global executives struggle? Many arrive with "fix it fast" mandates, underestimate uncertainty avoidance, and over-rely on imported playbooks. They communicate problems upward without solutions and fail to "manage the boss" — i.e., calibrate global expectations to local timeframes. Skipping nemawashi, they trigger resistance, burn political capital, and misread engagement metrics that don't map neatly across cultures. Is Japan truly risk-averse? It's less risk-averse than uncertainty-averse. Leaders can reduce uncertainty with clearer problem framing, milestones, and prototypes, thereby enabling motion without violating safety and quality norms. The practical move is to de-risk through staged decisions, transparent governance, and strong internal controls — an approach especially congruent with ABB's integrity and compliance culture. What leadership style actually works? Begin with humility and intense listening, then coach. Win hearts before heads, model the behaviours you seek, and make middle managers masters of feedback and retention. Use direct channels (town halls, internal social platforms) to complement cascades. Choose battles, protect cadence, and be explicit about "why this, why now." Influence beats authority in matrix settings; patience beats bravado. How can technology help? Internal communities and collaboration platforms create lateral flow so ideas don't stall under middle-management "concrete." Analytics can enrich decision intelligence by signalling hotspots in retention and development. In ABB's domain, digital twins and automation are metaphors for leadership too: simulate options, align stakeholders, then execute with control plans that keep quality and compliance intact. Does language proficiency matter? Fluency helps but isn't decisive. Context literacy — reading air, watching body language, knowing relationship histories — often yields more truth than words alone. Leaders can operate in English while respecting Japanese protocols, provided they invest in nemawashi, maintain constancy, and avoid breaking trust with premature declarations or unilateral moves. What's the ultimate leadership lesson? "Win hearts, then heads." Authenticity tempered with empathy, disciplined listening, and careful boss-calibration turns culture from obstacle to engine. When people feel safe and seen, they move — applying for stretch roles, sharing ideas, and compounding organisational capability over long cycles. Author Credentials Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been tr

Flowers are a stage — design is the performance. Affordable mistakes beat catastrophic caution. Build leaders from the bench you already have. A shop window can be a growth engine. Hands-on founders create hands-on cultures. Danish-born floral designer Nicolai Bergmann built his brand in Tokyo by treating the shopfront as a "stage," inspiring customers with ready-made designs. After moving to Japan in the late '90s, a high-visibility boutique and department-store partnership launched the "Nicolai Bergmann" name, later expanded with a Minami-Aoyama flagship featuring a café, gallery, and atelier. He popularized the signature fresh flower box, grew the team to ~250 by developing leaders from the floor and adding specialists, and runs on a philosophy of bold but "affordable" experiments—learning fast without risking the whole platform. What makes leadership in Japan unique? Japan's leadership landscape values craftsmanship, visible commitment, and community. A founder who works the market at dawn and serves customers on the shop floor embodies credibility. Beyond hierarchy, leaders earn trust through nemawashi—quiet alignment-building before decisions—and by signalling stability through continuity of people and place. Shopfronts, department-store counters and hotel lobbies are not just sales channels; they are social proof engines where consistency, aesthetics and service fuse into leadership currency. Why do global executives struggle? Executives arriving with playbooks optimised for speed and centralisation can stall amid Japan's consensus rhythms. Ringi-sho processes and stakeholder mapping feel slow until leaders learn to use the process to clarify value and de-risk execution. Underinvesting in the "stage"—the customer-visible experience—and overinvesting in back-office abstraction also hurts; in Japan, persuasion is tactile. People want to see, touch and feel the idea before they sign off. Is Japan truly risk-averse? It's more accurate to say Japan practices uncertainty avoidance. Bergmann's career shows that bold moves are welcome when the downside is capped: trial pop-ups before full leases, host-funded fit-outs, and prototypes that can be iterated. The mantra is "affordable mistakes"—push hard, but don't blow up the platform. Decision intelligence here means structuring experiments so they teach fast without triggering existential losses. What leadership style actually works? Hands-on, craft-credible and steadily developmental. Leaders who model standards on the floor, grow managers from within, and supplement with targeted specialists (e.g., seasoned CFOs) see durable results. Clear stages—flagship, gallery, high-traffic counters—act as internal academies where juniors learn by doing. Consistency of presence from the top creates momentum that SOPs alone cannot. How can technology help? Digital twins of store layouts and merchandising flows help prototype seasonal displays before fit-out; simple decision dashboards clarify which experiments are "affordable." Lightweight collaboration tools support nemawashi across shops, while CRM nudges seasonal outreach. None of this replaces the stage; it amplifies it—turning tacit craft into shareable playbooks without diluting design. Does language proficiency matter? Yes, but craft fluency and cultural curiosity travel far. Bergmann advanced by showing value on the counter and at installs while improving Japanese over time. A leader who demonstrates respect, learns the tempo, and leverages bilingual lieutenants can navigate ringi, win consensus, and keep teams inspired—even before perfect fluency lands. What's the ultimate leadership lesson? Treat every customer-facing surface as a stage; build leaders from the people who already care; and structure your boldness so you never risk the platform. Hands-on credibility + consensus craftsmanship = compounding trust.

Timeless luxury thrives on trust, not transactions. In Japan, "walk the talk" converts respect into results. Prepare for 90, execute the final 10 flawlessly. Curiosity first; conclusions later. Empathy is the shortcut to nemawashi. Born in Geneva, Switzerland — the same city where Piaget began — Alexis Perroton started his career at TAG Heuer. At 24, he accepted a "Japan or nothing" posting and arrived without language skills or prior affinity for the country. The culture shock was immediate, but he refused to quit, immersed himself in the language, and built fluency as he learned retail from the shop floor. After four years, he moved to Richemont's Finance Planning & Analysis team supporting watch maisons and later Cartier, partnering closely with marketing on product performance dashboards. That collaboration paved the way to a leadership shift: he became Head of Jewellery for Cartier Japan during a pivotal rebuilding phase marked by new management, optimism, and local creative freedom. To broaden his scope and network, Perroton relocated to Cartier's head office in Geneva, working with the executive committee and coordinating commercial activities across Asia at the height of China's expansion. He subsequently led marketing and communications across 12 diverse markets in Southeast Asia from Singapore, then moved to Hong Kong in 2015 to oversee Hong Kong & Macau — the largest subsidiary at the time — through a demanding, resource-rich growth period. Recruited to Piaget by a former Cartier colleague tasked with revitalising the maison, Perroton returned to Japan eight years ago to lead Piaget Japan. Since then, he and his team have delivered strong results across triumphs and setbacks, emphasising client relationships, boutique excellence, and disciplined execution. Across roles in Switzerland, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and back to Japan, his career reflects 18 cumulative years in Japan, a deep commitment to on-the-floor leadership, and the conviction that respect, transparency, and consistency ("walk the talk") generate trust and performance. Alexis Perroton's leadership philosophy is forged from the boutique floor up. He insists luxury is about emotion and human connection, and that leaders must be visible, useful, and humble where the relationship actually forms: in-store. Early in Japan, unable to speak or read the language, he nearly left. Instead, he doubled down, learned Japanese, and used that experience to shape a style that blends Swiss discipline with Japanese trust-building. Over time he moved through finance, marketing, and general management across Asia, all while honing empathy and executional rigour. Perroton learned that Japanese engagement cannot be read through global dashboards alone. Survey scores trend conservative, but comments are nuanced and often positive; a "5/10" may signify a customer's desire to keep a brand exclusive rather than dissatisfaction. He rejects international league tables that flatten culture, preferring to mine qualitative feedback and then close the loop visibly so staff see action, not surveys for surveys' sake. This is classic nemawashi: patiently build consensus and psychological safety before decisions are formalised (ringi-sho), and communicate the "why," the frame, and the plan. He is equally clear-eyed on empowerment. Large brainstorming sessions seldom unlock the quiet voices; one-to-one breakfasts and small-group conversations do. He schedules weekly "what I did/what I'm doing" forums so every voice exercises agency. Then he provides structure — owners, milestones, expectations — so ideas survive the off-site and turn into operational work. He understands Japan's "prepare 90, execute 10" rhythm and harnesses it: meticulous rehearsal (including speeches scripted phonetically in romaji) ensures flawless client experiences. On technology, he is pragmatic. Luxury e-commerce remains smaller in Japan; clients value brick-and-mortar intimacy, trusted advice, and post-purchase care. Technology supports, but cannot replace, that theatre. Decision intelligence for leaders here means translating data into empathetic action: role-plays at morning chokurei, field coaching, and feedback cadences that respect uncertainty avoidance while still inviting challenge. Language proficiency matters because it collapses distance. Speaking directly with clients at dinners and events, or packing event crates with staff after hours, signals "same boat" solidarity that no town hall can replicate. It also short-circuits the "expat for three years and gone" scepticism. Resilience, for Perroton, comes from perspective: sleep resets the day; reframe the negative until a constructive path appears. In a market where wealth skews older and relationships are compounding assets, his approach fuses empathy, preparation, and presence — the quiet mechanics of trust that make luxury feel effortless. What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leaders succeed by investing disproportionate energy

"Anything that stretches you and makes you grow is never easy." "In general, to gain trust, the three things that work are humility, curiosity, and authenticity." "In Japan, you have to move from busy to productive, and from productive to impactful." "As a leader, you must trust others to be your voice, your interpreter, and your proofreader." "First and foremost, put your hand up—there's too much hesitation and self-censoring." Dr. Laura Bonamici is the Global Head of Marketing at Fujitsu, based in Tokyo, Japan. Her career has spanned multiple industries and geographies, from consumer goods and luxury fashion to technology, each stage demanding adaptability and reinvention. Previously she was a Communications Specialist, Embedded PR; Commodity Operations Program Manager, Goldman Sachs; Investment Banking Division, Goldman Sachs; Corporate Marketing Assistant, Drake International-Learning Technologies. She has a Ph.D. from Royal Holloway University of London; and B.A from Universita degli Studi di Firenze. She has built her reputation on her ability to lead transformation across cultures, guiding teams through periods of uncertainty and change. In Japan, she has been tasked directly by Fujitsu's CEO with spearheading marketing transformation, a mandate that challenges her to balance global speed with the local consensus-driven style of decision-making. Fluent in several languages and deeply committed to cultural immersion, Laura has become known for blending precision with creativity, humility with authority, and long-term commitment with immediate impact. She champions diversity, particularly encouraging women to take leadership roles and pursue international assignments, believing that exposure to different cultures is essential for confidence and perspective. Today, she continues to refine her leadership approach in Japan's uniquely complex business environment, guided by authenticity, curiosity, and respect for cultural nuance. Leadership, for Dr. Laura Bonamici, is a process of constant growth, challenge, and adaptation. As Global Head of Marketing at Fujitsu, she has learned that leadership in Japan is unlike anywhere else in the world: demanding patience, cultural sensitivity, and an unwavering commitment to authenticity. Upon her arrival in Tokyo, she was tasked by the CEO with driving transformation. Yet, she quickly discovered that while international markets often prize speed and disruption, Japan's consensus-driven decision-making process values nemawashi (informal groundwork), ringi-sho (formal approval circulation), and a deliberate pace. Rather than imposing a foreign model, Laura chose to respect the cultural norms while still pushing for meaningful change. This balancing act has required resilience and an appreciation that transformation cannot be rushed. Trust lies at the heart of her leadership. As a non-Japanese executive, she is acutely aware of perceptions that foreigners may not stay long. To counter this, she invests time in one-on-one interactions, symbolic gestures like delivering speeches in Japanese, and consistent demonstrations of long-term commitment. These actions, while small, become essential trust-building measures that gradually shift perceptions. Laura's leadership style is built on humility, curiosity, and authenticity. She believes in asking questions, even in a culture where questioning may be uncomfortable, framing them in ways that show genuine interest rather than criticism. She uses tools such as workshops, Post-it brainstorming, and agile methodologies to encourage open participation and psychological safety. For her, leadership is not about imposing a style but about weaving together the best aspects of Japanese precision, international innovation, and Fujitsu's own corporate culture. She also emphasises the need to move from being "busy" to truly "impactful." By deliberately carving out time in her calendar for reflection and creativity, she models the behaviours she wants her team to adopt. This philosophy resonates strongly in Japan, where overwork is common but does not always translate to high impact. For women, she acknowledges both the barriers and the opportunities in Japan. She urges female leaders to "put their hand up" rather than self-censor, and advocates for international assignments to build resilience and global perspective. With Fujitsu's goal of 30% female leadership, she sees systemic change as gradual but achievable through consistent encouragement and role modelling. Ultimately, Laura likens leadership to salt: essential when used wisely, overwhelming when misapplied. Her approach, grounded in authenticity and cultural respect, is a reminder that leadership is both an art and a discipline, particularly in the nuanced environment of Japan. What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leadership in Japan is shaped by consensus-driven decision-making and cultural expectations of humility and harmony. Unlike markets that prioritise speed, Japan values

"Japan's strength in rule-based processes has become its weakness in today's information age." "In Japan, leadership succeeds when data removes uncertainty and consensus replaces command." "Risk is not avoided in Japan; uncertainty is — and data is the antidote." "To lead here, map out every cause and effect until the team sees clarity in the decision." "Leaders thrive by respecting tradition first, then carefully opening the door to innovation." Evan Burkosky is the Founder and CEO of Kimaru, a Tokyo-based decision intelligence startup helping supply chain leaders use AI-powered digital twins for faster, smarter decisions. Previously he was Sales Director at Meltwater Japan, Country Manager Japan for Dynamic Yield, CEO of Tourism Builder, Consultant at J. Walter Thompson Worldwide, Business Development Manager at e-Agency Japan, and CEO and founder of Konnichiwa-Japan. His career arc reflects the adaptability required to succeed as a foreign leader in Japan. Arriving more than two decades ago with the intention of building a seafood import venture, he instead navigated into marketing, technology, and eventually decision intelligence. His journey highlights both the challenges and the opportunities of leadership in a country where consensus, process, and tradition dominate corporate life. Evan Burkosky's journey in Japan reflects adaptability, persistence, and the ability to lead in one of the world's most intricate corporate cultures. He arrived with entrepreneurial ambitions in seafood imports, then pivoted into consulting, marketing, and digital transformation before co-founding Kimaru, a Tokyo decision-intelligence startup that uses AI-powered digital twins to model choices for supply-chain leaders. The platform maps cause and effect, runs permutations, and recommends the best course — a data-driven approach that mirrors Japan's approvals ritual, the ringi-sho, but at machine speed. Burkosky argues that Japan's post-war management strengths — codified rules, painstaking manuals, and consensus routines — now slow responsiveness. What worked on factory floors in the industrial era hinders agility in the information age. Leaders must honour those norms while introducing flexible, analytical decision-making that accelerates progress without eroding trust. He frames nemawashi, the informal alignment process, and ringi-sho as unavoidable realities, but insists they can be supported, not replaced, by decision intelligence. The core obstacle in Japan is often mislabelled as risk aversion. In fact, the real issue is uncertainty avoidance: once teams can see the variables and likely outcomes, they will embrace bold choices. Data removes ambiguity; probability calms fear. Burkosky's leadership method is to construct decisions like equations — define assumptions, model scenarios, quantify trade-offs — until stakeholders feel clarity and consent to move. Trust, however, cannot be commanded. Western "shoot-from-the-hip" decisiveness tends to trigger resistance. In Japan, credibility grows when leaders explain why a proposal fits the rules-based system, show the data, and respect the process. That mix of transparency, patience, and cultural translation builds executive presence and employee engagement. Language fluency is another multiplier. By opening meetings in Japanese and persisting long enough to establish competence, Burkosky found prospects opened up. He has sold millions of dollars' worth of software entirely in Japanese, signalling commitment and cultural respect that unlock deeper relationships. Ultimately, Burkosky defines leadership as being "the example that people willingly choose to follow." In Japan, that means balancing safety and tradition with methodical innovation; using data to reduce uncertainty; and aligning stakeholders through nemawashi rather than bypassing them. Done well, this approach preserves harmony while restoring speed — and turns Japan's famed process discipline into a competitive advantage for the digital era. What makes leadership in Japan unique? Japan's corporate system prizes rules, manuals, and consensus — legacies of manufacturing excellence that ensured quality but now slow adaptation. Leaders who respect these foundations while introducing analytical speed fare best. Why do global executives struggle? Top-down authority often fails because stakeholders expect thorough, evidence-rich explanations. Executives must make the logic visible — mapping assumptions, scenarios, and ROI — so that decisions feel safe within the existing framework. Is Japan truly risk-averse? Burkosky reframes the issue as uncertainty avoidance: when data clarifies outcomes, teams are willing to act decisively. Leaders who quantify probabilities transform "risky" ideas into acceptable bets. What leadership style actually works? Replace "shoot-from-the-hip" heroics with patient, mathematical storytelling. Explain how the strategy fits the rules-based culture; run the numbers; and secure alignment through

"Leaders are responsible for laying the road of brick, clearing the fog, and saying, that's our path." "If leaders are going to be strict on people, they must be even stricter on themselves." "Trust isn't built once—it rises when things go well and degrades when the company struggles." "Ideas should begin without judgment; the mindset must be 'how could we make it work?'" "A leader can't just do the work for people—the role is to show the way forward." Previously, Nate was Create Director at Nikko International. He graduated in Graphic Design from Indiana University Bloomington. What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leadership in Japan requires navigating humility, consensus, and a conservative approach to risk. Hoernig explains that Japanese professionals often prioritise stability, influenced by parents and grandparents, making it harder for start-ups to recruit talent. Unlike Western markets, where independence is prized, in Japan family approval plays a decisive role. How do global executives succeed in Japan? Success requires adapting strategies to Japan's consumer behaviour. Hoernig's team created a framework addressing eight "lenses" of Japanese decision-making. By applying this, brands saw a 5.7x improvement in results, overcoming the common underperformance foreign companies face. This structured, fact-based approach has proven critical for trust-building and credibility. What leadership style works best with Japanese teams? Hoernig stresses flexibility, conscientiousness, and systems over personality. His monthly surveys, "hands in sessions," and "widening the diamond" lexicon provide avenues for staff to contribute safely. Japanese employees, he notes, respond well when given structure, opportunities to learn, and flexibility rarely found in domestic corporations. How can small firms build trust in a market dominated by giants? Trust in Japan is built less on contracts and more on promises kept. Even when business downturns hit, Hoernig emphasised delivering on commitments and maintaining transparency with staff and clients. This long-term relational focus often outweighed short-term losses, reinforcing the company's credibility. What is Hoernig's definition of leadership? For Hoernig, leadership means clearing the fog, laying the road ahead, and pointing to the destination. Leaders must balance functional direction — milestones, goals, frameworks — with personal growth, empathy, and resilience. In Japan, where ambiguity and indirectness dominate, clarity and consistency are essential for teams to follow with confidence.

"If you feel you should say something, shut up for a little while and work out what's going on." "Leadership starts with humility, respect, and the ability to listen to people." "Always avoid saying, 'I'm bringing this in because something's not quite right.' That doesn't work." "If you're at the top, you take responsibility for just about everything that happens." "Work harder than everybody else, but let others feel instrumental in getting the job done right." Previously Richard was a Mining Engineer at Bougainville Copper Limited, an Engineer – at his Father-in-law's Metallurgical Company, Toyama, Japan, Founder & Design Engineer – Independent Export Engineering Business Richard's leadership philosophy is anchored in respect, humility, and patience—qualities he views as essential for building trust and inspiring loyalty, especially in Japan. He believes that small, deliberate actions carry more weight than grand declarations. For example, he stresses the importance of learning simple but culturally significant greetings, using them at the right moments to establish rapport and credibility. These small demonstrations of cultural understanding, he argues, can open more doors than technical expertise alone. Patience is another defining element of his approach. He warns against rushing to impose solutions, even when the answer seems obvious. In his experience, prematurely interrupting discussions or pushing for immediate action often backfires in the Japanese context. Instead, he advises allowing everyone to have their say—even if it means revisiting the same points multiple times—because it preserves harmony and ensures that when action is taken, it is supported by the group. This measured pace, though slower, builds stronger alignment and avoids alienating colleagues. For Richard, leadership is also about creating an environment where problems are addressed collaboratively rather than through blame. When issues arise, he prefers to spend time alongside the people directly involved, observing their work and experimenting with alternative approaches himself. This hands-on troubleshooting not only leads to better solutions but also signals to the team that leadership is invested in the outcome. By shouldering responsibility and avoiding public criticism, he fosters an atmosphere where people feel safe to speak up and contribute ideas. Empowerment is built into the structure of his business. Sales performance, for example, is measured relative to the specific customers each salesperson manages, rather than through blanket volume comparisons. This ensures fairness, keeps competition healthy, and allows team members to focus on improving their own accounts rather than comparing themselves to colleagues with very different portfolios. It also encourages voluntary problem-solving: rather than being told they are underperforming, salespeople often self-identify areas for improvement and seek guidance. Richard also understands the importance of leading by example. He believes that working harder than anyone else—and being seen to do so—creates a natural influence that doesn't require constant enforcement. When necessary, he will stay over weekends to fix a problem so that it's resolved by Monday morning, demonstrating commitment and setting a standard for others. He cautions leaders against framing change as a correction for something "wrong," as this creates resistance and defensiveness. Instead, he introduces new initiatives as opportunities to build or improve, inviting others to shape and adapt them. This gentle but purposeful approach helps innovation take root without undermining existing practices. Ultimately, Richard defines leadership as the ability to guide others toward shared goals without undermining their dignity or sense of contribution. In his view, success comes not from commanding obedience but from inspiring people to feel that they own the results. By combining cultural sensitivity, patience, and a genuine willingness to share credit, he has built a loyal, long-serving team—proof that in Japan, trust and respect are the true

"Leadership is the ability to bring people to somewhere they didn't think they could go." "If you want to do co-creation, you have to do co-creation—consistently. You can't just turn it on and off." "Don't focus only on your English speakers; that creates toxic politics inside the organization." "There's no point being afraid of change—it's coming anyway, so embrace it and lead from the front." "Your people know you better than you know them. Consistency builds credibility and trust." Previously Glen was Co-Founder of KGD International G.K.; Chief of Staff, President's Office Bayer Holdings, Bayer Yakuhin Japan; Vice-President General Manager, Japan Syneos Health Clinical Solutions; Director Government & Industry affairs, Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Director, Office of President & CEO; Manager IBERICA Holdings Japan; Corporate Planning & Portfolio & Product Strategy Planning Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma. What role does storytelling play in leadership in Japan? Glenn emphasises that leaders must give their teams a compelling story—one that is realistic yet inspiring, stretching potential without breaking credibility. Vision alone is insufficient; it must be supported by consistent communication, regular progress updates, and visible actions that prove the leader is living the values of the organisation. In Japan, where employees often anticipate the worst if left uninformed, transparency is the most effective way to prevent negativity and build alignment. How should leaders engage with employees in Japan? Engagement begins with listening. When stepping into a leadership role, Glenn made a point of conducting one-on-ones, group lunches, and field visits with customers and sales teams. This was not only to introduce himself but to gather insights from staff at all levels. By synthesising these perspectives into strategic actions, he built credibility and showed respect for employees' experience. For him, engagement is less about imposing a new narrative and more about co-creating it with the organisation. Why is credibility so important for leadership trust in Japan? Trust, Glenn argues, is built on credibility—the single most important factor employees look for in their leaders. Employees observe their leader's behaviour closely and adjust accordingly. Consistency, respect, and openness are non-negotiable. Trust is also reinforced by how leaders handle mistakes. In Japan's perfectionist culture, errors are often stigmatised, yet Glenn maintains that mistakes must be framed as learning opportunities. Instead of rejecting ideas outright, leaders should explain decisions and encourage teams to test new approaches within agreed boundaries. How can leaders overcome silos and matrix challenges? Japan's business environment is marked by entrenched silos and the complexity of global matrix structures. Glenn's approach is to create opportunities for cross-functional interaction, sparking collaboration by bringing teams together in informal settings. He sees the role of a country manager as a translator—bridging corporate headquarters' expectations, Japan's cultural context, and his own leadership style. Importantly, he avoids walling Japan off as a "kingdom," instead advocating for Japan to be a proactive participant in global change initiatives. What advice does Glenn have for foreign leaders in Japan? He advises incoming leaders to resist steamrolling with bold directives. In his experience, such behaviour leads to surface compliance while staff quietly wait for the leader's departure. Instead, he recommends authenticity—defined not as brash self-assertion but as inclusivity, diversity, and consideration. Being authentic in Japan means listening, asking questions, and drawing out the deep sense of ownership that employees already hold for their work. What is Glenn's definition of leadership? Ultimately, Glenn defines leadership as creating change and bringing people somewhere they did not believe they could reach. It is not about individual heroics but about crafting a collective journey, enabling people to grow and succeed together. This philosophy reflects both his global career trajectory and his long immersion in Japan's corporate culture, offering a pragmatic yet inspiring blueprint for effective leadership in one of the world's most complex business environments.

"Walk the talk is the most powerful way to build trust." "Beauty grooming didn't exist—it was a new word to reflect a new purpose." "People didn't see themselves in the beauty industry until they started to look in the mirror." "Recognition isn't just celebration—it's about noticing the mindset, not only the results." Previously Hideo was Country Manager, Beauty Care Japan & Korea at Henkel; General Manager of several divisions at L'Oreal in Japan & Taiwan; Product Manager at Johnson & Johnson. He has a BA from Meiji University and an MBA form Thunderbird School Of Global Management. Hideo leads with a transformational mindset rooted in purpose, clarity, and genuine human connection. His leadership approach centers on revitalizing legacy organizations by redefining their identity and embedding a culture of innovation, joy, and self-belief. Across five successful turnaround cases in his career, Hideo discovered that real change begins not with strategy, but with a compelling purpose and vision. At Schick Japan, he introduced the idea of "beauty grooming" as a new brand identity—transforming shaving from a commodity into a value-rich, emotionally resonant experience. This pivot reimagined the business from a transactional model reliant on discounts to one driven by brand value and aspiration. To implement this shift, Hideo engaged in one-on-one conversations with all 110 employees within the first two months. This individual engagement served a dual purpose: to build trust and to carefully test and refine his ideas based on team feedback before rolling them out. Through these personal interactions, he unearthed stories—like a senior employee's joyful transformation using hair color—that became powerful internal case studies. By elevating that individual as a "beauty ambassador," Hideo catalyzed a grassroots movement that encouraged self-care, pride, and alignment with the new company purpose. Recognizing that vision needs more than words to take hold, Hideo invested heavily in visual and cultural transformation. A dramatic office renovation served as a physical manifestation of the company's new identity. The modern, light-filled space brought the abstract idea of "joyful beauty grooming" to life and signaled serious commitment to change. This, paired with the creation of an on-site innovation studio, reinforced the values of creativity and forward momentum. Hideo believes in "walking the talk" as the cornerstone of building trust. By visibly following through on promises—whether it's office renovation, launching new products, or creating a culture of recognition—he demonstrates integrity in action. He instituted a structured recognition culture, teaching managers to appreciate not only results but also processes and mindset. He emphasizes the importance of linking every achievement back to the company's core values, reinforcing a culture that is both consistent and inspiring. His leadership style is characterized by balance—between top-down direction and bottom-up input, between Western urgency and Japanese reflection, and between innovation and cultural sensitivity. He tailors his approach depending on readiness, starting with senior leadership, cascading through middle management, and then to staff. He nurtures psychological safety by decoupling innovation from punishment, encouraging experimentation while accepting failure as part of growth. For Hideo, transformation is not a single event but a step-by-step evolution: purpose and vision, then strategy, followed by organizational alignment, early wins, recognition and celebration, and finally, values reinforcement and cultural embedding.His ability to translate abstract concepts into tangible systems and environments, while maintaining an authentic and inclusive leadership presence, has made him a standout figure in modern corporate leadership in Japan.

1. "If my motivation is to make the best product, the money will follow as a consequence." 2. "A leader must give up ego and put the right people in the right place—even if it risks their seat." 3. "You have to read the atmosphere; the same person may need a different approach each time." 4. "To be a leader, you have to suffer, take the hard way, and do the work yourself first." 5. "If you don't care about people, then don't do this job—leadership is a people business." Elio Orsara began his career at the Grand Hotel San Michele in Calabria, then worked in Milan and London, opened his first restaurant in Spain, joined the Love Boat with Princess Cruises in the U.S., worked in Italian restaurants in Los Angeles, moved to a high-end golf course in northern Italy, became a supervisor at the Shin-Kobe Oriental Hotel in Japan, produced restaurants for the Daiei Group, and in 1996 opened Elio Locanda Italiana in Tokyo. Awards and Honours 1998 – Ristorante Italiano 1999 – Best Italian Restaurant, ICCJ 2006 – Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Cavaliere) 2009 – Calabria Excellence Award 2011 – Italian Hospitality International Certification 2012 – Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Ufficiale) 2017 – Ambassador of Stocco di Mammola 2019 – Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Commendatore) Elio's philosophy of leadership is rooted in lived experience, resilience, and a deep respect for people. His journey from a young dreamer in Italy to a successful restaurateur and multi-business owner in Japan shaped his view that leadership is not learned in theory but forged through hardship and personal accountability. He believes true leaders must first endure and overcome challenges themselves before guiding others. For him, leadership is less about rigid formulas and more about adaptability, emotional intelligence, and a willingness to keep learning. Central to his approach is the belief that leadership is fundamentally about people. In the hospitality business, technical skill matters, but without genuine care for customers and staff, success cannot be sustained. Elio treats every guest as an individual, reading the situation and adjusting his approach to create comfort, trust, and connection. He applies the same principle to his staff, emphasizing empathy, education, and personal growth. For young recruits, he looks for ambition and motivation, preferring those who aspire to run their own business rather than settle into a lifetime of employment. He invests heavily in training, even sending staff to Italy to deepen their understanding of food culture, and he maintains loyalty through long-term relationships, profit-sharing, and respect for their personal lives. His restaurants enjoy unusually high staff retention, which he attributes to creating a family-like atmosphere and recognizing each individual's value. He rejects the insecurity that causes some leaders to avoid hiring people more capable than themselves, instead surrounding himself with complementary strengths to cover areas where he lacks expertise. Elio's leadership style blends influences from multiple cultures—American business acumen, Japanese service philosophy, and Italian warmth and passion. From the Japanese, he learned patience, discipline, and the value of sustained effort; from the Americans, an entrepreneurial mindset; and from his Italian heritage, the importance of hospitality, human connection, and pride in craftsmanship. He is pragmatic about the realities of business risk, having weathered major setbacks, including the challenges following the 2011 Fukushima disaster. In such crises, he believes leaders must not only manage the business but also sustain morale, finding ways to keep teams engaged and feeling purposeful. His decision to deliver food to disaster-stricken areas after Fukushima exemplified this—addressing both community needs and staff motivation. Delegation, for Elio, is about trust and timing. He identifies capable individuals within his organization, aligns their responsibilities with their skills, and gives them both autonomy and a share in the rewards. While expansion is necessary to create opportunities for ambitious staff, he avoids diversifying outside his area of expertise, focusing exclusively on the food business where he can lead from a position of deep knowledge. Ultimately, Elio sees leadership as an act of service—serving customers, employees, and the broader community. It requires humility, constant self-critique, and the courage to make decisions that prioritize people and quality over short-term profit. For him, success comes when a leader creates an environment where both people and business can thrive together.

"You can ask four thousand people to adjust to you, or you can adjust to them." "If we want the stores to be successful, they need to feel heard—because their success is our success." "When I tried to dictate ideas top-down, the organization kind of choked on it." "Servant leadership means pushing popcorn carts, steaming clothes, and knowing everyone's name." "In Japan, things take longer to get moving, but when they do, they execute beautifully." Previously Chris was CEO Gap China; CFO Gap Asia; CFO Gap China; Senior Director Of finance The Nature's Bounty Co.; Procter & Gamble Global Grooming (Gillette) Senior Finance Director; Finance Director CVS Customer team; Finance Director Innovation Portfolio; Finance Associate Director, Supply Chain/Logistics; Global Oral Care, Finance Group Manager FP&A; Senior Cost Analyst Supply Chain & Sarbanes Oxley Consultant; Control Analyst Internal Audit; Market Analyst Prague Stock Exchange; Economic Analyst Cekia Capita; Information Agency. He has a BS in Finance from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and an MBA from Loyola University Maryland. Chris exemplifies a flexible, people-centred leadership style shaped by diverse experiences across consumer goods, private equity, and global retail. He views leadership as a balance between strategic clarity and hands-on engagement, shaped by his foundational training at Procter & Gamble, intense operational rigor in private equity, and the fast-paced responsiveness required in China. However, it is in Japan where his adaptability and emotional intelligence have most fully matured. Chris believes in deeply understanding the customer before driving innovation—a principle ingrained during his P&G days. In both China and Japan, he introduced more structured innovation cycles, ensuring that products and experiences are tailored to a well-defined customer persona. While in China he could drive initiatives top-down with urgency, in Japan he quickly recognized the need for more bottom-up engagement, realizing that imposed ideas often met silent resistance. Instead, he focused on seeding ideas with trusted team members, allowing ownership and momentum to build organically. Servant leadership is central to Chris's philosophy. He leads visibly from the front—working in stores monthly, performing basic tasks alongside staff, and reinforcing that success is shared. This symbolic participation builds trust and credibility across his 150-store organization. He also insists his leadership team do the same, embedding a culture of humility and visibility. Post-COVID, Chris identified and revitalized atrophied systems around employee development. He reinstated learning, mentorship, and career progression programs, recognizing that employees across all cultures crave growth and personal investment. He also emphasizes structured team building and regular in-person engagement, despite operating in a hybrid work environment. By setting expectations for in-office presence and making time in the office meaningful—with one-on-ones, development events, and volunteering—he balances flexibility with cultural cohesion. Trust, for Chris, is not assumed but earned through small, consistent actions—knowing names, listening attentively, acknowledging wins, and giving regular recognition through newsletters, meetings, and store visits. He is acutely aware of cultural dynamics in Japan and chooses to adapt his style, knowing that a soft, relational approach fosters followership more effectively than authoritative direction. Chris also champions inclusive values in a culturally resonant way. Whether it's supporting women in leadership, valuing age diversity, or promoting community volunteering, he localizes global values for the Japanese context. His efforts extend to embedding pride initiatives and community outreach in business-as-usual operations, reinforcing that culture isn't separate from business—it is business. Ultimately, Chris's leadership is anchored in clarity of purpose, authentic connection with people, and cultural fluency. He doesn't impose change but cultivates the conditions for it. In his words and actions, leadership is not about control—it's about enabling others to thrive. That mindset, combined with strategic discipline and personal humility, allows him to lead across borders, industries, and cultures with impact.

"Most of any leader's job is change management—setting a vision people buy into and aligning them behind it." "I view the organisation as an inverted triangle—the frontline is at the top, and we serve them." "You should be most concerned when your performance board is all green. Red means there's something to learn." "Trust in Japan isn't optional—it's the foundation of everything, and it can't be rushed." "Leadership isn't about a role or title—it's about helping others grow and succeed around a shared purpose." Previously Kasper was General Manager, Novo Nordisk Denmark & Iceland; Corporate Vice President DFP Manufacturing Development; Corporate Vice President Novo Nordisk Production S.A.S.; Vice President Aseptic Production; Corporate Vice President Global Support; Corporate Vice-President Insulin Manufacturing; Corporate Vice-President CMC Support R&D. He has an Executive MBA from IMD; an MSc Psychology from Kobenhavns Universitet-University of Copenhagen and an MSc Management from the University of Bath. Kasper's leadership journey reflects a blend of purpose-driven conviction and operational adaptability. Beginning as a psychologist, his career at Novo Nordisk has spanned over two decades and included transitions from HR to manufacturing, R&D, and commercial operations. This multidimensional path helped him develop a leadership style that balances strategic thinking with deep human insight. He views leadership not as a formal mandate but as the ability to rally people around a shared purpose and help them succeed collectively. Kasper sees change management as the cornerstone of leadership. For him, setting a compelling vision, aligning people behind it, and then designing an organisation that can execute effectively are vital. He believes a leader must master both the financial and human elements of business—but often, the human side is overlooked. His training in psychology gives him a significant advantage in navigating complex interpersonal dynamics and building engagement. In Japan, Kasper encountered leadership challenges and cultural nuances that required adaptation. He was pleasantly surprised to find Japan's corporate culture less hierarchical than expected, describing it as "middle-up-down," where middle management plays an essential role in shaping and executing strategy. However, he found consensus-building mechanisms like nemawashi both a strength and a barrier—excellent for execution but often limiting for rapid innovation. To counter these constraints, Kasper has implemented informal listening tours, smaller discussion forums, and ambassador-driven strategy sessions to surface ideas from the front line. He emphasises purpose as the unifying force. By focusing on "creating healthy longevity" for patients, he finds alignment across departments and geographies. His model places the front-line staff at the top of an inverted triangle, with leadership tasked with removing barriers to their success. Kasper is acutely aware of the barriers to innovation in Japan's risk-averse culture. He aims to create psychological safety, promote entrepreneurial thinking, and reward experimentation even when outcomes fall short. His own career setbacks are a source of learning, and he values candidates who can reflect on failures more than those who only tout success. Trust-building is another pillar of his approach. Recognising Japan's emphasis on relationships, he actively invests time in social engagement with staff, learns Japanese to demonstrate commitment, and adapts expectations to fit the local environment. He is cautious about imposing quick changes, preferring to spend time understanding needs before charting a strategic course. Culturally, Kasper navigates between Novo Nordisk's global values and the diversity within Japan. He resists overgeneralising Japanese culture, choosing instead to cultivate subcultures within the organisation that reflect future needs. He also aligns his leadership team with these values, making adjustments where necessary to drive cohesion and performance. Ultimately, Kasper defines leadership as helping others grow and succeed. It's not about authority, but about creating a shared direction and empowering people to reach it. This people-centred philosophy, combined with strategic acuity and cultural humility, is what he believes drives sustainable success.

"In Japan, if you want performance, you need ultra-clear expectations—people need to know the goal." "Building trust means creating a safe environment where it's okay to make mistakes." "Consensus-building is not optional in Japan—it's how decisions gain traction." "Every new joiner has lunch with me and a one-on-one at three months—connection matters." "Leading is about inspiring, guiding, and empowering people toward a common purpose." Previously Duncan was Executive Director-Head of Asia Hamlyn Willams; Country Manager, Robert Walters, Korea; Associate Director, Commerce Finance, Robert Walters Japan; Sales Consultant deVere and Partners. He has a BA from the University of East Anglia. Duncan leads with a style that emphasizes clarity, collaboration, and cultural sensitivity, shaped by years of cross-cultural experience. His leadership approach in Japan is grounded in providing clear expectations and maintaining transparency. He recognizes that Japanese team members particularly value knowing exactly what success looks like, so he places a premium on setting ultra-clear goals and regularly celebrating achievements. Monthly gatherings that spotlight individual and team successes help reinforce collective motivation and performance. He builds trust by being approachable and relational. Every new hire is welcomed with a personal lunch on their first day, and after three months, each has a one-on-one coffee chat with him to reflect on their experience. Even in a 60-person organization, he maintains these touchpoints to foster an open culture and reinforce that leadership is accessible. Duncan also leads training sessions himself, using these opportunities to share personal stories of past challenges, signaling humility and building rapport. Understanding Japan's consensus-driven culture, Duncan avoids top-down decision-making. Instead, he practices "nemawashi," engaging associate directors, managers, and often broader teams before implementing changes. This ensures decisions are well-received and supported. He contrasts this approach with his leadership experiences in China, where decisions were expected to come unilaterally from the top, and Korea, which he found to be more individually driven. Encouraging innovation and open communication is another hallmark of Duncan's leadership. To surface ideas, he established anonymous suggestion boxes and encourages feedback during regular check-ins. He emphasizes psychological safety, particularly when discussing mistakes or failed innovations. Creating an environment where it's safe to fail is, in his view, essential to fostering creativity and long-term growth. He also sees training as a core responsibility. New employees follow a structured two-month onboarding program, led by a combination of managers, HR, and himself. Observational learning is built in, with new staff shadowing client and candidate meetings across teams. His goal is not only skill-building but also early immersion into the company's values and standards. Duncan is deeply attuned to cultural and demographic shifts. He's pragmatic about Japan's aging and shrinking workforce and the limited pool of bilingual professionals. Rather than resist these constraints, he adapts by hiring internationally minded Japanese staff and experienced recruiters from other firms, and by setting realistic expectations for new leaders entering the Japanese market. His definition of leadership centers on inspiring, guiding, and empowering people toward a shared goal. He believes that leaders must earn trust and encourage followership—not through command, but through empathy, clarity, and inclusion. For foreign leaders new to Japan, his advice is to avoid trying to impose outside systems without first understanding the local context, to invest time in building trust and communication channels, and to respect the nuance behind why things are done a certain way. In Duncan's experience, leading in Japan requires humility, patience, and a commitment to listen before acting.

"We walk the talk—not talk the talk." "Expect the unexpected—Japan will challenge every assumption you bring." "The language we use programs our mindset—'we' means we're in it together." "Creating little leaders is more powerful than just giving orders." "Trust here runs deeper—it's built case by case, moment by moment." Previously Yvette was Managing Director Hong Kong and South China; National Sales Manager, Hong Kong, South and West China; Business Development And Key Account Manager, Greater China. She has a Master of Science from the University of Reading and a BA from Oxford Brookes University Yvette's leadership journey is marked by a deliberate pursuit of challenges and cultural contrasts. She views leadership as a dynamic relationship built on trust, adaptability, and empathy—particularly crucial in navigating cross-cultural business environments like Japan. Taking over her organization in Tokyo during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yvette saw opportunity within disruption. The crisis leveled traditional expectations and provided her with a rare chance to build credibility and trust with her team from the ground up, not as a foreign imposition, but as a shared survivor of an unprecedented time. Leading a team in Japan, Yvette quickly discovered that the leadership style required differed greatly from her previous experiences in Hong Kong, China, and the UK. Japanese teams, she observed, value preparation over improvisation and consensus over individual assertion. While her background leaned more toward rapid execution and adaptive correction, she learned to balance that with Japan's cultural emphasis on structure and perfection in implementation. Her leadership had to evolve to emphasize patience, inclusivity, and long-term trust-building. She also had to navigate Japan's deeply embedded hierarchical norms. Rather than simply asserting authority, Yvette focused on empathy and consistent communication. She intentionally stepped away from the pedestal of title and role to speak directly—and frequently—with team members at all levels. This practice of daily, informal engagement helped break down barriers, inviting ideas and dialogue in a culture often hesitant to voice dissent or innovation publicly. A core tenet of her leadership philosophy is the development of "little leaders"—empowering team members to take ownership of decisions and develop their own voices. She acknowledged the difficulty of encouraging initiative in a traditionally deferential culture, but saw the value in allowing team members to try, fail, and learn. Mistakes were treated as shared learning opportunities, framed as "we" moments to avoid fear or blame. This approach fostered trust and motivated individuals to gradually speak up and contribute more actively. Yvette also emphasized the importance of translating the company's global vision into locally meaningful action. Rather than treating values and mission as distant mandates, she sought to connect them to tangible customer experiences. Post-project debriefs became teaching moments where the team could reflect on how their values shaped outcomes. This made abstract ideals like trust and service more relatable and alive in the day-to-day. Understanding that Japanese business culture places clients at the top of the hierarchy, often at the expense of innovation or efficiency, Yvette introduced the idea of partnership. Though she knew this was a radical shift from the servant mindset, she saw the necessity of guiding both clients and teams toward more collaborative, value-driven relationships. Ultimately, Yvette's leadership is defined not by asserting control, but by creating a culture where people feel safe to contribute, grow, and lead in their own right. Her presence as a non-Japanese, non-Caucasian woman helped her defy assumptions and craft a leadership identity that fits neither a local mould nor a global cliché—but one tailored to the team she is building.

"You have to crystallize the objective—what the goal is, and how we can get there." "I treat differences as differences—not as superior or inferior." "If people are good at what they do, all I need to do is be a facilitator." "Eighty percent of stress comes from dealing with people—it's not the work itself." Previously Eiichiro was CEO of Nippon Building fund Management, General Manager Mitsui Fudosan, Managing Director Mitsui Fudosan UK, Senior Vice President Mitsui Fudosan America. He has an MBA from Georgetown University and BA Law from Keio University Eiichiro's leadership philosophy is defined by adaptability, humility, and a deep understanding of cultural nuance. Throughout his career, spanning continents and economic cycles, he has consistently demonstrated the importance of aligning leadership style to context—geographic, organizational, and economic. He stresses the value of "localizing" behaviour, aiming to reflect the values and communication styles of the region he's operating in, whether in the U.S., UK, or Japan. This sensitivity to environment extends to his leadership approach: servant leadership in stable times, more directive and hands-on leadership in crisis situations. Central to Eiichiro's leadership is clarity. He believes in crystallizing objectives from the outset, ensuring teams understand not just what needs to be done but also why. He places high value on communication as a leadership tool—listening deeply, questioning frequently, and offering feedback rooted in curiosity rather than criticism. He encourages people to articulate their reasoning, to analyze success and failure alike, and to explore their own strengths and weaknesses with honesty. Trust, in Eiichiro's view, is both foundational and cultural. Especially in Japan, where long-term relationships and stable organizations are prized, he sees trust as a primary business currency. He builds this by being consistent, approachable, and transparent. Though comfortable revealing his own limitations, he also holds firm expectations—ensuring people understand that business results matter and roles must align with capabilities. One of Eiichiro's core insights is the acceptance of difference—not as something to be overcome, but simply as something to be understood. He doesn't view cultural, generational, or stylistic differences through a lens of better or worse, but as variations to be worked with. This mindset shapes his approach to international leadership and organizational change, particularly in reconciling the rapid expectations of global HQs with the slower, risk-averse pace typical of Japanese business. His leadership also emphasizes respect for individuality. Rather than try to make everyone well-rounded, he focuses on identifying and maximizing individual strengths, recognizing that not everyone will excel at everything. He cautions against overinvesting time in underperformance, instead favoring alignment between talent and role. This strategic use of human capital underpins his belief in empowerment—leaders should be facilitators when possible, creating space for others to thrive. Despite a deep track record, Eiichiro remains grounded and forward-thinking. He knows his tenure is finite and believes strongly in succession planning. Leadership for him is not about personal prestige but about stewarding an organization toward collective goals. He is driven by impact rather than ego, and views stepping aside when the time is right as part of responsible leadership. In all, Eiichiro's style is defined by cultural intelligence, a coaching mindset, and a results-oriented pragmatism wrapped in emotional intelligence.

· You've got to create the right environment so people can be successful and want to stay." · "In Japan, trust takes longer to earn—but once you have it, it doesn't disappear." · "You can't just come in and declare the solution—you've got to sit back and observe first." · "I don't want to tell people what to do; I want them to lead and ask for advice." · "Sometimes the informal conversations in Japan are more valuable than the formal meetings." Previously Duncan was Senior Vice-President Corporate Real Estate Citi; Head of Project Management, Arup. He has a B.A. in Structural Engineering from the University of Strathclyde Duncan approaches leadership with a steady, reflective, and culturally adaptive mindset. At the core of his philosophy is a deep appreciation for building trust and engaging teams through consistency, inclusivity, and authentic communication. His leadership journey began through project management, which served as a pivotal learning ground—teaching him to balance technical expertise with people management and cross-functional collaboration. This foundation shaped his belief that leadership is not about commanding from above but creating the right environment for others to succeed. In Japan, Duncan learned that engagement stems less from directive behaviour and more from consistent demonstration of reliability, involvement, and fairness. He believes that showing up, being dependable, and participating alongside his team builds the relational credibility necessary for true collaboration. He avoids micromanagement, preferring to empower team members to lead in their roles while remaining present as a support and protector, particularly in situations where hierarchy or external pressures threaten team cohesion. Cultural sensitivity is central to Duncan's leadership in Japan. He emphasizes the importance of understanding not only the language but also the deeper cultural signals—reading between the lines, noticing tone, body language, and the significance of what is left unsaid. This awareness allows him to foster trust and unlock informal communication channels, which in Japan often yield more insight than formal meetings. He views language less as a daily tool at senior levels and more as a symbolic bridge to understanding the nuances of how people think and behave. Inclusion is another hallmark of Duncan's leadership. He actively ensures that all voices are heard, especially those who might otherwise be overshadowed in meetings—often the case with Japanese team members in global settings. He believes in creating a safe space for contributions and reinforces positive input to boost confidence. His approach includes coaching individuals to participate more and highlighting team achievements broadly, helping to build individual credibility and shared pride. Duncan is also conscious of shaping culture at the micro-level. Within the broader framework of corporate and national cultures, he instils his own values—promoting enjoyment in work, fostering diverse personalities within teams, and clarifying how every role contributes to the bigger picture. He believes that trust in Japan takes longer to earn but is more enduring once established. For this reason, he prioritizes transparency, protects his team from undue pressure, and defends their interests when necessary, whether internally or with clients. Ultimately, Duncan sees leadership as the act of creating environments where people can perform at their best, develop personally, and stay committed to the organization. His approach is adaptive, people-cantered, and anchored in a deep understanding of cultural context. Rather than imposing change quickly, he advocates for observation, thoughtful action, and gradual evolution—especially in environments like Japan, where time and process are deeply respected. In his view, effective leadership is less about control and more about guidance, protection, and amplifying the contributions of others.

"Trust, for me, is the ability to predict someone's behaviour—consistency builds that predictability." "Excellence isn't the outcome—it's the rigour of the process, even when the result is uncertain." "You can't sell yourself forever; you have to build trust in the company, not just the founder." "Being vulnerable as a leader unlocks trust—it gives others permission to be real too." "Culture is just norms and heuristics—you shape it by consistently rewarding the right behaviours." Previously Guillaume was the Founder and Managing Director of Wizcorp; Web Development Consultant Helmut; System Engineer, Consultant Lapyx System. He has a Master of Science in Computer Science from Francois Rabelais University Guillaume approaches leadership as a dynamic journey shaped by intuition, experimentation, and personal growth. His early experience of founding a startup in Japan, with no funding and little knowledge of business basics, forged a deep resilience and humility. Over time, he transitioned from instinct-driven decisions to more intentional leadership, grounded in reflection and learning. He discovered that leadership at different company sizes requires entirely different approaches—whereas in a small team the leader is the culture, in larger organisations it's about embedding values and structures that scale. At the heart of his leadership philosophy is trust, which he defines as the ability to predict behaviour. He believes consistency—especially in mood and decisions—fosters trust. Vulnerability plays a critical role too. Initially reluctant to show weakness, he gradually realized that openly admitting what he didn't know allowed his team to connect more deeply with him, and gave them permission to do the same. This emotional openness, he observed, significantly strengthens engagement and authenticity. Guillaume emphasizes the importance of separating the self from the business. Early in his career, he equated client service with personal commitment, sometimes undermining internal cohesion. He later recognized the need to build institutional trust in the company, not just in himself. This meant creating repeatable processes, articulating core values, and ensuring every team member could represent the company with consistency and integrity. He also champions a culture of structured creativity, particularly in high-risk industries like gaming. He views "fun" as an emergent property that can't be predicted or engineered, but must be tested rigorously. Prototypes, constraints, and deliberate iteration are key to fostering innovation while managing risk. Organizational learning, in his view, should focus less on replicating past outcomes and more on documenting and improving the decision-making process. Leading in Japan, Guillaume sees language and cultural fluency not as optional, but essential for trust and influence. He stresses the need to deeply understand local norms and communicate in ways that resonate. For multicultural teams, he believes the leader's job is to define shared behavioural expectations clearly, without relying on implicit cultural assumptions. Ultimately, Guillaume sees leadership as a journey of self-awareness, consistent example, intentional culture-shaping, and the courage to learn publicly.

Previously Terii was Talent and Change-Asia Pacific head for British American Tabacco; Executive Officer and Vice-President, Business Engagement Leader-Special Projects, MetLife; Talent Partner APAC-Director UBS; Senior Consultant, Human Partners/Citadel Consulting; Organization Development Executive British American Tabacco Japan. He has a BA from Macalester College and an MBA from McGill University. · "You can't change Japan, so you're the one that's going to need to change." · "If you say something, you've got to follow through with it—that's how you build trust." · "I believe in uplifting the team more than the team executing my directives." · "Patience doesn't mean doing nothing; it means putting in the time to build understanding." · "Feedback means you care—if you stop giving feedback, you've stopped caring about their development." Terii approaches leadership in Japan through the lens of authenticity, patience, and servant leadership. His cross-cultural background and career in multiple industries provide him with a nuanced view of leadership dynamics, but it is his ability to adapt to the Japanese context that defines his success. In Japan, he recognises that building rapport and trust takes significantly longer than in other markets like Singapore or Hong Kong. This delay, however, is not a barrier but a gateway—he invests heavily in relationships and sees trust as something earned through consistent action and personal engagement. He stresses the importance of understanding before implementing change. Entering a new industry, Terii refrained from immediate restructuring. Instead, he observed, listened, and built relationships with stakeholders at every level. By not coming in as the outsider intent on overhauling everything, he earned credibility and buy-in. He believes in creating a culture where feedback is delivered constructively and mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities, not grounds for punishment. Trust, for him, is built on follow-through, consistency, and psychological safety. He makes an intentional effort to have his team's back, especially when things go wrong, and avoids public reprimands. Emotional control and a steady demeanour are key to maintaining trust—he's acutely aware that employees are constantly reading their leader's signals. Terii has driven Hilton's cultural transformation in Japan by focusing on both hygiene factors, such as leave policies and compensation, and emotional engagement through peer recognition and celebration of human milestones. Under his leadership, Hilton Japan rose from being unranked to third best place to work in the country and number one in hospitality. He values grassroots input, launching Gemba-level focus groups to surface insights from the frontline. For new leaders in Japan, his advice is clear: be patient, don't expect to change the country—change yourself. Invest time in relationships, identify internal influencers, and adapt communication for clarity and resonance. Above all, leadership for Terii is about dreaming big, inspiring others, and making things happen—with humility, empathy, and persistence.

"If you're going to lead a team in Japan, trust is the number one thing you have to build." "I didn't want it to be too top-down—I wanted everyone to feel part of one unit." "Celebrate success, but do it as a team—that's how you motivate in Japan." "Innovation needs a safe environment where people feel they won't be punished for trying." "Foreign leaders must become the voice of Japan inside headquarters—that's how you build real credibility." Previously Marc was Vice President of Business Development (Asia) for Fleury Michon; General Manager and President of Hitachi High Tech AW Cyro Inc; Manager, Strategic Planning Division Hitachi High Tech AW Cyro Inc; Account Manager Hitachi High Technologies America; Account Manager & Strategic Business Development Sumitomo Corporation of Americas; International Trade Specialist Nestle. He has a BA from McGill University and an MBA from HEC Montreal Marc emphasises that successful leadership in Japan hinges on trust, cultural fluency, and consistent demonstration of commitment. Early in his career, he observed stark contrasts in leadership style when working with Japanese managers in Canada versus in Japan. These experiences shaped his hybrid leadership approach—combining Western transparency and inclusivity with Japanese respect for hierarchy and consensus. His leadership style aims to build team unity through communication, mutual respect, and involvement in shared goals. When leading multicultural teams, Marc prioritises creating a safe environment for open communication, especially in cultures where speaking out is rare. He actively encourages idea generation by ensuring team members feel heard and respected. His approach balances recognising individual contributions with collective achievements to align with Japan's group-oriented mindset. He acknowledges that overly individual praise can provoke discomfort among Japanese team members and thus tailors recognition to suit cultural sensitivities. Marc also underlines the importance of learning the local language—not just to improve communication, but to demonstrate respect and effort in understanding the culture. His fluency in Japanese helps him earn credibility with both clients and employees, allowing him to lead from the front by accompanying team members to meetings and engaging directly with customers. Throughout his career, Marc has navigated challenging situations such as building a new office, managing across time zones, and driving innovation within traditional corporate structures. He sees innovation not just as a technical pursuit, but as a process that relies on team engagement, empowerment, and a tolerance for risk and failure. He believes celebrating both success and the lessons of failure sustains a healthy innovation culture. Marc also highlights the strategic role leaders play in bridging headquarters and local operations. In Japan, credibility often stems not from one's title, but from the ability to get things done for the local team. Building trust with both headquarters and local staff is crucial for success, particularly in a country where institutional memory is long and relationship-based business prevails. Ultimately, Marc's leadership philosophy is grounded in empathy, humility, cultural sensitivity, and long-term thinking. He leads by example, listens deeply, and invests in relationships—not just to drive business, but to sustain trust over the long haul in the Japanese market.

"Leadership is building a strong team that can execute with resilience and deliver consistent results over time." "There's no easy way—other than talking to people—to truly know what's happening in your organization." "You need a balance of patience and impatience to create belief and drive change in Japan." "If you say the customer comes first, then the customer has to come first—every day of the week." "Engagement isn't just passion—it's also connection and commitment, and each needs different actions." Kohei graduated from Princeton University in 2011 with a major in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a minor in Global Health. Following his graduation, he joined Bain & Company in Tokyo, where he worked as a management consultant from 2011 to 2015. In 2015, Kohei became one of the founding members of AB InBev Japan as the company transitioned from a distributor-based model to direct market operations. He initially joined as a Brand Manager and quickly rose through the ranks. From 2016 to 2018, he served as Head of Marketing and Trade Marketing. He then spent two years (2018–2020) in China with AB InBev, leading premium brand trade marketing efforts. Returning to Japan in 2020, he took on the role of Head of ZEDx Ventures, focusing on the company's growth portfolio and e-commerce. In 2021, he became Commercial Director, managing nationwide sales and trade marketing teams. He was appointed Country Director in 2022, and now leads a team of approximately 70 employees. Kohei's leadership philosophy is rooted in purpose-driven engagement, cultural adaptability, and a structured yet human-centered approach to management. He began his leadership journey at AB InBev Japan by helping to build the organization from the ground up. Early on, he transitioned from being an individual contributor to a team leader, gradually scaling his responsibilities from three direct reports to overseeing a seventy-person organization. This evolution shaped his views on how leadership needs to shift as organizations grow—not only managing direct reports but also leading through multiple layers and ensuring alignment across the entire structure. Kohei sees leadership as a blend of strategic clarity, consistent communication, and empowering people at every level. He stresses the importance of face-to-face engagement and building trust through transparency, especially in a Japanese context where emotional connection, loyalty, and social harmony are essential. His approach involves structured frameworks around engagement—specifically passion, connection, and commitment—as pillars for organizational culture. These concepts are not just theoretical; they guide concrete actions like offsite gatherings, collaborative planning sessions, and cross-functional problem-solving to address pain points and reduce friction. One of his most effective strategies has been establishing open channels for innovation through initiatives like a "Shark Tank" pitch format, where employees present business ideas. He emphasizes that listening isn't enough—leaders must also provide feedback on why certain ideas are or are not adopted to maintain trust and morale. Cultural alignment is another key focus. Hiring for fit and reinforcing cultural values through regular feedback cycles is central to sustaining the company's ethos. Kohei believes in cultivating resilience within teams by encouraging calculated risk-taking, building from small wins, and gradually reinforcing a growth mindset. He also balances global and local expectations, often acting as a bridge between AB InBev's global vision and Japan's unique market realities. For him, effective leadership in Japan requires balancing patience with ambition—acknowledging that while change takes time, a leader must still push toward transformation. His ability to navigate these nuances—combined with personal routines like regular exercise and mindfulness—supports both his own resilience and that of the organization.

Previously Akiko was a Commentator for Fuji TV; Co-Founder of Women In Action; Partner, Strategy &; Division Head at Japan Post; Vice-President Calyon Securities; Associate McKinsey & Company; Vice-President and Associate, General Counsel J.P. Morgan. She graduated with a JD in Law from Tokyo University and has a Master Of Law from Columbia Law School "Culture is an accumulation of behaviors—what you say and do becomes the culture." "If the ownership is there, it's really easy to engage with them." "Listen more than you speak—especially in Japan, silence often hides valuable insight." "You can't have a single leadership approach—it's person by person." "Deliver, manage expectations, and be transparent—that's how you build trust." Akiko's leadership approach is deeply rooted in clarity of direction, respect for individuality, and adaptive engagement. Her philosophy is shaped by diverse experiences in legal, consulting, and advisory roles, and it centres on fostering ownership within her teams. She emphasizes the importance of building a shared vision and selecting people whose strengths and motivations align with that direction. For her, engagement begins with recruiting the right individuals and then shaping an environment that supports their ownership of outcomes. Whether inheriting a team or building one from scratch, she focuses on identifying key issues, defining areas of impact, and matching people to those missions. She acknowledges that leadership today demands flexibility, as people differ in how they want to be led—some thrive with autonomy while others need close collaboration. Her leadership style is not one-size-fits-all; instead, it's adaptive and rooted in an appreciation of diversity—not only in personality but in professional backgrounds. Akiko credits the richness of ideas within her organization to this diversity, noting that innovation emerges from intentional dialogue across disciplines. However, she is clear that shared goals are the foundation for extracting those ideas meaningfully. Without common purpose, even diverse teams can become fragmented. Trust-building, in her view, requires consistent delivery, expectation management, and transparency. She strives to keep her promises, communicates constraints openly, and balances optimism with realism. She views culture as the accumulation of behaviour, underscoring the importance of consistent actions and clear communication in shaping a cohesive and connected team identity. Akiko also makes intentional efforts to keep her Japan-based office plugged into the global organization by fostering English-language meetings and inter-office collaboration. She believes that inclusion means not only being open to new ideas but actively drawing them out, especially in Japan where silence is often misread by Western leaders. Her advice for foreign leaders in Japan centres on listening more than speaking, respecting the local communication style, and recognizing that lack of feedback doesn't imply satisfaction. For aspiring female leaders, her message is one of encouragement—step forward, trust those who support you, and don't be deterred by fear. Her leadership is marked by resilience, clarity, and a deep commitment to enabling others to lead and succeed in their own right. Master the Art of Persuasion In today's business world, persuasion is essential. Yet most professionals lack this critical skill, watching their ideas go nowhere. What if you could command attention and have your recommendations consistently adopted? This game-changing ability isn't just for "natural communicators"—it's a skill you can master. There is a perfect solution for you- to LEARN MORE click here (https://bit.ly/3VhvR2B) To get your free guide "How To Stop Wasting Money On Training" click here ( https://bit.ly/4agbvLj ) To get your free "Goal Setting Blueprint 2.0" click here (https://bit.ly/43o5FVK) If you enjoy our content, then head over to www.dale-carnegie.co.jp and check out our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules and our whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. About The Author Dr. Greg Story, President Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training Contact me at [email protected] Bestselling author of "Japan Sales Mastery" (the Japanese translation is "The Eigyo" (The営業), "Japan Business Mastery" and "Japan Presentations Mastery". He has also written "How To Stop Wasting Money On Training" and the translation "Toreningu De Okane Wo Muda Ni Suru No Wa Yamemashoo" (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのは止めましょう) and his brand new book is "Japan Leadership Mastery". Dr. Greg Story is an international keynote speaker, an executive coach, and a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. He leads the Dale Carnegie Franchise in Tokyo which traces its roots straight back to the very establishment of Dale Carnegie in Japan in 1963 by Mr. Frank Mochizuki. He publishes daily blog