It was such an honour to work with E-track students in TIU as a career coach for more than 5 years.  Through this I was able to do 1on1 with more than 600 students from 30 countries.

My intention was to evoke their leadership by offering 1on1 coaching and workshops; however I learnt many from them such as diverse culture & religion, Gen z, how Japan look from their point of view, and also deep democracy in Japan.

What came to light through my involvement was the current situation in Japan, where the birthrate is declining and companies are unable to respond to the need for foreign workers.

I have seen many students who graduated from excellent high schools in their home countries and came to Japan with the image of the “advanced Japan” of their parents’ and grandparents’ generation, and many of them struggled with the reality.

Of course it is not that easy, but I cannot just say it is because of the lack of student’s effort.   It’s the system of Japan that is supporting its difficulty.

Miscommunication through far-fetched expressions,

The existence of unspoken common sense,

The difficulty of using Japanese (keigo),

The Japanese corporate culture is very domestic and discriminatory inside, no matter how global the company claims to be,

A corporate culture that tries to preserve diversity through equality, not equity….

I often felt sorry, resentful, and helpless, and it was an opportunity for me to think about what I could do to.

I cried with them, laughed with them, and sometimes confronted them with direct things, but thankfully, some of them have kept in touch with me after graduation.

Yesterday was the last class.
It was Eid, the festival day after Ramadan. Muslim students came to class dressed.

I will continue to be involved on a spot basis in the future, but first we would like to thank you for this opportunity as a break.

To all the students involved, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Let’s meet again!

Countries of those involved
USA, UK, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Korea, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden, Sri Lanka, Spain, Thailand, Taiwan, China, Germany, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines, France, Vietnam, Belgium, Myanmar, Mongolia, Romania, Russia, Japan