We are joined by the Director of People Business Partnering in today's episode: Mitsuko Okamura. Mitsuko has a long career as a bilingual and bicultural professional working in sales, talent acquisition, and HR. She shares with us her experiences growing up in rural Japan, studying and living abroad in Canada, and working in Global Multinational companies. This episode is packed full of interesting cross-cultural anecdotes from Mitsuko's point of view, and she is the first guest on our show who is Japanese, adding a different lens than usual to which we view cross-cultural awareness in Japan ..read more

In this interview we speak with Patrick (Paddy) Jordan, VP of HR for The Coca Cola Company in Japan and Korea.  Having lived and worked in Japan for nearly the last 3 years, and the majority of it during the Covid-19 pandemic, Paddy shares with us some of his deepest learnings. Being brought over to Japan to look at cultural transformation, while simultaneously having to learn a whole new set of cultural norms himself, was no easy task for Paddy!  We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to sit down with Paddy and have him open up to us about some of his biggest frustrations, c ..read more

In this interview we speak with Tomas Jaukovic, General Manager of Imperial Brands Japan on his journey in Japan over the last several years and the importance of cross cultural competency when running and leading an organization in Japan. In this interview we explore the many challenges, triumphs, and comical anecdotes of Tomas' experience in Japan as a leader of a large multi-national company here in Tokyo. Through the lens of cross cultural awareness, we explore the importance of having the right mentorship to truly immerse oneself in Japan's culture and reap the most rewards out of being g ..read more