Paul Mclnerney

- Incubate Fund General Partner

Paul McInerny joined Recruit Co. in 1997, where he was responsible for the development of digital business and venture investments in online companies. While working at Recruit, he took part in the making of Medioport (an online golf reservation service) and sold the service to Rakuten in 2002. In 2002, he moved from Recruit Co. to McKinsey, where he was promoted to partner in 2007 and senior partner in 2014. There, he served as the head of Asia Pacific Marketing & Sales Group, the head of the Asia Pacific Analytics Group, a managing partner of QuantumBlack Japan, and the head of the Asia Pacific Consumer Goods & Small Business Group. At McKinsey, he has worked with clients in the retail, consumer products, media, telecommunications, finance, and pharmaceutical industries. Through his position, he supported strategy and business startups in growth strategy in the areas of digital and AI, branding, marketing, and M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions). In March 2021, he was appointed as a Representative Partner of the Incubate Fund. 

Hitomi Fujitani

- Amazon Web Services Japan Employees Engagement & Internal Communications

Hitomi Fujitani joined Amazon Web Services Japan K.K. (AWS) in February 2020 as the Inclusion, Diversity & Equity Leader from August 2021. Before joining AWS and after graduating from the Faculty of Commerce at Waseda University, she spent 10 years in the private equity industry as an office manager in the UK. She then spent 12 years in the human resources department in the US at an American Investment Bank, a global financial institution, where she worked as a diversity officer, addressing diversity issues in the workplace, including gender diversity, disability (PwD), LGBTQ+, and generation gap. She has also worked as a campus recruiter, where she recruited a diverse group of MBA graduates from domestic and international schools.

Naomi Yamakawa

- Google Japan, Director of YouTube Marketing

After pursuing a degree in Political Science in the Faculty of Law, Keio University, Naomi worked at McKinsey & Company in the Tokyo office, then joined Oisix Corporation in 2001 as an early member of the team and served as the Production Team Manager and B2B Business Manager until 2005. Returning to McKinsey & Company in November 2005, Yamakawa focused on B2C marketing, working in industries such as consumer goods, retail, automotive and high-tech. In 2019, she worked as a partner and provided client support. During her tenure in the company, she has been a leader in diversity, including gender and LGBTQIA+, both internally and externally. Since November 2021, she has been in her current position, leading YouTube marketing activities for Google Japan. 

Moderator- Hiromi Karahashi

-JPort by SPeak corporation Founder and CEO

Hiromi Karahashi is the founder and CEO of SPeak Corp. In April 2019, he founded SPeak Corp. to pursue his long-time dream of "using technology to make people and companies around the world borderless" and began developing and operating JPort, an online diversity recruitment platform. As a student, he spent his high school and college years on the East Coast of the United States. He graduated from the City University of New York with a Bachelor of Science in Forensic Psychology. After spending 8 years in New York City and Vermont,  he worked for various size of companies, and realized the potential of young global students and companies in Japan, in light of the obstacles and current situation of both companies and students during his life.  He holds an MBA from Keio University Graduate School of Business Administration. He is an internationally married father of three children.

Naomi: I attended elementary school in New York City incidental to my parents' relocation. After returning to Japan, I attended Japanese public schools from 6th grade through high school. My employment experience ranged from a global environment to a start-up, where I was immersed in Japanese business practices. I spent my formative period abroad that ultimately shaped my mixed personality, even after returning to Japan and immersing myself in Japanese culture.

As for women's D&I, I wasn't aware of it before. I used to have the attitude that "gender doesn't matter in a job, only the skills and capability do." However, after taking on leadership roles, I noticed the barriers and obstacles that women encounter in the workplace more often. From there, I became aware of the importance of leaders taking the initiative to speak out about women's equality, to make the barriers and unconscious biases that are sometimes invisible to men, and embody the changes they want to make.

Hitomi: Contrary to Naomi's experience, I grew up in a conservative household in Hiroshima. Although I am very grateful to my parents for providing me with a good education, I gradually began to feel the glass ceiling–limitations–posed by society as a woman. For example, I was often told, "You are brilliant, but you are a girl. You will end up being a housekeeping wife". 

When I came to Tokyo to attend university, it was eye-opening to discover that this social barrier was rooted in the larger social structure. If women are not actively encouraged to pursue higher education opportunities just because they are women, there will inevitably be fewer women who will pursue a global career.

Even after I started working in the Human Resources department of an American Investment Bank, I noticed these social barriers. This was when I was in charge of recruiting people with disabilities. While data shows that about 7% of the total population has a disability, I realized that I did not know a single acquaintance with a disability since I was a child. When I wondered the reason behind this, I realized that from elementary school onwards, disabled and non-disabled people were separated and educated separately. Consequently, this separation affected people's perceptions and understanding of disability. Through these experiences, I came to see D&I as my life mission.

Paul: Although I am from Australia–which is known for its ethnic and racial diversity–I attended a traditional boys' school until grade 12. However, when I went to Mie Prefecture in 1990 as an exchange student, I experienced being a minority for the first time. There were only 15 to20 foreigners in the entire city and I was the only one at school. Later, when I was a student at Osaka University of Foreign Studies, I lived in a dormitory of 90 students where there was a rule of no more than 2 people moving in from the same country. There, I experienced the true melting pot of diversity. 

At Recruit Co., where I worked after graduation, there were only 13 non-Japanese nationals among the approximately 5,000 employees, and 12 of them were from the American football team. After that, it was typical for the entire team to be from different countries in the consulting industry. In this way, I feel that we have always moved back and forth between the two extremes of diversity.

Paul: In the venture capital (VC) industry, D&I is a global issue. In the US, the percentage of female general partners is about 11%, which is lower than in other industries. In Japan, the proportion of female general partners in the VC industry is about 3%. The problem here is the unconscious bias of investors: investors tend to invest in businesses that have something in common with their own success model. To illustrate, they tend to invest in companies with similar characteristics and workforce, resulting in a cycle of low racial diversity and underrepresentation of women in the businesses they invest in. The number of female partners in the strategy consulting industry is 20-25%, which is slightly better but still a long way to go. In the Japanese VC industry, the emergence of MPower led by Kathy Matsui-san and others is a hot topic right now.

Naomi: In the management consulting industry, there has been tremendous progress in the last decade in terms of the percentage of women, but the goal is still far from reach. With mentioning that, the higher the position, the lower the percentage of women. 

Although the ratio of men to women has become more balanced now at the new employee level, as they progress through their careers, more and more women are leaving the workforce due to lifestyle changes, such as becoming housewives or changing to a different industry after a maternity or childcare leave. On the other hand, diversity in terms of nationality has temporarily declined due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which prevented some people from entering the country. However, it is normal for the management consulting industry to have a multinational force.

 In terms of LGBTQ+, the challenges are not industry-level but societal. According to data, the percentage of LGBTQ+ people in Japan is said to be between 8-12%. However, the percentage of those who are coming out is relatively little.

In summary, D&I is a challenge not only for industries but for society as a whole. But there are many benefits for a company when D&I is successfully implemented.  While the spread of D&I is progressing, it is still a long way to go.

Hitomi: The technology industry is relatively new, so the workplace at AWS is more diverse. However, the majority of science majors at universities are male. That is why AWS is reaching out to high school students. While many high school girls go into the liberal arts and humanities without any ambitions, we gently tap them on the shoulder in high school before they make up their minds and encourage them to look into science, which offers global education and career opportunities. One such initiative is a webinar held in collaboration between AWS and other leading IT firms. We want to encourage high school girls to think more purposefully of their future careers paths. I also believe that ‘global talent versus local talent’ is another major issue in Japanese society. At AWS, we have offices all over the globe, so we have numerous opportunities to communicate with colleagues overseas. But some employees may not take full advantage of these opportunities due to language and psychological barriers. I believe that it is important for Japanese society to develop and cultivate people to become global talents rather than local human resources: to think broadly and work from a global perspective, using English as a communication tool rather than just as a skill.

Paul: Nowadays, foreign consulting firms are strongly recognized to be global, but in fact, in the past, they used to be reluctant to accept young consultants from overseas. We used to be reluctant to accept consultants from overseas because the general consensus was that it would be difficult to speak to clients in English or to discuss business negotiations and issues through an interpreter. However, at one point, there was a time when we had to accept consultants from overseas due to dramatic growth. To my surprise, the clients were very positive about it. They found the input of the overseas employees stimulating. As Hitomi-san said earlier, language is a communication tool, and I realized that expertise is more important than language abilities.

Paul: It is simple: companies with a high level of diversity perform better in business. Data shows that companies with more female employees perform 15-25% better, and companies with more diverse nationalities perform 35% better.

Naomi: That is right, no matter what data and segment you take and analyze, you will always get this result. It is so consistent that you wonder if you need to analyze it. There is rarely a single group of ethnicity or nationality in an organization. By having a variety of people in an organization, you have a diversity of opinions and perspectives that can provide a non-biased view for decision-making. With mentioning that, the trend in recent years has been for young, talented people to choose companies based on D&I.

Hitomi: At AWS, D&I is not a nice-to-have; it is a business strategy. In other words, to meet the diverse needs of our clients, it is essential that we ourselves have a broad range of perspectives. As Naomi-san mentioned, D&I has become a crucial indicator for young talents when choosing a company.

Hitomi: To achieve this, it is important to change perceptions, even at the senior management level. When I was in charge of new graduate recruitment at my previous job, I was at a company information session attended by around 70 university students, and asked the students the following question: "Do you know anyone around you who is LGBTQ+?" 

To my surprise, over 70% of the participants raised their hands. That was enough data for the company's top management to change their perception of LGBTQ+. I have heard that there were many recruiters and HR participating in this D&I webinar. I recommend that senior managers understand that Generation Z is very open and highly aware of D&I.

Naomi: That is an important point. As a business person, you do not want to ignore 10% of the population and you do not want to miss a huge potential in the market.

Naomi: Of course, it is crucial to expand diversity, but in recent years, I think inclusion has become more of a significant issue. No matter how many diverse people you bring in, the benefit of having diversity will be minimal if you do not instill a sense of inclusion within the company. For example, even if D&I is positioned as a vital factor of the company when sending out a newsletter or a lecture on D&I as a critical business topic with no ill intent, the writer of the newsletter and the speaker invited may all be Japanese men due to unconscious bias. To avoid this, we need to make inclusion visible by creating transparency among diverse human resources to internal and external audiences, such as through lectures and newsletters. The more we can get the message out that inclusion is the norm in the company, the more effective D&I will be.

Hitomi: At AWS, we have regular employee meetings, and if the speakers are all Japanese males, or if there is a lack of diversity, we immediately receive complaints from employees. The employees are highly sensitive to diversity. In addition, it is easy to focus on ‘outcome goals’ when promoting D&I. An outcome goal is a numerical target with a deadline, such as increasing the number of female managers to a certain percentage by a specific date. However, what is important is the ‘action goals’, – what you will continue to do from today to achieve the ‘result goals’. You need to be cautious when setting your D&I KPIs, as too much focus on ‘result targets’ can sometimes lead to affirmative actions or send the wrong message to your employees. 

As Naomi-san mentioned, visualizing diversity is vital because it is the very embodiment of our behavioral–input–goals. Therefore, I believe that if we consistently show our D&I philosophy in our activities, initiatives, speaking engagements, and other external opportunities within the organization, We will be able to change the employees’ behaviors and awareness.

Paul: This is a complex issue, and it requires serious efforts on many levels for a better result. A study called "42 different things you can do to close the gender gap." I once applied this to a Japanese workplace and analyzed which measures would be the most effective. At first, I could not find any causal relationship or connection. However, I did find a link: companies that adopted various measures in a multi-layered manner achieved better results. In other words, there is no single key to the solution, but rather it is crucial to work from top to bottom and vice versa, from every corner of the organization. This ranges from recruitment, onboarding, to training.

There is a report by the World Economic Forum on D&I policies in the workplace. The report revealed that in the ‘hard’ areas such as systems, workplace policies, and maternity/paternity leave programs, Japanese companies scored 80-90%, which is not bad by global standards. However, in the ‘soft’ skills areas, such as training on unconscious bias and training for female managers, the score was 10-20%, which is low compared to the rest of the world. It is in these ‘soft’ skill areas where Japanese companies are lacking and where improvement is expected in the future.

Naomi: A common mindset of companies is: “Our company achieved the output goals as we promote the advancement of women and LGBTQ+. There is no need to work on the soft areas (i.e., training.). However, an unconscious bias persists not only in the ones working on D&I but also in the diverse people themselves. Unconscious bias is indeed unconscious and unrealized, and there are more gaps than we might think. To bridge these gaps, working on the ‘soft’ side is an essential first step for D&I to become more socially acceptable.

Paul: The benefits discussed previously apply to start-ups as well, but one thing that is unique to start-ups is the importance of developing overseas markets at an early stage. Since Japan has a large market, there are startups with a business model that are limited to the domestic market, but there has been an increase in the number of start-ups that are aiming to expand their business overseas. One of the values of D&I for startups is that it allows them to prepare for overseas expansion early on. Mercari is a good example; they brought in an American member from an early stage into the management team. Diversity brings multi-faceted solutions to complex problems. Start-ups are all about solving a wide variety of issues, so the benefits of diversity are huge.

On the other hand, the issue of lacking diversity among role models and mentors is often pointed out in the venture capital industry. As a minority, it is difficult to find senior people with similar backgrounds to ask for guidance. However, with the spread of online communication such as Zoom particularly since last year, it has become more common to ask for guidance beyond national borders.

Paul: In my experience, companies that have successfully implemented D&I in a multinational, multicultural, and multilingual environment have ethos and manners that permeate the individual level of consciousness. One example is the way in which language is chosen in meetings. If there are foreign members in the meeting who do not speak Japanese well, it is necessary to switch languages. It is a matter of being aware of these things on a personal level and being able to take action on them daily. On a practical note, if you have experienced a language barrier, it is important to remember the feeling of being excluded from a conversation.

Another thing the company can do is utilize online platforms to remove the language barrier. Listening and speaking require real-time responses, and if you are not familiar with English, you may be left behind. On the other hand, even casual conversations using communication tools such as Slack can be transcribed, easing the linguistic difficulties. During the pandemic, these DX communication tools have been beneficial in bridging the linguistic gap. It is essential to embrace diversity to create the right environment and maximize people's potential.

Hitomi: I would recommend campus recruiters to use one integrated recruitment process for all students instead of separating domestic and international students in your graduate recruitment activities. In my previous job, we tried to have one hiring process for all students in my past career, regardless of race or nationality. Although we had two selection timings based on graduation dates of domestic and international universities, we did not differentiate between students based on language or nationality. By having a single recruitment process, we can avoid bias in the recruitment process, thus, attract a diverse workforce.

Naomi: The problem is that the groups are structured and biased. If you are a Japanese or global company that does business overseas, you are most likely doing something to accommodate diversity. One of the best ways to do this, I have found in my experience, is to call it out in a casual manner. I say this because when I participated in a project in Belgium, I encountered a situation where everyone was speaking in French except for me. I suddenly found myself where everyone but I was speaking in French; in casual conversations or joking around, and I felt like I was the only one left out. This experience has made me more conscious to make sure that no one is unconsciously left out or leaving someone out of the conversation when people on the team speak different languages. If they unintentionally switch to Japanese, do not make a big deal out of it; simply call their attention to it in a casual but professional tone.

Paul: I used to be in the same position as the university students in the audience, here today, in 1997. There were about 80 members of the government-sponsored international students. In the job-hunting that followed, I resulted in working for Recruit. Co, and there were three things that I paid attention to. I was careful about three things: which companies needed me, whether or not there were psychological barriers to D&I, and not to underestimate my value. If you do not consider these three points, you will end up trying to fit yourself into the company's side of the equation, which will lower your value.

There is a phrase I cherish which I learned when I first entered the consulting world. My mentor told me to be a good consultant, "you have to be interested in the people around you. And you have to be an interesting person yourself". As a global talent, when you walk into a room full of Japanese people, they will be interested in you, and from there, you can make a connection. If you are from outside of your country, that alone will make people interested in you. On top of that, if you have skills, that is another factor that will make others interested in you. In my opinion, global talents should approach job-hunting with confidence.

Hitomi: I would like for students who will be job hunting to assess the company more from their perspective–take into consideration how the company will evaluate you. Try to imagine how you can play an active role in the company, whether you can be your true self and whether you can feel psychologically secure. Then, think about how you can build a global career at the company and what opportunities are available for you in the future. 

Naomi: It is necessary to change the mindset from the senior level to the starting level. Japan has come a long way, but we have to realize that–objectively speaking–we are not perceived as a diverse country by the rest of the world. I believe that Japan is facing an era where its population will not grow. To survive in the face of global competition, D&I is necessary for industries and companies. It is essential now, and there is no reason not to do it. The obstacles are mind blocks (i.e., psychological barriers) and people's attitudes towards D&I. Governments are already advocating it: business leaders should advocate it more, too, and we need to have these conversations again and again restlessly. Otherwise, our country and businesses will not prosper.

Hitomi: I think Japan needs to become a melting pot of diversity, and as Naom-san said, domestic demand is decreasing as the population decreases. That is why Japanese companies must go global and seek business opportunities and sales channels overseas that global talent can only discover. For Japan to survive this international competition and declining domestic demand due to its population, we must focus our efforts on D&I as the solution to overcome this situation.

Paul: Hitomi-san's point about the talent pool is key. There is no choice. Our world as a whole is moving towards the direction of a more globalized society. From a venture capital point of view, I see a lot of potential for D&I in startups. For example, Paidy was recently acquired by PayPal. The component to the success of this start-up was the diversity of the management team, including the foreign co-founder. I am hopeful that there are many opportunities in the startup world to spread diversity acceptance in Japan. The reason I want to talk about the VC industry further is that I believe startups are where students can start thinking about where they want to work and be passionate about it. As Hitomi-san said, these are places where they can visualize feeling safe and fully expressing themselves. Start-ups are a place of inspiration where you can form a culture with five or six other people. I believe that you can start with a multinational workforce, including Japanese, and grow over time to influence other companies as you scale up. More and more global talents are succeeding in Japan, and I believe that we will see more of this in Japan in the future. It will take time, but it will happen.

Paul: I think that most companies are far from the level of ‘too much"’. From a very rudimentary level, the fact that we are being asked to discuss D&I publicly is itself an indication of insufficiency for D&I.

Communication is the key to the adoption of D&I. If you talk about diversity in the wrong way, it can cause mishaps in parts of the community. Working on D&I as a business case may seem like a good thing in itself, but it can also be an imposition of values. It must be based on a logical and well-thought-out approach.

Naomi: Given Japan's current situation, there is no need to worry about ‘going too far’ because even if we do too much, we are still far from achieving our D&I goals. Another problem we should consider is the misunderstanding of D&I. We should be aiming for a healthy balance of diversity, not just focusing on supporting women. The key is to consciously think that we need to bring in a more diverse workforce.

For instance, it does not make sense that 90% of the people assigned to a business project in Japan are foreigners. I believe that balance is more important than the number of people.

Hitomi: I always try to create a state where I can concentrate on my work and perform well in my way. I make sure to tell my supervisors in advance to help them understand what kind of environment is needed for me to thrive and achieve results.

Paul: Many companies think they can solve their problems with what I call ‘hard interventions’, and I believe this is the most significant barrier. ‘Hard interventions’ are the implementation of various D&I programs and so on. Companies tend to be complacent with the implementations, but there is no guaranteed solution that will solve the problem. 

It is important to remember that soft solutions can effectively change perceptions of unconscious bias, and we must address this in our D&I policies. There are still companies that blatantly use race, nationality, and other identities as criteria in interviews. The decision should be based purely on the skills of the individual, instead.

Naomi: People in leadership roles and managers need to be reminded about D&I and take the initiative in disseminating information. In solving D&I issues, it is difficult to make comprehensive improvements if the approach is simply to solve one issue after another. We need to foster a culture that embraces diversity. That is why I believe the check-the-box approach has its limitations.

Hitomi: Be authentic to yourself while continuing to perform well until your employer understands that your (unique) representation is an invaluable asset to the workplace. Otherwise, it may be time for you to change your employer.

Hitomi: The language barrier is the first step to overcome in order to become a global citizen. But that is not enough. People need to understand the benefits and advantages of developing a global career. They then need to cultivate a global mindset and viewpoints, for example, a sophisticated understanding of D&I, respect for others, as well as communication skills.