My name is Ben Bisogno and I am from New York City in the United States. I completed my bachelor's degree in Music Composition at SUNY Purchase College in New York, where I studied Music Composition and Philosophy. For graduate school, Kyoto University of the Arts as a Concept And Design student. I went to this particular university because I was invited by a professor who I met at ‘Music from Japan', a music festival in New York City where I was interning at. I initially studied music in my undergraduate studies so I wanted to join the master's program for it, but I realized that my current abilities were not at par with my peers. Therefore, I instead chose Concept And Design where I could pursue my other interest which was in game creation.

RPG Creation・School Festival

During my years in College, I put my heart into the game that I created this year called Ma Nishtana: Why is this Night Different, which got a total of $8000 USD in funds. Ma Nishtana is an RPG (role-playing game) that takes inspiration from the Passover Seder. I am a liberal Jewish and there are not many Jews around Kyoto so I wanted to create a game about family, and home, and explore the themes of the story. Such as what it means to escape oppression and what it means to seek a home. Using the physical rituals of the Seder, you could retell the stories in different ways. Currently, I am doing the layout of the book which is around 180 pages but that includes essays and scenarios where one could be doing a fight for freedom in Egypt, Stonewall, the 1940s Nazi era, or even in space. The gameplay is around 3-4 hours of talking at the table with friends and playing through these different scenarios. The stories in this game have meaning and are more mythological than historical which gives the player the experience of achieving freedom. This may be a theological point of view, but the Passover Seder is not to talk about a story that happened but is always happening; we are always trying to find a better world, home, and be freer. To tell the story is to re-experience it so the game helps people do it in an abstract, embodied way by imagining it through the character’s lens. In the end, we got $8000 USD in funds, secured a publisher, got an artist in Turkey to help us, and did marketing and podcasts that prepared me well for my job. 

Another thing I’m proud of was volunteering at the school festival. I volunteered to construct the themed-welcome gate for the guests to walk through when they entered the school festival. I was not connected to a lot of the Visual Art department students when I came to Japan since the two departments were separated from one another. When helping with the preparation, the whole process took about a month which allowed me to connect with a wide scope of people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. While it was tangential from what I was studying, I was able to make many friends through this experience. 

Additionally, I am a member of ’Colorful’ which is an LGBT community in Kyoto. We clean up the Kamogawa river and participate in community service to show that gay people are normal people. We also set up a kids program called ‘Blurting’ a few times, where kids can dress up as heroes and do fantasy adventures which turns out to be a very silly, fun, memorable experience. 

Searching for a Job

Foreigners in Japan should be aware of where you are. Japan is a great country to live in, it's very convenient and beautiful but the salary in Japan and the US is different. You should ask yourself what kind of environment you want to work in. At one point, I was scolded by an interviewer during an interview because I was making lighthearted jokes. Ever since then, I have tried to find a workplace where I could be myself and be confident that I will be successful.

Think about what environment you want to work in. Whether you want to work in an international company or a local company. For me, I searched far and wide. I didn’t take any language tests such as JLPT or have any specific qualifications, nor did I have a business degree since I studied art. This is why I went to multiple career forums such as Kyoto Career Forum and Tokyo Career Forum, and through that is where I met Motoya United. However this job was not pure coincidence because I put in the work to find a business that suited me, visit as many companies as possible, and keep trying. 

I was looking for a company where I could see myself in 10 years.  Unlike the typical American style, where people build their careers through doing different jobs, I wanted to grow with the company. When I went to the Kyoto Career Forum, it was coincidental that I came across Motoya United. At the forum, the CEO of Motoya, Shintaro Ono, was there giving a talk about why you should work at their company.

The reason why I chose Motoya United is not because of the company itself but the PEOPLE and the VISION. The vision is for flourishing places in Japan that are not in the big cities. The company creates successful businesses to bring wealth to their home city, and they also open businesses in more rural areas. Additionally, from an international perspective, bringing the best of Japan through business to different countries.

Future Ambitions

Motoya hasn’t officially started the International Division yet, but In 10 years, my aim is to be either the head or to be in that division. 

I aspire to be someone who doesn’t give up and thinks big. I want to go for it and never stop, even if it seems excessive. I believe this because the more serious you are about something, the more you will enjoy it. It is easier to hit a big target so the bigger your dream is, the bigger the chance you will hit it. So my perspective is don’t think small, think big. 

My dream would be to have a few weeks in New York where I could work there, so I could visit my family more than once in a few years. This is because I recently saw my family after 3 years of being separated and it was such a breath of fresh air.