When I was in my third year of university, I attended Waseda University as an exchange student for one year, I have come to love the flow of the four seasons throughout the year in Japan. When I felt the flow of the year with the cherry blossoms, autumn leaves, and snow, I felt emotional and was fascinated by the flow of the four seasons. I was also able to go to my favorite anime and other events. 

In 2014, I graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and first came to Japan through a global recruitment program at a Japanese manufacturing company, where I was assigned to the procurement division. I wanted to work in human resources, but I could only be transferred after five or six years. At that time, I still needed to improve my Japanese business manners and language skills, so I worked in the procurement department for about a year and a half, gaining experience in internal and external communication and work.

In my second company, I experienced new graduate recruitment as a recruiter for international students of a major company with a long tradition. Being a foreigner in Japan,  I wanted to support other foreigners in their job hunting and careers. And this prompted me to join my next company, Mercari, to build up their global talent acquisition program from scratch.  Ultimately, I want to contribute to creating working environments where everyone is included and enjoys a high sense of belongingness. Japan is great in terms of its pop culture and entertainment. And many foreigners are enjoying their private lives because of that. But when it comes to work, many foreigners seem to struggle a lot because of the lack of diversity and inclusion. Many of them stay in Japan and give up job satisfaction for their private lives. I really want to create an environment where people feel good both during their working hours and outside their working hours.

When I had classes, I concentrated on my studies, psychology-related part-time jobs and internships in order to master the discipline of psychology, but I also took advantage of holidays to actively participate in overseas study programs and volunteer abroad. Besides doing the exchange program at Waseda University, I also studied in Korea, the United States and Canada, did an internship in China and volunteered in Malaysia.

One of the biggest influences on me was the year I spent in Japan. Before coming to Japan, I could only imagine myself pursuing a career in psychology, so I did a lot of related part-time jobs, internships and volunteering activities. It was mind-opening when I realized that I am interested in and I can perform well in fields other than psychology, when I work as an intern during my exchange year.

What I wish I had done during college

At the time, I was so focused on gaining psychology-related experience and studying that I didn't have much of a “youthful” moment. I think there are things that you can only experience as a student and relationships that you can only find as a student, so I would like to have had more fun and expanded my network during my college years.

As many people say, "self-understanding is important"; it is important to have a good understanding of yourself and to be confident on your unique perspective. I think many international students face invisible peer pressure when they are in Japan. Some international students think that they should be able to speak respectfully like the Japanese do. Of course, you have to be equipped with a minimum social etiquette, but if you aim to behave like someone who was born and raised in Japan for more than 20 years, you may end up putting yourself down. At the same time, I believe that the start of building your desired career is to identify what is unique about you, which is not found in Japanese people. You don't have to be like everyone else.

I think you need to have the skill of listening to your inner voice. In Japanese companies, we are often taught the "basics of being a working adult". Of course, you will need some advice from your seniors and superiors to help you adjust to the company, but this advice may not necessarily be a perfect fit for your career. In the end, it is up to you to decide how you want to plan your career. So you should set aside time to listen to your inner voice and reflect. You should have an idea of what you want to do with yourself before you take on board other people's advice.

Especially when you work abroad, you are away from your family and friends back home, so your career inevitably becomes a part of the main focus of your life. That's why I think it's important to have a "non-work" self. It is best to make friends locally, but taking time to talk to your family or to talk to yourself will help you to relax and reflect.

As an HRBP, I often communicate with leaders and assist them in making better decisions about the people. I also liaise with other HRBPs and HR departments to analyze employee engagement results and exchange views with department managers. We work with a great diversity of tasks. Our stakeholders are people with different levels and languages, so there are many opportunities to get in touch with what other members of the team value on a daily basis. It is a new experience for me to learn how a leader thinks about their organization and how a board member thinks about the company. Also, I have started up other projects within the company.

Since there were still few non-Japanese employees in Mercari, we started a club activity to talk about D&I (Diversity & Inclusion), and after the current CHRO joined Mercari sharing the importance of D&I, we decided to establish a D&I team. That was when I became an HRBP.

As a side project, I have recently been working on publishing the materials of our in house training Unconscious Bias Workshop online for free. We are doing so because we want to make D&I related training materials more easily accessible to different organizations, and hence promote inclusion in the society.

URL: https://about.mercari.com/en/press/news/articles/20210225_unconsciousbiasworkshop/

The benefits/ good points about my company

What I love most about my current workplace is that all employees have a spirit of challenge. Mercari is a “Culture Driven” company in which every employee understands our 3 core values. In particular, as “Go Bold” is part of our DNA, we are encouraged to stretch ourselves without worrying too much about failing. When I proposed publishing the contents of the aforementioned Unconscious Bias Workshop online, the CHRO showed me great support and told me that this initiative was very Mercari-like. And I was really grateful for being in this encouraging environment.

The challenges of my job

Mercari is dedicated to building an inclusive environment. We have rolled out a lot of D&I initiatives but there are still areas that we need to work on, say the diversity in our leaders.

Also, this is not about Mercari, but about (Japanese) society as a whole, but I think we need to bridge the awareness gap in diversity and inclusion in order to create the sense of belongingness to people from different backgrounds. While global recruitment is increasing, we also need to consider career paths and retention of foreign employees. I believe that if we can realize the differences between Japan and other countries, and that what is normal in Japan may not be normal in other countries, we can create a society where both Japanese and foreigners can live together without feeling stressed.