Hi, my name is 梁乾日 (Ryo Kanji). I do not usually think about which nationality I belong to, but people around me often consider me as a “Japanese with a Chinese passport”. I moved to Japan when I was about to enter high school. Before that I went to elementary school in Korea for 6 years and middle school in China for 3 years. The reason why I moved to Japan was because my mother was in Japan for more than 20 years, and everything I needed to start a new life in there was already in place. Growing up in different countries, I wanted to start my high school life in a completely new environment yet again.

The most memorable or proudest thing during college (Activity, club, competition etc)

During the 1st and the 2nd year in college, I focused on club activities and part-time jobs. I was particularly more active in my part-time job because I thought doing a part-time job would improve my Japanese skills. I chose to work in the service industry such as sports shop staff and door-to-door salesman to have interactions with people and to gain sales skills as well as improving my Japanese. During the 3rd and the 4th year in college, I started to do something new and focused on affiliate marketing, application development, and video shooting/editing. The reason why I started focusing on these things was because these skills would enable me to become financially independent instead of having to end up working for someone, as I realised that I wanted to have my own business aside from my baito experiences. 

In affiliate marketing, it would usually take 1-3 years to monetize, but I wanted to shortcut the process. In order to do that, I paid one of my friends who had programming skills to write programming codes to achieve my goal. Eventually, I was able to monetize from affiliate marketing within 2 months. Unfortunately, the amount of money I could make from affiliate marketing did not reach my goal, so I decided to work with the same friend to develop an application for inbound tourism. The final purpose of this development was to start up a company using this application as my product. My role in this project was to work as a sales-person, and my friend’s role was to develop a web system. As a result of this project, even though we could not make it to start up a company, I definitely learned an important lesson. In any given situation, it is always important to fully commit in order to achieve goals, and this lesson definitely had a huge impact on my career even today.

What I wish I had done during college

I honestly do not have regrets on what I did during college, but if I was to say, it would be traveling. I did some traveling during college, but I wish I had traveled more. I think people can closely interact with different people and cultures by traveling abroad, and it also gives people tons of inspiration that they can not get during their daily lives. I personally think these kinds of inspiration enrich a person’s perspective, and it may eventually be one of the stepping stones to do what you can or want in the future. When I traveled to Dubai by myself during college, I was really inspired by the beautiful views of Dubai, and I took so many videos and photos. This experience led me to start studying video shooting and editing. Even after a few years, I still do apply these skills in my career to make videos for the company I am currently working at.

Visualize Who You Want to Become

The most important factor for job-hunting and building your career is to have a clear understanding about how you want to become through your career. In my case, my keyword for building a career is “to grow continuously” with an "entrepreneurial" mindset. While at university, I always wanted to have my own business and built an application for inbound tourism, so I was never interested in just getting paid for any given jobs. When it was time to search for companies, I searched for the most reputable company in the inbound marketing industry, and I found FREEPLUS and learned about its founder / CEO of the company, Kentaro Suda. Suda-san started FREEPLUS from scratch at the age of 23, and there I was exactly the same age as Suda-san seeking a place to “grow continuously” for my future goal. I thought to myself that if I could work with such a young entrepreneur who had grown the company from zero, then the experiences I could get in this company would surely have an environment for me to grow. 

In general, many students might wonder which industries or positions would be suitable for them to an extent that people get lost just like being in a maze. So my suggestion is to think thoroughly and visualize how you really want to become in the future.

Understand the Culture

The most beneficial skill to work in Japan is to understand the culture in Japan. Of course, it is important to have pride in your own culture, yet understanding Japanese culture is essential not only to pursue a career in Japan but also to enjoy life here. 

 Some international students spend more time with people from the same background and have difficulties interacting with Japanese friends and understanding the culture. In my case, I always spend time with Japanese friends and colleagues trying to understand “why people react in this way”, “why people do things in a certain way”, and so on. 

By trying to understand the people and the culture, it will make your job-hunting and career in Japan much easier and smoother, especially when you collaborate with Japanese people or even people from all over the world.

One of the funny experiences I had during my high school in Japan could help you better understand the importance of understanding the culture. It happened when I was joking around with my Japanese friends in high school. My friends would hit my head whenever I said something funny to make people laugh, and I was shocked at the moment because hitting in the head would trigger a serious fight in Korea or China. After the incident, I kept on wondering “why did they hit me” because I was certain that they were not trying to fight. Some days later, I found the reason when I was watching a comedy show on Japanese TV program where a comedian would hit another comedian who said something funny and stupid to make things straight to bring the audience back to what they were talking about before. 

I think a good first step to understanding the culture in Japan is to learn and know what Japanese people have experienced growing up and what people go through in everyday life.

I currently work in the Inbound Tourism Land Operation, Land Operation Business department at FREEPLUS. What I basically do is to plan and create a trip which takes place in Japan, and sell the tour plans to local agencies in South East Asia, mainly for Vietnamese travel agencies. I sometimes fly to Vietnam to meet the travel agencies there and propose my products. The key point of this job is to think about the tour plans and sales strategies from Vietnamese people’s perspectives. It is very essential to understand that the product plans I personally think are good may not be the products that Vietnamese people want to buy. I have learned the importance of thinking about my products from the customer's point of view by working in this department.

Flexible and No Strict Hierarchy

Unlike some of the traditional Japanese companies, there are no strict hierarchical relationships among the members within FREEPLUS, as everyone in the company, regardless of job titles or age, respectfully speaks to each other in 敬語 (keigo), the proper Japanese form. Also,  this company encourages working remotely. Of-course, there comes a great deal of responsibility, but the company offers a very flexible working style for the members.

Responsibilities Given to Act Fast

In our company, our organization incorporates "Teal Organization" philosophy, so each member is given the autonomy to be in charge of decision making. The best thing about the current working environment is that I can make my own decision and take action immediately after the decision making. Of course, it comes with lots of responsibilities, but I really enjoy it because we are encouraged to act fast after a decision has been made. Also, all the members are professional and proactive, so I can learn a lot of lessons from the other members.

Building a "Win-Win-Win" Relationship

Creating tour plans and selling them as products to overseas travel agencies means that all three parties, the travel agencies, end-customers (travelers), and our company, have to be satisfied with my trip plans. Making all these three parties happy with my products is a challenging task in this industry. For example, even if I closely interact with my customers outside of Japan and propose my tour plans, difficult situations sometimes occur beyond my expectations, such as some clients suddenly being non-responsive after a great discussion. I feel that overcoming these difficulties really helps me to grow as a person and to develop my career.