International Paper Board Industry Interview

 

Last September, Mr. David Hayes, a journalist working for a British trade magazine, came to interview me. He also interviewed me four years ago, but this time it was a longer interview. I’ve been looking forward to reading the finished article, and it has at last been published. It turned out to be over five pages long, a voluminous article.

 

Here is the enlarged photo on the front page.

 

 

Behind me are some members of the technical division having a meeting on a corridor that we call “ISOWA Street.” I’ve never had my photo taken from this angle, but I think it looks nice.

 

The article says, “Isowa Corporation introduces new corporate culture.”

 

 

That sounds cool.

 

As you can see in the table of contents, the last of the five pages was entirely devoted to describing our cultural reform.

 

 

“Called ISOWA Street, the interconnecting concourse has created an atmosphere of working in one large office. Meeting tables are located along the concourse to encourage interdepartmental communication.”

 

Last time, the article mentioned nothing about cultural reform, even though I referred to it a lot, but this time they introduced our corporate culture quite a lot, along with discussions of our machines and status of development.

 

There’s an inside story I would like to share with you. In the Nikkei Business article, we were introduced as “a company at the center of attention from major companies.”

 

That prompted them to ask exactly what kind of companies have visited us.

 

I gave them some examples, and what surprised me was that some companies that are very famous in Japan are virtually unknown abroad.

 

My interview was at the beginning of September. That’s why I’m wearing a short-sleeved shirt with no tie in the picture.

 

Although I know it’s an insignificant detail, I’m worrying that Europeans unfamiliar with Japan’s climate might look at that picture and think it’s still summer in Japan, even though the article was published in November.

 

Cool Japan is a catch phrase not just for “anime” or games. There is also “Cool Japan” in management.