iU President Gachon: Mrs.Kaori Sasaki

 ■iU President Gachon: Mrs.Kaori Sasaki

From interpreter to journalist to entrepreneur to business owner. She's an amazing woman, even though we're the same age.

I've known him since I was a bureaucrat, around the time digitalization began, so I've been following in his footsteps for about 30 years now.

◆Why start a business?

Back then, the word and concept of entrepreneurship didn't even exist. After graduating from university, I ended up working at the same place where I had a part-time job. Eight or nine years passed, and I thought, "Is this how I'm going to continue?" so I quit.

1. I was working as a freelance interpreter in the music industry. As my workload increased, I was told that having a business name would make it easier for people to pay me.

2. I wondered how I would survive without getting a job, and how I would make a living.

3. It's a waste to only use interpreters and translators as language experts; it would be good to have a system in place to utilize them as comprehensive consultants.

These three factors led me to decide to establish a company (Unical International Co., Ltd.).

◆ e-Woman Co., Ltd. established

I worked in a way that believed doing a thorough and good job would lead to future business. I started using databases and email in 1988 or 1989, and switched entirely to email in 1992. I created a website in 1995. I had always advocated for the impact of the internet on the working lives of women, people with disabilities, and people living in rural areas, and for the concepts of SDGs and ESG, as they are known today.

They were doing it voluntarily using Unical International's profits. I was thinking it was about time we could break even and stop wasting money, and that's when IT came along in 1999.

We hit the bubble. And a lot of people and money came together.

What started as a discussion about how to make the volunteer project less of a burden on Unical International quickly escalated to the point where hundreds of millions of yen in capital were raised. Unical International couldn't handle it all internally, so they reluctantly created a second company. E-Woman was established in 2000.

◆Difficult period

The period from around 2000 to 2010 was incredibly difficult; I barely felt alive. I saw many different sides of people. There were about three times when I could have easily lost my life.

Some companies may struggle with things like not being able to come up with new product ideas, not knowing how to market, or not knowing their people, but all of these problems can be solved by people.

◆ Envisioning the future

I always have ideas and things I want to do. I've been able to continue because I'm basically serious about what I do. I was looking 10 or 20 years into the future. I've been talking about SDGs, ESG, and diversity for 20 years, and now people are finally starting to think they're important. Even when I explained it 20 years ago, my employees didn't understand.

◆People are everything

who work honestly and correctly, who are motivated and give their all even when no one is watching, and who improve themselves and their skills every day. People who can work as a team and understand the company's vision—when such people come together, the company will move towards success.

◆What is a school?

School is a place that constantly presents you with questions. About 50 years ago, school was a place that provided knowledge. Now, you can find knowledge by searching online. School is a place where you deepen your own thinking by exchanging questions with fellow students and teachers about how to use knowledge and why things are the way they are.

◆Roundtable Discussion for Working People

Typically, the media relays what the proprietress says to the common people. The internet is largely the same. The common people ask questions, and experts answer them.

The process is streamlined, with experts asking questions and ordinary people responding with their own experiences and opinions in the form of iStatements, within a set word count. It's training in diversity thinking, and because various experiences and perspectives are gathered from different angles for a single question (North Korea, abuse, education, parenting, beauty, etc.), a database of experiences and wisdom is created. We continue this because it's online and not limited by time or location.

◆University is a place to discover behavior

Universities should provide a more regular setting for professors and students to discuss such questions. Professors should pose questions and offer different perspectives.

A place to discover the habits of learning, thinking, discussing, and combining different perspectives to arrive at better answers.

◆A message for you

I think the most important thing is to increase your experiences, such as meeting many people and going to many places. I want you to accumulate a variety of experiences.

When you travel abroad, you encounter many regions without electricity or even safe drinking water. Returning from such places made me realize just how fortunate I am to live, study, and work in Japan—a rare and exceptional situation in the world.

To make this planet a better place, let's not get discouraged or discouraged by small things, but instead work towards a bigger goal. I also recommend taking advantage of the International Women's Business Conference, which is being held online, to immerse yourself in a shower of knowledge.