JOURNAL
THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN JAPANVol. 58 • No. 3 • March 2021 • ¥1,000

THE VOICE OF GLOBAL BUSINESS IN JAPAN

Resilience & Change
ACCJ members and industry leaders reflect on one yearof the pandemic and overcoming the coronavirus

COVID-19

EVENT

RECOVERY

TRANSPORTATIONThe business experience, personal
impact, and journey ahead

Expectations change dramaticallywhen your business falls to zeroJesper Koll on progress since March 11
and the road beyond Covid-19

How Delta charted a safe paththrough the pandemic

Year of Upheaval

Pivoting in a Pandemic

Rising to Challenges

People ahead of Profit

あいおいニッセイ同和損害保険株式会社
住所：東京都渋谷区恵比寿 1-28-1

マーケット開発部☎03-5789-6456

PRESIDENT

Jenifer Rogers

5

Asurion Japan Holdings G.K.

PUBLISHER

7

2:46

CHAIR

A decade later, we remember the tragedyof March 11 and the ongoing recovery

Eriko AsaiPRESIDENT

Catalyst for
ChangeSeizing the opportunities adversity
brings for better business and society

GE Japan
TREASURER

8

Ryann Thomas
PwC Tax Japan

EVENT

Pivoting in a
Pandemic

12

Experience and expectations change dramatically when your business falls to zero

VICE PRESIDENTS

Yoko Furuyama (Kansai) P&G Japan G.K.

CHUBU

Celebrating
30 Years

Chubu Walkathon reaches a milestone
in giving back to the community

Deborah Hayden Finsbury
Amy Jackson Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturersof America (PhRMA)
Robert W. Roche (Chubu) Oak Lawn Marketing, Inc.
Eric W. Sedlak K&L Gates Gaikokuho Joint Enterprise
Yoshitaka Sugihara Netflix G.K.
Dave West Cisco Systems G.K.
GOVERNORS

Andrew J. Conrad Aflac
James C. Feliciano AbbVie
Harry A. Hill Better-U, Inc.
Mark Hosang (Chubu) Randstad K.K.
Douglas L. Hymas The Bank of New York Mellon
Tad Johnson Pratt & Whitney Aftermarket Japan KK
Saori Kanno REVLON K.K.
Mari Matthews Google Japan G.K.
Nancy L. Ngou EY Strategy & Consulting Co., Ltd.
Victor Osumi Delta Air Lines, Inc.
Frank Randolph Packard Triple A Partners Japan Co. Ltd.
William J. Swinton Temple University, Japan Campus
Simone Thomsen (Kansai) Eli Lilly Japan K.K.
Megumi Tsukamoto Caterpillar Japan LLC

34

Year of Upheaval

SPECIAL ADVISOR

Christopher J. LaFleur
McLarty Associates

Looking back at the impact of Covid-19
and ahead to recovery

PRESIDENTS EMERITI

Debbie Howard (2004–05)
Charles D. Lake II (2006–07)
Allan D. Smith (2008)
Thomas W. Whitson (2009–10)
Michael J. Alfant (2011–12)

14

CHAIRMAN EMERITUS

Kumi Sato

MEMBER FOCUS

One-of-a-Kind
Downtown Retreat

17

Tokyo American Club brings
the best of life to Nihonbashi

Cosmo Public Relations Corporation

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Better Connection
for Mental Health
Cisco helps TELL better support
those in need

ACCJ EXECUTIVE STAFF

Laura Younger
Executive Director

19

THE ACCJ JOURNAL

Christopher Bryan Jones

The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan

24

Masonic 39 MT Bldg. 10F, 2-4-5 Azabudai
Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan 106-0041

Disclaimer: The ACCJ will not accept liability for any damages caused by thecontents of The ACCJ Journal, including, but not limited to, any omissions, errors,
facts, or false statements. Opinions or advice expressed in the The ACCJ Journal
are not necessarily those of the ACCJ.

21

RECOVERY

Rising to
Challenges

44

DIPLOMACY

Supporting the
US–Japan Alliance

Secretary of State Blinken and
Secretary of Defense Austin visit Japan

INTERVIEW

Smart
Care

Healthcare x Digital winners MICIN
power rise in telemedicine

30

Jesper Koll on progress since March 11
and the road beyond Covid-19

Tel: 03-3433-5381 n Fax: 03-3433-8454 n www.accj.or.jp
The ACCJ is an independent membership organization not affiliated with any
government or other chamber of commerce. The ACCJ is a member of the AsiaPacific Council of American Chambers and values its relationships with Japanese,
American, and other nations’ business organizations.

Deepenthe Dialogue

Ensuring the future of healthand retirement in Japan

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
To advertise or subscribe: comms@accj.or.jp

HEALTHCARE

TRANSPORTATION

People aheadof Profit

How Delta charted a safe paththrough the pandemic

45

TAXATION

2021 Japan
Tax Reforms

Changes to the scope of inheritanceand gift tax for some foreign nationals

The ACCJ
Is Working for You
During these challenging times, it’s more important

ACCJ members benefit from a virtual ecosystemthan ever to make sure you and your employeesthat helps member companies stay informed andstay connected, informed, and engaged, especiallyconnected, at a fraction of the cost of travel andwhen other professional development activities areconference fees. This invaluable resource includes

less accessible.

the following beneﬁts:
 Connect with more than 70 special interest committees
 Engage with over 30 virtual meetings and Webinars in an
average month Access subject matter experts, government representatives,
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 Influence advocacy efforts that reach regulators andlawmakers with the voices of more than 3,000 members

If you would like to explore membership opportunities, including extending
these beneﬁts to an unlimited number of employees, contact join@accj.or.jp
for more details or call your ACCJ membership representative.

PUBLISHER

By C Bryan Jones

2:46

5

A decade later, we remember the tragedy of March 11 and the ongoing recoveryTime flies over us, but it leaves its shadow behind.
A full decade has now passed since that fateful
day in 2011 when disaster changed life for somany. And while in some ways it seems ages ago, in
others it feels like yesterday.
As I sat at my desk putting the final touches on
this issue of The ACCJ Journal, something happened
that brought all those memories rushing back. A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck off the coast of Miyagi
Prefecture, and the Japan Meteorological Agency(JMA) issued a tsunami warning. The slow shaking
and long duration felt so similar to that of the March
11 quake—and I was sitting in exactly the same spot
as in 2011—so I couldn’t help but pause and wonder
if nature was taking another swing at us.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the disasters, wereturned to the pages of The ACCJ Journal from 2011
to find the accounts and experiences of the role thechamber played in the immediate aftermath. You’ll
find a selection of seven pieces following my interview
with Koll, and you can read the full stories online at
accj.or.jp/311-in-memorium.

ParallelsNaturally, many have drawn comparisons between
March 11 and the coronavirus pandemic. Both have hadsignificant impact on business and life—particularly
for those who lost loved ones or who found themselvessuddenly displaced. Our thoughts for them and ourdesire to help will always endure.

C Bryan Jones
Publisher and
Editor-in-Chief
cjones@accj.or.jp

To mark the anniversary of the disasters, wereturned to the pages of The ACCJ Journal from 2011
to find the accounts and experiences of the role thechamber played in the immediate aftermath:accj.or.jp/311-in-memorium

Thankfully, this time, there was no great destruction. But a JMA spokesperson said that the temblor isconsidered an aftershock of the quake from a decadeago, so the upheaval has never really left us.

Support and Recovery
While rebuilding continues, and there remains muchto be done, the country has recovered remarkably wellfrom the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami,
as well as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster that
followed—a fact that renowned economist Jesper Koll
shared with me in an interview that you’ll find startingon page 24.
American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ)
members and member companies have played a keyrole in that recovery, not just on the business front buton the community level as well.

One thing that differs in our current situation is
the scope of the crisis. I was fortunate in 2011 that myprimary work was with a US-based software company
and their operations were not affected at all by thedisasters. This meant that my own work and income
were protected from the disruptions in Japan. This
time around, I’ve been less lucky. The global natureof Covid-19 has led to a difficult year, as I know is thecase for so many others—something we explore in across-industry feature starting on page 34.
But as I put together this issue, I was reminded ofjust how fortunate I am to be associated with the ACCJ.
During such trying times, the strength, resolve, support,
and inspiration that flows from the membership provides an optimism that we’ll emerge from the shadow
stronger than ever, and that the world beyond the crisis
will be more like that we always strive to attain. n
Listen to this story:
accj.or.jp/sound

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

PRESIDENT

By Jenifer Rogers

Catalyst for Change

7

Seizing the opportunities adversity brings for better business and societyT

his month, we mark two milestones that havetested the resolve of our community in Japanand have had immeasurable personal andprofessional impact on us all.
Ten years on, the events of March 11, 2011, are a
tragic memory and a vivid reminder of the incredible
resilience of the Japanese people. The Great East Japan
Earthquake and Tsunami turned life upside down in an
instant, but also served as a catalyst for lasting change
and reform that have benefited many aspects of society
and business. This March, in addition to reflecting
on the disasters of that terrible day, we also mark one
year since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic andits impact on business operations in Japan with an
expansive feature story beginning on page 34.

Both March 11 and the pandemic
have challenged our lives andlivelihoods. Yet, in each case, wehave come together to find a newway forward.
Stronger Together
Both March 11 and the pandemic have challenged ourlives and livelihoods. Yet, in each case, we have come together to find a new way forward, relying on the strengthand resolve of our community and shared interests.
We can all be proud of how we have responded tomeet not only our own needs, but those of Japanesesociety as a whole. American Chamber of Commerce inJapan (ACCJ) members and member companies played
key roles in the recovery from the disasters of March 11.
Likewise, through advocacy, direct action, and innovation, we’ve helped Japan and our international business
community navigate the impact of Covid-19.
The disasters that befell the country a decade ago
were, first and foremost, a human tragedy. But in theiraftermath much discussion about the need for economic
and regulatory change took place. Some of the suggested
reforms have taken root—and the ACCJ has played an
important role in promoting their adoption—but others
remain very much works in progress.
The coronavirus pandemic has once again shonea bright light on much-needed reforms. But now, withat least the glimmer of a vaccine-fueled light at theend of the tunnel, how long will the need for reform orchange remain in focus?

From Pillars to Coordination Groups
Advocacy is at the heart of what we do at the ACCJ.
As I have articulated and the board of governors hasendorsed, under the strategy of transformation, wewant to continuously assess and improve our advocacy
efforts. Now, more than ever, we need to make certainthat our messages reach the broadest possible audience.
To ensure the effectiveness of our efforts, we haverealigned our advocacy pillar priorities considering the
growth agendas of the US and Japanese governments, aswell as our member needs, on a multi-year initiative basis. Our advocacy pillars have been renamed “advocacy
coordination groups” to clarify their purpose of coordinating our advocacy efforts across these key themes:
US–Japan Partnership, Digital Society, Health andRetirement, and Sustainable Society.
Topic areas such as sustainability, digital transformation, and bilateral economic partnership affect
most—if not all—of our industry-specific committees.
And, individually, committees are doing an excellent
job of advocating for their various viewpoints. However,
because the nature of these advocacy priorities is broad
and they affect or cut across many committees, there isa need for cross-committee involvement, collaboration,and communication for effective advocacy. This can befacilitated by the advocacy coordination groups.

Jenifer Rogers
ACCJ President

Stronger Voice
Refreshing our advocacy pillars to these four areas offocus and renaming them coordination groups will serve
to help raise our collective voice and take best advantageof advocacy opportunities in direct conversations withstakeholders and in our broader communications.
In doing so, we hope to ensure that momentum created by the pandemic is leveraged for positive and lastingchange—from both societal and economic standpoints.
When we look back in 10 years, we will see that, while
there was the human cost of Covid-19, we took the opportunity for reform and made a change for the better.
Individually, we have an opportunity to become
the change we’d like to see. We can each act as a change
agent in our own roles, resisting the urge to return
to business as usual. Instead, we should question theassumptions of the old ways of working. We’ve seen anumber of member companies successfully execute
pandemic pivots. What’s your plan?
I welcome you to share your feedback and ideas
as we work to continue the success and growth of thechamber at this critical time. You can contact me atjrogers@accj.or.jp. n

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

EVENT

By Andy Hughes

Pivoting in
a Pandemic

8

Experience and expectations change dramaticallywhen your business falls to zeroE

ntrepreneurs know well that, no matter how
well you plan, the path your business follows
will be influenced by unexpected factors, often
ones beyond your control.
The coronavirus pandemic is one such example, andon February 4, the American Chamber of Commercein Japan (ACCJ) Information, Communications, andTechnology Committee welcomed Australian/Kiwi
entrepreneur Terrie Lloyd to share how his company
Japan Travel K.K. has met the challenge of Covid-19 andpivoted some parts of the business while doubling downon others.
In the virtual presentation entitled Pivoting in
a Pandemic: Experience and Expectations Change
Dramatically When Your Business Falls to Zero, Lloydshared how he continues to maintain optimism during
such trying times, always looking for silver linings
and taking advantage of opportunities that otherwise
wouldn’t have arisen.

Pivot and Double Down
Lloyd has lived in Japan for 37 years and has established
17 companies here over that period, so he is no stranger
to having to reinvent his businesses in response to
the unanticipated. He has seen three cycles of boom
and bust, but the advent of the coronavirus pandemic

marks the first time that one of his businesses hasgone from millions of dollars of annualized revenue
to zero—at least for several divisions. In response to
Covid-19, all businesses have had to adjust and rethinktheir strategies, as if starting from scratch, facing thesame risks of failure.
“This past year probably should have been atrying one, but I found it extremely satisfying. And
the reason is that I found many of the challenges the
pandemic produced are the same challenges that you
have when you start a company,” he explained.
The inbound travel sector has been hit hard by
the pandemic, but Lloyd is of the firm opinion that it
will come roaring back. Even with the current travel
restrictions in place, Japan Travel is still attracting
a high number of visitors. If people aren’t currently
traveling, they’re certainly window-shopping digitally and making plans for the future. While many
competitors are cutting staff and laying low, his teamcontinues to push ahead with business development plans that will support a rapid recovery. If he iswrong? Well, he has a Plan B.

Stool with Three Legs
Not only does Lloyd have a Plan B, he has a Plan C
as well. “I learned that there’s always something

Listen to this story:
accj.or.jp/soundAn empty Narita International Airport in June 2020.

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

Average Rainfall

Tracking Lloyd’s Business
TA

JT

R

Oct

2350

1900

2000

Nov

2100

1600

Dec

2526

1900

Jan

2560

1900

Feb

October 2019–September 2020

2850

2060

Mar

2700

200

Apr

1450

1350

May

1460

1360

Jun

1600

1360

Jul

1500

1390

Aug

2200

Sep

1500

2,496.568

2,500

2,441.274

2,526.387

Tourists vs. Revenue
1380

2,661.022

2,000
1,500

0

1,085.147

1,000
500

Revenue

Inbound Travelers (thousands)

3,000

9

1395

193.658

Oct

Oct

Nov

Nov

Dec

Dec
Tourists

Jan

Jan

Feb

Feb

Mar

Mar

2.917

1.663

2.565

3.782

8.658

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Apr

Japan Travel revenue

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

13.684
Sep

Sep

Travel agency-only revenue

1

unexpected, the kind [of thing] that tries to kill you. Usually, it’sanother competitor. This time around, it was a disease,” he said.
“It’s always good to have a stool with three legs, not one. If somebody tries to kick one of the legs from under you, you still have achance of surviving.
Japan Travel was designed from the beginning, Lloyd explained,
to be a vertically integrated company with software as a leverage
point. His passion for building solutions to problems, which heattributes to having been given a Meccano building set as a child,has been one of the key factors to Japan Travel’s survival over the
past year.
Lloyd has lived in Japan most of his life, so he has witnessed
events that forced reinvention in the face of disaster, such as when
the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami struck on March 11,
2011. “This is kind of a repeat of 2011 in a way, where an existential
threat made us think about what our values are and what we weregoing to do to survive.”

Rebound
Similarly, when making comparisons to 2011, the main questionthat cropped up during the pandemic was how long the situation
would last. Would it last six months? A year? It was all conjecture.
It was, and still is, impossible to predict.
“I thought it was more like the flu, but a serious form of the flu.
So just like the flu, it would go away when summer arrived,” Lloydsaid. “Little did I know that Covid-19 has some very deep tentacles,
and it has caused a lot more havoc and fear than I first expected.
Then, when it became summer, we thought, maybe it would last
until the end of the year. And now here we are in February.”
With this sort of event, he subscribes to the idea that the bottomof the cycle is the right time to start a new phase of a business, notonly to rebuild but to improve past efforts with new lessons learned.
Referring to a meeting he had with Japan Airlines Co., Ltd.—adiscussion focused on what they were going to be doing this year—
he described the situation as being faced with an exciting challenge.
It’s a surprising description considering he had seen several

divisions of his business hit by such a drastic revenue dive. But as aman with a passion for creating solutions, Lloyd says that the future
has never looked brighter. “It’s a really weird situation. It feels like aspring day, where it rains and shines, both on the same day.”His optimism stems from his belief in a strong rebound, and heexpects that 2022 will be a year of recovery, with things starting
to look economically stable by 2023.
“What we saw after the 2011 earthquake was a year timeout,”
he recalled. “Then, suddenly, things started to move forward. By
2013, we had a strong economy again. I think the same thing will
happen this time.”
The same positive outlook correlates with his thoughts about
the upcoming Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. He believes
there is a good chance the events will still occur—somethingthat looks all but certain from media reports that have followed
Lloyd’s ACCJ presentation—albeit not in a normal fashion.
“The [Tokyo] Olympic Organising Committee must havewatched what Australia had done with the Australian Open,” hesuggested. “They basically were able to keep things under control.
Of course, the Olympics is a bigger event than that. But if anyone
can do it, Japan can do it.”

Reducing Uncertainty
With the trauma caused by the pandemic, Lloyd knew that themost crucial action, for the well-being of his staff, was to reducefear. He told his team that the plan was to hunker down and thenassured them that their jobs were secure. This was made possible
when the government announced it would be providing subsidies
for companies affected by the pandemic.
It was uncertain at the start what exactly these subsidies would
cover and when they would go into effect. Would Japan Travel beeligible? The application process, being newly integrated, wasn’t
immediately clear. Without the subsidy program, he explained,
there would have been a domino effect. Once the travel agencies go,
the restaurants fall next. There would be nobody to spend money
on products, so the manufacturers would be gone, too.

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

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11With the subsidy providing a safety net
to protect the livelihood of his staff, he had
another problem to tackle—figuring out how
to make use of idle hands if the company was
unable to operate as it previously had. He madea rule that no one was to do their regular job.
Instead, they would begin training to do somebody

remain busy. When I do think about the pessimistic
side, I envision further business opportunities.”
He reiterated how the lessons learned andapplied as a result of this pandemic were valuable
to strengthen and reinforce against adversities
that may arise down the road—especially thosefor which there is no reference point.

If you can turn your hobbies into business andcombine that with a business that is ailing, perhaps
something worthwhile will happen.
else’s. Utilizing this cross-training system would prove to have awonderful impact.
“We now have people who understand other jobs and appreciate the amount of work that went into doing those jobs,” Lloyd
explained. “It also means that when people get sick, or as people
start to leave, or whatever may happen, that we’ve got staff crosstrained and able to slot in and take over.”Two Directions“I think there are always two directions: optimism and pessimism,”
Lloyd said. “For the economy going forward, I happen to be optimistic. For Japan Travel, my digital marketing and sales teams will

With the same unwavering optimism, he answered a question
about what happens if there is no rebound in inbound travel.
“I’m staying physically and mentally ready. During the pandemic, we had opportunities to practice new hobbies,” he said.
“We’re trying to bring science to agriculture—in particular fermentation—which is a hobby of mine. I’m pretty good at making
sourdough bread, and I’m making cheese at the moment. I figuredthat I would turn that into a business. The plan is to get people
into the fermentation locations and get them thinking about theprocess. If you can turn your hobbies into business and combinethat with a business that is ailing, perhaps something worthwhile
will happen. Just like with fermentation.” n

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

CHUBU

By Erin Sakakibara

Celebrating
30 Years

12

Chubu Walkathon reaches a milestone in giving back to the community

T
Erin Sakakibara
Chair
ACCJ-Chubu
WalkathonCommittee
andCommunity Service
Committee

he Chubu Walkathon will hit another big milestone this year as we celebrate three decadesof coming together as a community to support
local charities. It is truly gratifying to think of themany people dotted around the world who hold fondmemories of what the Walkathon has grown into over
the years.
Of course, there are the fun memories of the event
itself—walking in beautiful Nagoya-area parks, enjoying
time with family and friends, playing games, samplingdelicious local food, and enjoying great entertainment.
But even though it was always enjoyable (even in the
rain!), it was more than just fun. It represented true
community spirit and the sense of knowing we were
contributing to this wonderful place we call home.
Last year, we did a quick pivot from the usual format and, thanks to a lot of effort from the committee,
we pulled off one of the first major online events heldin this brave new world. Despite being virtual, the2020 Walkathon was successful and resulted in us
distributing roughly the equivalent of the donations
collected in 2019, thanks in large part to loyal sponsors and very little overhead. Perhaps our biggest

Listen to this story:
accj.or.jp/sound

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

achievement as a committee was not giving up andmaking sure the show went on.

Further Transformation
This year will be a bigger challenge. In the months sincethe 2020 Walkathon, any number of virtual events havebeen held. The model is no longer new and, it’s safe tosay, no longer all that interesting. But we find that weneed to be ever more vigilant in keeping participants
safe while having fun and generating that much-needed
community spirit. Only then can we successfully
support the charities for which we fight. In fact, it isarguably more important that we up our goals after ayear of everyone scaling back. We are hearing from all
the charities we support that times are hard.
To do this, we are proposing a hybrid event thatwill combine the online platform for entertainmentand charity showcases with an organized Walk Rally
that will revisit some of the parks where past Walkathons have been held. It will literally be a stroll
down memory lane! We intend to offer prizes for those
who walk the farthest, and we are planning localized,
socially distanced events at several points along the13

Reflection of the Times

rally. We even hope to up our tech game and check in with roving
reporters during the course of the event. Familiar elements,
such as our Walkathon T-shirt designed annually by a Nagoya
International School student, will still be featured. And I’m sure
our mascot, Walkie, will make an appearance around town, too!

Success Stories
Despite the planning challenges, we are buoyed by reports andstories that are coming in from the organizations that received
funds raised in 2020. It is really heartwarming to know thatsomething as simple as new bedding is making a difference inthe lives of children living in a home for kids with disabilities.
It is also gratifying to know that we are on course to support
three more orphans wanting to study beyond high school throughthe Chubu Children’s Fund. One wants to play soccer and study■

The Walkathon kicked off in 1992■

It enjoyed a steady increase in people and funds raised
during the 2000s■

The Lehman shock affected the event in 2009■

The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11
was the background for increased donations in 2011.
The Walkathon donated a car, a bus, and various funds toorganizations doing reconstruction work in Tohoku.

■

Celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 2016 and raised an
astounding ¥25 million, setting the stage for the creation of
the Chubu Children’s Fund.

■

In 2020, the Walkathon shifted to become one of the first
online events in the Covid-19 era■

In 2021, help us celebrate 30 years of Walkathon!

sports business, one wants to be an audio technician for concertsand movies, and one wants to study social welfare so they canwork at a children’s home themselves one day. These inspiring
stories are just a sample of the anecdotes that keep us motivatedto do more. You can read more at chubuwalkathon.com.
But we can’t expand our impact without the help of more
people. It is getting harder and harder to depend on our small poolof loyal sponsors—especially under the current climate, in whichpeople are scaling back. Our solution is to cast our net wider andbring more into the tent, as we aim for our goal of ¥10 million.
There is strength in numbers, and we are looking for companies and individuals to give what they can this year—no matter
where and who they are. Chubu is the heart of Japan. Let’s keepthat heart beating by supporting good people doing great thingsin our community. n

20

4,000

15

3,000

10

2,000

5

1,000

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Participants

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Participants

Donations (millions of yen)

History of the Walkathon Over the past 29 years, 50,100 people have participated and we have donated a total of ¥171,450,000.

2020

Donations

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

MEMBER FOCUS

One-of-a-Kind
Downtown Retreat

14

Tokyo American Club brings the best of life to Nihonbashi
Presented inpartnership with

http://nihonbashi.
tokyoamericanclub.org

With memberships limited,contact the Membership Officeat membership@tac-club.org
or 03-4588-0687 today.

For 93 years, Tokyo American Club has stood as
the premier private members’ club of the city.
Now, the award-winning club takes anothergroundbreaking step with the opening of its first-eversatellite hub.
Located steps away from Mitsukoshimae Stationin the historic and fast-developing business and entertainment district of Nihonbashi, Tokyo American
Club Nihonbashi opens its doors on March 31. Witha near century of experience in the private hospitality space, Tokyo American Club ensures prospective
members that only the best of the best comprises life
as a member of Tokyo American Club Nihonbashi.
“This is an historic step for the Club,” said member
Ginger Griggs, an ACCJ member who chaired the Club
task force that oversaw the new facility project. “In
our nearly 100-year history, we have never extended
to include a second facility.”

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

Open weekdays, the Club is designed to cater tothe needs and tastes of an international communityof busy professionals in a stunning, adults-only venue
that offers the opportunity to wine, dine, or workout
all in one setting.
The Club’s stylish, modern concept is evident fromthe entrance lobby on the sixth floor of Nihonbashi
Muromachi Mitsui Tower. The brainchild of awardwinning architect Daishi Yoshimoto, the Club’s defining
design feature is its eye-catching, walnut ceiling thatruns the length of the facility.
“The whole Club is covered by a single roof, almost,”
said Yoshimoto. “The sense of everything being under
one roof is important. As far as texture goes, I lovewalnut and its color. It gives a modern atmosphere to
this space.”
Members arriving at the Club are also greeted bya welcoming concierge and the first pieces of art from

Keeping fit.
Wining and dining.
Networking and relaxing.

15

All possible in one exclusive
escape in downtown Tokyo.
a curated collection that line the walls. “One of the key
points of the Nihonbashi Club is creating an atmosphereof what I call ‘urban sophistication,’” said member TerryWhite. “And art is a key component of that.”
From there, the possibilities open up. Members
in search of breakfast, lunch, or dinner may headstraight for the Muromachi Lounge, American Roomrestaurant, or even the private dining room, where
Club chefs offer an eclectic mix of Stateside classics
made using fresh, local produce.
Lindsay Gray, the Club’s executive chef, cites thepastrami sandwich with kimchi slaw and the beef
tenderloin with shiso-leaf chimichurri as stellar
examples of this elevated American fare.
“While the menus will have these Japanese
inflections, the core of them will still be modern
American,” he said.
If a full meal isn’t in the cards, smaller bites
alongside killer wines and cocktails are on the menu
at the stunningly designed bar. Laid out around an
illuminated island and adjacent by floor-to-ceilingwindows that overlook Nihonbashi’s bustling streets,
the wood-and-brass bar will be the go-to spot for any
member looking to unwind after work or to entertain colleagues or clients.
Life at Tokyo American Club Nihonbashi isn’t
limited to epicurean pleasures. On the opposite
side of the Club is a top-of-the-line fitness center.
Featuring a stretching station, cardio section withstationary bikes, treadmills, and rowing machines,
as well as a fully equipped weight-training area, thisexercise space cuts no corners.
“We were adamant that it be a multipurpose kindof gym where anyone could find a good way to workout,” said member Jim Fink of designing the fitness
center and the connected locker rooms.
Being a member of Tokyo American Club Nihonbashi also means enjoying access to an adjacent VIP
area (subject to availability) and Tokyo American Club’s
global network of reciprocal clubs.
Keeping fit. Wining and dining. Networking
and relaxing. All possible in one exclusive escape in
downtown Tokyo. n

Listen to this story:
accj.or.jp/sound

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

TELL COUNSELING
We proactively support the international community in Japan withlicensed therapists who provide world-class, professional, and confidential
psychotherapy and testing/assessment services.

Special event
April 10–11, 2021
Day 1: All are welcome
Day 2: Professionals only
(Bilingual workshop)
Prices start at ¥1,500
Our year-round services
Face-to-face or video-based therapy available throughout Japan
30 clinicians in four locations: Tokyo, Yokohama, Kansai, and Okinawa
Support for families, couples, adults, and children of all ages
Professionally delivered workshops or webinars for corporations and schools
Employee assistance programs available for corporations and schools
Counseling available in English, Japanese, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin,
Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Thai
We treat a variety of mental health concerns: anxiety, depression,
relationship issues, trauma/PTSD, ADD/ADHD, bipolar disorder, BPD, etc.

Free anonymous counseling support with TELL’s Lifeline every
day of the year. Please check our website for service hours.
Tokyo, Yokohama, Kansai
03-4550-1146 (English) • 03-4550-1147 (Japanese)
intakesubmission@telljp.com
Okinawa 09-8957-1287 • clinical.assist.okinawa@telljp.com
www.telljp.com

COMMUNITY SERVICE

By C Bryan Jones

Better Connection
for Mental Health17

Cisco helps TELL better support those in needFor almost half a century, Japan’s international
community has relied on TELL for free, anonymous, and confidential telephone counselingand information. The multifaceted nonprofit organization took its first call on April 1, 1973, and has been
providing professional face-to-face counseling andan extensive outreach program ever since.
Like many organizations, TELL has been impacted
by Covid-19. The need for social distancing has disrupted
the way in which they deliver their services and adjusting to an inability to make use of the usual system has
been challenging.

Unprecedented Times
TELL’s Lifeline crisis phone support would typicallyoperate from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. seven days a week.
Chat support would also be available on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. But due to the pandemic, they
had to stop offering the option of coming into a phoneroom, because these are often small spaces.

This donation will make us
more resilient, allow us tobetter meet the increased
demand, and move us closer
to our vision of achieving
24-hour service.
“We have a couple of phone rooms—one in Tokyoand one in Osaka—so we thought that we’d be fairly
resilient should a disaster happen in one area,” said
Lifeline Director Vickie Skorji. “But this is somethingthat’s impacting people around the world, nevermind
prefectures or even a country.
“We moved things to chat, but we also knew thephone calls were important,” she explained. “Where
we could, we put in a makeshift internet phone system.
We would divert the landline to an internet phone
number. Then, if the support worker was in a place
where they could take the call confidentially, in a
private space at home, they could do so.”But this process was less than ideal and could
cause confusion. When someone would call a lifeline

number, they would get a message in Japanese fromthe phone company letting them know that the call
was being rerouted to an internet number.
“That was quite confronting for them, and it was
all in Japanese,” she added. “That would either makepeople skeptical or, if you don’t speak Japanese, you’dhear that and wonder what was going on.”The disruption to the normal phone system also
impacted training.

Vickie Skorji
Lifeline Director
TELL

Helping Hand
Then TELL found a partner who could change thesituation. American Chamber of Commerce in Japan(ACCJ) President’s Circle member Cisco Japan G.K. is
helping TELL’s Lifeline crisis phone support by providing its Webex Calling solution free for five years toensure that the counseling continues uninterrupted—
especially important during this time of great stress,
when calls to the Lifeline have been skyrocketing.
“We are delighted to support TELL in the deployment of their new calling platform,” Cisco President of
Asia–Pacific, Japan, and Greater China Dave West, who
is also an ACCJ vice president, told The ACCJ Journal.
“TELL performs such an important role in the community in Japan, and we hope Cisco’s leading cloudcalling solution will power their ability to continue
to fulfill this vital function and scale support services
even more over the years to come.”
TELL Chairman and ACCJ member Timothy
Langley said: “We are so grateful for Cisco’s contributions to TELL and its assistance in our mission tosave lives. Cisco’s Webex Calling application will provide broader access to the TELL Lifeline, expanding our
telephone capacity and empowering TELL’s dedicatedteam of volunteers to securely provide remote support
and counseling. This donation will make us more resilient, allow us to better meet the increased demand, andmove us closer to our vision of achieving 24-hour service.
We look forward to building upon our partnership with
Cisco to better serve the international community andraise awareness for mental health in Japan.”
Skorji echoed this. “We’re really excited that wehave the option to get our phone system back in place.
And we will have a more robust system so that no matter
what disaster may come, we can offer support at home,in the phone room, and through chat.” nTimothy Langley
Chairman
TELL

Dave West
President of Asia–
Pacific, Japan, andGreater China
Cisco

Listen to this story:
accj.or.jp/sound

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

AbbVie is a research-driven global
biopharmaceutical company headquarteredin the United States.
With global expertise in drug discovery anddevelopment, AbbVie develops innovative
medicines in Immunology, Virology, Oncology
and Neuroscience.
Putting patients at the center of what we do,we collaborate with stakeholders to address
the challenges facing healthcare today.

Therapeutic focus areas where we market
products
Immunology
Neonatology
Hepatitis
Neuroscience
Oncology

Doing everything
we can for patients
who are waiting
AbbVie GK
3-1-21 Shibaura, Minato-ku
Tokyo 108-0023, Japan
https://www.abbvie.co.jp/

HEALTHCARE

By James Feliciano

Deepen the Dialogue
Ensuring the future of health and retirement in JapanI

n this unprecedented global crisis, we are coming
together to achieve one shared goal: to beat Covid-19.
Throughout the past year, frontline healthcare workers have played a critical role in providing care, despite
the risk of infection. Leaders in government have placed
priority on protecting the health of the people, and thebiopharmaceutical and medical technology sectors havecome together to develop safe and effective new diagnostics, therapies, and vaccines at a pace we have never seen
before. It is truly a moment when we are seeing the valueof our continued investment in scientific innovation.
This pandemic also offers Japan a unique opportunity to rethink its current healthcare and retirement
system. With the aging of the population accelerating,Japan’s human and material resources for healthcare
and retirement are already stretched. We now find thehealthcare system at the edge of a dangerous precipice
and must take this opportunity to reflect on what the
pandemic has taught us. Japan must rethink how to deliver on its healthcare and retirement commitments as
it barrels toward an unprecedented graying of society.

Health and Retirement
When the leadership of the American Chamber ofCommerce in Japan (ACCJ) decided to streamline
and hone the strategic pillars of the organization, threegroups that, on the surface, did not appear to have muchin common found an innovative and out-of-the-box
partnership that could offer meaningful solutions tosome of the biggest challenges.
The healthcare, financial services, and tech sectors
joined forces to explore and develop innovative recommendations for how Japan can build a more sustainable
health and retirement system. As a result, the Healthcare and Retirement Pillar has been one of the strongest
over the past few years, delivering impressive outputs.
The committee understood early on that the ACCJ
could not simply develop another white paper on its own,
however well intentioned. Engagement with Japanesethought leaders and academics would be a key successfactor to igniting the sparks for meaningful discussion
and change. Working closely with the Institute for New
Era Strategy (INES), a well-respected Japanese think tank,leaders in the ACCJ contributed to a final white paperwith detailed recommendations across three key themes:
 Active utilization of data technology
 Shifting financial resources toward healthcare
and retirement needs Raising the health and financial literacy of society

Moving into 2021, the ACCJ has positioned itself todeepen the discussion across these three major themes.
Our member companies are now deep diving into the
topics to develop specific and actionable recommendations to share with our stakeholders. Specific casestudies are being put forward to provide quick wins andmeaningful change—the foundation for broader reform.

Japan must rethink how todeliver on its healthcare andretirement commitments.
The board of governors and ACCJ leadership arecommitted to ensuring that the broadest possible coalition of related companies has the opportunity to provide
insight, expertise, recommendations, and input.
The Healthcare and Retirement Pillar, proudly oneof the most active groups within the chamber, always
welcomes member companies to participate in thisgroundbreaking work. Ultimately, the ability for Japanto manage this crisis of aging impacts us all, as residents
of Japan and as a place where we do business.

James Feliciano
President
AbbVie G.K.
Chair of theJapan-based
Executive Committee(JBEC), PhRMAACCJ Governor

Focus on Pharma
An immediate challenge facing the biopharmaceuticalindustry is understanding how to better communicate
to the government—and the broader public—the valueof the innovation we bring to society. Despite pharmaceutical expenditure in Japan being flat to declining,over the past several years, the Cabinet Office has
embarked on a mission of “reducing people’s burdens”
through measures that continue to reduce and erode
the prices of pharmaceuticals. A frightening fact is that
more than 80 percent of targeted social security systemsavings over the past five years have been generated
through drug price cuts alone, despite pharmaceuticalexpenditure representing only around 20 percent of
total healthcare spend. This could have dramatic repercussions for the Japanese economy, future research, anddevelopment investment in new pharmaceuticals, aswell as continued early access to innovative medicines.
At a time when innovation is more important thanever to address healthcare challenges, policy is runningcounter to the needs of the people. It is the hope of theinnovative pharmaceutical industry to partner with theJapanese government in areas such as patient educationand prevention, while taking a broader view in framing
the value of innovation in supporting a healthy Japan. n

Download thewhite paper:accj.or.jp/hrwp

Learn more about
the Institute for
New Era Strategy:
inesjapan.com

Listen to this story:
accj.or.jp/sound

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

19

20

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

INTERVIEW

By Malcolm Foster

SMART
CARE

HEALTHCARE x DIGITAL WINNERS MICIN
POWER RISE IN TELEMEDICINEO

ne silver lining of the Covid-19 pandemic is that it has
hastened the digitalization of Japan’s healthcare industry,
which lags behind the healthcare industries in otherdeveloped economies. That’s been a boon to MICIN Inc., which
was one of the first Japanese companies to offer online medical
services. The startup, launched in 2015 by four young men, won
the Best Product Award at the American Chamber of Commercein Japan’s Healthcare x Digital competition on December 1.
“Without the pandemic, digitalization would have come much
more slowly,” says Ryoichi Kusama, MICIN’s co-founder and senior
vice president. “We want to help the medical industry change fromwithin and become a player that can be trusted.”
MICIN’s online medical exam service, called curon, can be accessed through a smartphone app and allows patients to make andhold video appointments with doctors as well as receive prescriptions at their homes. It is now used by more than 5,000 clinics andhospitals—only about five percent of the 110,000 medical facilities
in Japan—a number that Kusama says is far too small. “We wantthat to grow,” he said.
The ACCJ Journal talked to Kusama about his journey and thatof MICIN, the challenges the company has faced, and what it was
like presenting at the Healthcare x Digital event, which aims tospur on industry-changing technologies, as well as connect Japanbased startups with major pharmaceutical companies.
The event was driven by a group of ACCJ committees—Healthcare; Alternative Investment; Information, Communications andTechnology; and Secure Digital Infrastructure—and led by ACCJ
Corporate Sustaining Members AstraZeneca K.K., Bayer Yakuhin,Ltd., and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLC, as well as President’s
Circle Member Eli Lilly Japan K.K. The ACCJ-Kansai Chapter
played a critical role in organizing the competition.
Where did you get your company name?
At Stanford University in the 1970s, some engineers came up witha medical artificial intelligence program called MYCIN. Its goal
was to recommend the best medicine for treatment of diseases.
It wasn’t able to give recommendations that were quite as goodas those of medical experts in their field, but it was able to help
doctors dealing with cases outside their expertise. Ultimately, it
failed. But we wanted to pay homage to that effort and changed
MY to MI for “medical information” to create MICIN.
Listen to this story:
accj.or.jp/sound

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

21

22

How did your company start?
There are four co-founders, including me. It all started when thecurrent CEO, Seigo Hara, and I were both employees at McKinsey &Company. Hara is a medical doctor, so he has been involved in many
healthcare projects. I was a part of two or three of them with him.
In the summer of 2015, when I was working for McKinsey in
New Jersey, I came back to Japan for vacation and met up with Hara
for dinner. He said he was thinking about quitting McKinsey andgoing corporate. He saw an opportunity in addressing a pain pointin the inefficiencies of handling medical information in Japan.
I had noticed the same thing, so we started to think about
possibly starting a company together to tackle this. But neitherof us were IT engineers; we couldn’t write code. So, we had tofind a chief technology officer.
By chance, I met a computer engineer named Yusuke Sugomori
at a barbecue in New York soon after that. He was saying he planned
to quit his job, so I asked him if he wanted to join us. “That sounds
like a cool company,” he said.
Sugomori contacted a friend named Ryushi Shiohama, who wasalso a computer programmer. So those were the four starting members—two guys on the business side, two on the engineering side.
If I hadn’t met Sugomori at the barbecue, there probably would
be no MICIN. Same if I hadn’t met Hara at McKinsey. This company
was the result of several key encounters.

Normally, if you feel like something’s wrong, you go to thehospital, and you often wait a long time to see a doctor. But theactual time the doctor sees you is like three minutes. That’s not
an ideal situation.
Lately, through the internet, you can buy vegetables andshoes—but you don’t have to wait three or four hours to do that.
In the same way, if you use the internet to see a doctor, the wait
time drops sharply. You could book an appointment for 4:00
p.m. and see the doctor at that time.
After the online medical exam, you would pay the doctor’sbill through the app using your credit card, and the medicine
would be delivered to your home. That’s the new kind of medical
experience we’re creating.
Can doctors really examine patients online?
There are some diseases that can be addressed online and somethat cannot. Diagnoses that involve listening to or touching thepatient are hard to do this way—orthopedics, for example. Butinternal medicine or chronic diseases are easier.
Also, initial visits are very hard do online because the doctor
generally needs to see a patient to correctly diagnose the problem. But subsequent visits can often be done online because thedoctor already knows the situation. For things such as treatinghigh blood pressure, if there’s no change in the patient’s state,then the doctor can prescribe the same medicine.

“BECAUSE OF COVID - 19, DIGITALIZATION HAS ADVANCEDFIVE YEARS IN THE SPACE OF ONE.”

What strengths and experiences do you each bring?
Hara is a medical doctor, an alumnus of the University of Tokyo
Graduate School of Medicine, so he has detailed medical knowledge.
Sugomori is strong in machine learning and has written books on
this. And Shiohama has been coding since middle school, so he’s anexperienced systems engineer.
I’m probably the least specialized of the four of us. My background is in mechanical engineering, and I’ve worked on healthcare
issues. I kind of fill the role of “other duties.” I was chief operating
officer, so I sometimes say that COO stands for “chief other officer.”

How receptive have doctors and hospitals been to curon?
Compared with the more proactive stance of pharmaceutical companies, doctors and hospitals have shown a bit more reluctance or
confusion. It’s not that they dislike or are opposed to information
technology (IT), but doctors are very busy. So, to learn a new IT
system can sound overwhelming.
Curon is a relatively easy system. It’s browser based, so there’s noneed to install software. Before using it, doctors are sometimes resistant or not very confident, but once they start, they generally findit easy. You just really need your index figure to touch commands.

What memory stands out from the early days?
We started out working in a small apartment in an old building
from the 1970s. We were told that it would be demolished in 18–24
months. So, it was kind of a question of whether the building or
MICIN would collapse first—or we would grow enough to moveout into a larger, better space. I remember that and riding the lasttrain home at night.

Do you have other lines of business?
Yes, we have three divisions. In addition to online health services,
we support clinical drug trials through a digital-solutions businessthat seeks to assist pharmaceutical companies. We also have a
digital therapeutics business that uses an app to help people seeking counseling or who have other issues. For example, if someone
wanting to quit smoking feels the urge to light up, the app can offersome alternative actions—such as washing one’s face—that will
distract them or help reduce the urge.
In terms of sales right now, the one related to clinical trials is
the smallest but also has the most potential.

Where did the idea of curon come from?
In August 2015, the Japanese government deregulated online medical treatment. Until then, it could only be used for a limited numberof diseases. But that was expanded quite broadly. This provided an
opening for us to move ahead with the idea of creating an app thatwould allow people to get an online medical examination. We liketo say that your smartphone becomes your examination room.

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

How has Covid raised awareness about online health?
In February 2020, curon was used only by about 2,000 facilities.
But now it’s more than doubled to about 5,000. Because of Covid-19,

23
In February 2020, MICIN‘s curon online medical
exam service was used only by about 2,000
facilities. A year into the pandemic, that has morethan doubled to about 5,000.

digitalization has advanced five years in the space of one. We think
we have a big responsibility at a time such as this.
Why the jump?
Two reasons. First, because of the spread of Covid-19, doctors don’tnecessarily want patients to come to hospitals and risk spreading
the virus. Second, regulations governing online medical services
were loosened.
It’s also changing other industry practices. Traditionally,
Japanese pharmaceutical companies have medical representatives—salespeople—who visit hospitals and explain their drugs.
But with the pandemic, doctors didn’t really want these reps tovisit them. So, Covid-19 forced a big rethink of this model.
How did you fund your startup in Japan?
At first, we were using our own money. But then we received
funds from an angel investor. In 2018, we received an investmentof ¥1.1 billion from a few companies.
What challenges did you face starting your business?
One issue was that, other than me, we really didn’t have any staff
to help on the business side. To increase users, we needed doctors
and health facilities to get to know our system. But I was basicallydoing that alone, so that was hard.
Another difficult thing was managing the pace of hiring. For
example, if sales double in six months, it’s hard to double your staff inthe same amount of time and hire really good people. So, you have tothink about how to cope with rapid growth using existing staff.
In online medical services, how far behind the US is Japan? Why?
There are several large companies in the United States that provide
online healthcare services used by millions. By comparison, Japanis about five years behind. This method of providing healthcare isspreading here, but more slowly than in other countries. I think
the biggest reason is that there aren’t as many incentives for
doctors and medical facilities to use online services. A Keio University study of the difference, in 17 nations, between doctors’
reimbursement for online and in-person meetings shows that inonly two countries did doctors lose money with online services.
Japan is one of them.
So, we need to provide incentives for doctors to adopt online
services. That’s one reason that hospitals and doctors are a bit
reluctant to install telemedicine for all patients.
What was the presentation experience like?
Because we were pitching to pharmaceutical companies, I focusedon how online platforms would impact their industry. I explained
how, because online services are easier, fewer patients drop out
and the portion of patients who continue to get treatment grows.
That’s a plus for pharmaceutical companies.
We are also seeking to boost patients’ satisfaction rate. The
expression “beyond the pill” is heard in the pharmaceuticalindustry—in other words, not just providing medicine, but trying
innovations in patients’ treatment experiences. I explained how
we could work together to achieve those goals.
How will your Healthcare x Digital win help you?
The biggest plus it that it has expanded the collaboration withmajor pharmaceutical companies. Those companies want tosupport patients to make sure that their products are usedappropriately. So, we talked about how they could get feedback
from patients to better understand their issues and use thecuron platform to achieve an ideal patient journey.
The ACCJ has many attractive partners, so if there are startups that want to expand their business through such collaboration, I’d encourage them to enter the competition. n

About Healthcare x DigitalA program of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ), Healthcare x Digital is designed to giveinnovators the opportunity to pitch ideas to top executives from some of the world’s leading healthcare andpharmaceutical companies. Join us to discover Japan’s most innovative healthcare ideas and develop
partnerships to make them a reality. Participation and sponsorship details: accj.or.jp/hxd

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

RECOVERY24

By C Bryan Jones

RISINGTO CHALLENGESJESPER KOLL ON
PROGRESS SINCE
MARCH 11 AND THE
ROAD BEYOND
COVID - 19

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

T25

he months following the triple disasters of March 11, 2011, brought
great uncertainty and speculation. Now known as the Great East
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
disaster, these tragedies forced us to rethink many aspects ofbusiness and policy.

In the May 2011 issue of The ACCJ Journal, economist Jesper Koll, then the Japan director of research at
JP Morgan, penned an article entitled “From Disasterto a New Japan: Detailing the Economic Path Recovery
for Post-Tohoku Earthquake Japan.” In the story, heasked whether the disasters would accelerate, delay, or
possibly reverse the deep fundamental trends that had
been shaping Japan’s economy over the prior decade.
To mark the 10th anniversary of that fateful day,I sat down with Koll, who is now senior advisor at hedged
equity fund Wisdom Tree Japan, to find out how his
predictions played out and whether the coronavirus
pandemic might bring the same sort of transformations.
How do you feel things have evolved since March 11?
Glancing over the article a decade later, the bottom lineis that, while I was optimistic then, I wish I’d been evenmore optimistic. I actually believe the disaster was agigantic catalyst for the rise of a new Japan.
Some of the predictions did come true. The stock
market bottomed out six or seven months after the disasters at about 8,000 on the Nikkei. It has since roaredback to 30,000. And this rise in the stock market has
been accompanied by a powerful upturn in earnings.
If you look at corporate earnings per share (EPS),at the end of 2011 the average value stood at about 30;
by end-2018 it had surged from 30 to 125. So, Japan’s
market recovery is not a bubble blown up by Bank ofJapan liquidity, but based on solid fundamentals.

Did corporate Japan actually restructure and change?
I believe the answer is absolutely, yes. There’s real
substance behind what has happened in corporate
Japan since 2011, and I do think that it was clearly the
March disasters that were the catalyst.
An added factor were the floods in Thailand, whichhappened soon after March 11. A lot of industries—
particularly automotive and parts—were very dependent on Thailand. The two disasters compounded,
and corporate leaders were left with no choice but torebuild and restructure in both Japan and Asia.
We often forget that 2011 was really the first timethat worries about supply chains, and the need forsupply chains to be diversified, came through; and thedestruction in Japan and in Asia allowed leaders tomake drastic changes in probably a much more decisive way than under “business as usual” conditions.
The results are impressive: 10 years ago, at thetime of the earthquake, about 50 percent of the profits
from Japanese corporations came either from exports
or offshore production. Over the past 10 years, that has
grown to 63 percent. You’ve seen the drive particularly into Asia–Pacific and the People’s Republic ofChina, with corporate Japan becoming more global ingeneral, more Asian in particular.
Would that have happened without the earthquake?
I think absolutely, yes—simply because China and Asia
are growth markets. Was the earthquake a catalyst to accelerate that trend? Again, the answer is absolutely, yes.

Jesper Koll
Senior advisor
Wisdom Tree Japan

Listen to this story:
accj.or.jp/sound

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

26

How have disasters influenced government?
The worry that I raised in the 2011 article is that the earthquake
would become a trigger for bigger government rather thansmaller government. And I believe, whether we like it or not,that unfortunately that has been borne out.
Clearly, there is a need for the government as a helping hand,a need for the government as a support mechanism. There’s absolutely no question about that. But I do think that, in terms of rules
and regulations, certainly the major bureaucracies—particularly
the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)—have felt
empowered by the earthquake to work harder for the common
good. In fact, this move towards big government is currently
being turbocharged, not just by Covid-19 but, more importantly,
by the growing concern over national security, vis-à-vis thePeople’s Republic of China.
I’m always optimistic about Japan—and I think it’s absolutely
right to be so—but the worry is that the helping hand from thegovernment starts to be overextended and begins to stifle andstrangle the innovation potential of the private sector. Unfortunately,
I think that the worry that we raised 10 years ago still stands,

Might Covid-19 cause more restructuring?
Yes, and this is very interesting. The tsunami forced incredible
human tragedies and suffering in a huge area; but for industry
the impact was actually limited to a few specific sectors, suchas car parts, electronic components, and, of course, utilities. Less
than 10 percent of Japan’s productive capital was affected.
In contrast, the Covid-19 crisis is much broader, because it
affects everybody and all aspects of the economy. It affects youwhether you’re a small drugstore, a little flower shop, a hairdresser,a big accounting firm, a financial corporation, a car maker, or
any other type of business. Nobody can hide from the pandemic.
For Japan, I see the Covid-19 crisis as a broad-based catalyst
to break up old work habits. That, to me, is actually the mostinteresting dynamic going on over the past year. All of a sudden,
the corporate culture in every company—whether it’s a small or
medium-sized enterprise or a large corporation—has changed.
The deep-rooted Japanese work culture—the social pressure to
be in the office, the rigid communications protocols and decisionmaking procedures—all of a sudden all these had to change, had
to be re-invented. Now the 55-year-old bucho (general manager)

Nikkei 225 Average
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2013

2014

2014

2015

2015

2016

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2017

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2021

2021*

* Data through March 17, 2021. Source: Macrotrends

and probably has grown because of Covid-19 and the intensifying national security debate.
It’s interesting, because nobody talked about national security right after March 11. This was a home disaster, this was anact of God, and we have to gaman suru (persevere), support thevictims, and let entrepreneurs and business leaders do the rebuilding. Now, 10 years later, the role of the government has grown
substantially and so has its interference in private business andinvestment decisions—whether it’s those of Japanese companies or
global multinationals.
Obviously, the national security aspect is of fundamental importance; but unlike the United States, were the National Security
Council and the Pentagon drive the agenda, in Japan it is METI
and the Ministry of Finance that spearhead policy initiative. The
risks are high that, in the name of national security, other agenda
items actually drive economic policy. And this is something that
we need to worry about over the next decade.

needs to invent new ways to keep his staff motivated while ona Zoom call; and, quite frankly, the 55-year-old probably didn’tknow what a Zoom call was until the crisis began. All of a sudden,
all the outdated procedures and rules and norms of how businessis supposed to be done are changing. It’s a huge challenge and aonce-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
But if there’s one thing that we know about Japan, it’s that rising
to challenges is what makes Japan great. I firmly believe that Japanactually never wastes a good crisis.
I’m very, very bullish that Japan will be much stronger in the
post-Covid 19 world; and even more so than after the tsunami
disaster, this time the strength will come from genuine restricting
in all sectors of the economy, especially the services and nonmanufacturing ones, not just the manufacturers.
Might border closures pull manufacturing back home?
Absolutely not. Just look at the data. METI, in the name of national

1
THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

27

Photo: Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Bradley [CC BY-SA 2.0]

Members of the Fairfax County, Virginia, Urban Fire and Rescue Team search downtown Ofunato for survivors on March 15, 2011.

security, is trying to encourage people to close shop in China andcome back to Japan; but nobody’s doing it. And why would you?
It just does not make any sense. Anybody who manufactures
things must be as close to the end-customer or consumer as
possible. So, I think that there’s a narrative, from the national
security perspective, that people like to spin. But for all intents
and purposes, again, your growth is abroad.
I’m the bullish guy on Japan, and I forecast, over the next 10
years, an average one-and-a-half-percent growth in gross domestic product. If you’re the bearish guy on China, that growth is four
percent. If you’re bearish on India, it’s about three percent. So, evendelayed by a week or so. I get all that, but the overall flexibility anddynamism of the global supply chain over the past 12 months has
been absolutely astounding.
I realize that this goes counter a little bit to some of the ways
in which METI and the government would like to spin the narrative, but it’s like food self-sufficiency. Japan produces 40 percent
of its food; the rest is imported. It’s just the nature of the game.
It’s impossible to get Japan to food self-sufficiency. So, actually,
the most constructive way to raise Japanese national income, andthe purchasing power of her people, would be to speed up foodproduct import liberalization.

IF THERE’S ONE THING THAT WE KNOWABOUT JAPAN, IT’S THAT RISING TO CHALLENGES
IS WHAT MAKES JAPAN GREAT.
if you use the bearish baseline assumptions for non-Japan, there
is absolutely no question where the growth is. And to succeed inthem, it is imperative to be as close to your buyers and customers
as possible.
Also, Japanese business leaders are fully aware of the single
most important megatrend driving global opportunities: thegrowth of the middle class in Asia. There is a wonderful statisticfrom the International Monetary Fund that predicts, over the
next five years, that 92 percent of global growth will come fromthe rise of the Asian middle class. And I don’t serve the Asian
middle class by manufacturing in Kagoshima. Sorry to be very
blunt about it.
Right now there is a big narrative that supply chains must
be diversified. But if you talk to tech companies, they say: “Excuse
me, my supply chain is diversified. What are you talking about?”That’s one of the lessons, ironically, of the coronavirus pandemic.
Everybody talks about a crisis of capitalism, but it’s not in the
supply chains. Maybe there are a couple of screws missing for a
specific windshield wiper model, or some electronic components

And that applies to many other areas, correct?
Exactly. You’ve obviously got the whole energy debate, the environmental debate, and other debates that are coming to the fore.
I think it’s relevant to the rebuilding of Fukushima.
Ten years ago, the sort of guidelines related to environmental
friendliness—for environmental, social, and corporate governance(ESG) considerations—were much, much looser than they are today.
To rebuild something today, to make an investment, the pressures tobe ESG compliant have obviously gone up quite tremendously.
This is not only in terms of the oversight and constraints by
the government, from added rules and regulations, but increasingly from investors. It’s not just the government that promotes
ESG, it’s also the investment community. From that perspective,
I think the overall freedom to rebuild has certainly come down.
I very much believe there is a lot of good in the ESG and STI guidelines to promote more sustainable development; but it is also certain
that, for you and me, as businesspeople and entrepreneurs, rebuilding Tohoku after the tsunami was a little easier than rebuilding will
be after Covid-19. n

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

3/ 11を心に刻んでT

IN MEMORIUM

o mark 10 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake andTsunami, the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ)
presents a selection of articles published in The ACCJ Journal
during 2011. These stories chronicle the chamber’s experiences
and response.

From Disaster to a New Japan
Jesper Koll details the economic path to recovery for postTohoku Earthquake Japan. (May 2011)

Rising to the Challenge

Corporate Social Responsibility

Then-ACCJ President Michael Alfant describes how the chamber
responded in the aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake. (April 2011)

ACCJ member companies on the ground in disaster relief
post 3/11. (July 2011)

Friends in Need

Doing Good after the Disaster

Lt. General Field and the Story of Operation Tomodachi, thehistoric joint effort between US and Japanese forces to aid Japanin one of its greatest times of need. (September 2011)

Vicki L. Beyer, then-ACCJ vice president and chair of theInternational Affairs Advisory Council details the distributionof funds from the ACCJ Disaster Appeal. (August 2011)

Remapping, Re-envisioning, Revitalizing

Getting Your Hands Dirty

Seth Sulkin examines the future of Japan’s population and resource
allocation in the wake of the Tohoku earthquake. (May 2011)

ACCJ members engage the Japanese community by helping
out in Tohoku. (July 2011)

To read these thoughts from chamber and industry leaders, visit: accj.or.jp/311-in-memorium.

TRANSPORTATION

30

By Julian Ryall

PEOPLEAHEAD OF PROFITHOW DELTA CHARTED A SAFE PATH
THROUGH THE PANDEMIC

F

or airlines, 2020 was little short of an unmitigated disaster.
Industry statistics show that, compared with the previous
calendar year, international passenger demand collapsed

75.6 percent—the sharpest contraction in aviation history—withdomestic demand down 48.4 percent. Figures from the Interna-

tional Air Transport Association (IATA) also indicate that in 2020,
demand for air cargo decreased 10.6 percent on the year, the largest
year-on-year demand drop since IATA began monitoring cargo
performance in 1990.

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

And, while a good amount of the news surrounding
the coronavirus pandemic that has emerged in Marchhas been positive—with the number of new cases
falling markedly in many countries, vaccines being
administered, and the effectiveness of the drugs higher
than anticipated by the experts—the outlook for theaviation sector is still fairly bleak.
Bookings for future travel made in January, forexample, were down 70 percent on the figure for thesame month last year, putting further pressure on
the cash positions of many airlines and, potentially,
impacting the timing of the anticipated recovery.

Bright Spots
Amid all the doom and gloom gripping the industry,
however, some bright spots stand out. One of the very
brightest has been the commitment demonstrated
by Delta Air Lines, Inc. to ensure that its customers
and employees are protected and still able to fly to thedestinations that they need to reach.
“We had a really good 2019 and things were looking
positive—and then the pandemic broke out and, likeeverybody, we had to make some difficult decisions on
short notice,” said Victor Osumi, managing director
and president of the Atlanta-headquartered airline’s
operations in Japan.
“I can say that 2020 was the most difficult in thecompany’s history, and that just underlines how badly

In a statement, chief customer experience officer
Bill Lentsch said: “We want our customers to havecomplete confidence when traveling with Delta, andthey continue to tell us that more space provides morepeace of mind.
“We will continue to reassess seat-blocking in relation to case transmission and vaccination rates, whilebringing back products and services in ways that instill
trust in the health and safety of everyone on board.
That will always be Delta’s priority,” he added.
In January, the Airline Passenger Experience
Association (APEX) and aviation marketing consulting firm SimpliFlying Pte. Ltd. announced that Delta
had earned the Diamond rating for airline cleanlinessand safety. The rating, which means the airline hasachieved hospital-grade cleanliness and sanitationlevels, is the highest in the industry and was part of a
new and independent study of standards at airlines.
Announcing the award—and citing his own experiences—APEX CEO Dr. Joe Leader said, “Delta Air Lines’
Diamond-level focus on continuously advancing
customer health safety has been a shining example
through Covid-19.
“Beyond Delta’s certification, I have consistently
witnessed their flight attendants’ commitment to safety
and care on dozens of flights with my family during the
pandemic,” he added. “Polite mask checks over nose andmouth occur like clockwork on each pass. On our Delta

31

Victor Osumi
Managing director
and president ofJapan operations
Delta Air Lines, Inc.
ACCJ Governor

IN FEBRUARY, THE AIRLINE HIRED WORLD - RENOWNEDCARDIOLOGIST DR. HENRY TING AS CHIEF HEALTH OFFICER —A FIRST FOR A US AIRLINE.
the pandemic has impacted our business,” he told
The ACCJ Journal.
Delta very quickly grasped a number of fundamental challenges associated with the pandemic. These
included that there was a good chance it would not
be a minor outbreak and that it could linger for somemonths—a prediction that, unfortunately, was correct—and that it had the potential to change the faceof commercial air travel forever.

Safety First
Osumi said the airline’s relative success during the difficult days of the pandemic are the result of “the effortsof everybody at the company,” combined with exacting
cost discipline, listening to the needs of customers,
and taking the opportunity to implement changes thatprovide a better and safer flying environment.
“Delta has always put people ahead of profit, but weapplied that even more in this situation,” said Osumi.
In April 2020, Delta opted to improve passenger
safety by blocking middle seats in three-seat passenger
configurations, even though the measure meant a
sharp decline in passenger numbers. The airline is the
only US carrier to have announced that it is continuingthat policy, and will do so at least until April 30, to ensurethat passengers can plan and book their spring travel.

flight last week, the lead flight attendant added that theywould be regularly checking and cleaning the lavatory
for added customer safety.”

Clean Team
Osumi points out that Delta launched the airline’s
first Global Cleanliness Division, putting in place nofewer than 100 layers of protection across aircraft
and ground facilities to ensure a safe experience forcustomers and employees alike.
Known as the Delta CareStandard, the measures
include blocking middle seats, regularly sanitizing
high-touch surfaces, requiring masks throughout thejourney, and replacing onboard industrial-grade highefficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters twice as often
as recommended.
Delta is also collaborating with the Mayo Clinic
and RB, the manufacturer of Lysol, and has deployedteams of “clean ambassadors” charged with installing
hand sanitizer stations and Lysol Disinfecting Wipes
at customer-facing areas on aircraft and in airports.
That attention to detail is critical, said Shashank
Nigam, CEO of SimpliFlying.
“Delta Air Lines has raised the bar for health safety
in the industry by initiatives such as [adenosine triphosphate] devices to assess the surface cleanliness,

Listen to this story:
accj.or.jp/sound

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

32

DELTA LAUNCHED THE AIRLINE’S FIRST GLOBAL CLEANLINESS DIVISION,
PUTTING IN PLACE NO FEWER THAN 100 LAYERS OF PROTECTIONACROSS AIRCRAFT AND GROUND FACILITIES.
antimicrobial LED lighting above lavatory sinks and countertops,
and oversight by a dedicated management team,” said Nigam.
“Taking such hospital-grade measures in ensuring health safety
will help bolster trust among travelers.”
In February, the airline hired world-renowned cardiologist
Dr. Henry Ting as chief health officer—a first for a US airline.
In his most recent role as Mayo Clinic’s enterprise chief value
officer, Ting became familiar with Delta both as a long-timeMedallion customer and, more recently, a primary Covid-19
advisor who helped shape Delta’s response since the early daysof the pandemic.

Reassurance
In Japan, Osumi starred in an informational video that was filmed
at Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport, but shown at all airports
in Japan from which Delta flies. The video was also made available
through social media channels.
“We wanted to explain the measures we have taken to ourcustomers and thought this would be the best way of getting the

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

message across,” he said. “We wanted to show just how safe flying
is now, as well as the security and health measures we have implemented, including with the cooperation of the airport.”
In another initiative, the airline has conducted webinars withpartner companies to explain the new safety steps that have become
standard. A Delta pilot is involved in communicating that message
during these events.
As well as looking after its customers, Delta has gone out of
its way to take care of its own people, Osumi emphasized.
The company was able to avoid involuntary furloughs of US
employees by offering generous voluntary separation and early
retirement programs, periods of voluntary unpaid leave, job sharing, and other initiatives.
The airline also introduced an extensive program throughwhich to test employees for the virus, while simultaneously
helping to ease the strain on the health system by offering free
flu shots to all US-based staff. In addition, all Delta employees
diagnosed with Covid-19, exposed to the illness, or designated as
high-risk were the subject of pay protection programs.

33

Diversity and Inclusion
Away from the impact of the pandemic on its staff, the company
also took steps to address racial inequality in society, with a commitment to double spending with Black-owned businesses and to
double the number of Black officers and directors by 2025.
Other initiatives include enhanced employee inclusion training and joining forces with organizations that advance equity andjustice, such as the non-profit Operation Hope, which promotes
financial literacy, and OneTen, a coalition of 37 CEOs fromdiverse industries who have come together to upskill, hire, andadvance one million Black individuals in the United States overthe next 10 years into family-sustaining jobs with opportunities
for advancement.
As a direct consequence of these changes, Delta Air Lines
was in 2021 recognized for the fifth consecutive year as one of
the best places in the United States to work, ranking seventh
on a list of 100 large companies—the highest position Delta hasever reached.

Preparing for Recovery
In March, Delta is operating 11 flights a week between Japanand the US—primarily connecting Tokyo with Atlanta, Detroit,and Seattle—and that number will rise to 15 in April. The airline’s
Nagoya–Detroit route is scheduled to resume in April, with Osumi
saying it is important that the two nations’ auto industries beconnected again.
Delta’s routes linking Tokyo with Honolulu, Portland, Los
Angeles, and Minneapolis remain on hold, he confirmed, but will
resume as soon as conditions permit.
In preparation for that, Delta will open its latest Sky Club
facilities at Haneda to ensure “the best possible customer
experience,” Osumi said, while upgraded aircraft are also being
introduced to the fleet.
“The events of 9/11 changed the way we fly today, with security
requiring that we examine laptop computers and not take drinks
bottles air-side of an airport,” he said. “And it is the same now. We
have introduced more than 100 safety measures because we see thelonger-term vision and we want to be the industry leader.
“We also see this challenge as an opportunity to build awareness of just how safe it is to fly and about flying with Delta,” Osumi
added. “The industry will bounce back, and we are confident that
we have done everything to build trust and confidence in Delta sothat we will be ready.” nHave agreat idea?
Want to have it reviewed by top
executives from leading international
healthcare and technology companies?
Sign-ups for the 2021 Healthcare x Digital
pitch event will open this summer, withsubmissions by those selected due in fall.
Don’t miss your chance to win prizes and makekey industry connections: accj.or.jp/hxd

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

PANDEMIC

34

By Malcolm Foster

YEAR

OF UPHEAVALLOOKING BACK AT THE IMPACT OF COVID - 19
AND AHEAD TO RECOVERY

A

year ago, we were suddenly
plunged into a new reality:
working from home, isolated fromcolleagues, figuring out virtual communication, wondering how long thispandemic would last, as well as how it
would affect our businesses, families,
and the world.
With vaccines now being rolled out andcases on the decline, the end may be insight. But Covid-19 has been a gruelingexperience. It’s taken a toll on us personally and on many of our businesses.
It has probably changed forever the way
we work and live. It’s also made us value
many things we took for granted andhas given us some unexpected gifts andbenefits along the way.
In this three-part series on the pandemic, The ACCJ Journal interviewed
about 20 members of the American
Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ)
from a variety of industries about theirexperiences and outlook for the future.
Part 1 focuses on the business impact—
the specific challenges, adjustments,and how this crisis compares with pastdisruptions. Part 2 will explore people’s
personal experiences coping with theoutbreak. And Part 3 will take a look at
the road ahead.

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

Part 1: The Experience
Business Impact
While Covid-19 has disrupted everyone’s life, it had amarkedly different impact on businesses depending on
the industry. Hardest hit have been those that rely on
the free movement of people—travel, hotels, transport,
high-end retail, events, and outside entertainment.
Also taking a toll has been Japan’s decision to ban
tourists from entering the country, and previously
foreign residents from reentering, a move that the
ACCJ lobbied hard to overturn.
Likening the situation to a form of sakoku, Japan’s
215-year period of national isolation (1639–1854),
Thomas R. Shockley, chief executive officer of travelbusiness DocuMonde Inc. and co-chair of the ACCJ
Independent Business Committee, said the pandemic
hit them far harder than the two most recent major
crises: the 2008–09 Lehman shock and the Great East
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011, that
also resulted in a nuclear disaster. But like many ACCJ
members, DocuMonde found new opportunities amid
the chaos and quickly pivoted.
Previously, its business had focused on providing
software solutions for corporate travelers. With theadvent of new travel requirements—a polymerase chain
reaction (PCR) test for Covid-19, health declaration
forms, and submission of detailed itineraries—many
outbound Japanese travelers found it difficult to complete the required forms in English. So, the company
retooled their patented software to convert on the fly
information that was input in Japanese into the required
English eforms. “Many years ago, I learned that when thegovernment changes policies, new business opportunities arise; so keep your eyes open, I have always told
myself,” Shockley said. “So, it is with DocuMonde in 2021.”

Taking a Hit
The switch to providing online instead of in-person
services took a toll on Dale Carnegie Training Japan—
but not because the company couldn’t make the change
quickly. Virtual formats had been used in Dale Carnegie’s
US offices for 10 years, and Japan-based staff got trainedin a matter of days, said President Greg Story.
The problem was that it took months to convince
Japanese clients that online training was an effective
format for training. “There was a lot of ‘seeing-is-believing’needed,” Story said. “What we do is so different, so
dynamic, and highly interactive, but clients are imagining boring slideshows with talking heads.”
Story made a decision to keep everyone together
on the team, not fire anyone, and take the hit. But it
was a big hit, with sales having dropped 90 percent inApril, May, June, and July, he said.
With everyone scattered, a recurring challenge
cited by many team members was the difficulty ofmaintaining regular communication and a sense ofteam spirit. Story, for example, required all staff tomeet online at 9:00 a.m. each day dressed for work—no pajamas. They could also meet again at an optional
3:00 p.m. session to chat over coffee.
For public affairs consulting firm Langley Esquire,the outbreak kept staff busy as the crisis brought a hostof new inquiries from companies seeking information
on government policies and how Japan’s corporate
landscape might change. But working from homemade that sort of interactive, collaborative work moredifficult, and staff had to adopt new tools and practices
to continue working effectively, according to President
Timothy Langley.
After the pandemic hit, Amazon Japan G.K.’s
management met every morning to identify actions
for the day, said Director of Public Relations Midori
Kaneko, asking questions such as: How can we assure
the safety of employees who are on the ground? How can
we fulfill our promises while demands are changing?
Seth Sulkin’s Pacifica Capital K.K., which owns
hotels, shopping malls, and a movie theater, saw sales
plunge in 2020. Two hotels that opened last year
struggled, and most of his hotels were barely getting
10-percent occupancy. Sulkin cut expenses as muchas he could, and government subsidies helped some,but “nobody can be profitable at 10-percent occupancy,”
he said. “You just try to preserve cash for as long as
you can until things recover.”Sulkin believes the pandemic has had a broader
impact on Japan’s economy than either the 2008
Lehman crisis, during which the pain was concentrated
in the finance and real estate sectors, or the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters, after which theeconomy started to recover within about six months.
“The Lehman shock was more isolated. It was very
severe, but for fewer industries,” he said. “Now you’ve
got the restaurant industry, the tourism industry,
events, weddings, banquets. It’s surprising the numberof industries that have been really devastated by this.”
But for his particular business, the Lehman shock
was worse, largely because several of his loans matured
in 2009 and banks refused to lend him more money, putting his entire operation in jeopardy.
“Unquestionably, 2009 was the worst year of my life,
far worse than 2020,” he said. “Every day I would wakeup and everything was bad. Tenants would go bankrupt,
or they would ask for rent reduction, or they would
terminate a lease, or we’d have a loan maturing and thebank didn’t want to lend us new money,” he said. “I wasjust battling to stay alive.”
This time around, his cash flows have fallen more,
but Sulkin isn’t facing existential threats and believes his
businesses will bounce back once the outbreak subsides.

35

Thomas R. Shockley
CEO
DocuMonde Inc.

Greg Story
President
Dale Carnegie
Training Japan

Midori Kaneko
Director of
public relations
Amazon Japan G.K.

Born of the Pandemic
Sulkin also discovered a new business idea amid thegloom. Noticing that many of his favorite restaurants inTokyo didn’t deliver because the food quality couldn’t
be guaranteed, he started Food-e, a home delivery
service for gourmet cuisine. It filled a gap for high-end
restaurants as well as for customers stuck at home
who wanted a tasty meal. Sulkin said he did it partly to

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

36

Amway’s Mark Davidson at work in his home with personal assistant Nori.

save his favorite restaurants, but it’s proving a successful
venture as well.
“It’s a great public service as much as a business,”he said. “Food-e was born out of the pandemic andis benefiting from it in the sense that people are noteating out. So that makes life better. But it still doesn’t
make life what it used to be.”Other ACCJ members said the pandemic has had
limited impact on their businesses, and some evensaid they ended up growing last year. Kiran Sethi,
president of trading company Jupiter International
Corporation, said that, while supply chains did get
Seth Sulkin
CEO
Pacifica Capital K.K

Mark Davidson
Director of government
and external affairs
Amway Japan GK

to adjust operations, serve people’s needs, and grow thebusiness,” Davidson said.
Amazon Japan allowed its employees to work flexible hours, and from home, so adapting to the pandemic
was relatively smooth and they have had the tools theyrequire to do their job in their hands, said Kaneko.
“Today, about 90 percent of our employees whose job
allows them to do so are working from home,” she said.

Managing Expectations
Likewise, real estate company Pembroke, which developed the Tri-Seven Roppongi office building, had shifted“MANY YEARS AGO, I LEARNED THAT WHEN THE
GOVERNMENT CHANGES POLICIES, NEW BUSINESSOPPORTUNITIES ARISE; SO KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN.”

disrupted, his business delivering goods to low-cost
retailers, supermarket chains, drugstores, and online retailers benefitted from changing buying habits
among consumers.
A combination of prescient strategic decisions andblind luck helped Amway Japan GK emerge “stronger,
more profitable, and growing faster” than a year ago,
said Mark Davidson, the company’s director of government and external affairs.
Several years ago, Amway had set out to become
more of an e-commerce business, reconfiguring its
product line around health and wellness, and introducing remote work policies to attract talent, he explained.
“When the pandemic hit, we were perfectly positioned

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

to Zoom meetings in late 2019, so adjusting to working
from home was not a big deal. “We were all trained, notknowing we were going to need it so much,” said Gordon
Hatton, vice president of Asia–Pacific development.
But adjusting employees’ expectations to a long
period of teleworking proved more challenging, headded. “At first, some of them kind of welcomed thenovelty of working from home,” Hatton said. “But when
I told them this was going to last until April, there was agasp. And this was mid-February.”
Initially, staffers frequently asked his permission to go into the downtown office to get documents
stamped with hanko (seals) or to ship packagesby takkyubin (parcel services). But those requests

faded as hanko requirements were reduced and people
simply sent parcels from near their homes. Now, after
a year, the novelty of remote work has definitely
worn off, Hatton said. “People do want to get back
together again.”
In general, though, Hatton feels that Japan’s travails
have been “lighter” than the lockdowns and otherdifficulties he heard colleagues in Britain or the UnitedStates describe. “It’s certainly been easier in Japan, andI think people are thankful for that.”Annie Chang, who runs her own recruiting agency,
AC Global Solutions Ltd, said her sales dropped morethan 50 percent last year as people were reluctant tolook for new jobs amid the uncertainty. “Our businessis about networking with people, preferably in person,
so the biggest challenge is to do everything online,”
said Chang, who is vice-chair of the ACCJ Independent
Business Committee. That required her to invest timeand money in boosting her online presence.

Small Businesses

Throughout the pandemic, members said they weregrateful for the information and webinars deliveredby the ACCJ. In addition to valuable insight on the
disease and government response, the sessions provided
a needed sense of connectedness with others. It was“comforting” to hear other people’s stories and “knowyou are not alone,” said Chang, echoing the sentimentof many. O’Connell said she found “real companionshipand camaraderie” at the chamber. “It was truly a sustaining factor for me to keep going forward in 2020.”
The speed with which the ACCJ shifted to online
programs was admirable, said Steve Iwamura, a partner
at Deloitte Touche Tomatsu LLC who is also chair of
the ACCJ-Kansai External Affairs Committee. And
Amway’s Davidson said the chamber’s sharing ofbest practices amid crises “informed our business
continuity planning.”
But more than anything, members highlighted thechamber’s efforts to lobby the Japanese government tolift the reentry ban on foreign residents, which blocked
nearly all international travel for businesspeople basedin Japan and stranded many overseas. Eventually, after
much pressure, the government relaxed those restrictions, but inbound tourists remain banned.
Sulkin at Pacifica Capital said he was “furious”
that Japan wasn’t allowing foreign residents to return.
“There was a period of several months when people
were stuck here. I think that was terrible for Japan,” hesaid. “As a business owner and an investor in Japan,
anything the government does that hurts Japan’s investment environment is bad for my business in the longrun. And so, I appreciate what the ACCJ did to advocateand fix the situation.”

For self-employed individuals or those at small companies, the crisis tested their ability to adapt andsurvive—and a number of them said the ACCJ, in
terms of practical guidance and a support network,
helped them get through this time.
Once the pandemic hit, Catherine O’Connell, whoowns her own legal practice, experienced a few client
cancellations but quickly pivoted to helping small
businesses who were dealing with their own contract
cancellations. She also helped them tighten up their
existing contracts and began offering educationalseminars on how to cope. She had already been working
on a hybrid law firm model, so going online was not amajor adjustment.
Instead of shrinking back, as she saw some otherlawyers do, O’Connell said she deliberately “stepped
up her game.” As co-chair of the ACCJ Legal Services
and IP Committee, she organized several webinars at
the chamber to help members deal with supply chain
problems and legal issues, as well as sessions on how
to conduct effective webinars. “I found this to be a really
important focus for me to contribute to the chamber
and to target helping others in pain,” she said.
A self-described extrovert, O’Connell responded
to the sudden end of social activities by working withcommittee co-chair Scott Warren to launch the Wine
Down online networking series. Five such events havebeen held to date. At year’s end, in recognition of her
enthusiasm and strong work during the pandemic,
O’Connell won three awards, including ACCJ Leader of
the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year from the British
Chamber of Commerce in Japan.

37

Lobbying the Government

Kiran Sethi
President
Jupiter International
Corporation

Catherine O’Connell
Founder
Catherine O'Connell Law

Annie Chang
President
AC Global Solutions Ltd

Gordon Hatton
Vice president of Asia–
Pacific development
Pembroke

Closed borders have had an impact not only on tourism but on business owners who are foreign residents of Japan.

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

Part 2: Personal Impact

F

38

Anna Maruyama
Technology
representative
IBM Japan, Ltd.

or Anna Maruyama, a technology representative at IBM Japan, Ltd., as the pandemic dragged
along, so did her spirits. Naturally outgoing, shefound the isolation and virtual interaction with clientsand colleagues unsatisfying. It was hard to build trustand genuine relationships.
It was also easy to get distracted at home by TV
programs and household chores. And with no clear
end to her workday, a moment previously marked byleaving the office, Maruyama found herself putting
off exercise and yoga. She had never experienced amajor crisis while on the job. The 2011 earthquake andthe Lehman shock happened while she was in school,
so they didn’t make a big impression on her. But everything around her now seemed gloomy and foreboding.
Toward the end of last year, she started to feeloverwhelmed and a bit depressed. So, over New Year’s
she resolved to reset some priorities for 2021 and takesteps to protect her mental and physical health, including seeking out people with whom she could talk.
“I made it my agenda for this year to make personal
time to do yoga or to go to the massage place [I know] andlet my muscles relax,” said Maruyama, who is also cochair of the ACCJ Young Professionals Forum (YPF). “I
also try to find people who are in the same situation andbuild a network with them so we can share our stories.
Just having a chance to talk about it relieves my stress.”

Work Mindset
Maruyama also bought some office furniture and otherdesk equipment to create a proper home office. That
has helped her get in the necessary mindset and has
delineated the space between her work and her home.
“That helped me a lot.”
She also found a great deal of support at the ACCJ—
particularly through two individuals and the events
they organized. YPF co-chair John Carlson, senior
manager of hepatitis strategic planning at AbbVie,
was a good role model and got her involved in several
networking events.
“He was a wonderful mentor, very adaptable toall these changes that we’re going through,” she said.
“The events he organized worked really well, and hegave me a chance to learn about leadership in thistype of difficult situation. I would like to say a big
thank you to him.”
All these intentional changes have made a big
difference, Maruyama said, and now she actually feels
healthier than before the pandemic. She has devoted
what had previously been her commuting time to
studying, learning, and relaxing. She also doesn’t go
drinking with clients or teammates as much as she used
to and generally eats at home. This, she said, has had
a positive impact on her diet. “I became healthier.
That’s the unexpected outcome of this.”

When home becomes office, finding work–life balance becomes an even bigger challenge.

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

39

Amazon Japan team members look forward to returning to Family Day in a post-Covid new normal.

What’s Important
Covid-19 has certainly brought upheaval to our personal
lives, from imposing isolation and arousing anxiety
to weight gain and coping with kids learning fromhome. But many ACCJ members said the crisis hasbrought personal benefits as well—more family time,a renewed appreciation for things we took for granted
before, and a rare chance to take a step back andexamine our priorities.
“The pandemic forced us to reevaluate our entire
lives and day-to-day activities,” said Timothy Langley ofLangley Esquire. “Everyone reassessed who and what
was important. We sought to reconnect with family
and friends through new means and focused on thethings that truly mattered.”Day by day, though, pandemic life can be a grind.
Work, family, and personal time often blur together.
Debbie Reilly, senior business development and marketing manager at international law firm White & Case LLP,
said avoiding burnout has been her biggest challenge.

Among the various events and webinars held by the
ACCJ, Reilly found one especially helpful. Organizedby the Women in Business Committee, which she cochairs, it was designed to help members lead meetingsand give online presentations. “We’re in Year 2 of thepandemic and I’m still using these tips,” she said.

Feeling Isolated
The most common personal challenge cited by members was social isolation. “There are people I haven’t
seen since the pandemic started, whom I used to see
regularly. So, I miss the interaction,” said Pacifica’s
Seth Sulkin. “Right now, there are very few events,
and restaurants close early. Tokyo is not the vibrant,
exciting place it was before.”
Various ACCJ online events, including informational sessions and the Wine Down online networking series, organized by ACCJ Legal Services and IP
Committee Co-Chairs Catherine O’Connell and Scott
Warren, have helped alleviate that loneliness, members“THE ACCJ COMMUNITY HAS REALLY SERVED AS A RESOURCETO STAY UP - TO - DATE ON WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH RESPECT
TO COVID - 19, AS WELL AS HOW OTHERS IN MY INDUSTRY ARERESPONDING TO THE NEW CHALLENGES IN FRONT OF US.”Her teenage children’s school went virtual last
March, turning their lives upside down, and Reilly has
been working from home for more than a year now.
“Work life and home life can merge into a long, longday,” she said. “Without social interaction to break it
up, I have to be intentional in finding time for a wellness self-check.”
Throughout the pandemic, Reilly said she experienced a range of emotions, including anger, confusion,
frustration, boredom, gratitude, and hope. After morethan a year, “I am wary that pandemic fatigue is settingin,” she said. “But I’m also optimistic and looking forward to the day when we can reconnect with friends
and family in our new normal.”said. “Staying connected is the one big value that the
ACCJ has been providing me,” said Yuka Nakamura,senior brand manager at Eli Lilly Japan K.K.
AbbVie’s Carlson said the chamber “kept me
plugged into the world, despite not being able to see
others in-person. The ACCJ community has reallyserved as a resource to stay up-to-date on what ishappening with respect to Covid-19, as well as how
others in my industry are responding to the newchallenges in front of us.”For Barbara Hancock, vice president of corporate communications and event planning company
MediaSense KK, the biggest personal concern wasrestrictions on international travel, particularly how

Steve Iwamura
Partner
Deloitte Touche
Tomatsu LLC

Timothy Langley
President
Langley Esquire

Debbie Reilly
Senior businessdevelopment andmarketing manager
White & Case LLP

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

40

The pandemic has forced a rethink of packed commutes and how time could be better used for work and family.

Yuka Nakamura
Senior brand manager
Eli Lilly Japan K.K.

it might prevent her from seeing family in the UnitedStates. “Worry one was that if a family emergency
arose, it might not be so easy to get to them,” she said.
Hancock said one noticeable result of the outbreakis that she rarely goes anywhere for a meeting—andthat she can meet a friend online for coffee. While thetechnology has been helpful, “viewing life through ascreen can be depressing,” she said. “My advice is to
be positive, keep your contacts up, and don’t accept
the screen as normal.”
As chair of the ACCJ Charity Ball Committee,
Hancock was glad that the chamber could support
many struggling local musicians who performed online during last year’s ball, which took place virtuallyon December 5. “Musicians depend on live entertainment to survive, and this was a great way to help themand enjoy their performances,” she said.

Overwork

Barbara Hancock
Vice president
MediaSense KKNakamura said the pervasive uncertainty surrounding
the pandemic weighed on her heavily during the initialmonths, when everyone scrambled for information
about the disease. As the government declared a stateof emergency, and many schools and offices closed,
people quickly had to figure out how to cope at home—and keep things going at work—without knowing how
long this new lifestyle would last.
In ensuing months, as information became clearer
and Nakamura became comfortable working from
home, her stress level declined.
But then a new struggle emerged: overworking.
“I don’t have to wrap up and go home to cook dinner,
so I can just keep going, going, going,” she said. Thesedays, she works until around 9:00 p.m., when her
son comes home from soccer practice and she whips
together some dinner. “That’s become my routine,and I’m trying to stop,” she said.

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

Overwork early in the pandemic took a toll on thehealth of O’Connell, leading to a blood vessel in her
eye bursting in May. She took this as a warning fromher body and decided to prioritize her health. Shechanged her diet and made a clear break from work
during lunchtime, after which she went for a walk everyday. She reduced her wine intake, lost weight, and onsocial media posted upbeat photos of herself, withflowers or plants, wearing various patterned masks.
Investing in people and causes at the ACCJ also
played a key role in giving her a sense of purpose,she said. “The deepening of the working relationshipwith my co-chair, Scott Warren, and with the team who
worked on the reentry issues was really so nourishingfor me,” O’Connell said. “To be accepted and have contributions recognized because of what I could contribute,and not because of my law firm’s size or my nationality,
meant a lot to me and still does.”

Tugboats and Ocean Liners
O’Connell said that before the pandemic, interaction
with the chamber governors felt “unattainable,” but she
perceived a “softening and welcoming” among leaders
as everyone rallied together to get through the crisis.
“We were certainly not ‘all in the same boat,’ but were
all on the same sea, in different boats, and helping eachother—from tugboats to ocean liners,” she said. “Tohave that camaraderie was really a new experience forme at the ACCJ.”
Timothy Connor, managing director at Japan
market analysis and strategy firm Synnovate Advisory
and co-chair of the ACCJ Special Events Committee,
found that Covid-19 has led to closer ties with his
peer mentors and an uptick in phone conversations.
“I find myself calling them much more regularly than
before. I do believe that the pandemic has ushered ina new fondness for the warmth of voice communica-

tions. Just look at the rapid growth of Clubhouse as an
example,” he said, referring to the drop-in audio chatapp that is booming in popularity.
Like Maruyama, Connor found it helpful to set
up a dedicated workspace in his home. “I can now
shift from work mode to off mode by moving fromone room to another,” he said. And since it was easy
to just sit all day at home, Connor took up walking
three or four times a day to break things up and gain
some perspective.

Silver Linings
The benefit mentioned most frequently by members
was the ability to spend more time with spouses andfamily. Some unexpectedly hosted university-age
children who needed to come home when their college
campuses shut down.
During Japan’s initial soft lockdown, Mary Nishikawa,founder of medical writing and content localization
consultancy Lexaly Communications and vice-chair of
the ACCJ’s Independent Business Committee, said she
decided to work on a novel and expand her business toinclude creative pieces in addition to her usual medical
and pharmaceutical reports. “I unexpectedly discoveredthat the more writing I do, the better I get, resulting in
more projects coming my way,” she said.
For people whose businesses didn’t take directhits from Covid-19, “this virus showed us just how
meaningless the custom of daily commuting can be.”That’s how Deloitte Touche Tomatsu’s Steve Iwamura
described it, adding, “It has allowed me to go out for adaily one-hour walk, which has been very beneficial
for me, and has given me more time to think about how
Covid is accelerating change and how these changes
will impact all of us.”Part 3: The FutureWhile the coronavirus pandemic has
been grueling, it has proved a powerful
catalyst for what are probably going to
be lasting changes in Japan’s business culture anddaily life, many ACCJ members have said. From theadoption of flextime, remote work, and going hankofree, as well as the beginnings of sweeping digital transformation, “it’s unlikely we’ll go back to what we once
were,” said Kelly Langley, director at Langley Esquire.
Traditions run deep in Japanese society, and majorchanges usually are sparked by external forces. Covid-19
has created an “opportunity to take on long-standing barriers in the public sector and home-grown industries.”
Langley sees the biggest opportunities in technology, energy, and healthcare, particularly as the nation’s
population ages. “Innovative spaces such as digital
health, telemedicine, teletherapy, and pharmaceuticals
have seen a surge in demand, and lawmakers are more
willing to listen to solutions in these fields. Many of
those ideas are coming from foreign players.”
The world was undergoing a digital transformation
before the outbreak, “but Covid put booster rockets onit,” said Steve Iwamura of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.
He predicts that US high-tech companies will play a keyrole in Japan’s digital transformation and bring in many
specialized personnel to achieve it. “That is going tointernationalize Japan, in a way where digital fluency
supersedes English fluency,” he said.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has announced
that digital transformation will be a key goal for Japan.
Kaneko said that Amazon Japan wants to support
that endeavor. The company has supported entrepreneurs, selling partners, creators, developers, and various public organizations and private-sector companies
with digital technologies.
“The level of online shopping in Japan is still low incomparison with other developed countries, but it has
grown as a result of the pandemic as well as the spreadof cashless payments,” she added. “Amazon can provide
low-cost implementation for institutions and companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises,
gearing up to digitalize their operations, given that weare already serving 100,000 companies and 150,000
SMEs throughout Japan.”
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted theimportance of innovation—particularly in healthcare—said AbbVie’s John Carlson. “The global biopharmaceutical and medical technology industries have cometogether to develop novel diagnostics, treatments, andvaccines for Covid-19. I expect this to have a lasting
impact on the image of industry.”
Still, IBM’s Anna Maruyama said that, while Japanesecompanies have realized that they need to change andadapt more quickly, young professionals still feel theirideas and voices really aren’t being heard. “What the ACCJ
can offer in 2021 is the advocacy of how our generation’s
mindset can fuel companies’ transformation,” she said.

41

Mary Nishikawa
Founder
Lexaly Communications

Timothy Connor
Managing director
Synnovate Advisory

John Carlson
Senior manager
Hepatitis strategicplanning
AbbVieKelly Langley
Director
Langley Esquire

Covid-19 has brought long-sought hanko reform.

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

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The New Office
Even after the pandemic subsides, members have said,businesses are likely to maintain some form of hybrid
system in which employees can work from home andthe office. There still will be demand for the office,but its function will change: it will become primarily aplace for collaboration, training new staff, and absorbing corporate culture. Crunching numbers and otherdesk work will be done more at home, said Pembroke’s
Gordon Hatton.
Also, the pandemic has made it clear that mostpeople do crave real-life interaction with others; social
isolation for months on end is no fun—and can hurt
morale and corporate culture. “You don’t notice it
immediately, but you start to lose those benefits ofcollaboration, those missed opportunities when somebody might have said something that gave you an ‘aha
moment’ which you don’t have when you’re sitting by
yourself,” Hatton said.
Expectations about traditional office hours also
have probably changed. Employees are likely to adopt
more flexible schedules, meaning less of a rush hour,
Hatton added. They may work a shorter day in theoffice and finish up at home, or go into the office fewerdays a week, mainly for meetings with team members
and clients.

realize that his business can be maintained without asmuch travel as in the past, so he plans to watch future
travel budgets carefully.
Seth Sulkin at Pacifica Capital predicted that Japan
still has some time to go before a solid recovery begins.
“I don’t expect free movement of people for, at the earliest, six months, and probably more like nine months.
Not until we see herd immunity in Japan, which I thinkis going to take until the end of the year.”
When that happens, he looks forward to restaurants
staying open until 10:00 p.m., allowing diners to frequent
them again. “That will have a great impact on my life. And
once events start up again, that will be really nice.”
Sulkin and Langley were confident that the Olympics would take place this summer—although Sulkinpredicted that inbound tourists probably won’t beallowed to enter the country, and athletes and staff will
be restricted in their movement. “The government isjust so committed, and the IOC seems to have agreed,”he said. “I think with the trends we’re seeing now, andwith the positive impact of the vaccination, infection
rates are declining globally rapidly.”Defeating a global scourge such as the coronavirus
could give new impetus, Hatton believes, to addressing
another looming global problem: climate change. “I’m
optimistic that this will be front and center,” he said.

43“I THINK THERE’S A LOT OF PENT - UP ENTHUSIASM FOR
BUSINESS … SO, WE COULD FIND THAT WHENEVER THE
ECONOMY REVAMPS, IT COULD RAMP UP VERY QUICKLY.”
Office layouts will also change. Companies will
move away from using big, rectangular floor plates withdesks lined up in tidy rows. Instead, offices will havea more casual, creative feel, with more hot-desking or
free seating, and more space for team meetings withlots of whiteboards, Hatton said. “Workplaces will havemore character and become more inspiring spacesthat will be attractive for recruiting top talent,” he said.
“Those are the sort of buildings that will prosper.”Barbara Hancock at MediaSense believes that, while
remote work in various forms is here to stay, she still
would like society to move away from “virtual life. Theinteractions and camaraderie of meeting in person
cannot be replaced by a screen.”Pent-up Enthusiasm
ACCJ members generally had an optimistic outlook for
2021, although there were different views on the speed
and shape of the economic recovery. “I think there’s
a lot of pent-up enthusiasm for business,” Hattonsaid. “So, we could find that whenever the economy
revamps, it could ramp up very quickly.”
Jupiter International’s Kiran Sethi expects his
trading company will come out of the pandemic stronger, partly because he believes some competitors will
get weeded out. Sethi said that he hasn’t done anything
dramatically different during the outbreak, but he did“We’ve had an issue that, for better or for worse, thenations of the world have been working together totry and solve. And climate change is that same kindof issue. Hopefully there will be some good lessons
that come out of this.”Hybrid Events Wanted
Annie Chang, at recruiter AC Global Solutions, would
like to see the ACCJ offer practical help for SMEs suchas her outfit as they try to recover.
One untapped market that Synnovate Advisory’s
Timothy Connor noticed during the pandemic and travel
ban was the need for locally based interim or temporary
general managers (GMs). Examples include when the new
GM cannot enter the country or when the current GM
needs to be replaced, but there is no one to step in, he said.
Many members urged the chamber to expand
hybrid events as soon as it is judged safe to do so. “Noneof us have been to a live luncheon or a gala or anything
like that in the past 12–14 months,” Hatton said. “I think
there’s a big demand for social and networking events.”
Catherine O’Connell urged the ACCJ to schedule
more events this year that are purely for networking—not a “tag on” at the end of a speaker or panel event. “I’dlike to see dedicated events for structured yet fun ACCJ
networking that use QR codes or other electronic meansof exchanging business cards.” nListen to this story:
accj.or.jp/sound

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

DIPLOMACY

44

Public domain photos compliments of the US Department of State

Supporting the
US–Japan Alliance
Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin visit JapanO

n March 16–17 in Tokyo, US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III attended the
US–Japan Security Consultative Committee (2+2) meeting hosted by Japan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi
and Minister of Defense Nobuo Kishi. Secretary Blinken met with Motegi and other senior officials to discuss a rangeof bilateral and global issues, and met virtually with business leaders to highlight the importance of US–Japan economic ties and to
discuss the economic impact of Covid-19. He also hosted a virtual roundtable with emerging Japanese journalists to discuss the futureof the US–Japan alliance, the role of a free press in promoting good governance and defending democracy, and the widespreadbenefits from advancing gender equity and opportunities for women worldwide. n

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

TAXATION

By Eiji Miura

2021 Japan
Tax Reforms

45

Changes to the scope of inheritance and gift tax for some foreign nationals

Japan’s 2021 tax reforms include minor changes
to the scope of inheritance and gift tax for nonJapanese nationals in an effort to increase theattractiveness of Japan as a financial hub.
In 2018, in response to sentiment from the domestic
industry, a new category called “temporarily domiciled
foreigner” was introduced to reduce the scope of inheritance and gift tax, in order to increase the attractivenessof Japan as a destination for senior executives.
Under this category, non-Japanese nationals—who
had worked in Japan under a visa status in the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Appended
Table 1 (which includes investor/business manager,
intracompany transferee, and specialist in humanities/
international services) and who had maintained ajusho (similar in concept to a residence) in Japan for
fewer than 10 of the prior 15 years—were only subject
to inheritance and gift tax on their assets located inJapan for certain gifts and inheritances. Previously,
their worldwide assets had been within the scope ofJapanese inheritance and gift tax.
The 2021 tax reforms further relax the scope toremove the residence period requirement, so longerterm residents will benefit. The new category will becalled “foreign nationals with applicable visa status.”
It is likely that the change will go into effect on April 1.
The proposal is that only the visa status requirement will remain. This would mean that taxpayers
who reside in Japan for more than 10 of the previous
15 years benefit from the reduced scope.

How does it affect you?
The simplified chart below shows the new treatment.
The obligation to pay Japanese inheritance andgift tax falls on the heir or the recipient of the gift,
and the scope of the tax depends on: the domicile,visa status, and nationality of the heir/donee; theSuccessor/
Doneedomicile and visa status of the decedent/donor. Before
the proposed changes, long-term foreign residents had
to factor in that their heirs would be subject to Japanese
inheritance and gift tax on assets located worldwide,
making lifetime gifts a potentially inefficient tax option.
Now, those long-term residents with a qualifying visa
can leave or gift overseas assets to: Other long-term residents with an applicable visa
 Non-resident non-Japan nationals
 Japanese nationals who have lived outside Japanfor more than 10 years
The first category can apply to family members
living together in Japan, and the others to children who
work abroad and adult offspring residing overseas.

Planning Opportunities
If a long-term resident holds a qualifying visa, the newchanges offer estate-planning opportunities. The reduced
scope of inheritance tax means that overseas assets canbe left to overseas non-Japanese national heirs—as wellas heirs who are Japanese nationals but have not lived
in Japan for more than 10 years—without inheritancetax being due in Japan.
Additionally, the reduction in scope of gift tax
means that planning for lifetime gifts and trust transactions can be made for overseas assets without theprospect of incurring punitive gift taxes in Japan.
In the past, the options for long-term foreign residents have been limited, as they were taxed in the same
way as resident Japanese nationals. The new changes
to the scope of the taxes—while ostensibly aimed atincreasing the attractiveness of Japan to foreign executives—will also widen the scope for tax planning for
certain long-term residents. As ever, if you think you
would benefit, make sure to seek professional advice. n

Domicile in Japan
Foreign nationalwith applicablevisa status

Decedent/
Donor

Presented inpartnership with

Eiji Miura is a partner at
Grant Thornton Japan
specializing in succession
planning and international
inheritance/gift taxation for
high-net-worth individuals.

www.grantthornton.jp/en

For more information,please contact Grant Thornton
Japan at info@jp.gt.com.

No domicile in Japan
Japanese national
Domiciled inJapan within thepast 10 years

No domicile inJapan within thepast 10 years

No Japanesenationality

Domicile in Japan
Foreign national withapplicable visa status

Listen to this story:
accj.or.jp/soundWorldwide assets fall within the scopeof Japanese inheritance and gift tax.

Only assets located in Japan fall within thescope of Japanese inheritance and gift tax.

THE ACCJ JOURNAL • MARCH 2021

Corporate Sustaining
Member Companies
The ACCJ thanks these organizations for their extensive participation, which provides a cornerstone in the chamber’s efforts topromote a better business climate in Japan. Information as of March 22, 2021.

PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE

3M Japan Limited

EY JapanMorgan, Lewis, & Bockius LLP

Abbott Laboratories/Abbott Japan LLC

Facebook Japan

Morgan Stanley Japan Holdings Co., Ltd.

AbbVieFederal Express Japan Godo Kaisha

MSD K.K.

Adobe KK

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Tokyo

Naigai Industries, Inc.

Aflac

GE Japan

Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim Co., Ltd.

AIG Companies in Japan

Gensler and Associates/International, Ltd.

Northrop Grumman Japan

Amazon Japan G.K.

Gilead Sciences K.K.

Oak Lawn Marketing, Inc.

Amway Japan G.K.

Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd.

P&G Japan G.K.

AstraZeneca K.K.

GR Japan K.K.

Pattern Energy Group Inc.

Asurion Japan Holdings G.K.

Hard Rock Japan LLC

Pfizer Japan Inc.

Bank of America

HiltonPrudential Financial, Inc.

Bayer Yakuhin, Ltd.

IBM Japan, Ltd.

PwC Japan

Bloomberg L.P.

IHG ANA Hotels Group Japan

Qualcomm Japan LLC

Boeing Japan K.K.

IQVIA

Randstad K.K.

Bristol-Myers Squibb K.K.

Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies

Robert Walters Japan K.K.

Brookfield Asset Management

KPMG

salesforce.com Co., Ltd.

Caterpillar

Kraft Heinz Japan

Squire Patton Boggs

Chevron International Gas Inc. Japan Branch

Lenovo Japan Ltd.

State Street

Citigroup

Lockheed Martin

Uber Japan Co., Ltd.

Coca-Cola (Japan) Co., Ltd.

Mastercard Japan K.K.

Visa Worldwide (Japan) Co., Ltd.

Cummins Japan Ltd.

McKinsey & Company, Inc. Japan

Walmart Japan/Seiyu

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLC

MetLife

The Walt Disney Company (Japan) Ltd.

Delta Air Lines, Inc.

MGA Japan K.K.

Western Digital Japan

Discovery Japan, Inc.

Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd.

White & Case LLP

en world Japan

Mitsuuroko Group Holdings Co., Ltd.

Zimmer Biomet G.K.

Want to join the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan?
We offer membership programs for entrepreneurs, executives, individuals, and companies of all sizes—
from small and medium-sized enterprise to multinational companies.
For details, visit accj.or.jp/join-us.

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account
Your daily life madeeasy, with simple
payments, fundtransfers and cash
withdrawals.

• Download Open Account app.
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functionality) in about 10 days.

Foreign currency
savings accountSave, spend andreceive up to 12
foreign currencies.

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and apply now
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Sony Bank Inc. Registered Financial Institution Kanto Finance Bureau General Manager (TREASURE) No. 578
Affiliated associations: Japan Securities Dealers Association, The Financial Futures Association of Japan and Type II Financial Instruments Firms Association
Important Matters Concerning Foreign Currency Deposits
Foreign currency deposits entail some risks such as loss of principal. When conducting foreign currency transactions, please be sure to make the investment
decision on your own after confirming the “Important Matters Concerning Foreign Currency Deposits” on our English website.