Monday, September 19, 2022 | The Japan Times | 7

sustainable japan

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Seino delivers happiness for workers and customers
Unraveling Japanesecompanies
HIROKO NAKATACONTRIBUTING WRITER

What makes Seino Holdings Co. morecompetitive than many other companies
owned and run by their founding families is
its strong belief in its roots.
“Our basic business concept is basedon the founder’s management philosophy: ‘Making the company thrive leads toemployees’ happiness,’” said President andChief Executive Officer Yoshitaka Taguchi.
On top of the founder’s philosophy, Seino
has its corporate purpose: “Providing customers with extra wealth for their prosperity.”
The trucking business was launched in1930 by Rihachi Taguchi, the grandfather ofYoshitaka Taguchi. He eventually expanded
the company to become the largest landtransportation firm in Japan, with more than
6,000 trucks (Seino now has 25,000).
“The factors that make our workers happyis their economic fulfillment, a sense of pridein their jobs, and our business potential

Seino Holdings president and Chief Executive
Officer, Yoshitaka Taguchi HIROMICHI MATONO

that can make them view the future from abright perspective,” Taguchi said.
But making customers and workers
happy was not what many Japanese corporations aimed for in the early 1900s, whenmany workers were forced to do long hoursof hard work at low pay in labor-intensive
industries.
Where Rihachi Taguchi differed fromother business owners was that he himself
worked as a delivery driver, meaning heknew how heavy packages were and how
the work made the body ache. The experience led him to care about his employees,
Taguchi said. Another reason the founderemphasized the importance of workers’
happiness was his experience in war. Having
joined the military to fight in China before
he started the company, he knew how precious human life is because he saw manyof his comrades die during the war, Taguchi
said.
When the trucking company wasfounded in 1930, the transportation industry
was not yet mature. For instance, out of 10
rolls of kimono cloth that clients asked tobe delivered, only nine arrived. Some of theexcuses that deliverers made were that they
had had lost it somewhere, or accidentally
stained it — a thing that often happened in
the early years of truck deliveries. Trucks
were targets of theft as well. If a truck driver
stopped at a red light, someone would
sometimes open the tarp at the back andsteal some of the packages piled up inside.
To gain customers’ trust, Rihachi Taguchi’s
approach was to create additional value
through information communication by letting senders know when their packages will
arrive.
Beginning with the idea of how create
value to make their customers happy, iswhat keeps Seino ahead of its competitors.
His company was also ahead of others
because his actions changed the rules for thepostwar transportation industry. Originally,
only the national railway company waslicensed for long-distance package deliveries.

HIROMICHI MATONO

But wartime bombings cut some rail lines,
which encouraged him to go to the transportation ministry and ask that Seino belicensed for door-to-door deliveries by truck.
He persuaded the ministry that this business model was necessary for the Japanese
economy to grow in the postwar era.
“We always think about our contribution
to our society and employees. At the sametime, we make progress by creating value.
It is in our DNA to have respect for workers,
encourage self-growth and contribute toother people,” Taguchi said.
Another concept that Taguchi depends
upon to keep on managing the threegeneration business is the family ethic. His
grandfather, who pursued the growth of hiscompany, often told his children and grandchildren to be frugal. Taguchi said he remembers his grandfather often told them atdinner, “Eating a whole saury makes a familyruined.” Sauteed Pacific saury is a commondish for dinner in Japan, but seafood was so‘Learn locally, think globally’at two unique universities
Satoyama~AuthenticJapan
MAIKO MURAOKACONTRIBUTING WRITER

The 24th Satoyama Cafe, held on July 1 by
The Japan Times’ Sustainable Japan Network,featured two unique universities, Satonova
University and Co-Innovation University,that have partnered with more than 20 locations where students can learn through community-based projects and communication
with regional stakeholders, staying in one
region on a long-term basis.
Ryosuke Nobuoka, the founder of Satonova University, has referred to Co-Innovation
University as “the first university in Japan wesee as an official competitor.” The schools
have more similarities than differences, but
this also means there are various possibilities
for collaboration between them in the future.
The first similarity is that they are bothvery new. Satonova University was launchedin 2018, and Co-Innovation University is currently in the planning stages and plans toopen in 2024. Both founders were born in the1980s and have a shared sense of crisis overurban centralization.
Nobuoka worked as a web director instartups in Tokyo after graduating from auniversity in Osaka but began to struggle
to picture a happy future beyond excessive
economic growth. Thinking that a meaning
to work and a sustainable future could befound in a small economy, he moved to thetown of Ama on Nakanoshima, the secondsmallest inhabited island in the Oki Islands inShimane Prefecture.
“Some people said things like ‘Are you
dropping out of modern society?’ when
I decided to leave Tokyo, but actually myA concept image shows the tentative designfor the Co-Innovation University.
HIDA TAKAYAMA UNIVERSITY

world expanded in Ama. Because it is a smallcommunity, you meet every constituent —farmers, local government officials, businessowners and people who are moving in fromother areas — without even trying,” he said.
“It is a perfect environment to think about
how to address regional issues and create a
prototype of a new society.”
Hironari Inoue, representative director of
the foundation to establish Co-Innovation
University, was born in the city of Takayama
in Gifu Prefecture. Takayama is one of thelargest cities in Japan, nearly as big as Tokyo,
and more than 90% of its total area is forest.
“The challenges of the region have always
been the unutilized forest resources and having no universities in the locality. I wanted toaddress both,” he said. Becoming a bureaucrat and then a lawmaker was his initial plan,
which he thought would be the quickest
way to create a university in the area. But
the Great East Japan Earthquake and thesubsequent nuclear accident changed hismind. “I keenly felt the importance of bottom-up and autonomous action and management of regions,” he said. He returned tohis hometown and started working on thefirst challenge, the utilization of local naturalresources, by establishing new local businesses, including a small hydroelectric power
generation company, a timber trading company and a trust company, using the knowledge gained through his research on naturalenergy and finance. Now his plan to establish
a university is taking shape.
Another similarity is that both universities do not make students stay on a campus.
Co-Innovation University aims to nurturetalented people who have the ability to solve
issues and transform society. “This can bedone by integrating achievements in variousacademic fields and by strengthening bonds
with others across the borders of regions,organizations and positions through the process of repeating the cycle of theory, practiceand communication,” Inoue said. To achieve
that, students need places where they canpractice what they are learning and engage
other people, which is why the university
has partnered with 13 regions across Japan
where students can stay after finishing theirfirst year at its campus in Hida Takayama.
Satonova University calls itself a travelinguniversity. Students pick from among the 10
available locations every year, so each student can experience living and working on

precious in mountainous Gifu Prefecture,
where the elder Taguchi launched his business, that he thought eating a whole piecefor dinner was not what they should do.
Therefore, he told his family to eat just a half
piece and leave the rest for the next day.
This ethic was passed on to his oldest son,Toshio, who became Seino’s second president. Never having played golf, he once hada chance to play withan acquaintance. Thenext day, he declared that he was placing
a ban on playing golf for business. The reason? He said the sport was so exciting that it
could ruin his company.
Always understanding the client’s perspective led to a wider range of business— not just deliveries but also sales. Responding to customers’ needs, Toshio Taguchi
announced 35 years ago that Seino would
become a “total-service distributor” or “logistics company,” providing customers withinformation about their needs and sellingthem the products they needed. Today, sales

MAIKO MURAOKACONTRIBUTING WRITER

their own projects in four different regions
before they graduate. “They learn fromtheir hands-on experience that what can bedone to solve regional issues varies greatly
depending on what resources the region
has,” Nobuoka said.
The major difference between the twouniversities is whether they have a campus
or not. Co-Innovation University is building aspacious campus that will also serve as a newlandmark and a center for interaction forthe people of Takayama. Having a university
in the region is an old dream for Takayama,
and having a physical campus is one of therequirements for approval by the Education,
Science and Technology Ministry.
Satonova University, on the other hand,does not have a campus, and it currently
positions itself as a citizens college, allowing
collaboration with various other universities.
Last year, Satonova University started collaborating with the online degree course of
Niigata Sangyo University, called Managara,
and created the Satomana Program, whichallows students to use Managara to take subjects that are required for a university degree
while they live and carry out projects in theirchosen locations.
The session ended with an open possibility for Satonova University and Co-Innovation University to work together, such as
through students collaborating in regional
projects because some of the regions thatthe two universities have partnered withoverlap.
The sustainable Japan section
highlights actions toward theenvironment and a sustainable society. For more information please visit https://sustainable.japantimes.com

This section highlights theenvironment and a sustainable society. For more information please visit https://sustainable.japantimes.com

NAONORI KIMURA
INDUSTRIAL GROWTH PLATFORM INC.
(IGPI) PARTNER

Seino Holdings
upholds thefounder’s strong
feeling that making the company
thrive and its workers happy at thesame time must
be the core management philosophy. It
also has the belief that developing thebusiness leads to customers’ happiness.
With these concepts, I found that all thecompany’s business activities and corporate culture head in the same direction ofcreating values that bring it closer to its
customers.
One of the pillars of supporting its
employees’ happiness is creating pridein their jobs. This pride comes from seeing the gratitude of customers, expressedwith a “thank you,” which increases motivation among workers. The driving force ofthe founder, Rihachi Taguchi, who developed a new business model in the stillimmature distribution market and caused
it to evolve by taking the initiative in rulemaking, was adopting the perfect client
perspective and the pursuit of rationality.
This perspective has an impact on today’sbusiness. For instance, as President Yoshitaka Taguchi told us, Seino launched abusiness platform shared with other companies in the logistics industry to respondto societal changes such as decreasing
population in remote rural areas.
The president also has a new businessidea that goes beyond logistics. I could
see an image of the company’s future,continuing to evolve and get closer to its
customers, in the eyes of Taguchi, whostrongly said in our interview that every
business decision depends on whether
the business benefits customers or not.

Event gathers female
entrepreneurs to grow power
ESG/SDGs

An event planned and operated by a student
as a personal project in Nishiawakura village,
Okayama SATONOVA UNIVERSITY

of products are a significant part of Seino’s
overall sales.
Taking the customer’s perspective also
led to a new business model, Open Public
Platform, which Seino and other transportation companies share for customers’ benefit.
For example, Seino and the drone developer
Aeronext Inc. jointly set up a new service
model, SkyHub, in 2021. The purpose of thisplatform is to deliver daily necessities safely
and efficiently to sparsely populated mountain communities. In cooperation with othertrucking companies, they started the dronedelivery service for such areas, where delivery otherwise would take time or be donemuch less frequently.
The service not only benefits local communities where the population is rapidly
declining. It also has side benefits for transportation companies, Taguchi said. “Thisservice has a huge impact on carbon offsets.
Not only that, we can cut down on hidden
costs,” he said. Before using the platform,
trucking companies needed to deliver
packages separately. But by using the platform, a drone can deliver multiple parcels
from different companies at the same time.
Another example of the Open Public
Platform is Hacobell, a logistics-sharing platform that was launched earlier this year
through a joint venture between Seino andRaksul, a provider of printing and logistics
services.
In the future, Seino aims to deal with the
production management business throughmaking alliances with companies that haveexpertise in that field. “What I want to do iswork for customers’ value chain — marketing, purchasing and logistics. The ultimate
goal is resolve our customers’ worries. We
want to be a part of our customers’ value
and continue to provide value.

Gathering 320 female participants in four
locations connected online — Omotesando
and Shibuya in Tokyo, Sapporo and Kobe
— a four-day program for female entrepreneurs was held from July 22 to 25. The
event was organized by Amelias, a project
launched in Japan by Women’s Startup
Lab Impact Foundation Japan. The foundation is headed by Ari Horie, who started
Women’s Startup Lab, an accelerator forfemale entrepreneurs, initially in Silicon
Valley in California in 2013. “The loss of myown mother was one of the reasons why I
started supporting female entrepreneurs. I
felt that we will all be gone, and all we cando is to leave something behind — hopefully something that is impactful,” Horie
said in the opening talk of the second day.
She went on to say that women are connected with many different people and it
is such a waste that the power of women
is not fully utilized in the world of business. She has seen startups accelerate their
growth by becoming part of the vibrantcommunity of Silicon Valley. “We can dothat in Japan too. Just say that you need
help, you want to do it together. Fly away,
not on your own, but hand in hand withsomeone,” Horie said encouragingly tobegin the day’s sessions.
Aiming to to bring global connection andshowcase women’s leadership to inspire
more women in Japan, the two sessions
in the morning featured two women whostarted their own businesses. One of them,a 25 year old young entrepreneur Shayanne Wright from U.S., who founded thesoftware technology company Office Otter,spoke about her experience of planningShayanne Wright, founder of Ofice Otter joinedfrom the venue in Omotesando ERIKO OKADA

PAGE: 7and launching a new business.
Office Otter is not her first business. She
started her first company while she wasin university. “I did not know how to code
yet, I had not finished my degree yet, andI did not have any family connections inthe tech industry,” she said. She learned
as she built her first business, called Left, aservice that helps companies manage theiremployees’ travel. Horie’s Women’s Startup
Lab in Silicon Valley was one of the things
that accelerated her learning. Her being
conscious that she did not have everythingfrom the beginning helped her absorb moreand faster. “You need to be humble enoughto know that your first idea is not the bestidea,” she said, stressing the importance ofbeing open to learning.
That was the attitude that helped herwhen the COVID-19 pandemic hit theglobal economy. She was forced to pivot
and start something that could survive
through the pandemic. She got opinionsfrom various people and decided to makesomething she had always been thinking
about into a product.
“People underestimate assistants. I disagree,” she said. She explained that many ofthem are skillful and capable people who
support CEOs and managers closely, which
was found to be true through her extensive
interviews with 100 people who work as
assistants. She asked them the same questions to find consistent patterns and common pain points to create a product thatwould really be useful for them. That is
how she and her team created Office Otter,a tool for workflow task management andperformance tracking. The product raised$1.6 million in funding and is currently usedby 5,000 companies.
She stressed that it is an asset that female
entrepreneurs’ perspectives are different
from those of men, who are dominant in
the entrepreneurial landscape, and ended
her speech by encouraging female entrepreneurs to be a courageous minority
instead of feeling disadvantaged.
The second session featured Kathy Matsui, general partner of MPower Partners,
Japan’s first ESG-focused global venture
capital fund, and the former vice chair ofGoldman Sachs Japan.
Matsui’s parents were entrepreneurs aswell. They moved from Japan to the UnitedStates to learn and perform cutting-edge

Kathy Matsui, general partner of MPower(right) spoke about the startup ecosystem inJapan ERIKO OKADA

agricultural technology decades ago andestablished their own chrysanthemum
farm in 1967, which was later converted
to a rose farm. Now Matsui Nursery is arenowned grower of orchids.
Matsui started MPower Partners with
two other female co-founders who sharethe same month and year of birth, haveexperience and expertise in fields related
to finance, and whose parents were also
entrepreneurs. MPower Partners helps
startups incorporate ESG factors into theirbusiness. “Entrepreneurs, especially those
who are aiming to go public, will be asked
about the absence of female board members or lack of environmental awareness,”
Matsui said.
She also pointed out that the Japanesestartup ecosystem itself lacks diversity, but
she sees this as an opportunity because
society is changing and there are venture
capital funds that are becoming increasingly diversity-conscious.
Another piece of advice Matsui gaveto the participants was to do thoroughresearch on venture capital firms. She compared finding a venture capital fund to finding a marriage partner and said: “You should
conduct due diligence on venture capitals,
just like they do it on you. Ask their existing investees what added
values their venture capitals provided, or if the venture capitals were helpfulwhen their investees had
to pivot.”
Aiming to highlight issues
related to a sustainable society, The Japan Times gave
its support to this event by
becoming a Media Sponsor.