6 | The Japan Times | Monday, January 10, 2022

sustainable japan

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Xxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx

Xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx

Headline head head head
head head head head head

Name: Xxxxx xxxxxx

Title: General Manager, The Peninsula
Tokyo
URL: www.peninsula.com/en/
tokyo/5-star-luxury-hotel-ginza
Hometown: Seattle, U.S.
Years in Japan: 2.5

Leaders & Readers
XXXXXX XXXXXXCONTRIBUTING WRITERMark Choon’s career in the hotel industry
is of humble beginnings.
The son of Korean immigrants to theU.S., Choon grew up in Seattle, where his
parents operated several American restaurants. Following a brief stint in real estate
after attending university, he moved to asmall town in Wisconsin to join his father,
who had just ventured into the hotel industry by purchasing a franchised Best Western there.
“The town had a population of around
9,000 people,” Choon said, speaking to The

From night manager to general manager,
Mark Choon has bt The Peninsula Tokyo sinceOctober 2019. HIROMICHI MATONO

Japan Times from The Peninsula Suite,which overlooks Imperial Palace gardens.
“The town was so small that when you say
take a right turn at the stoplight, and someone asks which stoplight, you have to tellthem there’s only one.”
After learning the ropes of hotel management for four years at his father’s hotel,
Choon decided to set his sights on bigger career prospects. He thought that if
he wanted to elevate his career, he would
need to align himself with larger, premium
brands. That was when a college friend in
Chicago reached out to him and suggestedhe look for opportunities in the Windy
City.
Choon sent his resume to The Peninsula
Hotels, which was in the early stages of
opening a hotel in the city. He was offereda position as night manager, a position hewas initially reluctant to accept. “I couldn’t
see myself committing to that, but after
speaking with several people working
there, I decided to take a chance and join
the company.”
Choon worked at The Peninsula Chicago for nine years in a variety of positions,further learning the ins and outs of hotelmanagement. Commenting on his longstay there, Choon noted the vast opportunities for new knowledge that kept him
there. “My philosophy is that if I wake up in
the morning and feel there’s nothing left tolearn, then it’s time to move and try something new,” he said. “I never had that feeling;
there was always something new I couldlearn.”
Choon was presented with the opportunity to work overseas at The Peninsula
Bangkok. The assignment marked his firsttime living abroad and entailed a significanttransition. Nevertheless, he tried to always
keep an open mind and learn to apply The
Peninsula’s service philosophy to his newcultural context. “I went in with the notion
that, while I’d be serving in a similar role, I
had to go in with an open-minded perspective because I didn’t know what to expect,”he said.
His second international assignment
brought him to Tokyo, where he worked
as hotel manager. He had visited Tokyo
before in 2007 during a delayed honeymoon trip through Hong Kong, Japan andSouth Korea. The city had captivated him
and his wife during their short stay, andso he was excited by the opportunity towork there. “We fell in love with Tokyo andhow old, traditional architecture butts up
right against something that’s completelycontemporary.”
Choon only stayed in Tokyo for a little
over a year before moving to the Philippines to take over as general manager ofThe Peninsula Manila. However, he would
return four years later in 2019 to assume hiscurrent post as The Peninsula Tokyo’s general manager.
Little did Choon know at the time,
his arrival would precede the COVID-19
pandemic, which would go on to shakethe very foundations of the hospitality
industry. As a hotel that generally caters tointernational travelers, the travel bans that
accompanied the outbreak struck at thecore of the hotel’s business. “When I left in
2015, it was really exciting to see our hotel— and Japan’s hotel industry in general —which had developed to accommodate alarge base of international customers, ride

Mark Choon is the general manager ofThe Peninsula Tokyo.
He grew up in Seattle and studied
communications at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, later obtaining his
Certificate in the Essentials of Hospitality
Management from Cornell University.
He first joined The Peninsula Hotels
in 2001 at The Peninsula Chicago, wherehe served in various capacities for nineyears. In 2010 he was transferred to The
Peninsula Bangkok, his first time living abroad. He has since served as thehotel manager of The Peninsula Tokyoand general manager of The Peninsula
Manila.
Choon likes to stay active and enjoys
working out and cycling. He is also amusic lover, and his time in Tokyo hasrekindled a passion for vinyl records. Oneof his favorite places in Japan is Hakuba,
where he recently had the chance to stayat a chalet with his family, try his hand at
snowboarding and admire the NorthernAlps.

HIROMICHI MATONO

a wave of growth,” he said. “But the pandemic flattened everything.”
Despite these setbacks, Choon said thepandemic presented opportunities for his
team to refine their business model andexpand their range of customers. “We hadto learn to do things in a completely different way,” he explained. “Our customer baseused to be 10% Japanese, 90% international,
so we had to reach out to our Japanese customers and ask what we can do better.”
In particular, Go To Travel, a campaign by

the national government that offers significant discounts on domestic travel with theaim of boosting economic activity in thewake of the pandemic, played a significant
role in helping the hotel expand its brandto a domestic base of customers who werepreviously unreachable.
In addition to reaching out to morecustomers, Choon and his team are continuing to pursue the hotel’s philosophyof sustainability, building upon their reputation as a leading hotel in sustainable

luxury, as reflected by their attainment of
the internationally recognized EarthCheck
Gold Certified status awarded to sustainably minded organizations in the tourism
industry.
A recent example of their sustainability initiatives is the introduction of a newline of ecologically minded amenities.
The amenities’ packaging is 99.9% free ofsingle-use petroleum plastics, and showercaps, toothbrushes and razors that previously used petroleum plastics have been
replaced with more sustainable alternatives made from corn starch, wheat, woodand recycled metal.
Reflecting on the past year and his goals
going forward, Choon is reminded of his
personal motto: “Expect the unexpected.”“This motto makes life interesting,” he said,“and makes you want to seek out things
that are a bit different instead of just staying in your comfort zone.”

Care curriculum: School founder Kataori
Hyperseasonal regional cuisine for the ultimate inNishi binds Brazilians in Aichi
destination dining
ESG/SDGs
MAIKO MURAOKACONTRIBUTING WRITER

Living abroad during childhood is a lifechanging experience in many ways. Whileit can have a positive impact, it may also
leave a child with difficulties in both themother and local tongues, plus put at risk
self-esteem, identity and even daily life ifthe child fails to receive adequate education
and attention.
Escola Nectar is a private school led by
Principal Cleonice Goes Nishi in Aichi Prefecture that has been providing not only
education in Portuguese but also livelihood
support to Brazilian students in the areafor 25 years. Recognizing her efforts andcontributions to more than 2,000 children
who have studied at her school, as wellas their families and the community, theChampion of Change Japan Award (CCJA)
selected her as the winner of the grandprize in 2020. The CCJA, established in 2017,
sheds light on female leaders in Japan who
address pressing needs in society.
Nishi is one of about 6,500 Brazilians livingin the city of Toyota. She came to Japan withher family in the early 1990s. While her children quickly adapted to school life in Japan,
she began to notice that they were losing
their skills in Portuguese. “If you lose yourculture and roots, the bond and communication with your families and relatives inyour homeland may also be lost,” Nishi said.
That was why she started to give Portuguese lessons to her children at home afterschool. Since there were many Brazilianfamilies in the neighborhood, it was only amatter of time before her living room wasPrincipal Cleonice Goes Nishi with studentsof Escola Nectar ESCOLA NECTAR

filled with school kids whose parents had
the same concerns as she did. Many of theparents had come to Japan to take jobs at
auto plants in the area, and retaining Portuguese proficiency was especially important
for those who planned to return to Brazil
someday.
She rented an apartment to accommodate the growing number of students.
She also hired a Japanese teacher to offer
weekly Japanese-language lessons to children who did not attend their Japanese
school or had not enrolled at all, and theirsituation is what pushed the transformation from after-school lessons to officialschool. To make it easier for students totransfer into schools in Brazil smoothly
after they returned, her school became thefirst in Japan to be certified by Brazil’s Ministry of Education in 2001, when it officiallybecame Escola Nectar. But it was not justschooling that Nishi provided. “There arechildren whose family situation is unstableor who cannot adapt themselves to Japanese schools. And if such children cause
any kind of trouble, I have volunteered tosolve the problems even if they are not ourstudents,” she said.
At the beginning of the 2000s, the school
had 100 to 150 students from kindergarten
to high school, and its premises were in avery accessible location. Nishi explainedthat academic research and discussion on
education in the mother tongue for foreign
children in Japan also flourished aroundthat time.
However, due to unfortunate events
that happened internally, involving oneof the supporters of the school, and externally, such as the Lehman Shock of 2008,
Nishi and the school faced a number ofchallenges. The school had to move to adifferent location, and Nishi had to deal
with various troubles, relying on the little
resources she had in terms of the Japaneselanguage skills and local legal knowledge.
Some parents lost their jobs due to the economic slump, increasing the need for support with daily life in addition to schooling.
Through these years of hardship, Nishi
said, she felt renewed empathy for the children who came to Escola Nectar. “As a foreigner, I struggled to solve problems withlimited information and language skills
the same way the children did when they
could not adjust to Japanese schools,” shePrincipal Cleonice Goes Nishi presents a graduation diploma to a student. ESCOLA NECTAR

said, warning that feelings of helplessness
and inferiority can grow without one fully
realizing it.
“We try to support the youths becoming who they want to be and living thelives they want to live by unlocking theirpotential and evaluating each of them as anindividual,” Nishi said. In that spirit, Escola
Nectar also accepts students with diverse
characteristics such as ADHD and autism
and tries to maximize their potential.
“When being a foreigner is already nonstandard, such children are nonstandard even inother Brazilian schools in Japan, and without adequate support to foster their abilities,” Nishi said. She completed a master’s
degree program on education for children
with special needs and an online course
about mental support for teens last year.
Nishi said she has been greatly encouraged by former students of Escola Nectar
who are doing what they want to do in life— pursuing higher education, starting businesses, acquiring qualifications, getting jobs
they wanted and so on.
“The CCJA award also made me feel as if I
was brought back to life after years of hardship,” she said. “There are many women
who are doing assiduous social activities
behind the scene.
I hope they do notgive up, because
someday someone
is going to recognize them.”

Address
Kataori
3-36 Namikimachi,
Kanazawa, Ishikawa
Pref. 920-0928, JapanROBBIE SWINNERTONCONTRIBUTING WRITER

https://kataori.jp/

When it comes to depth of flavor andintense regional focus, there are few dining destinations that can rival Kataori.
Located discreetly on the left bank of
the Asano River in a quiet corner ofKanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture, chef
Takuya Kataori’s intimate restaurant has
only been open for three years but isalready one of the most sought-after reservations in all Japan.
All the best chefs search out the finest
ingredients, but Kataori takes this quest to
the ultimate extreme.
Rather than relying on middlemen, hedrives out early each morning to the fishing ports on the Noto Peninsula north ofKanazawa or to his hometown, Himi, inneighboring Toyama Prefecture, where
he rigorously selects the pick of the catchdirectly from the fishermen, even before it
has been auctioned.
Because of the freshness of these ingredients that have been landed, picked orforaged that very same day, Kataori prepares them simply, in ways that highlighttheir innate flavor. The secret to this minimal approach is the quality of the dashi
stock, which is prepared at the counter

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3$*(൱in front of the assembled fortunate few
guests.
While crab forms the main focus of
Kataori’s attention through the wintermonths, for a short span in autumn hesources matsutake pine mushrooms

YUKIYOSHI YAMANO
KANAZAWA MAYOR

It is our great pleasure toannounce that our city’s
Japanese-style restaurant
Kataori has been selected
for the “Japanese restaurant list for people fromaround the world, chosen by Japanesepeople.”Kanazawa has a unique culinary culturethat has been cultivated since the feudalera, which includes Kanazawa produce
and dishes and related cooking methods,tableware, manners, decorations and traditional high-class ryōtei restaurants. We
would like to invite people from all over
the world to visit Kanazawa and experience its food culture.

directly from local foragers. When thetwo prized ingredients overlap, that has
become the ultimate moment that isawaited with keen anticipation by thefortunate few who manage to secure theirplace at his seven-seat counter.

About Destination Restaurants
Destination Restaurants was conceived
based on the idea of creating a recommended restaurant selection by Japaneseexperts, for people around the world.
The country has a wide variety of climates, and a rich diversity of flora andfauna. The forefront of the restaurant scene
has entered an era in which people canenjoy the creativity of chefs that can only
be experienced in Japan’s dense naturalenvironment
Each year, “Destination Restaurants” will
select 10 restaurants to visit.