Since high school, my goal had been to become a global achiever and do some sort of international work, so after starting university I took the Special Course for Global Human Resource Development as a minor subject. Out of the desire to study internationally, in my freshman year I took a language course in Malaysia, and in my junior year I went to the U.K. to study.
 While studying in the U.K., I took part in the “Kindness Project” as part of classes in event planning. This project aims to convey the importance of “kindness” to local people, in collaboration with community organizations. I was the only Asian person on the team, and this class was outside my own area, but it sounded so interesting that I really wanted to do it, and did my best wholeheartedly. To start with I was completely at sea, and was hardly able to express my own opinions. However, since I was taking part, I thought that at least I should do something that nobody else could do, and strove as hard as I could to put forward my own ideas. I proposed setting up an origami booth, from the perspective of “kindness” involving understanding other cultures, and was really happy at the positive reaction from the other team members. We drew up a plan so that participants in the event could have fun finding out about Japanese culture, and on the day people of a wide variety of ages came and took part. I think that not only the participants but also the team members were able to find out about Japanese culture, a culture different to their own, through the medium of origami.
 After graduating from university, I took a job with Toppan Inc. I decided to join Toppan, which upholds a “customer-first” philosophy, because I wanted to be challenged by working in a broad range of sectors. At the moment, I am working in sales, proposing plans for packaging and similar items in the areas of healthcare, food, and housing. In my second year in the job, I was given an increasing amount of work to do on my own, and along with this responsibility my motivation also rose. I value being able to work sincerely with clients, proposing ideas to solve their problems. In this process, I try and convey my own thoughts as clearly as possible. Of course, this doesn’t mean proffering my own smug opinions, but rather telling clients my thoughts after having considered what they really need. By doing this, I can obtain my clients’ empathy and trust, and this leads to the resolution of their issues. Without conveying something of myself and taking action, the relationship with others is nothing but a façade, with no communication in any real sense. I try and value “being myself,” and never stop striving to convey my ideas as clearly as possible.
 If you are someone who wants to study internationally in future, I really hope you will value this feeling of “wanting to do something,” and start by challenging yourself. If you can act out of a solid sense of who you are, in many cases things will probably go more smoothly than you expect. I myself have grown up even more while working at Toppan, and hope to be able to work at one of their overseas centers in order to challenge myself further. I would also like to be more actively engaged with the SDGs, which are now considered important worldwide. I still feel the same desire to do a job that engages with the rest of the world that I felt in high school, and hope to come up with plans and make contributions that only Toppan and I can offer.

As of January 2022