I did not join the bank immediately after graduating from university. Instead, I found employment with an insurance company and worked there for 13 years, becoming the branch manager at three branches in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Through an introduction by company presidents that I had brought in as customers while working at Nagasaki, I joined the Junior Chamber International Japan, an organization for young corporate managers, where I worked on regional revitalization and community issues. While working in Hiroshima, I also proposed measures to the city to address the declining birthrate. At the time, I was responsible for rebuilding poorly performing branches.

That job allowed me to broaden my knowledge through stimulating encounters, but repeated transfers nationwide made it difficult for my child to fit in at school at these new locations. I discussed our family’s happiness with our wife and, at age 35, I decided to move to Citibank Japan, which hired me as a manager. Citibank Japan would later be integrated with SMBC Trust Bank, but at the time it was a foreign bank, so it had a flat corporate culture rarely found among Japanese financial institutions. We called our foreign bosses by their first names, some of the employees came to work dressed very fashionably, and many of the employees and customers were from abroad. What I learned from the differing standards and cultures that each of us took for granted was the attitude of trying to understand the other person rather than imposing my own ideas. If there was something I could not do or figure out, I sought to work together with others to find a solution. When I was serving as branch manager, I made a point of talking to all of the employees every day, even if it was simply a “Good morning. How are you?” to close the distance between us. The staff steadily began letting me know when problems requiring difficult decisions arose, thereby establishing smooth business communication through ho-ren-so (reporting, informing and consulting).

Satisfying our customers requires that people in different positions and roles trust each other and act as a team; it cannot be done alone. This is why it is so important to try to understand people with different backgrounds and solve problems together. Thinking about it, I see this lesson applies to my current work as well.

I was reassigned from the personal finance unit to the wholesale unit, and I now work to introduce wealthy customers to the optimal real estate properties. The nature of my new work and the culture in my new posting were completely different, and I was initially concerned because I could hardly understand any of the terminology, but I did what I could while studying every day, and the year before last I passed the Real Estate Transaction Specialist Exam. I have accumulated knowledge and experience in the course of taking on various challenges, and I am now able to secure contracts.

My goal for the future is to become more familiar with my current work and earn my way as a professional, and I have set myself a target of accomplishing in seven years what would ordinarily take ten. This is linked to the idea of “compare yourself to the person you were yesterday,” and what is important is that you think about what you ultimately want to do, that is, that you have your own will. Without determination, the grass on the other side will always look greener, and you will end up pushing responsibility off onto others. If you work hard with intent, however, you will be successful. My intention as a result of thinking this way is that of becoming a professional.

There is no end to learning. Being in an environment where you can continue to learn means that you always have the opportunity to learn. You can learn quite a variety of things while at our bank. One appealing aspect of our bank is that you can broaden your career by gaining diverse experience at a single company. The numerous different organizations that make up our bank create an environment where you can find what you want to do while learning. You must responsibly clear the obstacles that lie before you one by one, think about what you want to do next, figure out what you ultimately want to do, and take that first step forward. You must then study and clear the next obstacle. In repeating this process, you will be able to pursue your career vision. In my case, I was transferred to another department under orders, but my career vision is to become a professional. Other employees working at the bank can also transfer between departments and change careers if they insist on the career they desire with a clear intention. Above all, if you must do something, you want to do it with a sense of fulfillment. If you work hard in the situation you are in, your work will become more enjoyable.