By Yasuhiro Kuwata
Kuwata's profile
Born in Kyoto in 1942.
In 1965 he graduated from Doshisha University, the Department of Cultural History, Faculty of Letters.
In 1967 he graduated from the University of Oregon, School of Journalism and joined Heibon Publishing Company.
In 1968 he resigned from Heibon and joined Honda Motor Co., Ltd. as a staff member of International Advertising Department. After one year he moved to the Middle East Sales Department and worked for four years.
In 1972 he established Honda Trading Corporation and worked up to 1979.
In 1980 he moved to the Asia Sales Department and in 1983 he was assigned to Honda Philippines Inc. as Managing Director.
In 1986 he returned Japan and was appointed as Sales manager for the Central and South America Sales Department.
From 1991 to 1996 he was General Manager for International Marketing and Sales Department of power products.
In 1997 he was assigned as Managing Director to Honda Moscow office and retired from Honda Motor Co., Ltd. in 2002.
@@Paris, the capital of France, is a lovely and charming city where I really feel at home. I have made this city as the base station and enjoyed traveling around Europe by train for the past five years. Mr. Bernard, the owner of my favorite gPetith hotel, and his family members have been my good friends for seven years. I am quite far from a view that French people have the trait of excessive individualism. Rather, I feel that a consistent man to man contact will break down any barriers to be caused by the difference of nationalities.
@@A four-hour train ride will take you to Colon, Germany, from the East Station, Paris and Brussels, Belgium, is reached in one hour and twenty minutes from the Montparnasse Station. You can even arrive in Turin, Italy in five hours and thirty minutes from the Lyon Station, Paris. Any station at your destination is filled with the whole bunch of people coming from various countries just like Paris. When a question arises, people have almost no hesitation to ask anybody around regardless of nationalities, colors of skin and difference of languages and in return I shall do the same. When I have some waiting time to get on a train, I shall drop into a Café for a cup of coffee and chat with the couple sitting at the next table. Once I happened to speak with a migrant worker from Cameroon and at another time tourists from Australia.
@@Since I can reach towns of
different countries in several
hours I do not feel that I
have come to a foreign
country. It may well be
understood that Paris, Colon,
Brussels, Turin and others
are the cities of the same
country called Europe. People
look like a similar mosaic
image of Paris wherever I go.
I believe that ginternational
exchangeh is an expression
unique to an island country
such as Japan. On continental
Europe inter exchange with a
neighboring country is a
matter of everyday life and
this reality exists without
being conscious of it. I do
not know when, but whenever
and wherever I visited a
foreign country, I could get
along with people on a man
to man basis without paying
attention to the country.
@@I strongly feel that such an
approach to people as mine
is a cream of my interest,
study and polish-up activities
given to English, the most
commonly used language in
the world. When I was in the
second grade of junior high
school, I started corresponding
with a Japanese American
in Hawaii. It was the first
experience that I used
English as a tool of communication
not as a study
subject at school. During my
senior high school days I
attended Bible classes at the
Catholic church near my
house every Thursday and
took English conversation
lesson for an hour. At
Doshisha University I devoted
myself to the study of American
history and an extracurricular
activity in ESS,
English Speaking Society.
gForeigner hunting,h meaning
meeting and speaking with a
foreigner at various sightseeing
spots in Kyoto, is still an
unforgettable memory of ESS
days. Also, it was those days
that I came to realize the importance
of studying Japanese
history. I regard this period
as the fundamental stage of
my English study.
@@It may safely be said that
I moved into the application
stage of using English everyday
when I studied abroad at
the University of Oregon for
two years and worked for
Honda's international business
operations for thirty
four years up to my retirement.
Particularly my business
experiences at Honda
trained me hard to get
almost the mastery of
English. Among many experiences
the management of
Honda Philippines Inc. as
President for four years and
Honda Moscow Office as
Managing Director for six
years have given me tremendous amount of intangible
assets. For these ten years I
worked with both Filipino
and Russian local people to
settle managerial problems,
implement restructuring plan,
encourage and motivate salesmen
to achieve a higher
market share, revitalize cashflow
program and so forth.
gMan to man contact is importanth
@@These experiences can be
taken as a true and real
battle of man to man on one
hand and sharing joy on the
other. In short, it could be
taken as the confirmation of
human bond. I did not feel
at all they were Filipino or
Russian but I felt they were
my people and my friends.
@@Today marks the period of
highly advanced IT technology.
Just one click on a
keyboard of a computer will
provide you with tremendous
amount of information about
what is going on throughout
the world. A super sonic
jumbo airplane has been
developed to shorten a long
distance flight. It is quite
common and natural that
economic giants renders helps
and aids to the third world.
International marriage is on
remarkable increase. We live
in the world of today that a
foreign country is just on the
opposite side of a river. The
idea of man to man contact
may come out to be a driving
force and become a major
international exchange concept.
@@The articles were reproduced and modified by the gDoshisha University Staff English Club Newsh gTopicsh No.4. (dated on May 31, 2007)