I was born in Nara Prefecture(Japan). After Nara, I spent a short time in Myanmar before moving back to Machida in Tokyo. When I was in first grade, I moved to Shiga Prefecture for about two years. After that, I went back to Tokyo briefly before moving to Zimbabwe. I stayed in Zimbabwe from the third grade until the sixth grade, then returned to Japan and moved to Utsunomiya.
The most significant event in middle school was joining the fencing club.
Yes, I was part of the fencing club at SFC in high school. One of my most memorable moments was winning a team match against a school which we never won before. There were about six high schoolers on the team.
I think I was positively influenced by people like Hikaru (the interviewer). In my first year, I spent time with Tamzen, who taught me study methods. Learning how to make summary notes was a big help. Tamzen would draw lines and create Q&As from the lessons. This improved my grades by about one point on average, although it was tedious at times.
That would be Mr. Gdula. When I was a second-year student and the captain of the fencing team, he was our advisor for one year. We communicated a lot, mainly through chat because email was cumbersome. He preferred using Messenger, which was quite personal.
I majored in Political Science in the Faculty of Law. I chose it because I heard it offered a lot of freedom, which suited my goal of becoming a national fencing representative. I wanted to focus more on fencing than academics at that time.
In my senior year of high school, I aimed for a popular major. With decent grades with 7.5/10 and being a returnee, Mr. Gdula suggested that I could get into the Faculty of Law. SFC’s internal escalating system(affiliated high schoolers can be exempt without an entrance exam) made me think it’s too easy to move from high school to university. So I just decided to go to the highest level of major where I can attend.
I plan to take a gap year. Starting in April next year, I’ll be working at Benesse, but I want to spend this year interning and working in Africa. I’d like to visit and see how the locals live and meet my childhood friends.
Yes, I’m quite interested in volunteering. I’ve participated in activities like picking up litter and providing career advice to students.
In the first semester of the first grade, I was in Machida, Tokyo. I was quite shy. In the second semester, I moved to Shiga Prefecture, where my relationships changed significantly. In both good and bad ways, I started to care about how others perceived me. I was concerned about whether I was blending into my surroundings well. Because I was quite conscious of others' opinions, I was always a bit anxious and scared. I never stayed at one elementary school for more than about two years, so the changes in my environment were drastic. That's why I was very aware of how to fit in with those around me. It's hard to sum it up in one word, but it was something like that.
It was due to my father’s job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He worked at the embassy there, so our whole family moved for two and a half years. During that time, I became conversational in English.
I attended an international school and had to communicate in English, which was challenging initially. When it came to Japanese people around me, it was just my family and siblings. I remember crying during recess because I couldn't understand anything. But after six months, I started socializing more. One memorable moment was asking to join a game of tag by saying, “May I join you?” after looking it up in a dictionary.
I played soccer the most. It was a seasonal sport, and I also participated in other activities like table tennis and American football on different days.
No, we returned because my father’s assignment ended. We came back around July during the first semester of the sixth grade. I had decided to take entrance exams for middle school and studied with my father's help while in Zimbabwe. My parents recommended schools like SFC.
A positive culture shock was the delicious food in Japan. I frequented McDonald's, especially in my first year of middle school, which made me gain some weight.
I remember talking a lot with Hikaru and Tamzen. Tamzen was often my partner in science experiments since our attendance numbers were close. We were in the same class for returnees, which brought us together.
Japanese was the most challenging subject. I had to do extra assignments over the summer after performing poorly in the midterm. The teacher-student relationship was different from Zimbabwe, where there was more individual interaction and recreational activities during assemblies.
It was mainly about the atmosphere of the club. There was a guy named Wada in my first-year class, and he was quite big and intimidating. Initially, I was thinking of joining the tennis club, but when I heard he was joining, I felt a bit hesitant because he seemed so imposing. Also, I hadn’t decided on any specific sport from the start, so I was gathering information from scratch. Looking back, I think I was trying to find a place where people like him wouldn’t go. That ruled out baseball, tennis, and soccer for me.
Yeah, I still am quite conscious of that.
Yes, but around the latter half of my first year, I also started attending a fencing school outside of club activities. There was a senior who was two years older and active in team competitions, so I decided to join too. That school had a lot of Olympic-level athletes and national team members, and I got the chance to compete with them. Occasionally, I would score points against them, which was very exciting and motivated me to improve my skills to compete at their level. From then on, I became deeply involved in it, especially around my second year in middle school. By high school, I was seriously aiming to join the national team.
In high school, I was almost the strongest in my club, and I was the captain. But when I entered university, the level of competition increased dramatically. There were national representatives who were very active internationally, and several high school champions. So yeah the level of the club rose significantly.
But because of COVID, we couldn’t practice as we wanted and had to do online training via Zoom. After practice resumed, we trained five days a week, but to go beyond that, I joined a fencing school in Ikebukuro where an Olympic coach taught. I trained there about six days a week.
In my second year of university, I trained very hard, almost matching the amount of training of Olympic athletes. I began to think seriously about becoming an Olympic athlete and knew that if I became a national representative, I would have access to better training environments.
Well, in my second year of university, I reached the upper limit of the junior category for the Japanese national team by age group. Beyond that, there are no age group divisions; everyone competes together. So, I figured that if I wasn't selected for the Japanese national team at that point, I wouldn't receive any special training as a national team athlete.
That's why I had decided that if I wasn't selected in my second year of university, I would give up on becoming an Olympic fencer. As a result, I wasn't chosen in my second year, and that's when my passion for fencing kind of burned out.
Around January of my second year, I felt burnt out. There were times I was very motivated and other times not at all, like I didn’t wanna do anything at all. I took a break from club activities for about a month. During that break, I started to think about quitting fencing. I spent a lot of time at home, watching movies and reading books. I thought it would be impossible for me to just participate in club activities as usual.
I felt I needed to do something new, and volunteering seemed easy to start with. I found a volunteer group for picking up litter and joined them. There, I met a career advisor who was part of the same group. I was already somewhat thinking about job hunting, so I asked for advice.
The advisor suggested I should quit fencing if I wasn't passionate about it anymore. I was conflicted since fencing had been my identity for ten years. After struggling with the decision, I realized I couldn't continue with the same dedication and decided to quit. I felt that if I continued in my current state, I might lose myself. I thought that continuing half-heartedly would be unfair to the team and I would regret it myself. I officially quit in May of my third year. For a while, I continued fencing as a hobby but eventually stopped altogether.
After quitting, I focused on other activities. The career advisor I met through volunteering connected me with others who had similar experiences, like a former soccer player who transitioned to a business career. Their stories helped me understand the importance of making tough decisions.
Later, I went on a study abroad program to UCLA for two months during the summer of my third year. It was expensive, but I wanted to experience something new. After returning, I shifted my focus more towards my studies and research rather than volunteering.
I started looking for jobs in October of my fourth year at uni. By then, it was pretty late in the game. For the first couple of weeks, I applied to places that were still hiring, like my peers, but most opportunities had passed. So, I decided to hold off and aim for the 2025 grad jobs instead, making that call in November. I was definitely behind compared to others in my year.
Until then, I was aiming to go to graduate school. I was planning to go to the field of educational economics at SFC. I applied for it in September of my fourth year, but it didn't work out. There are quite a few educational economics programs at other universities too, so I was torn between applying to them or job hunting. I had been doing research for about a year and a half, and during that process, I thought about what I enjoyed the most. I was using R for statistics, and the moments when I could do things I couldn't do before felt very rewarding. Thinking about it, I felt that working at a company might give me more of a sense of personal growth compared to research.
Of course, this depends on the field and the lab, but personally, I didn't feel like pursuing a career as a researcher. So, I thought it would be better to enter the workforce early and focus on job hunting.
I received an offer around the end of January. There was some internal conflict because one of the companies I could apply to was RIZAP. I've always been involved in fencing, paying attention to exercise and diet, so a company that promotes health seemed like a good fit for me. I went to an internship at RIZAP and really liked the company atmosphere. Many people there talked about wanting to help others gain confidence through exercise, and I strongly resonated with that. Although I've now decided to go with Benesse, I spent about 80% of my job hunting efforts on RIZAP and 20% on Benesse.
Around last Christmas, I had an HR interview where they helped me think about my motivations, showing a lot of effort on their part. At that time, I thought if I got into RIZAP, I would go there. But I also applied to Benesse just in case.
Both RIZAP and Benesse had their final interviews at the end of January. During the final interview at RIZAP, when I submitted my resume, the executives noticed that I planned to graduate a year later than usual. Neither I nor the HR person expected them to ask about it. About 10 minutes before the final interview, they asked why I pushed my graduation back a year. I wasn't prepared for that question, so I tried to explain that I had been aiming for graduate school but realized it wasn't right for me. However, they suggested I could still join in April if there were openings. They asked why I didn't want to start in April. It was around February then, so starting in two months felt too soon. I wanted to explore other companies, so I said I was considering starting the next year. But since I was there for the interview aiming to join immediately, my answer caused some confusion. I also realized the inconsistency while talking.
Eventually, I failed the final interview. They told me that if I really wanted to join, I should clearly explain my desired start date and reapply. At the same time, I received an offer from Benesse, which made me seriously consider my future plans.
I took a step back to think about what I wanted to do in the long term. Remembering my experiences in Zimbabwe, I realized I wanted to work in Africa in some capacity. Although my vision isn't very clear yet, I thought working in Africa would be fulfilling. Considering that, Benesse seemed like a better fit since they already have significant overseas operations. I also felt that working in education would be more feasible and impactful than in fitness or other physical industries. So, I ultimately decided to go with Benesse.
I thought about what work means. Essentially, it's about providing something to others and receiving compensation for it. When I thought about what I wanted to provide, I wanted to offer a sense of achievement and acceptance. There are many ways to do this, but I felt that supporting the formation of healthy habits could give people a sense of accomplishment and help them express themselves confidently and be accepted by others. This led me to look into companies and businesses that support habit formation.
Considering that, I thought education, fitness, and sports were good areas to focus on. It was important for me to contribute using my strengths. I felt that my strength was in executing tasks, absorbing knowledge, and putting it into practice, which aligns well with an engineering role. So, I was interested in companies that use IT to enhance education, fitness, or sports.
This led me to focus on companies like RIZAP, Benesse, and Recruit, which already have significant data to support their initiatives. I wanted to work at a company that had substantial data rather than a startup. Combining these factors, I narrowed down my choices to RIZAP, Benesse, and Recruit.
Maybe the cabbage story.
I eat about one whole cabbage every day, shredded really finely.
Well, I read in a book that eating cabbage regularly improves health, enhances concentration, and stabilizes mental well-being. Vegetables, or rather a good intake of them, supposedly improve blood circulation and enhance brain function. Plus, the book emphasized the importance of quantity, and cabbage is the easiest and cheapest way to get a lot. There’s this special peeler for cabbage that makes it super easy to shred. Cabbages are only 200 yen, affordable, and easy to consume, so it seemed just right for me. It’s about a kilogram, and once you try eating it, you can really feel the difference.
About a year and a half now. During my Benesse interview, my introduction had two keywords: fencing and shredding cabbage (laughs). The discussion on fencing and cabbage took up about two-thirds of the interview. Honestly, I hadn’t prepared much for Benesse, so I was really nervous when they started probing into my motivation. Not that I pushed cabbage or fencing hard, but they were quite interested. The highlight of the interview was definitely the cabbage discussion. They even asked how many years I’d been doing it, stuff like that. I said about two years, and it went well.
Yeah, that’s right. That’s where the interview peaked.
Oh yeah, I mentioned I’m easily influenced. Also, I tend toquickly feel a sense of accomplishment and sometimes get caught up where the means become the end. They asked why I do things like cabbage, and sometimes I wonder myself why I do it. They also questioned how fencing movements translate into skills. There were moments where I had to agree with them. Having too much drive to act can sometimes make it hard to pull away, become easily influenced, and a strong force.
Honest, impatient, and others often say stoic.
Right now, I’d like to be less prone to quickly feeling a sense of accomplishment. Like with programming I’m doing now, I often turn to ChatGPT for answers instead of figuring things out on my own, which I think stems from impatience. Speed is important, but I’d like to approach things from a more long-term perspective that benefits me.
Exactly.
I think I’m quite easily influenced. For example, Mentalist Daigo and Ichiro (baseball player). Ichiro’s mindsets and life philosophy have influenced me. Like, I read books on how he practices to achieve results as an athlete. Daigo, he was initially bullied and had social anxiety, but he changed his life using knowledge from books. I could relate to this when I said “May I join you” in Zimbabwe. I realized that taking action can change the people around you. So I started with Daigo’s YouTube videos and ended up reading books. From there, I started reading books I liked.
In fiction, “Seiyoku” by Ryo Asai. It’s about diversity. Asai Ryo is someone who creates stories from various perspectives on the same event. There are about four characters, and their stories unfold from different perspectives on the same event. It depicts desires like thrilling about water or sexual excitement toward women and men. I have a general gender view, but for some, getting excited about water might seem pitiful, but they don’t necessarily want sympathy. So while diversity is popular nowadays, trying to sympathize or understand might actually be arrogant, something the person doesn’t seek. So this book really expanded my horizons.
Yes, “Who Are You” talks about job hunting. I read it while job hunting myself. But surprisingly, I read this book during job hunting and felt relieved to think that everyone else thinks the same way. My interpretation of this story changed before and after doing job hunting. When I was a kid, I liked reading books a lot and read them often, but when I was in the second year of high school, I knew that Ichiro didn’t read books, so I didn’t read books until I was a sophomore in college (laughs). So geniuses don’t need to read books, but ordinary people know that they should read books.
In the long term, I want to start an educational venture in Africa. I can work at Benesse, start a company there, and work independently. Rather than independent, I want to work in Africa in some way. I want to do it about seven years from now, and I think I want to work as an engineer now, so I want to accumulate development experience next year.
I’m currently working as an intern at a job support service company, and I’m writing code to streamline work using Google Apps Script. I wrote code to automatically transcribe and report changes to Google Calendar to a spreadsheet and Slack, and to organize files in Google Drive.
Rather than supporting schools with JICA or individually, I want to renovate existing schools in Africa and incorporate and reform the advantages of Japanese education. I don’t really think about doing something from scratch. I want to make the existing company firmly rooted in the region. But rather than the means, I want to prioritize activities in Africa. Well, it could be a tough path since there are some Africans who may not always prioritize education, and some thinking “why a Japanese to solve this matter”, so yeah it could be challenging.
Zimbabwe, definitely. It feels like there’s still a lot to be developed there, almost like starting from scratch. So, initially, I’d like to learn in other regions first, like South Africa, for example. I want to learn about infrastructure development and such.
The biggest thing was probably nature and the climate. In terms of national character, Japanese people have this earnestness in their efforts, even if it doesn’t directly lead to tangible results. It’s a huge cultural difference. Even just observing people working in Japan, they’re diligent and serious, even when there are no customers around, and everything operates strictly on a time-based schedule. Sometimes, hospitality and manners here can feel overly formal. I think it wouldn’t hurt to relax a bit more.
Many of us live in a society dominated by novels and movies depicting geniuses and the gifted. Despite this, we manage to enjoy our lives as ordinary people. Among these ordinary individuals are those who, instead of lamenting over the extraordinary abilities they weren't given, focus wholeheartedly on how they can improve their existing strengths. Shunsuke is one such person. He diligently pursued a path requiring determination and practice levels comparable to those expected of "geniuses."
In his interview, Shunsuke mentioned that he still cares about how others perceive him. Initially, this might seem like a common vulnerability shared by humanity. However, in reality, this concern about others' opinions may have been the very fuel that kept him going. As a result, he has been able to turn others' perceptions into energy for personal growth. From Shunsuke's life story, you can feel his courage in embracing being an ordinary person as an opportunity and using others' perceptions as motivation. Take your time to read through this article again, even while eating some cabbages.