it's such an honor to be here today to
talk about my passion and work and life
diversity and inclusion and inclusion
how it started with me as you can see
I'm japanese-american third generation
my grandparents come from back weekend
Japan along the Japan's east side but I
was born and raised in California and I
was born and raised in a very small
country town called Marysville
California on a peach farm and I was one
of five Asian students at my high school
I knew what it meant to be different I
knew what it meant to feel not included
I knew diversity inclusion at a very
young age so I decided to leave the
peach farm and join one of the most
diverse universities in the world
University of California at Berkeley and
I was at Berkeley where I met students
from all over the world students from
Japan students from China students that
were disabled students that were
transgender you name it we had it and I
saw the power of inclusion in the
classroom people had different ideas
different solutions different
perspectives
it really helped form my mindset around
the power of inclusion and upon
graduation I worked in Silicon Valley
for about a decade and then I had a
mentor who saw something in me that I
didn't see in myself and my mentor
created this opportunity in Japan for me
so seven years ago I moved from Silicon
Valley to Japan to become a diversity
inclusion manager and there's a
difference between a mentor and a sempai
and kohai sempai and kohai denotes how
our key and also it's someone that you
work with but actually mentors are more
flexible they could be someone younger
than you older or same age or actually
be outside of your company so he really
believed in me and he encouraged me to
take a risk and when I hesitated he said
Janelle Japan will change your life and
he's been right it's been an opportunity
of a lifetime to live and work in Japan
and to help Japan with its challenges
around diversity and inclusion so how do
you find diversity and inclusion
diversity is the what inclusion is the
hell and in Japan people think that
diversity means only gender but it's
actually more than that its generation
its cultural diversity okay it's
perspectives its LGBTQ there's many
different types of diversity and
inclusion is the how and the action part
of diversity and inclusion and so by
being diverse by being inclusive we can
tap in to the human potential we can
become innovative and impact the bottom
line you need both diversity inclusion
to be successful in Japan and there's a
business proposition of inclusion to
reach leadership to reach the market by
hiring diverse talent and that diverse
talent feels included or one team then
that leads to better engagement or
satisfaction and that drives
productivity and productivity drives
innovation and profit and also market
leadership and the cycle begins all over
again there's so much
with diversity and inclusion yet there
are many challenges when I first came to
Japan I experienced many biases and
prejudices being a foreigner who looks
Japanese but can't speak very well
Japanese and also being a female as well
trying to execute diversity inclusion
and also I had to really change my work
style I had to be more consensus driven
and I knew right away the meetings are
different in Japan where you know in
Silicon Valley you need to make a
decision but in Japan the decisions
already made once you get to a meeting
and there's just a rubber-stamp
so I knew the differences of work style
so as you could see starting a diversity
inclusion program was like treading the
Sahara Desert it was very slow slow
progress and it was hard with nothing in
place but then you keep going and then
you find some oases like senior
leadership committed commitment engaging
all levels of the organization and also
making diversity inclusion as a business
strategy not just the CSR initiative and
the other thing that was very very
difficult was in Japan everyone knows
this phrase I'm sure the nail that
sticks out gets hammered in being
different sometimes creates tensions in
Japan right so in Silicon Valley where
differences are embraced and being
yourself is supported Japan is very
different from that perspective and with
diversity inclusion you need a lot of
different kinds of nails and then you
need those nails to fill included and
then you need a culture to support that
some nails may stick up or not
so this was very challenging for me oh
sorry I think I'm kind of missing some
slides but that's okay so anyway you
know basically after coming to Japan
right I had to teach diversity and
inclusion and inclusion was really
really hard and the reason is because
inclusion is not even in the vocabulary
in Japan there's no kanji for inclusion
so I've had to do a lot of training
sessions around create your own kanji
for inclusion and so people have said oh
gee ole which is acceptance some people
have said love is acceptance so
basically everybody really wrote what it
personally meant to them so D&I starts
with the individual and for me these are
some of the simple ways that you can be
inclusive it's not rocket science
right and here's a better way to be
inclusive and have inclusive behavior
and as an example for myself in Japan
would I do to build inclusion is as I
mentor both women and men on sharing
visible career paths and role models in
addition to that I created networks that
didn't exist such as our women athletes
Business Network which we started in
Japan to support former Olympians and
professional athletes in Japan to help
them think about their second
career and then third way I try to
behave in an inclusive way is my secret
weapon I smile I smile so let's try to
make Japan a better place in the world a
better place by practicing inclusion
because inclusion starts with yourself
inclusion starts with me you have to
reflect on inclusion and what it
personally means to you
inclusion starts with I thank you very
much