Mr. Nishigaki Mitsuru
Mr. Nishigaki Mitsuru
After being posted to Myanmar in 1996, he founded J-SAT Consulting Co., Ltd. in 1998. Over 19 years of putting down roots in Myanmar, he has helped Japanese companies enter the market, arranged travel and reporting visits, and supported people with visual impairments, among other activities. He contributes to Myanmar’s development in many ways and frequently speaks at seminars about Myanmar. He is one of the Japanese people who knows Myanmar best.
Question: What led you to start doing business in Myanmar?
After finishing my job search, I traveled to Southeast Asia, a place I had wanted to visit but had never managed to go to.
I first went to Vietnam, which was already bustling at the time, in 1994. When I met a Japanese person there, they told me, “Vietnam already has people like me, so Myanmar would be more interesting!”
So I went to Myanmar. Although it is only about a one-hour flight from Bangkok, I was shocked by how different it was and wondered why there was such a difference.
I thought, “I have to do something!” That was where it started.
Question: Did you have any concerns?
More than that, my sense of mission was stronger.
Even now, I find myself thinking that I have to make Myanmar better. (laughs)
Q. J-SAT What do you value?
At our company, J-SAT, we value “being pioneers who make an impact on society” and “aiming for everyone to be able to grow and have fun.” Although we came up with this interpretation afterward, the three letters S, A, and T in J-SAT stand for being able to grow, feeling safe, and having fun, respectively.
— It is certainly important that employees can live with peace of mind.
It is very important.
A limitation seen in many NGOs is that their objective stops at providing help. I feel that this approach alone makes it difficult for those receiving support to become self-reliant.
For example, before I opened Genky, a massage shop employing people with visual impairments, they had learned massage techniques from an NGO, but the support had ended there.
What do they really want? Perhaps their goal is not to learn skills, but to use those skills to earn a proper income and become independent.
Support for independence means enabling those receiving support to earn their living expenses.
That is why we need to create a mechanism that generates profit there.
Genky Massage, staffed by people with visual impairments, is now a viable business. Showing people a goal or model makes it easier for them to understand, and the number of people with visual impairments who want to provide massage is rising rapidly.
Business can carry a negative image because it pursues profit, but that is by no means a bad thing. It can give employees the security of being able to make a proper living.
Q. Mr. Nishigaki, you have worked with Myanmar university students and recent graduates for many years. What is your impression of them?
There are many people who say, “I want to start a business!”
IDFC mainly works with university students in Myanmar, and we also often hear them say that they want to start businesses.
As J-SAT, we hold career seminars at 17 universities across Myanmar and at 8 universities within Yangon.
When I ask, “Who wants to start a business?” so many hands go up.
When I ask, “Then how many years from now will you start your business?”
They answer things like, “In three years!”
One survey found that 98% of people from Myanmar were thinking only three years ahead.
Many students say they want to start a business, but that is because it is the only path they know.
Even so, they have not really thought about how to start a business or what comes after starting it.
At our career seminars, we create opportunities to think about careers not only three years ahead, but also further into the future—ten years from now.
There seem to be more Japanese students saying, “I want to become a social entrepreneur!” But I feel that becoming a social entrepreneur has become an end in itself.
Business is a mechanism. Before that, you need to identify the social problem you will address and a mechanism that consistently generates revenue.
Business opportunities exist wherever people are struggling, so you should first clarify that point.
Question: Are there social problems related to education and employment in Myanmar?
In Myanmar, the university enrollment rate is only in the teens, with just around 200,000 students in each year group. Moreover, even Myanmar people who graduate from university struggle to find jobs.
— So what is happening outside of that?
There is not enough work within Myanmar, so more people are going abroad to work. Furthermore, human trafficking is a serious problem in Myanmar.
And it is not only women, who are especially victimized for prostitution; many men are also sold.
It is happening here in Yangon, too. From what I heard recently, people who have come to the city from rural areas are struggling to find work.
Then they are told, “Go to a factory in Thailand. You can work for good wages,” and cross the border.
But when they arrive, they are forced to work in harsh conditions that do not meet legal requirements.
After a while, they are told, “If you get on a boat, you can work in better conditions.”
But after that, they are put on illegal fishing boats in Indonesia. Once they are on board, of course people do not come near, and because Indonesia has so many islands, no one notices.
On trips to send people from Myanmar onto ships, the person sending them can receive approximately 9000 Japanese yen per person.
People from Myanmar are forced to work for about 20 hours with only about four hours of sleep. They are also given drugs and forced to work in a drugged stupor until their bodies are worn out. Those who resist and become leaders are cast aside.
This is a fact that has only recently come to light.
According to an Indonesian government investigation, around 8,000 people from Myanmar and Cambodia have reportedly emerged from uninhabited islands this year alone.
Some young people in Myanmar know that human trafficking is a problem, but it seems that few knew it was this terrible.
Question: What is the significance of Japanese students going to Myanmar now?
We often see positive reports saying things like “Myanmar’s future is ahead” or “Myanmar is the place to be right now,” but there are many problems piled up. The Myanmar portrayed in the media is only a tiny part of the picture.
Whether you are doing business or anything else, it is important first to look at reality and understand what problems exist.
I went to Canada when I was a student.
In Vancouver, I met people from Laos and Somalia who had fled civil wars, as well as Chinese people who had fled Tiananmen. It was a world I would never have known if I had simply gone about student life in Japan.
—I see. So was Canada an experience that brought about a major change in your life, Mr. Nishigaki?
Yes. If I had not gone to Canada, I would not have come to Myanmar either.
You really should go abroad while you are a student!
Encountering the values of people from other countries provides a basis for your later judgments and becomes part of who you are.
Question: Finally, what kind of country is Myanmar to you, Mr. Nishigaki?
It feels less like I am going out to do something on my own and more like I am being told to do it. Perhaps it is the place I have been given, my “main field of action in life.”
After living here for so long, I am often asked, “Why have you stayed so many years?”
But honestly, my answer is, “I don't know anything about that.”
without employment, I think it would be difficult to remain there.
I am in Myanmar today because of the many connections I have been fortunate to make.
It just happened that the connections I made led me to Myanmar.
Thank you for sharing such valuable insights!
With the hope that this article will give you a reason to visit Myanmar …
