HIDA Journal 2014 AUTUMN No.5

10/26

HIDA JOURNAL8call nursing care services, rentals and sales of nursing care supplies, food services, dispensary pharmacies, and specialty schools for medical welfare, etc.).Through the training in Japan the trainees learned about care service concepts, how an “OMOTENASHI” mentality is expressed in care services, and also about the importance of cooperatively working in teams. All of the trainees said that they were similarly enlightened to the fine-grained detail of services in Japan and new concepts of nursing care services that differed from those found in hospitals. This was something that could only have been achieved through the holding of training in Japan, and thus this was an invaluable opportunity to develop human resources in the form of the local employees.*EPAs refer to Economic Partnership Agreements. On the basis of an EPA with Indonesia, nurse and care worker candidates from the country have been accepted into Japan for training since FY2008. This has currently been expanded so that nurses and care workers from the Philippines and Vietnam are also accepted. HIDA provides Japanese language training and other programs to candidates from Indonesia and the Philippines after they arrive in Japan.# Kikuya Co., Ltd. (Tokyo)“Bringing Japanese-style dry cleaning shops to Thailand”Type of business: Dry cleaning serviceEmployees: 18Destination country:ThailandOur company has rolled out more than 100 dry cleaning stores that are mainly concentrated in the Tokyo Metropolitan Region. Modern-day Thailand is in the same circumstances that Japan was in a while back in that it is on the verge of developing chain dry cleaning services. High-end dry cleaning shops are confined to Bangkok, while there are cleaners in small towns that will wash clothes for their customers. These are the only options, as the dry cleaners that should by rights occupy the middle ground between these two are nonexistent in Thailand. Conversely, demand in the Japanese dry cleaning market has fallen off to less than half of what it was at its peak, and so there is a surplus of machinery and human resources. As such, our intent to expand Japanese-style dry cleaning services in Thailand by bringing these resources to the country is what prompted us to expand overseas. We established Kikuya Thailand Co., Ltd. through the friendly acquisition of a company in this industry in Thailand, and made use of HIDA’s expert dispatch program to send two experts to offer guidance to our local employees over the course of about one month.Prior to the dispatch of the experts the factory was in a state where clothing was scattered about in disorder and employees would take naps during their lunch breaks on their workbenches. The experts instructed them in matters such as how to operate the machinery that was brought in from Japan, how to use solvents, and how to control the water temperature. When the experts were dispatched we told them our target was to have them improve productivity 3.3-fold. But while it has only been about six months since their dispatch, they have already brought this up to nearly 3-fold, possibly as a result of the fact that the local employees are quick learners. On the other hand though, it is difficult to provide instruction on transplanting systems for coordination between shop, factory, distribution, and head office functions, which are important for dry cleaning services, and so challenges still remain.We had previously carried out short-term training on our own by inviting local employees to Japan, but it did not go well on account of language troubles. This has given us a renewed feel for both the difficulty and importance of human resource development for local employees. Ongoing training is needed for the development of human resources. In the future, we would like to continue using HIDA’s training programs in Japan, which teach Japanese as introductory training to trainees immediately after they arrive in Japan, in order to foster human resources.$ Nakazawa Co., Ltd. (Shiga Prefecture)“Expanding our mentality of seeking the best outcomes for the buyer, seller, and society at large in other countries”Type of business:Sales of watches, jewelry, etc.Employees: 179Destination countries:China, Vietnam and CambodiaOur company has rolled out approximately 50 stores within Japan, primarily in Aeon-affiliated shopping centers, and so through this relationship, in conjunction with the expansion of Aeon Malls into markets in China and the ASEAN region we have decided to set up stores at these sites. From our field research prior to setting up stores we felt that there were three areas in which we could bring our strengths to bear.The first is our product descriptions to our customers. Local watch shops are almost entirely lacking in product descriptions, and ultimately just end up handing over instruction manuals to customer who ask detailed questions. The second is wrapping. In the local regions the products are rarely if ever wrapped in packaging. We felt that by providing products that had been neatly wrapped we could offer them a Japanese-style culture of gifts, which provides a sense of excitement to the person receiving the present. The third is post-purchase follow-ups. In the local regions 80 - 90% of the shops were of the mindset that once the sale is made their job is done, and so for example they would not exchange batteries. But at our shops we wanted to provide sound support even after the purchase has been made, just like we do in Japan.Since providing services that embody an “OMOTENASHI” mentality in this manner requires the development of human resources, we have been using HIDA training programs to have our employees undergo training in Japan. Thus far six trainees have been accepted for the program, and in FY2014 we plan to have four people be accepted and undergo training starting from August.All of the trainees were quite anxious about visiting Japan, but the introductory training provided by HIDA gave them confidence about Mr. Yoshiaki Shimada, Director, Kikuya Co., Ltd.

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