My father was a salary man, and we were relocated so many times. As a child, I kept transferring to different elementary schools. Because of that, I became a keen observer to everything that is going on around me. My ability to see through the eyes of people also developed naturally, which made me become discerning even up to this day.Although I studied hard when I was still a student, I was the type that read a lot of books and spent time as I wanted, rather than being very serious about taking my classes. It may sound audacious, but from that time, I have always been thinking about what I want to do and how I would want to live my life.

Nakauchi was born in 1922 to a small drugstore family in Osaka. After graduating Kobe Commercial High School (currently Hyogo Prefectural University) and in the midst of the Pacific War in 1942 he found work in Nihonmenka Corporation, but in the next year he was drafted and sent to fight in the war. In the Bay of Lingayen in the Philippines he was attacked by the enemy and expected to die, and the thought that crossed his mind was "I want to eat sukiyaki to the full one more time", which is said to have later led to the idea for the slogan of Daiei, "make good products cheaper and cheaper, for a more abundant society".

If I were to be asked if women are enjoying an environment where they can work freely when I started working in 1993, I would say no. That time, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was already in full force from 1986. However, we are now in a society where it is normal for women to be able to work in her own ways. A lot of women right now are able to step up in their careers and join companies. This is a very pleasing and a very promising change for the country. Because of that, society is also significantly stepping up as a whole.The ratio of women is also increasing among our clientele, as well as the crews working in our stores. Even owners of our franchise stores do not only consist of men as more and more women are starting to own franchise stores from us.

I spent most of my childhood in Senegal, Africa because of my father's work. Then, from 10 to 18 years old, we have transferred and stayed in the US. Throughout my life abroad, I have felt that Japanese culture was not properly recognized. I noticed that gap particularly in food, where I was laughed at for eating raw fish. As a child, I had a lot of unpleasant experiences. My father's work was related to fishing, so I felt that I was made fun of because of that and because of our culture. Because of these experiences, I had a strong desire to introduce sushi and other Japanese food to the world and to let the world know the wonderful side of Japan when I started working. On the other hand, I am also aware that there are other wonderful cultures abroad, so I thought that I wanted to become a bridge between two different cultures.

In order to even further promote women flourishing in the future, I believe we must prepare proper programs to fit with this and conduct appropriate training for it. It is important to properly grasp data on the company side such as individual employee data regarding who is placed in what environment, and what career they have built up for themselves, in order to cultivate human resources making the best use of people.

UNIC Tokyo plays a role in translating various information in Japanese so that we can help them understand what the United Nations is aiming. The most noteworthy among these is the SDGs (Sustainable Development Target). This is an international goal aimed at sustainable development to address poverty, hunger, energy, climate change, and to attain a peaceful society. There are 17 goals listed in SDGs, and one of which is [5. Gender equality]. However, it does not simply stop there. That goal is also the tool that supports all the 17 goals.

My father was a movie actor in Toei. When I was a child, my brother and went frequently to a Toei studio near our house during vacations and pretend being in a sword fight. It was the best playground ever. My mother was not the type who would object on what I wanted to do. She would always support me as long as I would not break any law or cause trouble to anyone. When I said that I wanted to learn the violin, she brought me to an instrument shop on the same day. However, once I have decided to do something, I had to promise to continue doing it for three years. Because of this, the habit of preparing and taking responsibility on my own decisions has been deeply ingrained in my being. It was summer of my second year in high school when I suddenly thought of going to Europe alone. My mom bought me an open ticket, stayed there for three months, and made a lot of friends. I wanted to reunite with them someday, and I thought that the best profession that will enable me to do it was to become a pilot. When I told my mother about it, she assured me saying, "It would be tough, but I know you are serious about it". That weekend, I went to an aviation school in Miyazaki and aimed for admission.

As suggested by the name of this company, it is a consulting business for companies focusing on motivation. When it was established in 2000 there were only 7 employees including myself. At the time it was a small company of 5 men and 2 women. The business subsequently continued to grow favorably, and we immediately started mid-career hires. From that time there were many female applicants, it happening to be the time when women started thinking of forming careers. And currently, 18 years after our founding, we have reached about 1,400 employees, about 650 of whom are women. In my opinion, I feel there are many women who attempt to go to extremes in their own fields of specialization. It also seems that many women are very serious in how they engage in social rules and conventions. On the other hand, men tend to intend more leadership, with more of them working toward improving their careers. For this reason, under the present conditions management and administrative positions tend to be filled more by men.