YEAR OF UPHEAVAL
LOOKING BACK AT THE IMPACT OF COVID - 19 AND AHEAD TO RECOVERY
By Malcolm Foster
A year ago, we were suddenly plunged into a new reality: working from home, isolated from colleagues, figuring out virtual communication, wondering how long this pandemic would last, as well as how it would affect our businesses, families, and the world.
With vaccines now being rolled out and cases on the decline, the end may be in sight. But Covid-19 has been a grueling experience. It’s taken a toll on us personally and on many of our businesses. It has probably changed forever the way we work and live. It’s also made us value many things we took for granted and has given us some unexpected gifts and benefits along the way.
In this three-part series on the pandemic, The ACCJ Journal interviewed about 20 members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) from a variety of industries about their experiences and outlook for the future. Part 1 focuses on the business impact—the specific challenges, adjustments, and how this crisis compares with past disruptions. Part 2 will explore people’s personal experiences coping with the outbreak. And Part 3 will take a look at the road ahead.
Part 1: The Experience
Business Impact
While Covid-19 has disrupted everyone’s life, it had a markedly different impact on businesses depending on the industry. Hardest hit have been those that rely on the free movement of people—travel, hotels, transport, high-end retail, events, and outside entertainment. Also taking a toll has been Japan’s decision to ban tourists from entering the country, and previously foreign residents from reentering, a move that the ACCJ lobbied hard to overturn.
Thomas R. Shockley, CEO, Documonde Inc.
Likening the situation to a form of sakoku, Japan’s 215-year period of national isolation (1639–1854), Thomas R. Shockley, chief executive officer of travel business DocuMonde Inc. and co-chair of the ACCJ Independent Business Committee, said the pandemic hit them far harder than the two most recent major crises: the 2008–09 Lehman shock and the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011, that also resulted in a nuclear disaster. But like many ACCJ members, DocuMonde found new opportunities amid the chaos and quickly pivoted.
"Many years ago, I learned that when the government changes policies, new business opportunities arise; so keep your eyes open.”
Previously, its business had focused on providing software solutions for corporate travelers. With the advent of new travel requirements—a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for Covid-19, health declaration forms, and submission of detailed itineraries—many outbound Japanese travelers found it difficult to complete the required forms in English. So, the company retooled their patented software to convert on the fly information that was input in Japanese into the required English eforms. “Many years ago, I learned that when the government changes policies, new business opportunities arise; so keep your eyes open, I have always told myself,” Shockley said. “So, it is with DocuMonde in 2021.”
Taking a Hit
Dr. Greg Story, President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan
The switch to providing online instead of in-person services took a toll on Dale Carnegie Training Japan—but not because the company couldn’t make the change quickly. Virtual formats had been used in Dale Carnegie’s US offices for 10 years, and Japan-based staff got trained in a matter of days, said President Greg Story.
The problem was that it took months to convince Japanese clients that online training was an effective format for training. “There was a lot of ‘seeing-is-believing’ needed,” Story said. “What we do is so different, so dynamic, and highly interactive, but clients are imagining boring slideshows with talking heads.”
Story made a decision to keep everyone together on the team, not fire anyone, and take the hit. But it was a big hit, with sales having dropped 90 percent in April, May, June, and July, he said.
With everyone scattered, a recurring challenge cited by many team members was the difficulty of maintaining regular communication and a sense of team spirit. Story, for example, required all staff to meet online at 9:00 a.m. each day dressed for work—no pajamas. They could also meet again at an optional 3:00 p.m. session to chat over coffee.
Timothy Langley, President, Langley Esquire
For public affairs consulting firm Langley Esquire, the outbreak kept staff busy as the crisis brought a host of new inquiries from companies seeking information on government policies and how Japan’s corporate landscape might change. But working from home made that sort of interactive, collaborative work more difficult, and staff had to adopt new tools and practices to continue working effectively, according to President Timothy Langley.
After the pandemic hit, Amazon Japan G.K.’s management met every morning to identify actions for the day, said Director of Public Relations Midori Kaneko, asking questions such as: How can we assure the safety of employees who are on the ground? How can we fulfill our promises while demands are changing?
Midori Kaneko, Director of public relations, Amazon Japan G.K.
Seth Sulkin’s Pacifica Capital K.K., which owns hotels, shopping malls, and a movie theater, saw sales plunge in 2020. Two hotels that opened last year struggled, and most of his hotels were barely getting 10-percent occupancy. Sulkin cut expenses as much as he could, and government subsidies helped some, but “nobody can be profitable at 10-percent occupancy,” he said. “You just try to preserve cash for as long as you can until things recover.”
Sulkin believes the pandemic has had a broader impact on Japan’s economy than either the 2008 Lehman crisis, during which the pain was concentrated in the finance and real estate sectors, or the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters, after which the economy started to recover within about six months.
“The Lehman shock was more isolated. It was very severe, but for fewer industries,” he said. “Now you’ve got the restaurant industry, the tourism industry, events, weddings, banquets. It’s surprising the number of industries that have been really devastated by this.”
But for his particular business, the Lehman shock was worse, largely because several of his loans matured in 2009 and banks refused to lend him more money, putting his entire operation in jeopardy.
Seth Sulkin, CEO, Pacifica Capital K.K
“Unquestionably, 2009 was the worst year of my life, far worse than 2020,” he said. “Every day I would wake up and everything was bad. Tenants would go bankrupt, or they would ask for rent reduction, or they would terminate a lease, or we’d have a loan maturing and the bank didn’t want to lend us new money,” he said. “I was just battling to stay alive.”
This time around, his cash flows have fallen more, but Sulkin isn’t facing existential threats and believes his businesses will bounce back once the outbreak subsides.
Born of the Pandemic
Sulkin also discovered a new business idea amid the gloom. Noticing that many of his favorite restaurants in Tokyo didn’t deliver because the food quality couldn’t be guaranteed, he started Food-e, a home delivery service for gourmet cuisine. It filled a gap for high-end restaurants as well as for customers stuck at home who wanted a tasty meal. Sulkin said he did it partly to save his favorite restaurants, but it’s proving a successful venture as well.
“It’s a great public service as much as a business,” he said. “Food-e was born out of the pandemic and is benefiting from it in the sense that people are not eating out. So that makes life better. But it still doesn’t make life what it used to be.”
Kiran Sethi, President, Jupiter International Corporation
Other ACCJ members said the pandemic has had limited impact on their businesses, and some even said they ended up growing last year. Kiran Sethi, president of trading company Jupiter International Corporation, said that, while supply chains did get disrupted, his business delivering goods to low-cost retailers, supermarket chains, drugstores, and online retailers benefitted from changing buying habits among consumers.
A combination of prescient strategic decisions and blind luck helped Amway Japan GK emerge “stronger, more profitable, and growing faster” than a year ago, said Mark Davidson, the company’s director of government and external affairs.
Several years ago, Amway had set out to become more of an e-commerce business, reconfiguring its product line around health and wellness, and introducing remote work policies to attract talent, he explained. “When the pandemic hit, we were perfectly positioned to adjust operations, serve people’s needs, and grow the business,” Davidson said.
Amway’s Mark Davidson at work in his home with personal assistant Nori.
Amazon Japan allowed its employees to work flexible hours, and from home, so adapting to the pandemic was relatively smooth and they have had the tools they require to do their job in their hands, said Kaneko. “Today, about 90 percent of our employees whose job allows them to do so are working from home,” she said.
Managing Expectations
Gordon Hatton, Vice president of Asia–Pacific development, Pembroke
Likewise, real estate company Pembroke, which developed the Tri-Seven Roppongi office building, had shifted to Zoom meetings in late 2019, so adjusting to working from home was not a big deal. “We were all trained, not knowing we were going to need it so much,” said Gordon Hatton, vice president of Asia–Pacific development.
But adjusting employees’ expectations to a long period of teleworking proved more challenging, he added. “At first, some of them kind of welcomed the novelty of working from home,” Hatton said. “But when I told them this was going to last until April, there was a gasp. And this was mid-February.”
Initially, staffers frequently asked his permission to go into the downtown office to get documents stamped with hanko (seals) or to ship packages by takkyubin (parcel services). But those requests faded as hanko requirements were reduced and people simply sent parcels from near their homes. Now, after a year, the novelty of remote work has definitely worn off, Hatton said. “People do want to get back together again.”
In general, though, Hatton feels that Japan’s travails have been “lighter” than the lockdowns and other difficulties he heard colleagues in Britain or the United States describe. “It’s certainly been easier in Japan, and I think people are thankful for that.”
Small Businesses
For self-employed individuals or those at small companies, the crisis tested their ability to adapt and survive—and a number of them said the ACCJ, in terms of practical guidance and a support network, helped them get through this time.
Catherine O’Connell, Founder, Catherine O'Connell Law
Once the pandemic hit, Catherine O’Connell, who owns her own legal practice, experienced a few client cancellations but quickly pivoted to helping small businesses who were dealing with their own contract cancellations. She also helped them tighten up their existing contracts and began offering educational seminars on how to cope. She had already been working on a hybrid law firm model, so going online was not a major adjustment.
Instead of shrinking back, as she saw some other lawyers do, O’Connell said she deliberately “stepped up her game.” As co-chair of the ACCJ Legal Services and IP Committee, she organized several webinars at the chamber to help members deal with supply chain problems and legal issues, as well as sessions on how to conduct effective webinars. “I found this to be a really important focus for me to contribute to the chamber and to target helping others in pain,” she said.
A self-described extrovert, O’Connell responded to the sudden end of social activities by working with committee co-chair Scott Warren to launch the Wine Down online networking series. Five such events have been held to date. At year’s end, in recognition of her enthusiasm and strong work during the pandemic, O’Connell won three awards, including ACCJ Leader of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year from the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan.
Annie Chang, President, AC Global Solutions Ltd
Annie Chang, who runs her own recruiting agency, AC Global Solutions Ltd, said her sales dropped more than 50 percent last year as people were reluctant to look for new jobs amid the uncertainty. “Our business is about networking with people, preferably in person, so the biggest challenge is to do everything online,” said Chang, who is vice-chair of the ACCJ Independent Business Committee. That required her to invest time and money in boosting her online presence.
Lobbying the Government
Throughout the pandemic, members said they were grateful for the information and webinars delivered by the ACCJ. In addition to valuable insight on the disease and government response, the sessions provided a needed sense of connectedness with others. It was “comforting” to hear other people’s stories and “know you are not alone,” said Chang, echoing the sentiment of many. O’Connell said she found “real companionship and camaraderie” at the chamber. “It was truly a sustaining factor for me to keep going forward in 2020.”
Steve Iwamura, Partner, Deloitte Touche Tomatsu LLC
The speed with which the ACCJ shifted to online programs was admirable, said Steve Iwamura, a partner at Deloitte Touche Tomatsu LLC who is also chair of the ACCJ-Kansai External Affairs Committee. And Amway’s Davidson said the chamber’s sharing of best practices amid crises “informed our business continuity planning.”
But more than anything, members highlighted the chamber’s efforts to lobby the Japanese government to lift the reentry ban on foreign residents, which blocked nearly all international travel for businesspeople based in Japan and stranded many overseas. Eventually, after much pressure, the government relaxed those restrictions, but inbound tourists remain banned.
Sulkin at Pacifica Capital said he was “furious” that Japan wasn’t allowing foreign residents to return. “There was a period of several months when people were stuck here. I think that was terrible for Japan,” he said. “As a business owner and an investor in Japan, anything the government does that hurts Japan’s investment environment is bad for my business in the long run. And so, I appreciate what the ACCJ did to advocate and fix the situation.”
Part 2: Personal Impact
Anna Maruyama, Technology representative, IBM Japan, Ltd.
For Anna Maruyama, a technology representative at IBM Japan, Ltd., as the pandemic dragged along, so did her spirits. Naturally outgoing, she found the isolation and virtual interaction with clients and colleagues unsatisfying. It was hard to build trust and genuine relationships.
It was also easy to get distracted at home by TV programs and household chores. And with no clear end to her workday, a moment previously marked by leaving the office, Maruyama found herself putting off exercise and yoga. She had never experienced a major crisis while on the job. The 2011 earthquake and the Lehman shock happened while she was in school, so they didn’t make a big impression on her. But everything around her now seemed gloomy and foreboding.
Toward the end of last year, she started to feel overwhelmed and a bit depressed. So, over New Year’s she resolved to reset some priorities for 2021 and take steps to protect her mental and physical health, including seeking out people with whom she could talk.
“I made it my agenda for this year to make personal time to do yoga or to go to the massage place [I know] and let my muscles relax,” said Maruyama, who is also co-chair of the ACCJ Young Professionals Forum (YPF). “I also try to find people who are in the same situation and build a network with them so we can share our stories. Just having a chance to talk about it relieves my stress.”
Work Mindset
Maruyama also bought some office furniture and other desk equipment to create a proper home office. That has helped her get in the necessary mindset and has delineated the space between her work and her home. “That helped me a lot.”
She also found a great deal of support at the ACCJ—particularly through two individuals and the events they organized. YPF co-chair John Carlson, senior manager of hepatitis strategic planning at AbbVie, was a good role model and got her involved in several networking events.
"The ACCJ community has really served as a resource to stay up-to-date on what is happening with respect to Covid-19, as well as how others in my industry are responding to the new challenges in front of us.”
“He was a wonderful mentor, very adaptable to all these changes that we’re going through,” she said. “The events he organized worked really well, and he gave me a chance to learn about leadership in this type of difficult situation. I would like to say a big thank you to him.”
All these intentional changes have made a big difference, Maruyama said, and now she actually feels healthier than before the pandemic. She has devoted what had previously been her commuting time to studying, learning, and relaxing. She also doesn’t go drinking with clients or teammates as much as she used to and generally eats at home. This, she said, has had a positive impact on her diet. “I became healthier. That’s the unexpected outcome of this.”
What’s Important
Covid-19 has certainly brought upheaval to our personal lives, from imposing isolation and arousing anxiety to weight gain and coping with kids learning from home. But many ACCJ members said the crisis has brought personal benefits as well—more family time, a renewed appreciation for things we took for granted before, and a rare chance to take a step back and examine our priorities.
“The pandemic forced us to reevaluate our entire lives and day-to-day activities,” said Timothy Langley of Langley Esquire. “Everyone reassessed who and what was important. We sought to reconnect with family and friends through new means and focused on the things that truly mattered.”
Debbie Reilly, Senior business development and marketing manager, White & Case LLP
Day by day, though, pandemic life can be a grind. Work, family, and personal time often blur together. Debbie Reilly, senior business development and marketing manager at international law firm White & Case LLP, said avoiding burnout has been her biggest challenge.
Her teenage children’s school went virtual last March, turning their lives upside down, and Reilly has been working from home for more than a year now. “Work life and home life can merge into a long, long day,” she said. “Without social interaction to break it up, I have to be intentional in finding time for a wellness self-check.”
Throughout the pandemic, Reilly said she experienced a range of emotions, including anger, confusion, frustration, boredom, gratitude, and hope. After more than a year, “I am wary that pandemic fatigue is setting in,” she said. “But I’m also optimistic and looking forward to the day when we can reconnect with friends and family in our new normal.”
Among the various events and webinars held by the ACCJ, Reilly found one especially helpful. Organized by the Women in Business Committee, which she co-chairs, it was designed to help members lead meetings and give online presentations. “We’re in Year 2 of the pandemic and I’m still using these tips,” she said.
Feeling Isolated
The most common personal challenge cited by members was social isolation. “There are people I haven’t seen since the pandemic started, whom I used to see regularly. So, I miss the interaction,” said Pacifica’s Seth Sulkin. “Right now, there are very few events, and restaurants close early. Tokyo is not the vibrant, exciting place it was before.”
Yuka Nakamura, Senior brand manager, Eli Lilly Japan K.K.
Various ACCJ online events, including informational sessions and the Wine Down online networking series, organized by ACCJ Legal Services and IP Committee Co-Chairs Catherine O’Connell and Scott Warren, have helped alleviate that loneliness, members said. “Staying connected is the one big value that the ACCJ has been providing me,” said Yuka Nakamura, senior brand manager at Eli Lilly Japan K.K.
AbbVie’s Carlson said the chamber “kept me plugged into the world, despite not being able to see others in-person. The ACCJ community has really served as a resource to stay up-to-date on what is happening with respect to Covid-19, as well as how others in my industry are responding to the new challenges in front of us.”
Barbara Hancock, Vice president, MediaSense KK
For Barbara Hancock, vice president of corporate communications and event planning company MediaSense KK, the biggest personal concern was restrictions on international travel, particularly how it might prevent her from seeing family in the United States. “Worry one was that if a family emergency arose, it might not be so easy to get to them,” she said.
Hancock said one noticeable result of the outbreak is that she rarely goes anywhere for a meeting—and that she can meet a friend online for coffee. While the technology has been helpful, “viewing life through a screen can be depressing,” she said. “My advice is to be positive, keep your contacts up, and don’t accept the screen as normal.”
As chair of the ACCJ Charity Ball Committee, Hancock was glad that the chamber could support many struggling local musicians who performed online during last year’s ball, which took place virtually on December 5. “Musicians depend on live entertainment to survive, and this was a great way to help them and enjoy their performances,” she said.
Overwork
Nakamura said the pervasive uncertainty surrounding the pandemic weighed on her heavily during the initial months, when everyone scrambled for information about the disease. As the government declared a state of emergency, and many schools and offices closed, people quickly had to figure out how to cope at home—and keep things going at work—without knowing how long this new lifestyle would last.
In ensuing months, as information became clearer and Nakamura became comfortable working from home, her stress level declined.
But then a new struggle emerged: overworking. “I don’t have to wrap up and go home to cook dinner, so I can just keep going, going, going,” she said. These days, she works until around 9:00 p.m., when her son comes home from soccer practice and she whips together some dinner. “That’s become my routine, and I’m trying to stop,” she said.
Overwork early in the pandemic took a toll on the health of O’Connell, leading to a blood vessel in her eye bursting in May. She took this as a warning from her body and decided to prioritize her health. She changed her diet and made a clear break from work during lunchtime, after which she went for a walk every day. She reduced her wine intake, lost weight, and on social media posted upbeat photos of herself, with flowers or plants, wearing various patterned masks.
Amazon Japan team members look forward to returning to Family Day in a post-Covid new normal.
Investing in people and causes at the ACCJ also played a key role in giving her a sense of purpose, she said. “The deepening of the working relationship with my co-chair, Scott Warren, and with the team who worked on the reentry issues was really so nourishing for me,” O’Connell said. “To be accepted and have contributions recognized because of what I could contribute, and not because of my law firm’s size or my nationality, meant a lot to me and still does.”
Tugboats and Ocean Liners
O’Connell said that before the pandemic, interaction with the chamber governors felt “unattainable,” but she perceived a “softening and welcoming” among leaders as everyone rallied together to get through the crisis. “We were certainly not ‘all in the same boat,’ but were all on the same sea, in different boats, and helping each other—from tugboats to ocean liners,” she said. “To have that camaraderie was really a new experience for me at the ACCJ.”
Timothy Connor, Managing director, Synnovate Advisory
Timothy Connor, managing director at Japan market analysis and strategy firm Synnovate Advisory and co-chair of the ACCJ Special Events Committee, found that Covid-19 has led to closer ties with his peer mentors and an uptick in phone conversations. “I find myself calling them much more regularly than before. I do believe that the pandemic has ushered in a new fondness for the warmth of voice communications. Just look at the rapid growth of Clubhouse as an example,” he said, referring to the drop-in audio chat app that is booming in popularity.
Like Maruyama, Connor found it helpful to set up a dedicated workspace in his home. “I can now shift from work mode to off mode by moving from one room to another,” he said. And since it was easy to just sit all day at home, Connor took up walking three or four times a day to break things up and gain some perspective.
Silver Linings
The benefit mentioned most frequently by members was the ability to spend more time with spouses and family. Some unexpectedly hosted university-age children who needed to come home when their college campuses shut down.
Mary Nishikawa, Founder, Lexaly Communications
During Japan’s initial soft lockdown, Mary Nishikawa, founder of medical writing and content localization consultancy Lexaly Communications and vice-chair of the ACCJ’s Independent Business Committee, said she decided to work on a novel and expand her business to include creative pieces in addition to her usual medical and pharmaceutical reports. “I unexpectedly discovered that the more writing I do, the better I get, resulting in more projects coming my way,” she said.
For people whose businesses didn’t take direct hits from Covid-19, “this virus showed us just how meaningless the custom of daily commuting can be.” That’s how Deloitte Touche Tomatsu’s Steve Iwamura described it, adding, “It has allowed me to go out for a daily one-hour walk, which has been very beneficial for me, and has given me more time to think about how Covid is accelerating change and how these changes will impact all of us.”
Part 3: The Future
Kelly Langley, Director, Langley Esquire
While the coronavirus pandemic has been grueling, it has proved a powerful catalyst for what are probably going to be lasting changes in Japan’s business culture and daily life, many ACCJ members have said. From the adoption of flextime, remote work, and going hanko-free, as well as the beginnings of sweeping digital transformation, “it’s unlikely we’ll go back to what we once were,” said Kelly Langley, director at Langley Esquire.
Traditions run deep in Japanese society, and major changes usually are sparked by external forces. Covid-19 has created an “opportunity to take on long-standing barriers in the public sector and home-grown industries.”
Langley sees the biggest opportunities in technology, energy, and healthcare, particularly as the nation’s population ages. “Innovative spaces such as digital health, telemedicine, teletherapy, and pharmaceuticals have seen a surge in demand, and lawmakers are more willing to listen to solutions in these fields. Many of those ideas are coming from foreign players.”
The world was undergoing a digital transformation before the outbreak, “but Covid put booster rockets on it,” said Steve Iwamura of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. He predicts that US high-tech companies will play a key role in Japan’s digital transformation and bring in many specialized personnel to achieve it. “That is going to internationalize Japan, in a way where digital fluency supersedes English fluency,” he said.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has announced that digital transformation will be a key goal for Japan. Kaneko said that Amazon Japan wants to support that endeavor. The company has supported entrepreneurs, selling partners, creators, developers, and various public organizations and private-sector companies with digital technologies.
"I think there’s a lot of pent-up enthusiasm for business … So, we could find that whenever the economy revamps, it could ramp up very quickly.”
“The level of online shopping in Japan is still low in comparison with other developed countries, but it has grown as a result of the pandemic as well as the spread of cashless payments,” she added. “Amazon can provide low-cost implementation for institutions and companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises, gearing up to digitalize their operations, given that we are already serving 100,000 companies and 150,000 SMEs throughout Japan.”
John Carlson, Senior manager, Hepatitis strategic planning AbbVie
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of innovation—particularly in healthcare—said AbbVie’s John Carlson. “The global biopharmaceutical and medical technology industries have come together to develop novel diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines for Covid-19. I expect this to have a lasting impact on the image of industry.”
Still, IBM’s Anna Maruyama said that, while Japanese companies have realized that they need to change and adapt more quickly, young professionals still feel their ideas and voices really aren’t being heard. “What the ACCJ can offer in 2021 is the advocacy of how our generation’s mindset can fuel companies’ transformation,” she said.
The New Office
Even after the pandemic subsides, members have said, businesses are likely to maintain some form of hybrid system in which employees can work from home and the office. There still will be demand for the office, but its function will change: it will become primarily a place for collaboration, training new staff, and absorbing corporate culture. Crunching numbers and other desk work will be done more at home, said Pembroke’s Gordon Hatton.
Also, the pandemic has made it clear that most people do crave real-life interaction with others; social isolation for months on end is no fun—and can hurt morale and corporate culture. “You don’t notice it immediately, but you start to lose those benefits of collaboration, those missed opportunities when somebody might have said something that gave you an ‘aha moment’ which you don’t have when you’re sitting by yourself,” Hatton said.
Expectations about traditional office hours also have probably changed. Employees are likely to adopt more flexible schedules, meaning less of a rush hour, Hatton added. They may work a shorter day in the office and finish up at home, or go into the office fewer days a week, mainly for meetings with team members and clients.
Office layouts will also change. Companies will move away from using big, rectangular floor plates with desks lined up in tidy rows. Instead, offices will have a more casual, creative feel, with more hot-desking or free seating, and more space for team meetings with lots of whiteboards, Hatton said. “Workplaces will have more character and become more inspiring spaces that will be attractive for recruiting top talent,” he said. “Those are the sort of buildings that will prosper.”
Barbara Hancock at MediaSense believes that, while remote work in various forms is here to stay, she still would like society to move away from “virtual life. The interactions and camaraderie of meeting in person cannot be replaced by a screen.”
Pent-up Enthusiasm
ACCJ members generally had an optimistic outlook for 2021, although there were different views on the speed and shape of the economic recovery. “I think there’s a lot of pent-up enthusiasm for business,” Hatton said. “So, we could find that whenever the economy revamps, it could ramp up very quickly.”
Jupiter International’s Kiran Sethi expects his trading company will come out of the pandemic stronger, partly because he believes some competitors will get weeded out. Sethi said that he hasn’t done anything dramatically different during the outbreak, but he did realize that his business can be maintained without as much travel as in the past, so he plans to watch future travel budgets carefully.
Seth Sulkin at Pacifica Capital predicted that Japan still has some time to go before a solid recovery begins. “I don’t expect free movement of people for, at the earliest, six months, and probably more like nine months. Not until we see herd immunity in Japan, which I think is going to take until the end of the year.”
When that happens, he looks forward to restaurants staying open until 10:00 p.m., allowing diners to frequent them again. “That will have a great impact on my life. And once events start up again, that will be really nice.”
Sulkin and Langley were confident that the Olympics would take place this summer—although Sulkin predicted that inbound tourists probably won’t be allowed to enter the country, and athletes and staff will be restricted in their movement. “The government is just so committed, and the IOC seems to have agreed,” he said. “I think with the trends we’re seeing now, and with the positive impact of the vaccination, infection rates are declining globally rapidly.”
Defeating a global scourge such as the coronavirus could give new impetus, Hatton believes, to addressing another looming global problem: climate change. “I’m optimistic that this will be front and center,” he said. “We’ve had an issue that, for better or for worse, the nations of the world have been working together to try and solve. And climate change is that same kind of issue. Hopefully there will be some good lessons that come out of this.”
Hybrid Events Wanted
Annie Chang, at recruiter AC Global Solutions, would like to see the ACCJ offer practical help for SMEs such as her outfit as they try to recover.
One untapped market that Synnovate Advisory’s Timothy Connor noticed during the pandemic and travel ban was the need for locally based interim or temporary general managers (GMs). Examples include when the new GM cannot enter the country or when the current GM needs to be replaced, but there is no one to step in, he said.
Many members urged the chamber to expand hybrid events as soon as it is judged safe to do so. “None of us have been to a live luncheon or a gala or anything like that in the past 12–14 months,” Hatton said. “I think there’s a big demand for social and networking events.”
Catherine O’Connell urged the ACCJ to schedule more events this year that are purely for networking—not a “tag on” at the end of a speaker or panel event. “I’d like to see dedicated events for structured yet fun ACCJ networking that use QR codes or other electronic means of exchanging business cards.”
THE JOURNAL
Vol. 58 Issue 3
A flagship publication of The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ), The ACCJ Journal is a business magazine with a 58-year history.
Christopher Bryan Jones, Publisher & Editor
