Two Nanyang MBA Alumni share their Journeys from Japan to the World

At 32, finance executive Akihiro Mayuzumi had nearly a decade’s worth of experience at the Japanese manufacturing firm IHI Corp. For his part, commodity trader Hironori Tanaka had also spent over ten years climbing the ranks at the Tokyo-based Marubeni Corporation.

“For a decade, I had been working for Japanese companies only. This meant I was only speaking Japanese and to fellow Japanese,” Akihiro recalls. “I knew that if I wanted to be a global leader, I needed to gain exposure to different cultures.”

Hironori, on the other hand, wanted to move from trading in soft commodities “to the investment side”, and thought Southeast Asia would be a perfect place to reorient his business perspective. “[There’s] lots of new technology, and start-ups emerging in Southeast Asia,” he muses – a perfect vantage point from which to compare and comprehend the changes that Japan’s business landscape was experiencing.

Pursuit of a global career

Taking stock at an inflection point in their successful careers, they came to the same conclusion: they needed to pursue an education that could enable a more global career.

Both Akihiro and Hironori chose to leave Japan and enrol in the Nanyang Business School (NBS), part of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Akihiro chose the Nanyang MBA and Hironori to the Nanyang-Waseda Double MBA, which had courses in both the Waseda University in Japan and the Nanyang Business School.

For Hironori, the Nanyang-Waseda Double MBA offered the best of both worlds: Japanese business smarts and exposure to Southeast Asian innovation, through a 14-month programme with classes in two of Asia’s top business schools.

“From alumni feedback, I learned that the Nanyang MBA was very practical. Every class had discussions and presentations that could help me improve my leadership in the global community,” explained Akihiro.

On top of exposure to global business thinking, the substantial 12-month curriculum was a big draw for him. “When I joined, I was already 32 years old – a little older than the rest,” he recalls. “I wanted to finish the MBA as early as possible so I could promptly return to the business world. That’s a unique point for the Nanyang MBA.”

Diversity in discussions

NBS ensures that students are exposed to talents and diversity from various countries and industries. This was a revelation for Akihiro and Hironori, who came from Japan’s hierarchical business culture.

Hironori experienced “a touch of culture shock” in his Nanyang MBA classes. “In Japan, the class set-up is more lecture-based; discussion is not really a given in Japanese culture,” he tells us. In contrast, the Nanyang MBA practises experiential learning, where students learn by doing through “discussions, group activities, and presentations,” Hironori explains. 

Akihiro, too, appreciated how “the programme encouraged students to have engaging discussions with everyone participating,” he says. Having only focused on the finance side of the business for the length of his career, Akihiro appreciates this access to a broader perspective.

“The MBA course provided me with financial knowledge, and a comprehensive look on business operations: from maintaining supply chains to handling marketing – essential knowledge for future-ready leaders,” Akihiro says.

New insights lead to new career path

An elective course in digital marketing led Hironori to reconsider his career path completely. “I noticed the great potential of digital marketing – eventually I changed my career path to the digital marketing side,” he tells us. “Now I’m doing digital transformation, especially in the area of digital marketing.”

A module on the entertainment business also stuck with Hironori: designed for double masters’ students and based in Singapore, the class was taught by Japanese entertainment business expert Atsuo Nakayama.

The subject was a microcosm of Japanese business, with the class case studies showing many things we can utilise even now, from a Japanese business environment,” Hironori recalls. “Japan has a lot of great entertainment intellectual property, like anime or manga; I felt I’m really proud of Japan.”

To this day, Hironori sees Professor Nakayama as a career mentor: “He’s amazing,” he says. “He has a lot of experience working for consulting, and game companies. I consulted him about my career.”

Diversity in discussions

NBS ensures that students are exposed to talents and diversity from various countries and industries. This was a revelation for Akihiro and Hironori, who came from Japan’s hierarchical business culture.

Hironori experienced “a touch of culture shock” in his Nanyang MBA classes. “In Japan, the class set-up is more lecture-based; discussion is not really a given in Japanese culture,” he tells us. In contrast, the Nanyang MBA practises experiential learning, where students learn by doing through “discussions, group activities, and presentations,” Hironori explains.

Akihiro, too, appreciated how “the programme encouraged students to have engaging discussions with everyone participating,” he says. Having only focused on the finance side of the business for the length of his career, Akihiro appreciates this access to a broader perspective.

“The MBA course provided me with financial knowledge, and a comprehensive look on business operations: from maintaining supply chains to handling marketing – essential knowledge for future-ready leaders,” Akihiro says.

New insights lead to new career path

An elective course in digital marketing led Hironori to reconsider his career path completely. “I noticed the great potential of digital marketing – eventually I changed my career path to the digital marketing side,” he tells us. “Now I’m doing digital transformation, especially in the area of digital marketing.”

A module on the entertainment business also stuck with Hironori: designed for double masters’ students and based in Singapore, the class was taught by Japanese entertainment business expert Atsuo Nakayama.

The subject was a microcosm of Japanese business, with the class case studies showing many things we can utilise even now, from a Japanese business environment,” Hironori recalls. “Japan has a lot of great entertainment intellectual property, like anime or manga; I felt I’m really proud of Japan.”

To this day, Hironori sees Professor Nakayama as a career mentor: “He’s amazing,” he says. “He has a lot of experience working for consulting, and game companies. I consulted him about my career.”

The Nanyang MBA is a flexible 12-month or 18-month programme designed to fuel your growth into a future-ready leader equipped with the skills needed to excel in a global, digital environment. The programme aims to develop impactful, culturally adept leaders who embrace the connection between business, technology, and innovation to excel in global environments and adapt to each new wave of digital change.