As a little girl a full decade before her coming-of-age ceremony would be held, Ayako Nakano had a very clear idea what she wanted to do in the future, and how she could contribute to realizing that dream. Nakano told her grandparents that she didn’t need to be bought the expensive kimono often given to girls for their seijin shiki, but would instead rather use the money to go overseas and study. The young Nakano had also already set her heart on becoming an educator.
During her schooling, Nakano says that English was the only subject she got good grades in.
“I have a good ear. I used to do imitations from a young age of people such as my teachers, to entertain everyone.”
After attending a high school in Kofu, Yamanashi prefecture with an advanced English language programme, she entered Oberlin University in Machida on the outskirts of Tokyo. There she took a B.A. in English and Education, and chose that university in large part because it had a study abroad option.
When the time came for her to apply to go the US, she reminded her grandfather of his promise. Though surprised that she had remembered what she’d asked when she was such a young girl, her grandfather kept his word and helped her follow her dream.
Total immersion but totally lost
Wanting to stay away as much as possible from other Japanese and Asian overseas students in order to get the most of the experience, Nakano opted for a historically black college in North Carolina. Though the idea raised a few eyebrows at Oberlin, she stood by her decision. With most of the other students there speaking in “southern accents and sometimes using black slang,” Nakano was “totally lost for the first three months.”
However, Nakano soon adjusted to her new surroundings and made good friendships, joined a gospel choir (later singing gospel in Tokyo for 17 years) and says she found the whole experience a “good opportunity to be independent,” adding “I learned to take care of myself.” As it happened, there was another Japanese student at the college and the two of them ended up becoming good friends.
After returning to Japan and spending an extra six months at Oberlin to take her teaching license, Nakano began to think about her next move. “I had wanted to be a school teacher when I was small and I come from a family of teachers on my father’s side. But I thought that I should take 20 years to really learn about life before becoming a teacher myself.”
Finding her way
She spent a year working for KDDI as an international phone operator, connecting people around the world and sometimes arranging for collect calls to and from North Korea. That was followed by a five-year stint at the US Embassy in Tokyo, where as well as getting to meet the US president and secretary of state, Nakano would work some action-packed shifts on the phones.
“The night shifts could be exciting as we would get calls about people who had got in trouble with the police and would have to interpret for them,” she recalls.
Nakano looks back on this time as one where she felt unsure what to do in the future, perhaps less sure of her plans than the practically-minded young girl who decided she would wear her older sister’s kimono for her coming-of-age ceremony.
Her next move was to Servcorp, a property management firm, where she headed the backroom team and assisted some of its international clients, including Major League Baseball, on their Japanese presentations.
Then working for an international IT start-up, Nakano says she picked up many of the skills she is now putting to use in her position as head of the Federation of the Swiss watch industry (FH), in Tokyo. However, when the firm was taken over, she found herself made redundant shortly after returning from maternity leave, an action in breach of labour laws. She fought her case and won.
Not relying on others
However, looking for a new position having just given birth was no easy task, and it coincided with her husband starting his own business. “Many employers asked me ‘how can you work with a baby?’ It made me realize that as a woman I can’t rely on other people. But I drew on the strength I gained when I was in North Carolina.”
Nakano recalls how much she appreciated being told that being a mother was not an issue when she applied for the job at FH. Promoting all aspects of the Swiss watch industry to Japanese people, Nakano says that while she is not a teacher in a school, her roles are in many ways those of an educator.
“Though I’ve taken a different path, I’m often teaching something to someone, and I’m still headed for the same goal. But I’m still in the middle of my journey and I have lots left to do.”
Text: Gavin Blair for SCCIJ.
