Satisfaction with activities at the time of the internship ★★★★★5.0/5.0

We had been exploring overseas expansion prior to acceptance and tried to expand our business mainly in emerging countries such as Thailand and Vietnam where GDP was growing, but we were unable to get local people to understand our products and were having difficulty. The intern we accepted specialized in pharmaceuticals and as we received professional knowledge on products, our OEM product development that was progressing in Vietnam progressed even more rapidly. There are limitations to market research from the Japanese perspective and getting the needs and a sense that only local people can understand is essential. In addition, there were many things gained from internship, such as overseas employment customs, different ways of thinking regarding career, the ways of giving instructions compared to those from different countries, etc.
I have heard that turnover of staff members is high in overseas countries. I feel that further awareness is required in cooperating with people overseas.

Hoa who was an intern was very bright and because the position as an intern did not have an interest, he was a precious human resource who could give his opinions in a straightforward manner. We had accepted foreign students in Japan but it was the first time for us to accept a foreign national who could not speak Japanese at all, which of course had a significant impact on our employees, but there were some employees who no longer had an English language allergy through "not merely words but emotional rapport." Interactions with tourists and those from local companies served as good opportunities to be exposed to foreign "Customs" and "Ways of thinking" and we could see the specific issues in our overseas expansion. After the completion of the internship, we asked Hoa to accompany us when we made a business trip to Vietnam, attend business negotiations, and help our marketing research. The internship experience is very helpful in accumulating know-how on passing on our technologies and tradition to people overseas.

The world's leading mountain range is located in Tateyama in Toyama Prefecture, and based on the world-class high-quality water in Tateyama and products using deep-ocean water, as well as the pharmaceutical technology and traditions of Toyama that is renowned as the land of medicine from long ago, our company has created new product concepts. The experience we got from the internship highlighted our specific issues. When accepting the intern, the barrier of being able to speak only English was larger than expected, and we could clearly understand what we were lacking in securing human resources in expanding our business overseas, such as the awareness of career formation by foreign human resources. A project is currently progressing toward the establishment of a local subsidiary in Thailand, and while utilizing this experience we would like to accept foreign human resources from various regions and diversify thinking toward the expansion of sales channels by focusing on Southeast Asia and Western countries.

The internship period flies by faster than you expect. I believe it is important to not waste precious time and thoroughly make preparations before acceptance, which leads to learning more things. Particularly in accepting an intern who can speak only English, when the person in charge who can speak English is absent and if the system to follow up with the intern by another person in charge is not establlished, the intern will be at a loose end; therefore, it is important to give some assignments and conduct the handover in advance. We also heard honest opinions on the company structure and employment from the position of an intern who does not have a vested interest and realized that the foreign national's way of thinking of work and career was very different from that of Japan, which was very helpful in considering the employment of foreign nationals afterwards. In the internship, there are a lot of things that the accepting company can learn, and it is a good opportunity to meet a high level of foreign human resources, so please use the project.