We want to disseminate Muslim fashion incorporating Japanese culture overseas

Q.Why did your company decide to take on interns? What did you aim to achieve?

Based on the concept that “we wanted to increase opportunities for the advancement of talented women in the workplace who were forced to withdraw from frontline jobs due to giving birth / raising children”, we founded the company upon taking notice of the product “Hijab” worn by Muslim women. Initially with the attitude “let’s give it a try”, and while mainly using a WEB-based approach, we just couldn’t produce successful results. However, through the process of continuing to challenge various things, opportunities increased for being able to receive information on business hints from people around us. As a result, we arrived at the conclusion that more than Muslims living in Japan, the main target should be wealthy foreign tourists and Japanese trading company employees who have frequent overseas business trips, and that we should create Muslim fashion that incorporates Japanese taste as souvenirs for our target buyers.
Currently we are developing as our main business designs based on using formal black kimonos for ceremonies that are symbolic of Japanese “Wa”, getting confirmation on whether our expected targets and sales strategy will actually be accepted by customers, and whether there is any problem with our sales promotion method, and we decided to accept an intern out of a desire to meet someone who could become a bridge for disseminating our company’s information overseas.

Product planning and proposals fully utilizing the ideas of a Muslim woman.
Raising the awareness of Muslims through active exchange with the local community.

Q.What kind of internship did you run? What difficulties did you face and how did you resolve them?

We made the most of the intern’s background, who participated in making suggestions for future business development and PR activities. Regarding business development, we received advice on our mainstay product formal black kimonos and planned new product worship service clothing, with respect to design planning, quality evaluation, appropriate pricing, business development method etc., as well as becoming a product model for customers and having photographs taken. We were able to reflect the sensibilities and ideas of a Muslim woman into the business, which was fantastic. Regarding PR activities, as a ‘transmission tower’ for our products overseas, she participated in information dissemination using SNS, as well as helping in the construction of a multilingual website. The intern was fluent in Japanese, so information dissemination in Japanese, English and Indonesian became possible.
Also, in the area of Fukushima, we held an exchange event at an elementary school out of desire to spread understanding and knowledge of Muslims even if only a little. In addition, the intern participated as a panelist in a seminar with the objective of strengthening response in the Tohoku region to inbound visitors, sharing live information about Muslims in front of people from the Japan Tourism Agency, the Prefectural Office, local Tourism Association, hotel staff etc., conducting PR activities in a wide range of areas.

Direct sales customers increased through development of new sales channels, sales doubled!

Q.Comparing before and after the internship, what effects did it have on you, your employees, or your organization?

Through SNS messages in multiple languages and helping to construct the multilingual website, we received high praise not only from her home country of Indonesia, but also from people in Europe. Also, sales before the internship were mainly for WEB-based orders, however through the help of the intern, new sales channels were developed, and we became able to make direct sales at Tokyo mosques and Halal shops. Related sales grew to the same level as WEB-based orders, so overall company sales doubled. Through having a Muslim intern with deep understanding of the company’s philosophy join during business negotiations, the distance between sales channel customers narrowed, leading to development of new sales channels. Among these, it also became possible for the first business client to handle our products.
Also, exchange with local communities proceeding favorably when negotiating with related institutions of municipal governments was in no small part due to being able to introduce our efforts as part of a program by the highly trusted METI Government of JAPAN. Going forward we will continue to have expectations that interns can become a bridge for the company with Indonesia, and we will engage in business from the perspective the company will also make a link between Indonesia and Japan.