I wanted to broaden the perspective of employees, and have them experience diversity

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

Our company manages the J-League soccer club “SHONAN BELLMARE”. Amidst contemporary society which is diversifying, I felt that people working in the sports industry should also experience various values and cultures, and broaden their perspectives. I wanted employees to learn that their environment is not everything, and that there are various things taken as common sense and various cultures in the world, and to have then experience diversity firsthand. At the same time, I learned about this intern program through introduction by J-League, and participated in the application briefing. At the application briefing, I heard stories from a company that participated in the program last year, thought it was quite interesting and could become a catalyst for learning about overseas values and culture, and decided to apply.

Took charge of attracting guests for “International Day” from scratch!
Contacts made precisely because there was an intern

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

As the primary mission of attracting foreign guests for “International Day”, the intern took complete charge from planning strategy to attract guests to actual sales and PR activities. Information dissemination using SNS went without saying, and he actually adopted a wide range of approaches from restaurants in the local community Hiratsuka, to foreign embassies and schools. He worked very enthusiastically, and his passion was really inspiring. On the actual day of “International Day”, a typhoon strike resulted in customer attraction not reaching expectations, however, we believe the connections he made with the Indonesian Embassy, the UK Embassy, The Spanish Chamber of Commerce and Industry etc. were precisely due to his involvement.
Also, as an initiative for fostering employee communications skills with different cultures, we introduced a “taking turns at lunchtime system” so all employees could have an opportunity to be involved while the intern was here. Upon trying it, this proved to be the right approach. All employees got a chance to speak with the intern, and the intern’s influence internally spread.

Accepting an intern stimulated growth of employees!
Progress in overseas development starting with Indonesia as a base

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

A major success was that the intern stimulated employees. Many employees have a lack of confidence in English, and even when foreign guests came, in most instances people felt reluctant to speak with them, however with the help of the intern’s aggressive stance on making communication, employees trying to speak English increased when they realized it’s okay to make mistakes and it’s better to just try to speak.
The interns influence was not limited to linguistics, and included stimulating and inspiring employees that there are talented individuals overseas and they have to work hard and be more aggressive if they want to advance in international society. We believe that the number of foreign fans who come to watch BELLMARE matches will increase as employees become more open-minded toward foreigners. We have expectations for this program to contribute to employee growth.
We plan to continue the relationship with the intern after he returns home as a business partner. We hope to make Jakarta our first base in Asia. There are two things we plan to implement at our base in Jakarta. The first is a tour starting from Indonesia for watching matches, and the second is looking for sponsors among Indonesian companies. We believe our relationship with this program will become a catalyst for future development of overseas business.