We want to sharpen our ability to communicate information from the viewpoint of foreign human resources in order to establish DENDAMA as a worldwide e-sport.

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

Our company is a venture established in 2016, engaging in product planning, sales, development of dedicated applications and competition management for Kendama (a cup and ball). Our unique product DENDAMA is a game machine into which Kendama, part of the Japanese traditional toy culture, and IoT technologies are integrated as a cool and stylish tool of a new era for enjoying Kendama. As DENDAMA is available for competition between players online, we would like to begin the sales overseas in the near future and popularize it as an e-sport all over the world. We already participated in this program in FY2018, accepting interns from Thai and Indonesia to gain a foothold for overseas expansion. In 2019, as we opened a cafe & bar near the famous diagonal crossing in Shibuya, which become an information base, we thought we would like to obtain ideas for promotion and communication of information from the viewpoint of foreign personnel in order to acquire demands from inbound tourism and promote our overseas expansion.

Discussed effective PR methods targeting foreigners, such as displaying videos and holding workshops.

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

The cafe & bar we opened, where guests can pick up our product to actually enjoy playing, is located at the place that commands Shibuya scramble crossing which attracts many foreign tourists. So we heard opinions of the interns about how to promote DENDAMA targeting foreign tourists from their viewpoints, and had discussion over and again internally. The result was the plan to invite a foreign video creator living in Japan to post a video of experiencing DENDAMA. Thus we started the research on influential creators and cost for producing such a video. As the interns had an educational background of majoring in journalism, as well as planning ability, we engaged them in working mainly on shooting and editing the PR video and making proposals for events targeting foreigners, as well as how to attract them. In addition, we also asked them to keep on posting on SNS and owned media about DENDAMA in English. Last fiscal year, the interns worked on activities such as making proposals for improving the dedicated application and renewing the design for PR. This fiscal year, we could engage them in more practical ones focusing more on foreign tourists.

Willingness to work with foreign human personnel was increasingly shown in the company, and new ideas for business promotion and PR were also obtained.

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

We felt the effect of the interns' activities because foreigners who read the SNS messages posted by them in English came to the cafe & bar. So we are going to hold an event planned by the interns in the near future. What we felt as a great effect was that internal communication in English became smoother. Personally, I started learning English because I thought from the experience in fiscal 2018 that use of foreign languages was indispensable. As a result, I could give instructions properly this time, which improved the quality of the interns' activities. We felt confused at first due to the barrier of language, but we thought we could develop through repeated communications a corporate culture in which it was natural to work with foreigners. We realized that people, irrespective of nationality and race, could work for the same goal and enjoy together, which intensified my desire for pushing ahead with overseas expansion. In addition, since the interns became quite fond of the company culture of freedom and DENDAMA, we could rediscover the strength of our company. Making use of the speediness and strength as a venture, we will promote employment unrestrained by nationality and further globalization of our business.