Shinnenkai Social January 19 Event Recap

We kicked-off 2023 by joining individual, organizational, and corporate members together at our virtual Shinnenkai Social. This was also a great opportunity for FEW to spotlight the generosity of the different organizations and companies who believe in women’s empowerment, who believe in the mission of FEW Japan and who have been helping us for many years build capacity as a non profit organization.

Still continuing with our fiscal year theme “Unconventional Journeys”, FEW President  Dr. Jackie F. Steele highlighted that these organizational and corporate members who are part of the FEW Japan community are equally unconventional. Their commitment to contributing to society in a more sustainable way and believing in the sustainability of the FEW Japan legacy is definitely not conventional.

FEW Japan Herstory + Your Support

The evening started with a FEW Herstory session led by FEW Co-President Terri MacMillan. She spoke about the upcoming Herstory project that will be launched in the next few weeks. FEW would like to publish unconventional stories of all women who are interested to the FEW site and social media platforms. We believe that if we share these stories with other women we will inspire, encourage and delight all those who want to change their lives. All those who are interested will be asked to record a 1 to 2 minute selfie video of their unconventional story and share it via email. 

Terri also made a call for Social Media Volunteers to help amplify what FEW is to people in their circles who could join as members as well as companies who might want to support FEW’s mission. More details will be shared regarding these projects. Terri also shared more about FEW’s Corporate Memberships, what they are and what they entail and encouraged those with companies that share the same vision and want to support FEW Japan and its community to make this worthwhile investment.

Meet the Corporate Members!

Corporate Sustaining Members:

Code Chrysalis – Honami (Events and Community Engagements Associate) and Agnes (Marketing Representative)

Code Chrysalis is a software engineering training company located in Tokyo with a vision of creating software engineering leaders in Japan. They also announced that in their partnership with FEW Japan, Code Chrysalis is securing four seats for members of FEW to be able to take their foundations course. The foundation course is an intro to programming course, and it’s a verbal online course. They are empowering women into leadership positions by helping them transfer their careers through technology.

Organizational Members:

Sasuga Communications K. K – Helen Iwata (CEO and Founder)

Helen Iwata also known as “The Less Effort More Impact Coach” helps professional women in Japan and beyond to excel in their work without feeling exhausted, through the power of the Sasuga! Success Cycle. Helen has had a relationship with FEW for about 30 years now, as a member, speaking at multiple events and is now a corporate member. She is the host of the Sasuga! Podcast which airs out a new episode every Monday, so those interested in knowing more about her can listen to the podcast. 

Tokyo Family Stays – Tracey Northcott (CEO and Founder)

Tracey is a serial entrepreneur and has multiple businesses. She started Tokyo Family Stays in 2011 as a short-term rental host, with a single unit. She was renting it out part time to family and friends that came over and before she knew it, there was a massive demand for her apartment. The business just took off like an absolute rocket and grew, they had 25 units in 2015 and have been growing ever since. They show their guests what it’s really like to live like a local, to understand the DNA of Tokyo and they put everything into creating that experience for their ideal guests. As someone who is passionate about working with women-led businesses, it was just a natural fit for Tokyo Family Stays to partner up with FEW.

Wahl+Case – Kristine Ayuzawa (Director of People Operations)

Wahl+Case is a tech recruitment company in Tokyo.It is a Japanese company with a very internationally minded crew of people. One of the things that they have really found as a natural fit is partnerships and opportunities to collaborate with organizations like FEW. The founder and CEO, Casey Wahl is an advocate for the FEW community, has participated in a handful of FEW events in the past, and has been happy to be a member since the corporate sponsorships started.

FEW Japan believes in helping women not only reach, but exceed and expand their full personal and professional potential, and that really resonates not only with our core values at Wahl+Case, which include being socially progressive and recognizing that diversity inclusion isn’t only just the right thing to do, but it creates a better company and more opportunities for people. Wahl+Case also recognizes that women are underrepresented in the tech industry and they really love seeing opportunities to change that and to amplify voices and to work with progressive clients that offer flexible work arrangements and more opportunities for people.

Two corporate members, VOLKSWAGEN Group Japan K.K and JMEC were unable to participate in person and sent through their regrets. We would like to thank VOLKSWAGEN Group Japan K.K for their support which has has greatly impacted the sustainability of our organization and our services to members. We would also like to thank JMEC for their unique and long-standing business training program in Tokyo that centers around a business plan writing competition. Through their support, FEW members have strengthened their business skills and have been awarded the opportunity to expand their networks.

Breakout Rooms Insights

Participants were then directed to join one of two breakout rooms, where the corporate members responded to several questions about their businesses. Highlights included:

What can you contribute to the FEW community?
Sasuga Communications K. K – To contribute perspective and possibilities based on the 3 decades I’ve lived in Japan, being bilingual, 10 years of entrepreneurship and being a mother. 

How can FEW help your business?

Tokyo Family Stays – help amplify my message of showing a local experience to the broader community. 

Sasuga Communications K. K – I’m looking forward to getting more ideas and inspiration from being a corporate member at FEW that will help me grow my business and increase my CSR and charity ventures.

Networking Session Highlights

How do you celebrate your wins

• Take family to Disneyland
• Share them with everyone so that they know that the business is working well
• Remind yourself of the things that you have done in the first place and note them down in your planner. It’s important to intentionally remind yourself what you have achieved.
• Note down achievements and put them in a jar and review them every quarter

We would like to thank our corporate members for their invaluable contribution to the FEW community and for believing in the FEW mission. Many thanks to Corporate Membership

Director Tracey Northcott and Co-Corporate Membership Director Tia Haygood for organizing this event. for moderating this event. Special thanks to our FEW Japan community who showed up for this event to interact with and be inspired by our corporate members.