Saeko Goto: Appointed President of Hagoromo Foods

Thank you very much. I truly feel humbled by the weight of this responsibility.

Rather than just being familiar, it felt inseparable from who I was. For example, I have memories of a local festival where I was a young child wearing a happi coat, being carried on a float built by the company by the employees. Also, songs I thought were nursery rhymes at home turned out to be the company song (laughs).

When I was young, the company tried to build a factory in Yaizu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, and some local residents were opposed to it. When I went to peek at the situation with my father in our private car on weekends, I saw banners that said "We won't buy Sea Chicken" in red letters. Even as a child, it broke my heart.

I felt so frustrated that I said, "We should just tell them 'We won't sell you Sea Chicken!'" but my father admonished me, saying, "That's out of the question. No one from the company must ever say they won't sell to someone." Of course, we now have a good relationship with the local community.

I attended an affiliated school and could have gone straight to a women's university, which my parents recommended. However, because my father and uncle were Keio University alumni, I loved Keio and desperately wanted to go there. There was no guarantee I would get in, but I took the risk.

It would be cool if I could say that, but the truth is I applied to four different faculties at Keio and fortunately passed the exam for the Faculty of Economics. Actually, since I spent six years of my adolescence at an all-girls junior high and high school, I had a sort of fear of men. I had never really spoken to a man before.

Once I actually entered, women were an overwhelming minority—about 10% of the class in the Faculty of Economics—but my pre-enrollment worries were unnecessary. It was fun, I didn't find it difficult to talk to boys, and we studied and ate together normally. I think the Faculty of Economics opened a door for me in the sense that I no longer felt out of place being a minority among men.

I was in the seminar of Professor Shuhei Shiozawa, who taught finance and microeconomics. I am truly grateful to Professor Shiozawa for reaching out and helping me at turning points in my life, such as studying abroad, even after graduation.

Not at all (laughs). I had a very enjoyable time. I attended classes reasonably well, but I mostly enjoyed practicing with my tennis and skiing clubs and spending time with everyone. In the winter, I would stay in the snowy mountains for about 60 days, usually in places like Nagano.

Also, during summer vacations, I fully enjoyed student life by going to language schools in the US, Belgium, and Italy.

Until then, I hadn't felt a gender gap, but for the first time in my life, I felt the wall between men and women during my job search. There were many times when a company would call the men in my seminar but not the women.

In that environment, what decided me on starting my career at Ajinomoto was a conversation with Mitsuko Watanabe, a senior from the Juku who was a TV producer at the time, introduced by my mother. She told me, "If you work at Hagoromo Foods in the future, the level of your ability and how the employees accept you will be completely different if you say 'I came here after building a career at Ajinomoto for several years' versus 'I came here after doing bridal training.'" I didn't understand the meaning of working in society or how people in society would view me, so I am grateful to Ms. Watanabe for her appropriate advice.

After training, I was immediately assigned to the Osaka branch and worked in sales for commercial food products. My colleagues were all wonderful people, and both the work environment and the content were enjoyable.

However, considering that I might get married or have children by around age 30, I thought the time I could use for myself would be until about age 27 or 28. I wanted to study abroad, so I felt I had to prepare for that.

Yes. At Stanford, I learned multifaceted ways of looking at companies. For example, I learned through case studies how Toyota or GM look from the perspectives of finance, operations, and human resource strategy.

I was also exposed to the rational way of thinking of Americans. In Japan, there is a sense of security in following precedents and continuing what has been done for many years, but America is very dynamic, and "morning orders being revised by evening" happens frequently. If they think they've failed, they easily revert back. I was able to see firsthand in Silicon Valley how capital is supplied to companies that can expect growth even if they are currently in the red, and how industries grow.

At McKinsey, I worked day and night, but after getting married and giving birth to two daughters, my life changed drastically.

Since I am the type to go straight for my goals, I put my all into child-rearing. Due to my husband's work, we moved to Kobe, and since we lived without either set of parents nearby, I have nothing but funny stories of failure. Even after returning to work, it was truly difficult.

I don't know if it's okay to put it this way, but before I started working, Ms. Watanabe, whom I mentioned earlier, taught me, "Even if you struggle with balance as a woman, the important thing is not to quit your job." Also, an article I read somewhere said, "Don't aim for 100 points; 60 points for both childcare and work is fine. Together they make 120 points," and I began to think that way too. I have many flaws as a mother, and even if everyone at the company thinks I'm falling short, I've spent about 15 years telling myself, "I'm doing both, so I'm 120 points," acknowledging myself so I wouldn't break down.

Now that I've become president and am in a position of even greater responsibility, I want to aim for 120 points in work alone, but since I'm not running the company by myself, I want to aim for 140 points through everyone's teamwork.

Recently, SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) are being talked about a lot, but I want to treat it not as a trendy keyword, but as something more essential.

From the perspective of business continuity, in our case, how to sustainably procure limited marine resources is extremely important. Until now, Sea Chicken used only three types of marine resources—albacore tuna, yellowfin tuna, and skipjack tuna—as raw materials, but from now on, I believe we must also use livestock products like chicken.

Also, soy protein is attracting a lot of attention, especially in the US. Since there are concerns that supplying beef and pork may become difficult in various ways, I want to consider delivering high-quality protein to consumers at affordable prices using things like soy protein.

Originally, canned food is an eco-friendly product. It is distributed at room temperature and doesn't require any refrigeration equipment when displayed in supermarkets. Furthermore, recycling for aluminum and steel containers is established at over 90%. So, it is very environmentally friendly.

Also, canned food has an aspect where it can contribute greatly to society during disasters. As a disaster-prone country, I want to think about the role canned food can play as emergency food from a perspective that goes beyond profit.

Canned and pouched blue-backed fish are very good for health as they contain plenty of unsaturated fatty acids such as DHA and EPA. We are also developing low-carb pasta.

Recently, our oil-free Sea Chicken has been well-received. It has about one-fourth the calories of regular Sea Chicken in oil. No matter which of our products you eat, they are all products I can confidently recommend for your health.

It's not just because I am a woman; I believe diversity, regardless of gender, is very important. This is also something I learned in America—that when people with various values, such as nationality, race, and ways of thinking, share their wisdom, it has great power and leads to better results.

Within that, the first thing I want to work on at our company is the active promotion of women. Of course, we are constantly thinking about creating an environment where it's as easy as possible to continue working after returning from maternity or childcare leave. Based on my own experience, I want to start a system for taking paid leave in hourly increments this year.

Also, as something to work on going forward, I want to hold "girls' nights" within the company. This is by no means intended to neglect men, but rather to acknowledge that minorities need a certain level of support.

The biggest event that made me glad to be born a woman was studying at business school. America has the concept of affirmative action, and from the perspective of ensuring diversity, I was able to study at Stanford because I was Japanese, female, and had a background in a family business.

Therefore, while women are still a minority, I believe that women being active will lead to good results for men as well, and I want to conduct things like off-site meetings to discuss shared concerns among women.

I want to do things like factory tours for the children of our employees. The employees I work with are all family in a broad sense. If those children can see how Sea Chicken is made and know that their fathers' and mothers' company makes things that are so useful to society, I think it will make it easier for them to work, and they can take pride in front of their children and society.

I also want to hold cooking training for employees. Our sales people sell Sea Chicken and propose pasta salad menus every day, but I think there are many employees who rarely have the opportunity to actually cook using our own products.

I'd like to go there too and talk directly with the employees while cooking together.

I believe I have come this far because I was blessed with mentors and friends who gave me various opportunities for growth. I want to finally start giving back to society.

Even at Keio, I was treated to meals by so many seniors (laughs). I feel like I've received more than I've given in my life so far, and the balance is off, so I feel I must repay this debt somewhere. In my case, I believe that means giving back through my activities at Hagoromo Foods.

There are various social issues surrounding food today, such as the declining birthrate and aging population, the environment, disaster response, children eating alone ("koshoku"), and child poverty. I hope to help solve even one of these issues through the company's activities.

To be honest, I sometimes think that for a woman to be active in society, the most important thing might be what kind of values the man she marries has, rather than her choice of profession. In my case, thankfully, my husband understands and supports me the most. And he is as happy as if it were his own success when his wife is active in society. Also, my husband's parents support us to the fullest when the children have a cold, for which I am very grateful.

At the same time, since life is finite, I think it's better to think carefully about how and on what you spend your limited time. Ask yourself what makes you happiest as a human being.

Is it when you are working, when you are with your children, when you are with your husband, or when you are enjoying a hobby? By doing so, you will see the things you can't compromise on and the things you absolutely must do now. And I think it's better to do what you want to do without procrastinating.