Hello. My name is Uehara and I joined Monosus at the end of January!
As I have just joined the company, I would like to talk about the following three points.
- About me: Meeting others and forming a sense of community
- About work: Connecting society with your community
- What we value at Monosus: Creating a new community
About me: Meeting others and forming a sense of community
I was born in Tokyo and grew up in Ota Ward, where my father is from a family of greengrocers.
Although I grew up in a working-class environment, I was familiar with foreign music and movies (especially from the US) from an early age, influenced by my father, who had studied abroad, and other family members.
Before I knew it, it had turned into an interest, a hobby, and I finally thought, "I want to live there!" So... I decided to go to college in California.
It was a turning point in my short life and I learned a motto that I still hold dear to this day.
That's what we mean by "Accept and Respect."
I think the place where I lived was one of the most diverse communities in the United States. If you drive for 20 minutes, you'll find communities of Mexicans, Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, and other people (mostly Asian lol). It was like there were so few Anglo-Saxons in the area, with small countries scattered around, respecting each other (or maybe they just weren't interested...).
This is the racial distribution map of the area where I lived.
Source: http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/
The population is represented by a dot, and the color breakdown is as follows:
Blue : White people
Green : Black people
Red : Asian
Yellow : Hispanic
Brown : Native Americans and others (White is uninhabited areas like parks, mountains, etc...)
When people with such different backgrounds gathered at university, it felt strange at first to share the same space and time as "Americans" (which is a given). It felt like there weren't many social norms about how things should be.
That was what made me want to value "Accept and Respect." Respecting the customs and traditions of each community while naturally connecting with those around me without forcing them on others felt right to me.
However, if I just accepted the people around me, I would end up with "empty syndrome," so I also tried to create a community where I could feel at ease without forcing myself. I think I probably struggled a bit at the time.
As I gradually established these two aspects - a community different from my own and a community where I felt at home - I felt a sense of fulfillment.
During this time, I developed a stance of valuing and nurturing my own community, while also continuing to be inspired by other communities. By the time I graduated from university, I vaguely thought that it would be important to effectively connect my work with my community.
About work: Connecting society with your community
After returning to Japan, I started my career at a large company with a long history.
There, I was surprised to see that tens of thousands of employees were all facing the same direction (maybe that's an exaggeration...). I immediately had a negative reaction to the thorough corporate culture that was being instilled in me, and I couldn't feel like it was my community at all. I sometimes wondered if I was a social misfit.
Myself at the time, working in a suit
From then on, I was lost, or rather, in meditation (I interpreted it as a period of recharging). Rather than the "content" of the work, I was thinking about the "meaning" of the work. I didn't have an answer at the time, but...
At that time, I met a certain person (currently affiliated with Monosus) who told me that he was looking for an assistant who could speak English, so we had lunch together.
I thought it was a risk to hire a boy who was constantly asking himself questions, so we didn't go ahead with the job. However, he introduced me to another job after that.
That job was my previous job, and one of the projects I was involved in there was a science project for high school students.
In this project, passionate adults who wanted to liven up Japan's science community worked seriously on things they believed were "truly important."
I felt an overwhelming sense of power from my manager, team, and partners about the "work that connects with the community" that I had only vaguely thought about. I was able to experience the work philosophy I had envisioned, and also build my own community.
What we value at Monosus: Creating a new community
On a business trip to Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture
After that, due to various circumstances, I was no longer able to continue working in the same position at my previous job, so I began looking for my next field.
At that time, the person who introduced me to my previous job (currently working at Monosus) called me again. Would you like to consider Monosus? I think he took an interest in me because I worked in a similar position to Monosus at my previous job. Having the opportunity to consult with him was what led me to join the company.
Monosus values "having your own standards, not those given to you by others or society," and I had the impression that it was a place where people with all kinds of standards gathered together. The image of "gathering" while accepting such "diversity" resonated with me, as I live by the motto "Accept and Respect." That's when I thought I wanted to join the company, and here I am today.
To nurture the Monosus community with care. To connect with the outside world without forcing the Monosus community on others.
I want to work with these things in mind. (I will work hard!)
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