Some weeks, I’m not tired because of work. I’m tired because of the world. The constant information, the expectation to react, the feeling that being a good person means being endlessly engaged. It’s a kind of exhaustion that doesn’t lift with rest because it isn’t only physical. It’s the weight of feeling responsible for too much, all the time.
When I lived and worked in Japan, I didn’t escape that feeling entirely. In a work context, space often didn’t exist. Long hours were normal. Endurance was expected. Silence didn’t always mean rest; sometimes it meant holding things in. So this isn’t a romantic story about work-life balance.
And now, as a business owner, I feel a different version of that pressure. Responsibility doesn’t stop at the edges of the day. Even when I try to step back, there’s a low-level awareness that things ultimately come back to me. Setting responsibility down, even temporarily, is harder when you know you’re the final stop.
But outside of work in Japan, I noticed something that stayed with me.
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Last week, I wrote about human connection and how it often reveals itself in quiet, unplanned moments. This weekend, that idea stayed with me in a different way, as my husband and I spent time volunteering at the Colma Japanese Cemetery with JCCNC to prepare the grounds for the Memorial Day service.
This was our second year helping with the cleanup, and we already know we will be back next year.
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Last week, I was able to join the Japan-Texas Economic Summit #JTES in Arlington, Texas thanks to the sponsorship and support of the US Japan Council. I want to start there, because access matters, and I do not take lightly the fact that I was invited into this space not as a speaker or sponsor, but simply as a participant who was trusted to show up, listen, and engage.
There was a lot of substantive content at JTES, and I will post about the technical and policy related insights next week. For this Mindful Monday, I want to focus on what stayed with me on a much more personal level.
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This week I learned something both comforting and slightly alarming: my long‑standing obsession with cats is not just personal. It is economic.
After reading about Japan’s so‑called catnomics, the term used to describe the very real money generated by the country’s feline fixation, I had a small moment of clarity. All those years I spent surrounded by cat‑themed everything were not simply the result of weak willpower and good design. They were the outcome of a system that understands exactly how culture, emotion, and spending intersect.
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I didn’t realize tiny towels were a thing until I lived in Japan.
At some point, without making a conscious decision, I just started carrying one. Folded neatly. Always in my bag. It became as automatic as grabbing my phone or wallet.
Public restrooms don’t always have paper towels. Sometimes there’s an air dryer, sometimes nothing at all. So you dry your hands on your own towel, fold it back up, and move on. No fuss. No dripping hands. No awkward shaking them dry.
Over time, you stop noticing you’re doing it.
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After sharing my reflections on the human connections at the Japan Texas Economic Summit a week or so ago, I wanted to follow up with some of the ideas and insights that stayed with me from the content itself. Texas policy makers and business owners brought an incredible amount of openness and practical insight to the table, and the conversations felt refreshingly grounded in reality.
I joined several breakout sessions, including one on Workforce and another on Space Collaboration. Both were thoughtful and future facing. The workforce discussion in particular highlighted how Texas is thinking seriously about talent pipelines, skills development, and regional resilience. The space session reminded me how much overlap there is between Japan and Texas when it comes to long term thinking, public private cooperation, and ambition that spans decades rather than quarters.
Still, the topic that truly stopped me in my tracks was power generation and energy use.
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The G1 Summit, convened by GLOBIS, is a leadership forum grounded in action. Its principles are to make proposals rather than criticize, to act rather than stay theoretical, and to cultivate awareness as leaders responsible for society. What makes G1 particularly meaningful for me is how consistently it places Japan at the center of global conversations, not as a follower, but as a shaper.
I attended the closing session, “New Golden Age of the US‑Japan Alliance: Where Do We Go From Here?” as a GLOBIS MBA alumna and on behalf of Japan Consulting Office. It felt fitting that this conversation came at the end of G1. It was less about diagnosis and more about responsibility. Less about what is happening, and more about what Japan and the US choose to do next.
The framing of a “new golden age” was deliberately provocative. Not celebratory, but conditional.
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A Japanese expat manager recently received a surprise during their annual performance review in the U.S.: a comment from their American team that they were “distant and hard to approach.” The manager was stunned. In Japan, maintaining formality and emotional restraint is often seen as professional. In the U.S., it can be interpreted as cold or disengaged.
This moment revealed a deeper issue: the feedback gap between jinji and U.S. HR.
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In a recent ruling, Mizuho Bank Ltd. successfully defended itself against a discrimination and retaliation lawsuit brought by a former U.S.-based vice president. While the legal outcome favored Mizuho, the case highlights a deeper issue that many global Japanese companies face: the perception of bias and the need for culturally intelligent HR practices. 最近の判決において、みずほ銀行株式会社は、米国拠点の元副社長による差別および報復に関する訴訟に対して、成功裏に自己防衛を果たしました。法的な結果はみずほ銀行に有利なものでしたが、このケースは、多くのグローバルな日本企業が直面しているより深刻な課題を浮き彫りにしています。それは、偏見の認識と、文化的知性を備えた人事施策の必要性です。
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