On October 22, 2014, Dr. Tatsuo Mori, Faculty of Humanities, Hirosaki University, gave us a lecture entitled “Business Management in the Global Era”.

　According to the world competitiveness ranking of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), the Japanese companies were in first place in 1990. However they became 27th place in 2010. Now they are in 21st place in 2014.

　In 2030, when the present high school students will become 33 years old, where will they be working? With whom?

“Mr.○○ who lives in front of us is getting a job in Indonesia.”

“The new co-worker in sales section is from Myanmar.”

　Those situations might be normal.

　According to the survey conducted by Japan Business Federation, more and more companies reply, “We want to employ talented people regardless of nationality.” It seems that the times when companies employ only Japanese are over.

　For workers from now on, “the ability to work in a group”, “a challenging mind”, “the ability to understand different cultures”, “a strong mind”, and “linguistic ability” are required. Dr. Mori explained this by using an example of “a trout” in a river and a “cherry salmon” in a big ocean. Why don’t you try to live like a cherry salmon?

Dr. Tatsuo Mori, Faculty of Humanities, Hirosaki University