LIGHTENED’s CEO Story: Why Did He Start the Company?
Hi there,
I am Ryoji, the founder and CEO of LIGHTENED.
One year has passed since the LIGHTENED project started. To be honest, we have had so many difficult times. But the reason we could keep going and we think we can continue is only because of all your support. Thank you so much.
I was studying social entrepreneurship in the Business School of the University of Auckland last year. Since the very first day when I moved to New Zealand, I was seldom treated as a Japanese. The Kiwi society treated me as a Kiwi, which is what I was impressed the most during the entire exchange program. As I spent time in New Zealand, I started seeing the environment with cultural diversity as the norm, which surprised me a lot when I came back to Japan.
You know, Japan is one of the most homogeneous countries in the world. International people are often still treated as outsiders and you’ll face problems when you move houses or look for jobs, especially if you don’t speak Japanese. I’ve been working as a student tutor at the University of Tokyo for international students and they often come to me to ask for help in academics and even for daily stuff. Through the tutoring experience, I realized how much the environment surrounding International students needs to improve and I’ve decided to take an action for what students desire, what I wanna do, and what I can do.
This April, we released LIGHTENED, a website where international students in Japan can find internships in Japan since one of the biggest problems is job-hunting for international students. Now, only 30% of international students actually start working in Japan after they graduate because many Japanese companies regard those without working experiences as ‘risky to hire’, even though they have unique talents. Thus, we are providing a platform for international students in Japan to find internship opportunities since now it is really hard for them to have access to such opportunities. Many international students have already started interning in companies in Japan even if they don’t speak Japanese at all.
We keep providing more and more opportunities with international students in Japan through LIGHTENED, so we would really appreciate if you share this post and let your friends know about LIGHTENED especially your friends in Japan!
Are you interested in us?
We are hiring aspiring and passionate people to work with.
Check out the available positions here.
Cheers,
Ryoji
