My JAPAN JOURNEY by Isabelita Manalastas-Watanabe

Where have all the years gone? Wasn’t it just a few years ago that I fell in love with Japan during my very first trip in 1975, and then, just like a magnet, it pulled me back to return, and then there was no turning back?

Autumn of 1975 – It was just a year after I graduated from UP Diliman’s School of Economics. My first job was as an Economic Researcher at the NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority). I heard about a program called Ship for Southeast Asian Youth, sponsored by the Prime Minister’s Office of Japan. Thirty (30) Youth Ambassadors of Goodwill from the Philippines will be selected on a competitive basis, by the then Presidential Management Staff of the Office of the President. Thirty (30) Youth Ambassadors from each of the five (5) ASEAN countries at that time – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, and from the host country, Japan, will also be selected by their own governments. Nippon Maru, a Japanese cruise ship will be home for these 180 youth when it sails and sets port at each of the 5 ASEAN countries, with the final journey to be in Tokyo, before each of the ASEAN delegates fly back to their countries, rich with many happy memories of their experiences on board the ship and during the land tours and home stays in the six (6) countries. I had a very happy memory of the Ship program.

I was back to Tokyo in 1977, now on a two-year research scholarship from both the NEDA and the Japanese government. I decided to proceed for my master’s degree at Tsukuba University, and after graduation, returned back to NEDA to serve. But the pull of Japan was too strong to resist. When the chance came for a post for Deputy Director for Investment at the ASEAN-Japan Centre in Tokyo, I was nominated by NEDA for the post, to compete with other Philippine government nominees, with the Dept. of Trade’s Board of Investment doing the final selection. I made it!

I took up my post when I was just 27, representing not only the Philippines, but all the ASEAN countries, with main responsibility to promote Japanese investments to the ASEAN countries. The term was only for three (3) years, but I ended up serving nine (9) years of the most exciting job I have ever had. I was on diplomatic passport, my compensation coming from Japan and the ASEAN member countries at that time. I travelled a lot, within Japan and in the ASEAN countries, meeting top government and private sector officials. Somebody told me I was the highest paid Filipino in Japan during my time at the ASEAN-Japan Centre.

I then flew to the US after my stint at the ASEAN-Japan Centre, thinking to take it easy, do semi-retirement for a while, before finally deciding what to do next.

But Japan kept pulling me back. There was a call from my former boss at NEDA who had joined Philippine National Bank as EVP, second in rank from the top, that PNB wants to re-open its PNB Tokyo Representative Office. Will I be interested to take up the challenge? I was!

I headed PNB’s Tokyo Rep. Office, then upgraded it to a full bank, and then expanded its reach to south western Japan, by setting up a branch in Nagoya. For almost 20 years, I served the bank, a little over 15 of them in Tokyo as Managing Director and head of Asia-Pacific, and four (4) in Rome, where I was based to head the banks remittance business in Europe, Israel and Africa as First Senior Vice President.

In Feb. 2010, I returned to PNB Tokyo for a few months before being re-assigned again to Hong Kong. I wanted to go back to Japan and not assigned anymore to any other place - enough of the 4 years living alone in Europe. Maybe I will just become a full time wife, and a full time mother? I resigned from PNB in June 2010. Just within the first two months of my leaving the bank, boredom set in.

There was also something that happened in 2010, which influenced the course of my career. Japan enacted the Japan Payments Act. While only fully-licensed banks in Japan were allowed to engage in the money transfer business prior to this Act, the new law will now permit non-banks to engage in the remittance business. I was in the remittance business for almost two decades at PNB, so even with my eyes closed, I thought I could do the business. Thus, my shift of career, from one of being an employee, to being an entrepreneur. I remembered what PNB Italy’s lawyer told me while I was assigned in Rome – why is it that Filipinos are satisfied at just being employees, unlike Chinese who own and manage their own businesses?

On hindsight, I was very bold and very much confident I could do it – be an entrepreneur, be the employer, be my own boss. I set up Speed Money Transfer Japan, a company to be owned and managed by migrants, and to serve migrants. Although I knew the business, what I had not foreseen was the huge capital outlay that is needed to run a money transfer business. This was because advance funding was required by the bank remittance partners in the Philippines, meaning we need to deposit the advance funds with them, even prior to accepting and processing the remittances of our clients. And of course, Japan is a high cost country for doing business. It was a huge challenge for someone like me, an individual, and not an institutional investor, to come up with the huge capital needed. Speed was a David among the Goliaths in the industry, and faced daunting challenges.

But for every challenge, there is always Someone up there who watches over us, ready to reach down the rest of the way, if we reach up as high as we can. Prayers, a lot of prayers, and complete trust in the Lord, opened up various ways to overcome the many challenges I have faced. And God is good!!! He was always there and has never left me when I needed guidance and help.

Today, we have grown the business, not only to the Philippines, but to Nepal, Indonesia, and Vietnam, as well. By the time this comes to published, we will already be in the final stage of preparation for our newest remittance corridor – India.

I am now 65. Maybe, time to think of retirement? I leave it up to God to guide me, in my next move. One thing is sure, though. The pull of Japan has waned, and the pull of my home country, the Philippines, is now the one I am feeling. I miss home…

Isabelita Manalastas-Watanabe / Jeepney Press