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Entering banking business

I went and interviewed at all the biggest companies in San Francisco, they all didn’t have jobs, except, god bless them, the banks. So I got three job offers: Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Mitsubishi bank. All three of them are still around today, which in hindsight is also pretty remarkable.

But because my uncle was into Japanese management styles, he said go work for the Japanese bank, you’re not gonna be a banker, just find out for me what it’s really like. As it turned out I was the first American management trainee hire they had made, and the best part I found out their management training program lasted ten years, what’s that all about.

But again the Japanese philosophy: if I hire you, you’re gonna work for me for your career. And if you’re gonna work for me for forty years, why wouldn’t I take ten years, train you in literally every single facet of banking, and then at the end of ten years, you know what you like, we know what you’re good at, and then we’ll figure out what you’re gonna do with the rest of your thirty years with us. It’s an incredible investment in people. No business, US business, would do that. But they did. And that’s standard practice for them. That made me very aware of investing in people. That gave me an entirely different perspective about corporate life as well. So he was right.


banking business economics finance Japanese business enterprises management

Date: April 25, 2018

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Robert Fujioka was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1952. He attended the University of Michigan earning a BA degree and earned an MBA from the University of Hawai'i. He has been in the banking industry since 1974 and currently serves as Vice Chair, Japanese American National Museum Board of Trustees, a Trustee of the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation, and the First Hawaiian Bank Foundation. (November 2018)

Kazuo Funai
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Kazuo Funai

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(1900-2005) Issei businessman

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Kazuo Funai
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Kazuo Funai

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Bill Hashizume
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Bill Hashizume

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Bill Hashizume
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Bert A. Kobayashi
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(1911-2010) Founder of JACTO group

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Shunji Nishimura
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BJ Kobayashi
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BJ Kobayashi

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Hawaiian businessman, developer.

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BJ Kobayashi
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BJ Kobayashi

About Albert Chikanobu Kobayashi, Inc.

Hawaiian businessman, developer.

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Miyoko Amano

Yoshitaro Amano’s Business in Japan (Japanese)

(b. 1929) President of Amano Museum

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Miyoko Amano
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Miyoko Amano

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(b. 1929) President of Amano Museum

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Hiroshi Sakane
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Hiroshi Sakane

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(b. 1948) Executive Director of Amano Museum

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Hiroshi Sakane
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Hiroshi Sakane

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