These are the main points of Mr. Yamamoto’s talk.

1. Recollected his journey from being an elementary school student in Malaysia to working in a Japanese insurance company to working at the world-wide company Aon. Mentioned his experience encountering the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks.
2. Talked about Aon as well as risk management.
3. Compared the number of world-wide and Japanese Top Global companies from 1995 to 2020.
4. Talked about Nippon Foundation’s “Awareness Questionnaire for 18-year-olds: Do you think your country is headed for a better future?”
5. Discussed Japan’s originality and national character; differences between other countries.
6. Japanese are afraid of embarrassment. Americans take the plunge and understand each other through discussion.
7. Japan is a safe and relatively happy place; however, is okay to remain complacent?

Q&A Session

1. What is important for you when working with non-Japanese?
2. Discussed the value of taking a calculated risk
3. Discussed the Go! Blue Project from Okinoerabu Island, Kagoshima
4. Don’t be embarrassed when speaking English
5. Know your value; adapt your attitude so that you have a wider breadth of ideas
6. Amacho project-a non-typical Japanese idea

You can read the full exchange of the talk below (Ogi Learning Center; Japanese only)

APIC寄付講座夢ゼミ＿ゲスト：山本達也さん【前編】
APIC寄付講座夢ゼミ＿ゲスト：山本達也さん【後編】


The launch of APIC’s “Dream Seminar” series stems from a cooperative agreement signed in October 2019 between the town of Amacho in Shimane Prefecture, and APIC. It is part of APIC’s contribution project to Amacho’s promotion of its concept of an “Academy of Building People Who Love their Home Town”. The young generation has the opportunity to directly listen and react to talks given by speakers who have vast experience overseas, eventually leading to a deeper understanding and interest in foreign culture and international cooperation among the attendees. Due to COVDI-19 measures, the number of audience members was limited, but nonetheless a lively conversation ensued after the speech between them and Mr. Yamamoto.

Mr. Keisuke Ono, the person in charge of Amacho’s “Ogi Dozen Educational Attractivization Project”, was the MC of the event, along with the participation of APIC Executive Director and Sophia University Visiting Professor Mr. Shoji Sato, and Ms. Kaori Hamanaka, HR Department Special Mission Manager of the Amacho side.

The second talk is scheduled to take place on January 22nd, 2021 with Professor Anne McDonald of the Sophia University Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies giving a lecture in Amacho.