The Case of Sarah Marie Cummings
 

What would you think an executive at a 260-year-old sake brewery in a small town far away from Tokyo looked like? Here is what one looks like and what she has achieved so far.

Sarah Marie Cummings | People | Trends in Japan | Web Japan

I wonder, is she still there?

According to the company website, yes, she is still there.

http://www.masuichi.com/

It reminds me a bit of the book Saying Yes to Japan. It's about how foreigners can approach seemingly insurmountable business problems in Japan with different eyes.

Though I have not read the book myself, I have read some good reviews of it. So, this is actually happening in Japan. The brewery's sales have increased many folds since Cummings joined it. Before she came, it was barely existing.

In creating this thread, I had a secondary purpose of opening the eyes of those numerous members that flock to the how-to-become-English-teachers-in-Japan threads. True, one needs to speak, read and write Japanese even to start a career as Cummings. If one is not able to even after living in Japan a few years, one never had all that much interest in the country, its culture or its people.