YT41 | What Japan and USA can learn from each other – insights by Kotaro Tamura San

How did a person from a small Japanese village become a popular politician and a global personality? In this episode of YanaTV, we welcome Kotaro Tamura San, a multifaceted angel investor and former politician. Tamura shares his journey from a small town in Japan to becoming a globally recognized investor.

He discusses his early inspirations, notably his grandmother who, despite her simple life, profoundly impacted him with her resilience and wisdom. Tamura also reflects on his life-changing decision to move to Singapore for his daughter’s future and to remain close to his parents. Tamura offers many insights into how his diverse experiences in the East and West have shaped his approach to business, politics, and fatherhood. Join us for a heartfelt exploration of Tamura’s personal and professional life!

Discussion Topics: What Japan and USA can learn from each other

• What drives a successful journey from rural roots to global recognition? Tamura San opens up about his humble beginnings in rural Japan and the early influences that shaped his career and personal ethos.
• How does a grandmother’s wisdom influence life choices and career paths? Tamura San discusses the invaluable lessons learned from his grandmother, which have guided his decisions throughout his life.
• What can we learn from bridging Eastern and Western cultures? Tamura San reflects on his experiences in the East and West, discussing how these shaped his approach to business, politics, and life.
• How does one navigate the transition from politics to entrepreneurship? Delve into Tamura San’s journey from a political career to becoming a successful angel investor, and the challenges and rewards of this transition.
• What can the East learn from the West and the West learn from the East? Tamura offers his unique perspective on the key lessons that Eastern and Western cultures can learn from each other.
• What are three essential characteristics that a leader must have? Tamura outlines the three critical attributes necessary for effective leadership: visionary thinking, resilience in the face of challenges, and the ability to inspire and mobilize others toward common goals.
• What life lessons does Tamura San aim to pass on to his daughter and future generations? Discover how Tamura San’s life experiences have prepared him to offer advice on resilience, innovation, and making impactful life decisions.

Transcript: What Japan and USA can learn from each other

Tamura: In the U.S. I learned that Japan is, uh, Japan need to speak out more. And, uh, when Japan shines, Japan learned the best practice of the world. Mm, no. Japan, uh, introduced and invited the best talent in each field to Japan and patchworked.

Yana: Welcome to another episode of YANA TV. Today, our guest is Katara Tamura, who is an angel investor to more than 60 companies, a faculty member at three top universities, one in Singapore, one in Japan, one in the United States, and author to more than 10 books that sold 1. 2 million copies and an ex voluntary member of Japan Diet. Japan is one of my absolute favorite Thank you I’m just wondering what brought you to Singapore? 

Tamura: I was very blessed. Uh, when I uh exit from politics, uh, I got a newborn baby  I found, uh, you know, what we need to do for her. Uh, I was in charge of fiscal and economic policy of Japan. So, Japan is a nice country. But, you know, uh, the education system and the society is kind of closed and harmony oriented and no mistake allowed. So I had a concern, you know, what’s the best way to raise this newborn baby?

 I got the invitation from, uh, Lee Kuan Yew school, since, uh, you know, uh, slightly before I left politics. But at that time I couldn’t make up my mind to go to Singapore because I I visited Singapore several times, but I never lived in Singapore.

But I found that Singapore is an interesting option because English, Mandarin, uh, you know, official languages, and so big, uh, diversity, and it’s safe and not far from my home. And I have, uh, uh, family. I mean, you know, mother and father.

So they miss the grandkids. And, uh, I wanna have a constant, uh, you know, mingle with them. So, what’s the best way? Place to raise a case and singapore come to my mind. I think living in Asia might, uh, uh, you know, give me the very interesting opportunity to, uh, pay back to my society and the country. And uh, now I’m finding, uh, this, this was a kind of, uh, you know, my important mission to play a role here. To do something for japan and raising my daughter here so far. I think so good

Yana: Beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. You have done so many things. Who was the most inspirational figure that you think you really looked up to who inspired you?

Tamura: I really loved, you know, To study and read the book of the legendary heroes in the history uh in the Early part of my life. My hero was alexander the great Because he never lost the war he always winning he Conquered and built the largest empire from greece to west of india at that time . When you’re very young, uh, you tend to admire that kind of person.

Uh, but I gradually changing, uh, my hero. Now, uh, my answer is my grandmother.she was big to my family. But, uh, not to, uh, anyone, uh, from outside my family. So she, she was just a, a housewife. But she gave me a tremendous impact. She gave me a lot of love. Uh, she never, uh, talk like a lecturer. But, uh, she always Try to share important, uh, life skills because she went through a very difficult era of Japan. You know, Japan had a constant war with with and a Pacific war with the United States.

And uh, very last part of her life, she enjoyed the economic growth of Japan, but, uh, she was born in the Meiji era to the Showa era, Showa era. Japan had a hard time, you know, economic difficulty, you know, military challenges and, uh, lost the war. And, uh, lost so many lives. Uh, so she learned many things and she shared with me a lot. And, uh, you know, uh, maybe I got impact from her. And, uh, I was raised, uh, in the very countryside.

Yana: That’s exactly what I wanted to ask. Actually, tell us a little bit about your upbringing. So how was that growing up in Japan and how did you grow up?

Tamura: Yes, I was in the, one of the smallest towns, the countryside. And, uh, I watched so many TV programs. shot in Tokyo. So my dream is I want to live in Tokyo. So I went to Tokyo as a college boy. Then, uh, three, four years passed. Then after Tokyo, I, I knew that, you know, bigger world is behind Tokyo. We never explored that. So I had a wish to go to uh, Europe. To go to U. S. Then I study outside. So, country boy, very curious about outside. So if you were born in Tokyo, you know, world is not very exciting.

Yana: Because Tokyo is enough exciting. But if you were born in countryside, you know, outside. You can be super curious about what’s going on outside, uh, you know, Tokyo, outside of life. So, I come to know Japan is different. How different? As you said, Japan is a very unique culture and it’s very closed culture. It has very certain rules, traditions that people follow. And of course you grew up with them. And so when you go and into the world, what was the differences? What did you notice? Yes.

Tamura: uh, when I spend time in the U. S. with my colleagues, you know, my, my, you know, fellow students from Japan, you know, most of them are from Tokyo. So, they got surprised. Oh, U. S. has a lot of nature. U. S. has a lot of, uh, you know, wild animals. And, uh, you know, Japan is only civilized, uh, you know, uh, big cities. But it’s not, I have, uh, more beautiful beaches in my hometown. I have more mountains. We have bears and the deers and the wild rabbit in the neighborhood. And what you’re talking about, you know, Japan has two faces, Tokyo, Osaka, and the countryside. It’s a, you know, bigger country than people think, actually.

Yana: Right.

Tamura: So. I saw, uh, you know, Japan is different in a sense, but at the same time, Japan is the same so I, I see the, commonalities? Also, everybody living in the countryside is tend to be, you know, domestic focused. And I, first place I lived in the U. S. was, uh, North Carolina.

And I went to the supermarket for the first day. And, uh, I, I, uh, had a bank account. I, uh, cut a check and, uh, I tried to sign the check and, uh, make a payment. you know, the cashier, uh, the old lady asked me, , uh, to show the id. So the ID at that time, I didn’t have a, uh, driver license yet. I showed a passport to her. She said, what’s the passport? Passport. That’s

Yana: they don’t have it.

Tamura: you are sailor or something. You know, you’re from Port North Carolina. Doesn’t have port Big port. So what is passport driver’s license? You don’t know. Passport. I never seen passport. In the u. s. 80 percent of the people at that time Doesn’t have passport in japan. It’s the same 80 percent of the japanese

Yana: Don’t have the passport. Okay, here is the similarity.

Tamura: Yes, we are insular. We care only domestic issues people say, Japan is a Galapagos, but in the U. S. it’s a bigger Galapagos. So that’s, yeah, inside you have diversity, but you know, if you go to the countryside, maybe west coast, east coast, you have diversity. But you know, middle of the United States is like a middle of Japan.

Yana: Very interesting. When I think about, you know, United States and Japan, to me they’re countries that are almost opposite to each other in so many ways. And you say that actually there’s a lot of similarities. I will rethink that. So again, you as Japanese person, right? So let’s say you start traveling, you go around the world, your interaction with people, because I know that Japan is very particular how you supposed to talk to each other. There are a lot of rules that you need to follow. Usually Western world is much more relaxed. So how was your experience? Were there any stories that Surprising, unusual, shocking.

Tamura: In Japan in the classroom You are not allowed to talk back to the professors. In the United States, you know, they are wearing a baseball cap and biting chewing gum and put your foot on the,

Yana: feet on the table

Tamura: And talking back to the professors. 

Yana: And, you know, professors are welcoming. questions and challenges And I I had I got a cold call Or kodaro, you don’t have anything or you’re not learning 

Tamura: so it’s uh, you know always uh professor and uh students are always challenging each other but I read the materials I prepared the class, but you know I’m not accustomed to go back to the faculty, uh, you know, professors, and, uh, well, I was silent, and, uh, yeah, that was a very interesting, uh, you know, experience. But, uh, you know, I get used to it. I, I,

Yana: it. Did you talk back to the professor yourself? Yes. A few years later? Yes.

Tamura: end, so many mistakes, but you know, mistakes are allowed and the mistakes are appreciated. That is a great learning. But, uh, when, but it’s a scholarship learning. You are obliged to go up to go back to the uh workplace So I chose the first workplace, uh as an investment banker.

Yana: Was it in the United States

Tamura: Uh, no, it’s a japanese in

Yana: so you went back to Tokyo after this experience in the U. S. and you went to the investment banking. 

Tamura: uh I thought that you know, this experience is very unique and very learning But, uh, if I do this in my company, I wake cow.

Yana: So Yes, you can’t talk back to the boss in japan. This is not allowed

Tamura: but interesting. So I went to the two schools with a, a scholarship. Mm-Hmm. . The second school was, uh, uh, you know, international and develop development economics. So I met a bunch of policy makers from all over the world and some of them have aspirations to lead a country as a politician. So I got the very, uh, You know huge impact from them Oh, 

I thought you know managing company is the biggest mission I thought managing money was the biggest mission but managing country can be very interesting at that time Japan was uh slowly declining as a economic power as a political power when company is not doing well We need to management.

Yana: Yes.

Tamura: the

Yana: You have to make changes of course.

Tamura: So if my country is not doing well,

Yana: we manage, then you have to make change to government.

Tamura: Who is the management?

Oh politicians

Yana: Yes. The government.

Tamura: That’s very interesting.

Yana: When you look at the East and the West, because you have this amazing experience, right? Someone who grew up in a very Eastern culture and you have spent so much time in the Western world. What do you think East can learn from the West and West can learn from the East?

Tamura: In the U.S. I learned that Japan is, uh, Japan need to speak out more. And, uh, when Japan shines, Japan learned the best practice of the world. Mm, no. Japan, uh, introduced and invited the best talent in each field to Japan and patchworked. Uh, so, but you know, Japan had too much confidence at that time, trying to catch up and try to exceed the U.S. is challenged, The US tried to hit you back.

Yana: doesn’t like to be 

Tamura: like to be challenged. But Japan had overconfidence at that time. So, frankly speaking, Japanese business leaders and the political leaders tend to think we have nothing to learn from the US. But you know, when I studied, you know, law, business and policy making, there’s a lot of things we need to learn.

After that, the Japan, uh, was Gradually, uh, you know, declining and then it was the beginning of the Japan’s so called lost two decades or three decades. So at a time, uh, I made up my mind, okay, let’s go into the politics and the reshuffle and a change the management. I will manage because you know. Uh business mindset is needed to lead a country 

Yana: So if we lead the country and you come from the business, what do you think are three characteristics that a leader needs to have?

Tamura: At that time, and even still, so Japan’s politics, uh, is doing, uh, so called dynasty politics, you know, among, uh, uh, LDP is a ruling party among LDP, around 60 percent is, uh, coming from the same, uh, family. So family dynasty, so they tend to think, you know, uh, in order to lead the country, you just do the same, uh, rituals,

But, uh, my, uh, understanding, you know, in order to read Kanji, you need to go abroad. You need to experience the different lifestyle. You need to study language and, uh, you need to get degree at least. And then, uh, uh, you can, uh, understand what’s going on outside world. You can bring back the wisdoms. 

So business mindset, I don’t find any business mindset, uh, in Japanese politics. So Japan, uh, Japanese government and the Japanese ruling party just spending a lot of money because Japan has a lot of, uh, surplus at that time. So keep spending and never think about making money.

Yana: That’s why you need business people in the government, right? So you have to think about how to make money. 

Tamura: Yes, Japanese politicians, not only Japanese politicians, but all politicians in, in the world are so afraid of, uh, losing seed. Hmm. Uh, because they don’t have, uh, uh, enough confidence or guts, uh, to speak out because, uh, they want to get reelected. They don’t know they have, they don’t have a good market value the good politician must be a person. Uh, after political career, you can go on your own.

Yana: And you have market value, right? And people want to employ you.

Tamura: Honestly, I had a hard time after I left politics. You know, nobody wants to hire me and, uh, I have to find the ways to live.

Yana: Well, that’s how you became angel investor, right? So you said, okay No one is hiring me. I’m just going to invest in 60 companies and make my own path

Tamura: right. Entrepreneurship is nothing for me. That’s because, you know, I have no choice other than be enterprising.

Yana: Yes. I understand well since we’re talking about business and entrepreneurship Um for people who would like to do more business in japan Hmm And let’s say, let’s look at people who are Western oriented and are the Asians who are non Japanese and they would like to do business in Japan. So what advice would you like to give to them? So what is the best way to approach people in Japan?

Tamura: so Japan has a lot of hidden, hidden jam. So, you know, Japan has, uh, so many technologies and ips. Mm-Hmm, , which is not utilized, uh, uh, you know, at limit. And, uh, there’s, uh, so many underestimated, uh, you know, technologies. And, uh, to commercialize or to, to globalize. So, I want to find those, uh, technologies and IPs and ideas to globalize.

So my mission is, uh, to increase the interaction of Japan and the world. Mm hmm. Talent, technology, and money. Japan has a lot of money, very cheap money. Japanese yen is so cheap. A lot of money. You can mobilize that. So I want to bring Japanese talent and technology and money to the world. I want to send global talent, global technologies, and global money to Japan. So if you increase the interaction, Japan is the only place not found well by the West, even

Yana: Because it’s not well understood. That’s why we’re having this conversation, right? You’re actually our first Japanese guest on the show. It is not well understood. People don’t know. And also if the foreigner, when you go to Japan, I mean, people would usually smile to you and be nice, but no one says anything. So it’s very hard, you know, to open the door. Language, yeah.

Tamura: Yeah, you are right. So language Yes. And the mindset that we are a bit shy

Yana: Exactly. People are much more introverted compared to all other Asians I know. I find Japanese people to be the most introverted. It would be nice actually to learn more about Japan in general. So for Japanese people to step forward, to educate the world about Japan, because we don’t know enough.

Tamura: The biggest, uh, uh, learning, uh, I, I encounter from angel investing is that, you know, the best way to be successful in angel investing is find the ugly duckling, ugly duckling, you know, hidden gem. So you know, uh, my teacher of investment is Mr. Peter Thiel and he keeps saying, you need to find the, uh, truth. Which, uh, you know, most of the people disagree with.

So it’s an ugly duckling. you can find it and utilize it. And, he or she may be the Unicorn. Yes. So Japan is an ugly duckling. So people say Japan is, not the Rising sun or setting sun. Japan is shrinking. Japan is aging friends said there’s nothing, new technologies there. Of course, partially true. But, uh, at the same time, if you go deeply and, if you can use the translation, there’s so many unhidden, hidden gems.

 I’m from, uh, you know, land of hidden gel, uh, and, uh, ugly duckling. So I’m finding ugly duckling and the raising. together with, uh, my friends in the world. Uh, because, you know, I can do the door knocking because I’m Japanese and Japanese language. I understand their mindset and try to cut the It’s not easy. But, you know, we, we have, we have a good team. To do the final, uh, not only financial, but in the scientific due diligence. And if we find that this is the ugly duckling using Singapore, we are, uh, good at the commercializing, globalizing that. Beautiful.

Yana: And also you experience, right? Because you spend so much time in the West and you studied, so you understand people around the world. I love that. The final question for today. I know the time just flies so quickly. Your child, right? So the most important person in the world. And, um, if I were to ask you what advice perhaps as a father, you would like to give to your child and all other children who would be the same age, what would you say?

Tamura: age What would you say? Oh like what I mentioned the greatest learning for my grandmother She keeps saying uh Fortune and unfortune is always intertwined so good time make weak people hard time make Strong people So, uh, don’t think you’re lucky when, uh, your expected thing happens. That might be the end of, uh, your good luck. Don’t, uh, you know, don’t get depressed when an unexpected bad thing happens. So that’s the beginning of your strength and luck. So she said, you know, good times make you weak, hard time make you strong. 

Yana: Tamura san, thank you so much. And that was Tamura san with us on Yana TV. A fascinating conversation about Japan and the United States and how it’s all interconnected. And we would love to hear from you guys. Do you have any other Japanese people, business people, politicians in our audience, let us know in the comments. We would love to hear from you and connect. And of course, remember, subscribe to our channel, share this episode with friends. And we appreciate Mew Studio for hosting YanaTV. We love being here and I’m going to see you next time. if I were to make a wish, so can I make, I can make a wish, right? It’s my show, so we can make a wish here