JI Team

CEO Ruth Marie Jarman grew up in the multi-cultural paradise of Hawaii. As a child, she spent a year in Edinburgh and has been hooked on “international” adventures ever since. Ruth received a BA at Tufts University in International Relations and came immediately to Japan to enter Recruit Co., Ltd. in 1988. At Recruit Ruth created the Recruit Seagulls Cheerleading team and was the first cheerleader inducted into the Seagulls American Football Hall of Fame in 1993. Ruth received her Japanese language proficiency level 1 certification in 1994 and achieved her Takken (宅地建物取引士)  Japanese real estate license in 2006.Read more about CEO Ruth Marie Jarman.

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Takae Ayukawa has had a successful work history with international corporations and education facilities. Her various professional experiences include customer service for a foreign airline (based in a foreign country) as well as work at hotels, in public relations for a tourism association, and was acting secretary for the Japan office in a foreign city. Takae also has taught at a technical college. Takae has a treasury of valuable work experiences that allows her to be a bridge between Japan and foreign countries across several different business fields. Always conscious of the needs of customers, she excels in areas of hospitality and communication.

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Yumiko Horigome has excellent capability in English to Japanese translation over many years working in customer service, and retail. We are lucky to have Yumiko bring her unique corporate experience to the JI team.

Managing voice recordings for car navigation systems in international markets, volunteer and education experience in the UK and involvement in the FIFA World Cup gives Yumiko excellent understanding of the differences between Japanese and international business practice.

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Chiara Terzuolo brings her expertise in online content creation to the Jarman Team. With more than 10 years in Japan and extensive knowledge of the European and American markets, Chiara will enhance the online presence for Jarman clients. As the former Marketing Manager for Japan, Asia and Oceania at the travel booking site Veltra and Editor in Chief of All About Japan, Chiara combines her marketing experience with years of writing, editing and consulting for both online and print media. From SEO to social media content creation, Chiara will help all Jarman clients find the perfect tone and style for their message.Chiara has also written a book with important insight into Tokyo’s plant-based diet options – the Tokyo Vegan Guide helps vegan and vegetarian residents and visitors enjoy a stress-free experience in Japan’s capital. Catering to the diverse needs of international travelers to Japan is important to Jarman’s efforts to help Japan become a more welcoming place for all visitors. Chiara is also an opera singer, speaks five languages (English, Italian, Japanese, French, and Dutch) and enjoys learning about local sake.

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Sarah Achilles has a 20-year career in international relations, translation and consulting. She has a solid background in advising and working with both Japan-based businesses and global companies doing business in Japan. Sarah’s expertise is in translation, editing and global communication which she has applied to needs across a wide range of industries. Sarah’s projects have had a particular focus on tourism, hospitality, and marketing.

Sarah brings to the Jarman team extensive experience supporting international residents in Japan, in particular women, and a wide network of connections in the Tokyo business community.

At Jarman-international, Sarah has a key role is to support strategy development, execution, and to create and edit niche content to help Japanese companies expand their reach and services to the international community in Japan and beyond.

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Hana Shiraishi operates the Jarman International Facebook page and edits a variety of Jarman’s videos for social media use. She uses her well-rounded understanding and global perspective on both Western and Asian cultures as a Japanese-American to deliver insightful content. She is currently working at a documentary company in New York city, where she is pursuing her passion for filmmaking and visual storytelling. Whenever she has free time, Hana creates original videos and songs for her personal YouTube channel.

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Nina Cataldo is a bilingual, bi-cultural Japanese-American working as a writer and in public relations. Born in Tokyo to a Japanese mother and an American father, Nina grew up in the Pacific Northwest U.S.A. (Portland, OR and Seattle, WA).

Upon graduating from Seattle University in 2015, Nina returned to Japan to work as a writer. Her passion is connecting Japan with the world and Nina’s deep understanding of Japan combined with her overseas upbringing allows her to share this country’s beauty with the world in authentic, yet, relatable ways. To date, Nina has visited more than 30 prefectures as a writer and tourism consultant. In the past, she has worked with JNTO, JTB, and various prefectural governments by utilizing her bi-cultural background as a strong-suit to bring the East and the West together in harmonious ways.

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Judith is the project manager on a project to promote the Kobayashi region of Miyazaki to the international market. Judith has lived in Okayama prefecture for 25 years. She’s originally from Auckland, New Zealand. In NZ, she was elected onto Waitemata City council at the age of 18 years old where she served for three years. She was also a director for PACOM (Pacific Asia Congress of Municipalities) which consisted of councils in the Pacific and Asian countries. She has her own company that works around Japan but in the last nine years, she’s been focusing on West Japan.

Judith brings to the Jarman team her extensive experience and knowledge in inbound tourism and consulting to assist Jarman clients in connecting visitors from around the world.

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Emi Onishi brings over one decade of experience in project management and in liaising with customers and staff involved with R&D, QA, and production, during which she cultivated the interpersonal and communication skills required for effective negotiations.

After graduating from university in 1997, Emi became an interpreter and translator for the Kyoto Prefectural Governor. Since 1998, she has held managerial posts in international sales with several Japanese companies including Kyocera, Omron and Saki Corporation.

After Japan’s 2011 March earthquake, Emi worked as an administrative assistant at Toshiba Corporation US Project Team for Fukushima Restoration. She gained her B.A in English from Doshisha University in 1997 and studied at UCLA in an exchange program in 1995-1996.

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Masako Suzuki has had experience as a president’s secretary, has worked in human resources departments as well as general accounting jobs in company administration departments.

Masako is also familiar with the development and operation of professional systems from her experience as a system engineer at a software development company.

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Akane Oikawa is an experienced director, managing international medical conferences and seminars held in Japan.She also worked as an assistant manager at the public relations section of an English conversation school and secretary.

Akane is highly effective at supporting our partners with her excellent communication ability and a broad point of view derived from her work experience in various industries.

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Kiyoko Kudo has a degree from Aoyama Gakuin University and was an AFS Exchange student in high school, and stayed in PA, US.After graduation from university, Kiyoko started a career at Morgan Stanley Tokyo and has over 20 years of operations experience with trade support and customer service in both Japanese and English.

In her free time, she enjoys going out for meals with her husband.

She’s also been a huge fan of Japanese pop music artist Hideaki Tokunaga for over 30 years. Kiyoko loves playing golf and going to Japanese Onsen hot-springs. Her favorite place in Japan is Tochigi prefecture where she loves to golf. Kiyoko is helping Jarman’s growth in the golf tourism sector.

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Andrea Negosanti is a Social Media Specialist that helps small and big companies to express themselves effectively through social media. Andrea also helps businesses build and improve their overall engagement across all editorial plans. Originally from Italy,
Andrea is also the owner of an Italian Facebook page about traveling to Japan. Andrea has earned the status of ‘influencer’ as he has now built up an audience of more than 360,000 followers from across the globe.

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John moved to Japan in 1998 and lived in 16 different cities around the country. John has visited all 47 prefectures and hitchhiked Japan from Wakkanai, Hokkaido to Kagoshima in 2003. John has run in the Tokyo Marathon, enjoys scuba diving, and is a food lover!

John publishes a new YouTube video on his YouTube Channel Only in Japan Go every 10 days to 2 weeks from interesting locations around Japan. John introduces interesting destinations, products, and services across Japan to more than 1.5 million subscribers to his YouTube channel from across the world. He is also a NHK World reporter (Tokyo Eye, Destination Kansai, Journeys in Japan) and a regular inbound news contributor on TBS Hiruobi.

Awards:The 1M subscribers on YouTube award, top 100 YouTube Creators in Japan, NHK World reporting job
Collaborations:Honda, TOTO, Dassai Sake, Japan National Fireworks Association, Ogasawara Tourism, Aomori Prefecture, Kochi Prefecture, Keihan Railway, Starbucks, Tokyo Sento Association, Hitachi Beef Association, NEXCO, Google etc.

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Tia Haygood is an American photographer with a demonstrated history of working in the photography industry.She’s skilled in taking Event photos, portraits, and also does product photography.

Tia’s main focus is to provide a visual catalyst to improve branding power for local artists and entrepreneurs in the Kanto area. Tia is the image specialist for Jarman International and she brings her expertise in image enhancement of our online content. During her free time, she enjoys cooking new recipes and biking.

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Keiji Yumiyama is the Chairman of the HRM Association of which JI CEO Ruth Jarman is a Director. Keiji brings an extensive knowledge-base of all things related to business consulting to the JI consulting expertise.

An MBA graduate of Thunderbird University, Mr. Yumiyama is privy to an extensive business network in the US and Japan.

Keiji assists the JI Team with excellent advice and guidance on how to get firms connected in certain industries in Japan as he is acutely tuned in to the vast SME community.

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Gen Shiraishi is an advisor at Jarman International KK and a consultant at Bain & Company in Washington, D.C. Graduated Summa Cum Laude from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service with a B.S. in Foreign Service majoring in International Political Economy and minoring in Chinese.

Gen provides advisory support to Jarman International based on management consulting experience across multiple industries and functions (e.g., M&A support in aerospace and defense, sales force transformation in tech distribution), as well as over 20 years of experience living in Japan as a Japanese-American.

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Kenichi Kudo has had experience as an expert of Japanese history over 30 years. He has worked at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tamagawa University, and Tsurumi University.

He joined JI team as  the supporter from historical point of view on Jarman International’s projects.  His subject of study is the middle age of Japanese history (Heian & Kamakura  period).