For some, coming to Japan is fulfillment of a long-held ambition or a journey they were almost fated to make. Martial Meyssignac says his own path was far more whimsical.
Lyon-born Meyssignac did a year at Georgetown University in Washington DC as part of his degree. “Georgetown is a Jesuit university, and it also has an exchange program with Sophia University in Japan.”
An encounter with one of the Japanese exchange students changed the course of his life after he decided to visit them in Tokyo.
“In the 90s, you would meet people who were like, ‘Japan was a dream of mine; I had pictures of Jigoro Kano in my room when I was doing judo,’ or whatnot. I didn’t know three days before coming to Japan whether I was going to come. It was kind of an impulse.”
Bubbly times
Arriving as a fresh-faced 22-year-old in 1988, he has essentially never left. Experiencing the last couple of years of the bubble, Meyssignac recalls, “Everything was crazy expensive…I was flat broke at that time.”
When he returned to Lyon to take an MBA, he managed to do four months of it in Japan as an internship at Yokogawa Denki in Hachioji. “I wrote a thesis on Japanese management.” Paid the princely sum of 150,000 yen a month, and with his accommodation taken care of, life was on the up.
With national service still compulsory at the time, Meyssignac opted to work for the French Chamber of Commerce in Japan in lieu of a stint in the military. Around this time, he was writing the occasional article for a French magazine, one of which involved interviewing Gael Austin of PMC, a business development firm that helped foreign firms with Japan market entry. At the end of his time with the French chamber in 1992, the bubble had burst and the Nikkei was crashing. Not an ideal time for job hunting. Austin told Meyssignac he didn’t have a job for him but would give him a desk free for a year if he had his own projects to work on.
Starting from basics
“I went back to France, I found two clients in two and a half months, and I came back with that small base of clients.” He has been involved with PMC since.
Despite the challenging economic situation, Meyssignac says business was good. An early project was helping the Le Creuset cookware company grow its presence, including its recently acquired Screwpull bottle opener.
He describes PMC as a toolbox for overseas firms, which can select from a wide range of services and different consultants who operate semi-autonomously. In addition to providing administrative services and sometimes representing companies, a chunk of his work has always consisted of trying to help foreign and Japanese businesspeople understand each other’s ways. This has sometimes proved a bridge too far.
Odd smells and odd lines
Meyssignac recalls a long-time Japanese partner coming into his office almost in tears because the printing machines he had purchased from Europe arrived in a container smelling of kimchi and he wanted the boxes replaced.
“The CEO of the company told me, ‘You must be crazy, I’m not sending another container with just the boxes. Tell him to put them in a warehouse and open the windows.’ I had to tell the CEO unless he did it the guy was going to commit seppuku or something.”
Another incident saw a Japanese construction company complain that the lines on natural stone were irregular.
“The guy had carried these heavy samples of stone with him to a meeting and had asked the interpreter three times to confirm what was being said because he was sure there was a misunderstanding. He told them that it was natural stone and if the tile he sends is the wrong size, that’s his mistake; but as for the lines, you must ask God the Father.”
Another string to the bow
During the pandemic, Meyssignac began a new chapter with the establishment of Alpadis Japan, local operations of the Swiss corporate services and wealth management firm, which offers a full range of solutions including company formation, accounting, tax, HR and regulatory compliance.
“I have supported European SMEs establish operations in Japan for decades, so developing a Japan market-expansion business with Alpadis made perfect sense.”
Remaining a partner at PMC, and with an office in the same building, he says the two firms’ work complement each other rather than overlap. He has gradually grown the business to around a dozen staff, employing a team of local experts to help foreign clients navigate Japan.
Looking back on his own career, much of it has involved “intercultural management” between the West and Japan. “I always say I speak like a gaijin to Japanese, and I speak like a Japanese to the foreigners I work with.”
Text: Gavin Blair for SCCIJ.
