In contrast to the image many hold of Italy as a land of freedom and self-expression, Matteo Gismondi found its education system stifling enough that aged 18 he crossed the French border to study mathematics and statistics, earning a double degree through a partnership between the universities of Nice and Genova. “Italy is a bit similar to Japan in this sense. Education is very strongly based on memorization. France, where I moved, is way more practical.”
Gismondi’s hometown — best known in Italy as the location of its biggest singing competition, the Sanremo Music Festival — was always going to be too small to contain his wanderlust. Next, a conference in Cork, southern Ireland caught his attention. He “fell in love” with the city and talked his way onto a master’s programme. He hails the warmth of the locals, saying he never felt so quickly welcomed anywhere, but genuinely believes the heavy drinking culture would have taken its toll long-term. In addition to discovering the joys of lunchtime pints with faculty, Gismondi also met his wife at an English course for international students. Born and raised in Shikoku of Japanese and Russian heritage, she would add extra impetus to his desire to experience a culture more different than those he had encountered on his European adventures.
Gentle introduction to a drastic change
“Japan is not a little bit different; it’s catastrophically different. It was a shocking and very impactful change in my life.”
He arrived on a MEXT scholarship to pursue a doctorate at the University of Tsukuba. The calm and relatively international campus provided a gentle entry point: “I didn’t get the Tokyo concrete jungle impact.” On graduation, connections made during those years helped him land a role at Air Asia Survey, a well-connected Japanese consulting firm that runs geographical surveying projects, including across Francophone West Africa and Southeast Asia in collaboration with JICA. His French made him indispensable.
He spent five years there, traveling for four to six months annually. But with plans for a family on the horizon, the lifestyle became unsustainable: “I told them this type of rhythm and this type of life wouldn’t allow me to be a proper father.”
A chance encounter at a trade event in Germany with a small Swiss company called Pix4D gave him an escape route. After paying his own way to Switzerland for an interview, he was taken on by the fast-growing firm, which specializes in photogrammetry software that converts overlapping 2D images into 3D models. In Switzerland, he quickly moved from sales into managing EMEA, then APAC, and briefly North America. But Asia kept pulling him back. “The difficulty and trickiness of getting a deal out of someone in Japan or Korea is really stimulating.”
His son was born during the stint in Switzerland, something the young boy takes fierce pride in, according to his father.
Six years ago, Gismondi proposed opening a Pix4D APAC office in Tokyo, which he would head. The team has since grown from one person to 12. The company’s core focus areas in Japan of surveying, construction, and inspection map onto some of the country’s most pressing challenges. Its software solutions can turn images shot from drones into crucial information for natural disaster mitigation, as well as inspect the huge swathes of now ageing infrastructure and buildings that are the legacy of the 1980s and 1990s construction boom.
Older and wiser
This second stint in Japan has been markedly different from the first. Returning more mature, he has accepted the value of long, formulaic Japanese business mails in facilitating smoother transactions. Gismondi has also learned to play both sides: utilising the patience required in Japanese business culture, and occasionally using the “foreigner card” to ask questions that a Japanese colleague would likely need two hours and a nomikai to approach. He acknowledges that he still has much to learn, sporadically reminded of the fact by his spouse’s interactions. “She can say exactly the same thing I want to say, but in a way that makes the other person happy about it. That’s a skill set I really envy.”
Their home is a cultural and linguistic melting pot, where they are raising their son in Italian, Japanese, and English. Gismondi fondly recalls an earlier phase when the youngster would blend all three in a single sentence. “We had our own secret code language. People outside would look at us and think: which language are they even speaking?”
He attends the Italian Embassy school on Saturdays, giving Gismondi the opportunity to meet up with the group of Italian fathers that assembles every weekend, and for the occasional dinner. “The volume is lower than it would normally be as many are long-term Japan residents,” he jokes. Meals take place at some of Tokyo’s finest Italian eateries, which he rates extremely highly. “Two of the three best pizzas I’ve ever tasted have been in Tokyo, the third was in Italy.”
Text: Gavin Blair for SCCIJ
