I’m mainly involved in the direction business, and managing the Sri Lanka base we’ve just launched for Top Rank. Recently, I’ve been involved in recruitment in Sri Lanka as well as setting up the office. Aside from this, I’m also doing sales and marketing work for car sales. As part of these activities, as well as cars, we also handle additives used by cars, such as oil. When I’d just joined the company, since I didn’t have any work experience, I was washing cars and taking photos and videos of the car that we were selling. Then I became more involved in the work and sales of exports, and now I’ve been entrusted with the major task of launching our Sri Lanka base. When I got married, back in my home country of Sri Lanka, the company president came from Japan to attend the ceremony. I pitched the potential of the Sri Lanka market to the president at that time, and it was decided we’d start business here. I’m proud that we were the first to open up and develop this market in the car sales business.

In the future, I hope to contribute to business development in Sri Lanka. To that end, I have been learning a lot at my current workplace. I really do think of this company as my university. The ability to learn so much while I’m working is the most attractive thing about Tokyo for me. At first, I had a very hard time—I didn’t have a solid understanding of the Japanese language or the Japanese mindset. It was a tough time for me, but I actively tried to enter this world on my own terms. I become gradually accustomed to it, and I grew to understand all the outstanding characteristics of Japanese businesspeople, such as taking responsibility for one’s own statements, firmly respecting any commitments made, and treating other people's time as valuable. I learned that, in fact, undertaking business like this is a very important element in making it grow.
For people like us, living abroad among people and cultures that are different from our own, trust is especially important when doing business. And building relationships of trust takes time. I will strive to apply the lessons I learned in Tokyo to business in Sri Lanka.

Originally, a relative of mine was working in Japan and was involved in the car export business. When I was still in junior high school, this relative asked me, "Why don’t you come and work in Japan in future?" That incident is still clear in my memory. I thought I’d like to travel to Japan after graduating, so I enrolled in a 250-hour Japanese intensive training program while still in school. But it wasn’t easy, and my Japanese did not improve at all. I realized it’d be faster if I went to Japan to study, so I studied for a few years at a Japanese language school in Tokyo. Although I took a lot of part-time jobs in order to support myself, none of them lasted very long. Still, after graduation I wanted to work in Tokyo. The reason for this was a personal matter—I was in a relationship with a Taiwanese woman (my current wife), who was in Tokyo. After graduating from school, I started job seeking but I had a difficult time and couldn’t find a job immediately. I was gradually reaching the limit of the period I could stay in Japan, and I was feeling frustrated. I heard about my current employer after being introduced by a friend who was working at Top Rank at that time. The decisive factor was originally that I liked cars, so I joined the company.

Although I have fewer opportunities to do so because I’m a parent now, I like to go for a drink with colleagues after work. I love the culture where you feel free to go drinking and freely communicate and tell stories about work or play. A beer tastes great after a hard day’s work. One of the great attractions of Tokyo is being able to experience living freely and independently. In my home country of Sri Lanka, because many people live with their parents it can be difficult to achieve genuine independence and freedom until you reach a certain age. My experience of renting a place, cooking for myself, and living an independent life since I was young has been very valuable.
I have two weekend hobbies. One is photography. I enjoy landscape photography using a Japanese-made single-lens reflex camera. I never get bored because there are so many locations to shoot in Tokyo. My favorite landscape is the night view of Tokyo across the bay. Recently, I’ve also been taking a lot of photos of my young children. Another hobby is karaoke. I love to sing. Karaoke culture does not exist in Sri Lanka, and so I enjoy it all the more in Tokyo. When you meet people in Tokyo, you often get a sense of warm, courteous communication. It’s great—I really like it.