GJPWN Story
About this network
'To work' has always been a major theme for me.'To work' here means not only advancing my career within the company, but also contributing to the company and society by using my ability. I believe that by doing so, I can experience personal growth and enrich my life. And I believe that everyone has the potential to pursue this.
The reality, however, often can be different. For a variety of reasons, some women have to work within limited environment while others have obtained a degree abroad but are struggling to find a good job despite their degrees. In addition, working in a foreign country can often be more challenging than working in your mother country, as you need to be able to work in even more competitive environment. It is often more challenging because you need to be there at a right timing as well as to have good local contacts Ideally you should be able to work because you want to, and do what you like and are good at, but the reality is that this is not often the case.
On the other hand, there are those who have succeeded to find a job to propel their skills even though they are abroad. And there are those who are using their skills to start their own businesses. These positive and energetic women inspire me, and I feel that if we can connect such a diverse group of women, we can create a wonderful community and place to learn.
It was with this in mind that I started this initiative in 2014.
Our aim is to connect women who are working or want to work in a variety of environments and to support them to inspire each other.
I believe that if you have a group of friends with whom you can share your vision, you will have the courage to tackle challenges that seem impossible to overcome alone.
Even if you have somehow given up the idea of working because you live abroad, meeting and being inspired by your peers in a similar environment may give you new ideas and help you find abilities and experiences that you did not recognize by yourself. network to be a place of learning and support for such self-realisation.
GJPWN Founder Terumi Ezuka
Curiosity is my driver
Since moving to the UK in 2002, my life has always revolved focusing on my career. Working as an European local employee for a Japanese company, I have always tried to communicate and understand each other's point of view between the Japanese and European organizations, in As a Japanese in Europe, I have always been thinking how I can be of help for both organizations. Through these works, I have been blessed with the opportunities and meetings with different people, and I have been fortunate enough to realise these opportunities.
One of these opportunities was to I join this group, which was established by my friend, Terumi. Since my joining of this network, I have been blessed with the opportunity to talk and share experiences with many people who are doing their best in their own way. Talking with women who are also working hard in Germany is literally encouraging me and inspiring me a lot.
We are now in the midst of invisible changes in our world, and we are forced to change the way we work and live. I have been talking with Terumi about a various things; how we should comprehend this situation, how we should spend our daily life, and what GJPWN can do in this environment. I thought that I could contribute to enrich GJPWN by making the best use of my IT technology skills and turn this situation into an opportunity to meet more people. This is why I took an initiative to create this home page together with Terumi.
This home page has just been launched the work is still in progress. We hope that we can develop this platform together with you.
I look forward to meeting and talking to you soon.
GJPWN Member Chiyo Kubota