Yoshikane Takahashi
Head ofFinance Control
in Tokyo
MY WORLD
The viewfrom Yoshikane Takahashi's 16th floor Tokyo office is spectacular
- a skyline panorama of the business end of a city that's home to 13 million
people. Naturally, your eye is drawn to the Sky Tree tower, the tallest
man-made structure in Japan, at 634m. Takahashi-san has a particular
memory of its construction, but more of that in a moment.
Takahashi-san has lived and worked in Tokyo all his life. "It provides
everything you need - employement, food, relaxation, everything," he
says. "Tokyo cannot easily be described in one phrase, but rather shows
different characters. And the pace of life in Tokyo is fast. People who live in
Tokyo walk faster - a characteristic they share with New Yorkers. Tokyo is
similar to New York and other big cities in the world in many ways."
You sense he's proud of his home city, so what does he feel when he surveys
it from his office? "Sometimes the view through the window encourages
me," he says. "Sometimes it makes me scared - that was the case when
I experienced the earthquake. I saw a lot of buildings shaking. I also saw
all the traffic had stopped. Tm only lOOm from the central station so I saw
all the trains had stopped, too. Through the night, I saw very big fires
from fuel tanks that had exploded. That continued for two or three hours,
a brightorange colour. I started to worryabout the future of Tokyo
and our country, quite honestly."
That was a Friday. The following Monday, his window
showed a different scene. "Constructors were
working on the Sky Tree as normal. I saw the
taxis running again. I was encouraged to see
so much ordinary activity. And I realised
Tokyo would survive."
Takahashi-san and his colleagues
formed a crisis management team
and had a daily teleconference with
their regional office in Hong Kong.
Special messages of support were
received from board members in
Utrecht. "We feit we were not alone.
We received encouragement from all
corners of the Rabobank network."
Within three weeks, their business
operations were back to normal.
Tokyo found its feet again quickly,
too. "I think the Japanese people
were reasonably calm. Everybody
respected each other and every
body tried to help each other."
Much like the 'Rabo way', in other
words.
R] WORLD