The Tokyo Talk
When Yuko Mochizuki first moved to Africa from Japan in 2008, she could not have imagined creating her own company let alone one that would change the lives of so many native Rwandan villagers. Now, 16 years later, her small business “Inshuti” has become the most integral part of her and many Rwandan people’s lives.
Mochizuki was born in Osaka, Japan and grew up in Hyogo prefecture where she attended Obayashi Sacred Heart School from elementary to high school. At 18, she moved to Tokyo to continue her college education at Sacred Heart University. She attributes Sacred Heart to first exposing and educating her about social activism and cultural awareness. Since her childhood, she recalls the Sacred Heart school having activities and fundraisers donating money and food to impoverished areas in Africa. “When I moved to Africa and saw the reality that people really faced, I came back to those times from my childhood,” she explains.
While working at the International Conference Center in Kyoto, she met her husband who she eventually married. “I moved to Africa accidentally,” she says with a laugh. Her husband began working for the Embassy of Japan in Zambia in 2007, and Mochizuki later joined as well. They both unexpectedly relocated there for their jobs in 2008. “That’s when my journey in Africa started!,” Mochizuki excitedly says. “I was just exploring African life. Just absorbing the new people, new atmosphere, new culture, new food. Everything was new.”
While in Zambia, Mochizuki wanted to explore the country and culture but she also wanted to truly know the reality of life for the Zambian people. Thus, she began interning as a volunteer at both an international NGO called AAR (Aid and Relief) Japan as well as a small NPO created by Japanese people living in Zambia. When asked about what she discovered as a volunteer, she talks about the extreme poverty and harsh conditions that the majority of Zambian people face everyday. “I found out about the real situation that African people are facing in daily life,” she says. “There are so many people who suffer from HIV/AIDs, lack medical care, lack work opportunities, lack education, lack water, lack hygiene, and there are so many differences between the rich and the poor.” After seeing the true situation of the majority of African people, she felt a need to act on what she had seen. However, at this point, she could not do anything to help as her husband had taken a job in Malawi and she was expecting her first child.
Yuko Mochizuki’s time in Africa was cut short due to the catastrophic March, 2011 earthquake in Japan. Because her husband was working for an NGO at the time, he was submitted to support emergency reconstruction for the badly affected Iwate prefecture in Japan. Thus, she and her husband moved to Iwate prefecture in Japan to help rebuild the city. After about one year in Iwate, she relocated to Tokyo. During this time, she had two sons and moved her focus towards being a stay-at-home mother until she moved back to Africa three years later.
“This time we moved to Rwanda and we started our life in Africa again,” Mochizuki explains while smiling. In 2015, after she and her family had adjusted to their relocation, Mochizuki once again began volunteering at two different NGOs – one for education and one for reading opportunities. Through these volunteering opportunities, she met many people in extremely poor villages. Through her NGO, she arranged many projects to help develop these villages.
Although she felt that what the NGO was doing was wonderful, she felt slightly uncomfortable. She wanted to get to know the Rwandan people better, but she wasn’t quite able to in her current position. “I couldn’t make casual friends in the scheme of the NPO staff.” she explains.“The NGOs are doing great work with donations and the help that they are giving is very necessary,” she adds importantly. “However, if I went into a poor village as an NGO staff and I was the one giving the people money and they were the people receiving the money, they would see me as a higher person rather than an equal.”
She wanted to stand as a peer or an equal to the people she was helping which is what drove her to create her small business. “After experiencing various kinds of ways to support the people, I chose to work with them through creating business opportunities,” she says. “This makes us stand fair and respect each other. Even though it’s a very small business, I can live together with people in Rwanda as friends and as equals.”
Mochizuki’s goal for her business was for it to create a sense of mutual respect between her and the Rwandan native people. She wanted to have a company that they would all build up together and therefore see each other as business partners. This is also where her company’s name “Inshuti” comes from. Inshuti means “friend” in the Rwandan language of Kinyarwanda. Mochizuki realized through her time at numerous NGOs and NPOs that there were many different definitions of support including vocational training opportunities and soliciting donations, but she felt that the best way to support someone was to simply be a “friend”. More importantly than seeing her Inshuti team as just business partners, she sees them as friends. “I feel like being part of a small business is much more personal and tight-knit than a large organization,” she says. “I get to know everyone’s backgrounds, their interests, and the real life that they are facing. If I worked at a very big organization, I wouldn’t get to truly know any of the people or get to be their friend.”
With Inshuti, every single product is handcrafted in Rwanda and sold to consumers all around Japan. Inshuti now sells about 80-90 different products ranging from smaller goods like pouches and keychains to larger pieces of clothing like dresses, trousers, jackets, and coats. Even online orders are possible. From start to finish, each Inshuti product is carefully crafted by the Rwandan people. The creation of an Inshuti product first begins at the local Rwandan market. Mochizuki explains that African batik from Congo and Nigeria is the main fabric used for Inshuti’s cloth goods. When asked how Mochizuki chooses which patterns or fabrics to use for her products she says, “I have some close friends at the market who are always showing me new fabrics.” Mochizuki describes how her friends at the market are so crucial for identifying the best quality fabrics to produce the best quality items for Inshuti. Then, these fabrics are transported to small shops in town with teams of tailors who work meticulously to hand make the goods. “Every new product starts with a sample,” Mochizuki says. “The sample is shipped from Rwanda to Japan and I make any notes on the product before making many of them to sell.” The products are sometimes decorated with cow horn or sisal hemp as a finishing touch. When completed, they are all shipped to Japan for Mochizuki to sell at her online shop or pop-up shops around the country.
When asked about Inshuti’s impact on the Rwandan people, Mochizuki smiles before answering. “One story that really sticks out to me is about my friend Grace,” she says. Grace is a Rwandan lady who is the head of management at Inshuti and has been close friends with Mochizuki since 2015. “Through Inshuti, Grace has been able to build her own big house. She is a single mom and I am so happy that she is doing great.” Grace is just one of the many people who have had their lives changed by Inshuti. There were not many opportunities for the Rwandan people to contribute their craftsmanship skills and their talents to support themselves, but Inshuti has given them the chance to not only demonstrate their artistry, but to make a steady income off of it. “It’s really important to maintain dignity in our lives.” Mochizuki says. “They have experienced tragic days in the past, and we are healing each other. “
Yuko Mochizuki created her company for the goal of living together harmoniously with the Rwandan people not only as business partners, but as friends as the name “Inshuti” suggests. “My dream is not to be famous or for Inshuti to become a giant business. I just want to spread the message of respecting all people no matter if you are in different situations,” she says. “To try to know and understand your friend is the key. If you get to know, you will know how to act.”
#TheTokyoTalk #Cultural Harmony #CraftingChange
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