Debbie Howard, President
dhoward@jmrn.com
Debbie has lived and worked in Japan for 23 years. Prior to founding JMRN, she worked for four years as Research Coordinator for INFOPLAN, the marketing research division of McCann-Erickson Hakuhodo, where she handled major consumer research accounts. Debbie attended the Graduate Business School at Georgia State University after graduating from the University of South Carolina, and has a over 30-year career overall in marketing and communications. Although her passion to achieve success as a female entrepreneur in Japan consumes much of her time both in and away from the office, Debbie can usually be found during one of her infrequent days off engaged in her other passion -- golf. Having played some of the most challenging courses in Asia, Australia and the U.S., Debbie finds the game to be a paradigm for success in Japan with its prerequisites of form, focus and commitment -- seasoned, of course, with a little luck and occasional swearing. Debbie served as president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) in 2004 and 2005, chairman in 2006 and 2007, and continues to serve as ACCJ President Emeritus. (click here to view an online interview with Debbie Howard).

A. Robert Deter, Managing Director
rdeter@jmrn.com
Bob has 20 years of experience in Japan and an over 30-year career in marketing and information services. Besides developing and maintaining online information retrieval systems indispensable to JMRN, he is instrumental in ensuring quality at all stages of the research process from methodology design through final report output. Bob's long time interest in IT hardware and software solutions consumes much of his time both during and after office hours. However, his leisure activities suggest a very different personality. Specifically, Bob is an avid fan of Harley Davidson motorcycles, and structures many of his vacations around participating in cross-country touring events in the U.S. and Asia. He also enjoys dangerous game hunting and has most recently returned from a successful buffalo hunt in Australia's Northern Territory. In Japan, however, Bob shoots only with his Hasselblad, and his photography is well known among the local expatriate community. A graduate of Clemson University, he has been with JMRN since 1989.

Tomomi Yamaguchi, Senior Project Coordinator
tyamaguchi@jmrn.com
Talk about culture shock! When Yamaguchi-san first stepped off the train in Wollongong, Australia, she found a rural community much different than the western suburbs of Tokyo where she grew up. Not only was this college town much smaller than she expected, it was a Sunday and the downtown shopping district around the station was shuttered tight. At 170cm in height -- a full head and shoulders taller than most young Japanese women -- she was accustomed to standing out in a crowd in Japan, but she never felt so visible as when she walked down deserted Crown Street toward the university dormitory she would call home for the next four years. But Yamaguchi-san soon discovered the natives were friendly, and she quickly settled into her marketing curriculum. Athletic as well, Yamaguchi-san not surprisingly played center for her school basketball team, and became a regular on the surfing scene at Wollogong's beaches. After returning to Japan and joining JMRN, she has since gravitated to the thrills of snowboarding in the "Japan Alps." We've also discovered she has a reserved side to her personality, as it turns out she is quite an aficionado of the piano.

Keiko Yokoyama, Project Coordinator
kyokoyama@jmrn.com
Yokoyama-san put herself through school working as a waitress in some of Tokyo's swankiest restaurants, and initially aspired to a career in the food and beverage industry. After graduating from college in Tokyo with a degree in European culture, she headed to the U.K. to study hospitality management in earnest. However, she quickly learned that "hospitality" is synonymous with "customer satisfaction," and that marketing skills were integral to that effect. So, she switched her focus to marketing while attending classes at Thamesbury University, after which she eventually found her way back to Tokyo -- and a new home with JMRN. Yokoyama-san also apparently learned something about "customer satisfaction" while in London, as she has turned out to be one of JMRN's most popular employees among our clients. In her free time, she spends as much time outdoors as she can -- crushing opponents mercilessly on the tennis courts during the warmer months, while winter weekends are frequently spent snowboarding at one of Japan's world-class ski resorts. When the weather is simply just too hot or too cold to venture outside, though, she is a regular fixture at the billiard table in a local British theme pub. Rack 'em!

Erica Adams, Project Coordinator
eadams@jmrn.com
Living and working in Tokyo is a big change for Erica, who grew up in a small farming town (population 1,000 and shrinking) in rural Pennsylvania. When visiting Japan for the first time as a college student, Erica was overwhelmed by all of the cultural differences and that initial culture shock provided the motivation to stay in Japan until she felt comfortable with the Japanese language and culture. Now, after living in various locations in Japan for over a period of approximately five years, she still finds new surprises everyday. While this is Erica's first time to live in Tokyo, she has had many interesting experiences living in the Japanese countryside, including escorting Japanese junior high school students on a study tour of Ghana, co-producing a touring charity musical of foreigners performing in the local of dialect of Kochi Prefecture, and performing with a Japanese drum (wadaiko) team for three years. Before joining JMRN, Erica worked in a public relations office at a large private university in Kyoto, where she honed her marketing and project management skills and discovered that marketing research is great way to learn much more in depth information about Japan. Working at JMRN should be an excellent chance for Erica to satisfy her curiosity about what makes Japanese people tick and gain insight into the "Japanese mind."

Mari Nomoto, Project Coordinator
mnomoto@jmrn.com
The daughter of a globetrotting diplomat, Mari is no stranger to foreign cultures. Born in China, schooled in the US and now back home in Japan with her new "family" at JMRN, Mari is excited about her indoctrination into the real world of international marketing and market research. Is she up to the challenge? Well, she certainly couldn't be better equipped for it. Case in point: Even though she had a very strong interest in studying Chinese, Mari suddenly found herself faced with shifting gears to study English after her father was transferred to Seattle, Washington. She admits to "freaking out" during her first few days in English class, but was adamant to succeed -- and succeed she did. With her English skills perfected, she enrolled at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon where she graduated with a degree in International Affairs. Despite her intense dedication to learning new languages and graduating from college, Mari has also found time to indulge in a variety of extracurricular interests. An accomplished pianist, Mari was naturally intrigued by the concept of learning about new cultures through music and dance. An international themed event she attended in college introduced her to hula, which has since become an obsession with her. Her affinity for junk food of all types (especially "really" greasy hamburgers), as well as for Oregon's broad selection of microbrewed beers, may not be the diet of world class hula dancers, but it sure contributes to making Mari a unique and spirited addition to JMRN’s diversely talented staff.

Yumiko Nishigawa, Lead Moderator
(Branded Luxury Goods, Healthcare, Financial Products)
ynishigawa@jmrn.com
Unlike most Japanese moderators who rarely diverge from a fixed focus group discussion script, Nishigawa-san actively utilizes personification, collage building, brand mapping and associative imaging in her moderation techniques. She is not only well-versed in a wide range of product/service categories, but also skilled in terms of her ability to "connect" with a variety of respondent types, including homemakers, working females, middle to older-aged males and, importantly, both girls and boys of the younger generations. A graduate of Tokyo's Gakushuin University, Nishigawa-san has been working with JMRN for over ten years as lead focus group moderator, and has conducted over 900 focus groups since becoming a full-time moderator in 1995. Along with JMRN president Debbie Howard, she has also co-authored the ESOMAR presentation titled, "West Meets East: Considerations in Conducting Meaningful 'Global Template' Research in the Japanese Market."

Yukio Ohira, Lead Moderator
(IT, Website Usability, Pharmaceuticals, Financial Products))
yohira@jmrn.com
A graduate of Tokyo's prestigious Keio University with a degree in Western history, Ohira-san has been working in market research for more than 20 years. In fact, he first met JMRN president Debbie Howard when they both embarked on careers in market research at McCann Erickson Hakuhodo in the early 1980s. Driven by "a desire to understand all things," Ohira-san's perpetual inquisitiveness and natural analytical skills soon led him to moderate focus groups on a full-time basis. Since 1993, Ohira-san has conducted more than 1,000 groups and in-depth B2B interviews on a variety of topics ranging from digital technology and pharmaceuticals to carpets and Chilean wines. Certified as an Affiliated Financial Planner (AFP) by the Japan Association for Financial Planners and an avid online trader, Ohira-san is especially well suited to conduct research about Japan's financial sector -- currently one of the most dynamic areas of deregulation in Japan. Besides spending much of his free time "wheeling and dealing" online, Ohira-san is an avid game player and game developer. Having recently completed the development of an educational investment-related board game called Happy Investor, he has now turned his attention toward Venturo -- a board game for young adults that he hopes will both stimulate and encourage their entrepreneurial skills.

Employment Opportunities

JMRN offers young men and women an exceptional career opportunity to develop valuable business skills, marketing experience and professional confidence within today's rapidly evolving global marketing environment. However, there is no "free lunch." In return, JMRN requires its employees to be unselfishly motivated and proactively committed toward achieving personal performance excellence in service to our multinational clientele. Other minimum requirements for employment consideration include a 4-year degree from an accredited university, advanced communication skills in both Japanese and English, proficiency with MS Office (Word, PowerPoint and Excel) and a willingness to commit to a minimum 3-year employment contract with 1-year at intern status. Previous working experience in a marketing discipline is desirable, but not required.Candidates meeting these requirements and interested in working at JMRN are invited to read the following “Regarding the Handling of Personal Information” and, upon agreement, submit their resumes in Japanese and English to JMRN’s managing director, A. Robert Deter, either by post or email(rdeter@jmrn.com).

Regarding the Handling of Personal Information

1. Purpose of Use
   JMRN acquires the personal information of prospective employees within the scope necessary for making hiring selections. In order to relay the date of the interview and the results of hiring decisions, JMRN may contact prospective employees through telephone or email.
2. Consignment and Release of Personal Information
   JMRN shall not consign submitted personal information to a third party, nor release it, without the prior consent of the individual.
3. Optional Nature of Submitted Personal Information
   Submitting personal information to JMRN is optional; however, in the event that information necessary for selection (education background, employment history, etc.) is not provided, JMRN may not be able to make relevant decisions regarding hiring, etc.
4. Returning Resumes
   In the case that the prospective employee is not hired, JMRN shall return the resume upon request. If no such request is made, JMRN shall keep the resume on file for two weeks from the day the decision was announced, and then take responsibility for discarding it.
5. Right to Request Disclosure, etc. of Personal Information
   Prospective employees have the right to make requests for disclosure, corrections, etc. (corrections, additions and deletions), suspension of use, etc. (suspension of use, erasures, suspension of release to a third party), regarding the personal information registered at JMRN. However, evaluation information at the time of the hiring selection and information that has had its storage period expire falls outside of the information available for disclosure.

Point of Contact for Inquiries
Chief Privacy Officer: Tomomi Yamaguchi
Telephone: 03 5464-1990