Kazuya Dojo | Student Spotlight

Kazuya Dojo

Japan Minister of the Economy and Babson MBA '23 Student

Q&A with B-Speak! Director Christina Ball

Kazuya, tell us a little bit about yourself and the work you do in Japan.

I’m a government officer in Japan and I work for METI, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. I’m in charge of establishing a new organization, Digital Agency, to promote digital transformation in Japanese society. I played a central role in writing a report about functions and operations of the Digital Agency and I created a law to realize it. The new organization will be established on September 1, 2021 with about 500 staff and over 30 information systems, so I’m working hard to consider the details of the organization’s operations such as how to manage these systems and ensure the cyber security of them.

Why did you decide to pursue an MBA in the. U.S. ? What are you hoping to learn at Babson and what do you hope to do after your MBA?

Today, the competition of business is getting stiffer all over the world and innovation continuously generates. Under these circumstances, it is necessary for Japanese economy and society to continue to challenge new things by taking a risk. I’d like to learn about entrepreneurship at Babson, which is a mindset to keep trying unexampled things with enthusiasm, and spread and introduce this mindset in Japan. In addition, I will create systems to support entrepreneurs after MBA by using knowledge and experience I get at Babson.

What are you most looking forward to experiencing while in the Boston area?

I’m looking forward to participating in classes at Babson College and I’m convinced that I can learn a lot from this experience. Also I’m looking forward to participating in activities offered by CIC, the Cambridge Innovation Center, in Boston. I think Boston is successful city to establish innovation ecosystem which is centered around the CIC and Babson Therefore I’d like to learn about Boston’s ecosystem and refer to it after going back to Japan as a policy maker.

Your B-Speak! Coach, David, has told us about your strong English and the progress you're making in your lessons, as you prepare for graduate school and life in the U.S.. What do you enjoy most about your sessions with David? What do you find most challenging?
Every session with David is interesting so it is difficult to choose the best, but I really enjoy discussing the difference between the US and Japan in terms of life, business and so on . Through the discussion, I found that one of the main differences between two countries is the value of independence, and this is expressed in various situations. This discovery helps me and will help me after going to the US to understand the behavior of people there more easily. In addition, the sessions which require both speaking skills and others are helpful to prepare for graduate school but really challenging, such as watching videos or reading cases and summarizing them.

What do you find to be the major differences between Japan and the U.S. in terms of culture and communication?

Through the class, I recognized that the way of teaching is different. When I do some tasks and assignments in his class, David always discovers my good points and praises them at first, and then advise me how to improve bad points. By contrast, in Japan, teachers tend to skip communication about good points and only point out bad points. I think this different attitude illustrated the difference between low-context culture and high-context culture, which David introduced me to in his class.