Hideyuki Hoshiya: Determined to be a lifetime envoy for Sino-Japanese exchange

He was born in 1950 in the city of Gifu, the only place with a name of Chinese origin in Japan. In 1972, China and Japan normalized their diplomatic relations and when graduation approached, he desired to be involved in China-related jobs. So he joined Mitsui & Co, an integrated Japanese commercial firm. In 1979, he came to China among the first batch of exchange students of Mitsui & Co. In 1995, he came to Shanghai as the General Manager of Mitsui & Co Shanghai and later received two Magnolia Awards. He came back to Shanghai as the General Manager of the Shanghai World Financial Center in 2014 and was granted a permanent residence permit before he moved back to Japan. He is Hideyuki Hoshiya, a Japanese with deep ties to China.

Hideyuki Hoshiya shared with us his experiences

Determined his life purpose during his study in Beijing

In 1972, when Hideyuki Hoshiya knew from news reports that Tanaka Kakuei, then Prime Minister of Japan, had visited China, he felt that a new era for close Sino-Japanese exchange would come. Majoring in civil engineering, he chose to work for Mitsui & Co under the advice of his teacher. He was assigned to the domestic business department of the steel division after he joined the company in 1974 and was mainly involved in the domestic sales of steel. In 1978, the Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty was signed and Deng Xiaoping paid a visit to Japan. After Deng visited the Nippon Steel Kimitsu Works, he expressed the hope that Nippon Steel would help build the Baoshan Steel Works or Baosteel for short. Since Mitsui & Co was an export trade partner of Nippon Steel, it also needed to nurture a group of employees with Chinese language capability. Hideyuki Hoshiya took the challenge without any hesitation and finally embarked on his journey to China.