Business Japanese Professional

I met Mariko Yamamoto sensei, a business Japanese professional from Arai Academy of Japanese Studies. She’d worked for 25 years at major trading companies and foreign-affiliated companies, as a COO for 10 years and as a department head for 12 years.

After that, she obtained a Japanese language teaching qualification and started teaching as a business Japanese professional as she wanted to support foreign employees in order for them to work more comfortably.

She started teaching face-to-face lessons in Tokyo in 2019 and has also been teaching students outside of Japan online.

The video lesson we created together two and a half years ago is still popular today, so please take a look if you'd like. Please bear with me on my poor editing and the audio quality back then…I’m going to create a better version.


When Yamamoto-sensei was working at those companies, I assume it was still male dominated, yet she was respected as their leader for a total of 22 years. I believe this was due to her sincerity and consideration toward them.

She's always been honest with me, working together without any sense of gain or loss, and I feel a genuine connection with her. This fosters a deep sense of mutual trust and comfortable relationship.

Of course, she is also deeply trusted by the students, and she always maintain excellent long relationships with them.

2025 is the 10th anniversary of Arai Academy of Japanese Studies. I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to work with such wonderful teacher, and I’m absolutely happy to have her as a team member. She’s been on her leave, but we’ll provide more services in the future. Thank you very much for your great support as always!

Arai Academyのビジネス日本語を担当してくださっている山本真理子先生に会いました。山本先生は大手商社、外資系企業で25年働いた経験があり、部長を12年、COOを10年間務めました。

その後、外国人社員が働きやすくなるようにサポートしたいということで日本語教師の資格を取って、ビジネス日本語を専門に教え始めました。

2019年から東京での対面レッスンを担当してくださり、その後はオンラインでも海外にいる生徒に教えてくれています。

２年半前に私たちが一緒に作成した動画レッスンが現在も人気なので、良かったらこちらをご覧ください。私の編集が下手で音声が悪いのもご了承ください。また新しいバージョンを作成予定です。

山本先生が働いてきた25年は日本企業では男性が中心だったそうですが、それでも男性社員からも支持され、計22年もリーダー役をされたというのは山本先生の人への誠実さと思いやりからだと感じています。

私に対してもいつも誠実で損得関係なく心のつながりを感じながら一緒にお仕事ができているのでお互いの深い安心感につながっています。

もちろん生徒たちからもとても信頼されていて、いい関係を続けてくださっています。

Arai Academyは今年10周年ですが、このような先生との出会いはとてもありがたいことで、一緒に働いてくださるのは心から嬉しいことです。来年の春ごろからまた始められるようですので、どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。