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Mahmudi Fukumoto: A Javanese in Japan
(JP/Novia D
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(JP/Novia D. Rulistia) (JP/Novia D. Rulistia)
(JP/Novia D. Rulistia)
The hall in which a serious forum was taking place suddenly filled with laughter when Japan-based businessman Mahmudi Fukumoto shared his experiences at the recent Congress of Indonesian Diaspora in Jakarta.
'It still feels like a dream to me, sitting here. I'm no one, just a high school graduate from Tulung Agung [in East Java],' said the man with his heavy Javanese accent while speaking on stage.
But his willingness to work hard led him to his current post as CEO of Keihin Co. ' a firm that provides workers for construction projects ' in the land of the rising sun.
The 39-year-old's adventure began after he graduated high school, when he departed for Bali to work at a hotel. There, his boss required him to master at least one foreign language due to the high number of foreign tourists the hotel received.
He then decided to learn Japanese from a native speaker.
But because his Japanese did not show signs of improvement, his instructor asked him to show her Japanese friend around Bali so he could intensively learn the language.
'At that time, I felt that she liked me and I liked her too,' Mahmudi said, generating laughter in the hall.
They eventually got married and moved to Japan in 2001 where the couple settled in Keihin, a region
between Tokyo and Yokohama.
At first, Mahmudi worked in cleaning services at a hotel for a year and then got a job at a construction firm because he wanted to improve his Japanese.
'No foreign people working in construction but I believed it would be the ideal way to learn Japanese culture and language. I didn't care about how much I was being paid,' he said.
He worked there for over a year before working at a railway company for three years.
'I've been working in construction for years, and I've learned a lot of things. Then this idea to build my own company crossed my mind,' Mahmudi said.
He discussed the idea with a friend who went on to partner with him and whom provided Mahmudi with the start-up funds to build Keihin Co. Ltd.
Keihin began operating in 2007, and Mahmudi became the vice president director.
'My friend was the president director of the company, but he was also my tutor. Anytime he had a meeting with clients, I was always there with him because I wanted to understand how to run the company,' he said.
Two years after, Mahmudi took over the top position after his business partner retired.
Keihin also groups two tours company'one in Japan and one in Bali ' and a business matching organization called Keihin Network Solution (KNS).
Although Mahmudi came to Japan as a foreigner, he did not find it difficult to lead a company where most of its workers were Japanese.
'Culturally, I think Japanese people are like the Javanese. Japanese people are always ready to do things as they are ordered to. So it's not that difficult,' he said.
In addition, his Japanese last name ' Fukumoto ' made doing business easier.
Fukumoto is his wife's family name. He had asked his father-in-law permission to use the name, telling him that it would also preserve the name because all of his father-in-law's siblings and children were women.
'So Fukumoto is legal. But I'm still an Indonesian citizen ' I don't want to change that. I would have done it a long time ago if I wanted to change my nationality,' said the father of two girls.
However, business has not always been smooth. Some of his clients still undermined him because he was a foreigner.
Mahmudi said that he had to go through unnecessary payment processes several times because his clients did not trust him. His business was also in trouble during the economic crisis and during the tsunami tragedy in 2011, where he was faced with the possibility of going bankrupt.
'I took all that as the challenges but I refused to go down with them. I tried my best to survive during the crisis for the sake of my family and my employees,' he said.
'But everything has returned to normal now. We even have to refuse many projects because we're overloaded.'
Mahmudi is now living the good life. But he does not want to enjoy it by himself, believing that other Indonesians also have the same chance to grow either in Japan or in his hometown.
And through a program called KNS, he provides that chance.
Mahmudi invites small and medium enterprises from Indonesia as well as those who work part time in Japan to a forum where business plans are presented and deals are made.
'When they go home, they can open a business in Indonesia. My goal is to see entrepreneurs create a lot of jobs that can help develop my country,' he said, adding that the recent forum in May resulted in 14 business deals.
He said that based on his experience, networking was an important factor that played a great role in business.
'I came to Japan and was able to build the company because of networking. And because of networking too, I can play golf, the closest thing that reminds me of my days in Tulung Agung where I often hoed,' he laughed.
