Jakarta
Indonesian Prita Audriana, who works at a company in Tokyo, was not the only person who saw her working hours and, consequently, her income decline as the pandemic forced people to remain mostly at home. She used her extra time, however, to learn about starting a business and honing her entrepreneurial skills through online classes with fashion designer and entrepreneur Didiet Maulana. As a result, she established her own brand, Kersaloka, under which she sold batik masks in Japan produced by small Indonesian enterprises that she connected with through the course. “I have done my research and found that Japanese are keen on batik products, and they are used to wearing masks in public places – even prior to the pandemic,” Prita said, adding that her new business was going well. “I named the brand [a phrase] in Javanese that means ‘desire’ an...