How I linked to Sonora Technology: Haruko MINAMI, Advisor

How I, living in Osaka, could be an adviser to Sonora Technology Co., Ltd in Tokyo?
It was thanks to an unlikely connection through Switzerland, a far country from Japan.

Back in 2021, I was supporting a Swiss venture-backed company and have occasionally been corresponding with the Swiss Consulate in Osaka. One day, one of Swiss staffs asked me for help regarding another Swiss company.

It was about one Swiss company requiring language support for meetings with one Japanese supplier.

I agreed to have a video interview with the Swiss CTO, as I thought it wouldn’t be a conflict with my current task as long as it was only for “one hour a week.”

On the day of the video meeting, the Swiss CTO appeared on my PC screen and explained his company briefly. Then, he slightly turned his face to a troubled look and stated followings:

“Due to language barrier, it’s difficult for us to communicate with them.”
“However, our trading company asked us to discuss technical matters directly with them. How can we do?”

“Our discussions often are heating up, leading the mood in the meetings not good recently.”

“But their products are indispensable for our finished products to sell to our customers. That’s why we need an interpreter. And, we would also appreciate if you could lighten the mood of the meetings.”

After all the above-mentioned explanation, he sent me the company’s website in English version.

When I clicked the link, I was struck by the cool design, with unconventional sense of style, based on white, black and grey, with a light purple as a pointing colour.

The company name says “Sonora Technology Co., Ltd.”

“I’ve never heard of this company…is this really a Japanese company? The design of the website looks like a European company, but… it’s originally from Yokohama, which means the CEO could be a foreigner? No, the Founder & President’s name is Mr. Aoki… ummm…”

As I have mainly been supporting European companies, the English version of the website looked alike one of them, but I was a bit puzzled by the fact that it was a Japanese company.

On the other hand, I also thought that Sonora Technology must really be making products to be required around the world, as long as the CTO in Switzerland, such a far country from Japan, was consulting directly with me.

A few hours later of the meeting, the CTO sent a message to Sonora saying that Minami would be an interpreter for them from the next meeting. Then Sonora replied to him asking for Minami’s phone number.

The next day, I got a phone call from Mr. C, in charge of sales in Sonora. The first thing of his mouth was

“Do you understand technical terms?”

At that time, I never imagined that I would become an adviser to Sonora Technology later.

(To be continued)