Tapping the diversity and expertise of refugees to create innovation

J-STORIES - The number of refugees worldwide is currently the highest it has been since World War II. Around 120 million people have been driven from their homes due to persecution, conflict, violence and human rights violations. That figure is roughly the same as Japan’s population, meaning that around 1 in 80 people in the world is a refugee.

Yet, despite the severity of the global refugee issue, Japan accepts far fewer refugees than most other developed countries. Since the easing of COVID-19 restrictions on entry to Japan, the number of refugee status applications has dramatically increased, reaching 13,823 in 2023. However, only 303 were approved.

On June 19, the day before World Refugee Day (every June 20), a special event took place in Tokyo. The event sought a new perspective on the refugee issue by showing how refugees might change business and society through the new ideas they bring to Japan. In other words, by tapping the skills and diversity of refugees that have come to Japan, innovative business ideas and social reform can be generated. The aim of the event was to make this clear and help people realize the need to support refugees. The event, titled “World Refugee Day Ideathon 2024,” was organized by Welgee, a Tokyo-based NPO that helps refugees find jobs in Japan. Foreign experts on refugee issues and Japanese businesspeople from different industries split into teams and competed to come up with business ideas that could help solve human rights issues.

The event was also attended by 11 people who had fled in fear of their lives from countries such as Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ukraine, and whose occupations included designer, engineer and medical researcher. Over 30 business attendees came from 17 companies, such as Accenture, Persol Holdings and PR Times.

The ideathon not only allowed refugees and their supporters to meet in person, but also provided opportunities to come up with ideas that show the value in accepting refugees into Japan. Welgee describes this as an opportunity for participants to see how diversity can lead to innovation.

Speaking at the event, Welgee representative Watanabe Kankolongo Sayaka said, “We want to help them rebuild their lives by making the best use of the careers they had before they arrived in Japan. We want to create a goal beyond just waiting for refugee status.”

Those seeking official refugee status often have various work experiences, language skills, and other special expertise. Welgee introduces them to companies and follows up as they settle in. Such career guidance helps them to live in Japan as highly skilled employees, not just as refugees.

A cosmetics case for use in earthquakes and a miniature VR amusement park

During the ideathon, the refugees and businesspeople were divided into teams of four to six. Each team was assigned one of eight business categories to discuss business and service ideas, such as consumer retail, cosmetics, cellphones and the internet. The lively discussions that followed produced many unique business ideas, including providing an emergency cosmetics kit for earthquake-hit areas and a miniature VR amusement park to be used by people in refugee camps. Each team presented its business idea at the end of the event.

The VR amusement park was proposed by the winning team, which included Iskandar Salama, CTO of IT company BonZuttner, a firm that introduces Syrian refugee engineers to Japanese companies. He says that they discussed the service as a fun experience for children in refugee camps or others who cannot physically visit amusement parks due to disability or lack of money.

“It was difficult in the beginning to come up with an idea to enhance people’s lives and include human rights perspectives in the amusement park theme. But with VR, you can choose to create whatever you want without spending billions of dollars. You can choose Disneyland and DisneySea and program them,” he said. “And once the VR kit is in place, we need someone to help visitors wear the VR glasses. So, we can employ refugees or other people who don’t have money.”

Mitsuaki Takehara (Huy), an employee of Persol Global Workforce, said that his boss invited him to attend the event. Because Takehara’s parents were refugees from Vietnam who came to Japan, his boss thought that Takehara would be interested in this kind of discussion. During one team’s discussion, a non-Japanese resident commented that he was having trouble getting a payment plan in installments for his cell phone because he is not Japanese. To solve this problem, the business idea devised by the team combined a smartphone and money transfer service.

“I got the feeling that a new business could be created just from a little idea. And hints from other people were a great inspiration,” he said.

A Japanese businesswoman commented that she gained new perspectives from people of different backgrounds and that the discussions became more wide-ranging.

Involving industry

Shohei Hayashi, a Welgee staffer in charge of the event, noted that in recent years business sectors in some countries have proactively moved to provide refugees with employment. For example, in the U.S. in September 2022, leading global corporations such as Amazon, Hilton, Pfizer, and Pepsi announced that they would hire 22,725 refugees over three years.

Ayumi Yamori, principal of Owls Consulting Group, which sponsored the event, said that the principle of human rights is now becoming very important for corporate governance.

Owls Consulting Group has received many inquiries from companies about how to handle human rights issues.

“It is very important to be a company that does not violate human rights, and going forward it will be a matter of course for every company,” said Yamori. “At the same time, a proactive approach is necessary, not just a reactive one. And the most cutting-edge example would be employing refugees and providing work support. Japan’s business sector should act as a driving force to promote such efforts.”

Translated by Tony McNicol

Top photo by WELgee

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