Moved to the US for marriage, lost her husband, and rose from a temporary worker to the position of company president

Teruko works at Teruko Weinberg, Inc., a human resources company in Torrance, a suburb of Los Angeles where many Japanese companies are based.

Anyone from Los Angeles may remember the TV commercial that ends with the phrase, "Teruko loves people." Teruko Weinberg, who appeared in the commercial, is not only the manager of a human resources company, but is also known for her work in volunteer organizations, such as chairing the Los Angeles-Nagoya Sister City Committee and serving on the board of directors of the Japan-America Society.

Teruko was born in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture. She met an American man named Weinberg while working in Tokyo and married him, and moved to Los Angeles in 1978. Prior to that, she had studied abroad in Utah for a short period, and she had always wanted to live in America.

However, four years after getting married, her husband died of illness. Left behind in America, she decided not to return to Japan and to live in the country. She said that this was because "my parents had kindly sent me to America, so I wanted to accomplish something here in order to repay them." Until then, she had been a full-time housewife, but she immediately began looking for a job. However, it was a tough situation for a job seeker who had never worked in America.

After a lengthy job hunt, he joined a Japanese human resources company that had just expanded into the US at the time. He was hired as a temporary staff member, then became a full-time employee, and then was promoted from a local hire to an expatriate position, eventually rising to become the CEO of the company's US subsidiary, which had grown significantly. This is a true success story.

I first met Teruko in 1993, when she was the president of the US subsidiary of the major Japanese company. I still remember when I visited the company for an interview and Teruko appeared in front of me wearing a vivid floral skirt. They say that people are judged by their first impression, but my first impression of Teruko was "a lively female president in a floral skirt," and that image has basically not changed even now, more than 25 years later.

But then a turning point came. Instead of staying with the company, she decided to go independent and set up her own human resources company, Teruko Weinberg, Inc., in 1994. It was a big challenge.

I want to let Americans know about the little-known city of Nagoya.

The human resources company that Teruko started after going independent is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. As mentioned above, I met Teruko in 1993, and through the Japanese media in Los Angeles where I was working at the time, I started to be in charge of advertising for the new company that Teruko started. Then in 2003, it was my turn to quit the media. As my second child had just been born, I was in hibernation mode when Teruko called me. "You can't just sit there. Even if you say you're going to raise a child, what are you going to do when they're grown up? Can you start again then? Keep a window open to society, even if just a little. Please come and see me first." That was the catalyst that led me to start my path as a freelance writer. Rather than keeping a window open to society, it was more like Teruko had pried the window open for me. However, I am still deeply grateful for that. And then, as a "woman active in America," I was given the opportunity to accompany Teruko whenever she gave a lecture at various organizations and universities.

She also gave a special lecture at the Japanese Language Department at UCLA. Many of the students had a strong admiration for Japan through cultures such as anime and manga. Teruko's message to them was the following: "Just because you like Japan and admire it, don't just search for it on the Internet and immerse yourself in it. Go and actually visit Japan. And make real Japanese friends. No matter how much of an internet society we live in, the virtual world cannot beat the real world." Furthermore, Teruko often says, "No matter how many good ideas you have in your head, it's meaningless unless you put them into action and make them into a reality."

He also had the opportunity to give a lecture to students studying Japanese at the University of California, Los Angeles, Japanese Language Department on the topic of "Finding a job in Japan and working with Japanese people."

What is also impressive is that when I go to cover events for non-Japanese people, I often meet Teruko there. She proactively goes out alone to places where there are no other Japanese people to be seen. And she asserts that it is precisely because of these places that she sees her chances. She does not follow the crowd.

The Los Angeles-Nagoya Sister City Committee , of which she serves as chair, has implemented a number of innovative programs and events in recent years, including the 2014 Nagoya Day at The Grove, Los Angeles' most popular shopping mall, where tens of thousands of visitors were treated to Nagoya cuisine and were given information about Nagoya's tourism and entertainment.

The Sister Cities Committee, which promotes exchanges between Los Angeles and cities around the world, with representatives from other cities.

Behind this activity is Teruko's passionate ambition: "Even though the Tokyo Olympics are just around the corner, Nagoya is very little known among Americans. Even on the Shinkansen, it is only seen as a stop on the way from Tokyo to Kyoto. I want to let Americans know about Nagoya."

In March 2018, we hosted a seminar on business investment and tourism in Nagoya at the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

She is passionate, frank in her words and actions, and once she has spoken, she immediately puts her words into action. There must be quite a few Japanese women working in Los Angeles who think, "Teruko, please don't retire. Seeing you working so hard inspires me, too." I am one of them.

© 2019 Keiko Fukuda