Interview with Masamichi Yoshimura

Masamichi Yoshimura comes across as a friendly, energetic and cheerful man, with an underlying strength of purpose and seriousness.

He is the boss of BSI's management systems operation in Japan, which with the recent opening of an office in Osaka, is expanding.

He leads a BSI team of 30 and is motivated, he says, by meeting targets, making budget and netting prestigious client registrations.

To date BSI Japan KK has 250 ISO 9000 registrations and 50 ISO 14001, and BS 7799 is taking off nicely. He says, “We are the market leader for training courses in Japan in BS 7799 we have trained about 600 people in five day training courses and issued the first ever BS 7799 certificate in Japan last year. This year 20% of our revenue will be from 7799; and we are aiming to become the market leader in training and registration of this standard in Japan."

BSI, says Mr Yoshimura, has a major strength - it's good reputation. “The best thing about BSI is its strong background as a standards institution. BSI has a good reputation in Japan and is respected because of that. For us the strongest argument for BSI is its leading role in the evolution of management systems standards and its heritage in this market."

As a manager, Mr Yoshimura values delegation above all else. "I want to develop other managers to have a much wider responsibility. People empowerment is very important. I myself cannot do everything because our organization is growing, and I believe people get more out of their work this way."

In his spare time, Mr Yoshimura goes sea fishing - depending on the season he can catch sea bass, yellow tail, or any other of a vast range of fish to be caught off the Japanese coast - all of which he'll eat. “When I concentrate on fishing I let go of the cares of the day", he says.  

CONTACT BSI PRESS OFFICE:
Wilma Tulloch on +44 (0)20 8996 6330 OR
Marc Edney on +44 (0)20 8996 6330