Charlotte Kennedy-Takahashi, as much at home in Tokyo's American Club as her local "izakaya," refutes any description of herself as the first non-Japanese woman to start her own business in Japan. But she does acknowledge herself as a pioneer, heading the first company founded by a foreigner to be granted the status of "kabushiki gaisha."
"People told me I hadn't a chance. They said a 'gaijin' woman couldn't make it in Japan," she recalls. Well, they were wrong.
One moment she's as tough as they come, using vocabulary reminiscent of a military strategist. The next, leaning intimately over the table to stress that she is as honest as possible in her message of integrity and commitment.