World traveler and author Pico Iyer wondered "whether a new kind of being might not be coming to light . . . a 'Global Soul.' " In several ways Yuichiro Nakajima fits the definition. Without doubt he meets the requirement of achieving fusion of different cultures. Out of his 44 years, he has spent 18 in the U.K. and 26 in Japan. He is completely bicultural. Certainly he feels he has benefited from his kind of life, and has double the advantages of an average nonglobal soul. "Definitely," he said. "I am extremely fortunate."
Born in Tokyo, Yuichiro was taken to live in London when he was a very small child. His father was working in an overseas posting for a trading house. In London Yuichiro spoke English and attended a local nursery school and primary school. He thinks he didn't really keep his English facility after the family returned to Japan. "In the late '60s there was very little care for children returning from overseas," he said. "My parents probably didn't think that I would ever be going back to the U.K. again. But I was interested in reading books, and I listened to popular songs. My sister, nine years my senior, was mad keen on the Beatles and I listened to her records. They at least kept English in my ear."
Yuichiro caught up with Japanese language and went through the school system, finally graduating in economics from Keio University. He began his career in Tokyo with what was then the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund. After three years, he went to England to be an MBA student at the London Business School. He joined S.G. Warburg and Co., a move that signaled the beginning of his living and working sometimes there, sometimes here.