Catherine gives Keynote speech to NZ LAw and NZ CA in Hiroshima

Recently I asked a room full of lawyers and chartered accountants from NZ Law and NZ CA to choose me over the All Blacks. And they stayed. For two full hours, going head to head with a test match, more than 50 of them sat through 20+ years of my life in Japan, told entirely through Japanese proverbs.

The whole thing traces back almost 30 years, to a slightly ridiculous but fabulous book I bought when I first started learning Japanese: "Even Monkeys Fall from Trees" and Other Japanese Proverbs. You might know it? I had no idea at the time it would end up being the brilliant spine of a keynote three decades later.

I took off with a yarn about a yukata (cotton robe) pegged up as makeshift curtains (ask me later; it is a long story, and ten out of ten as an icebreaker).

Six proverbs later, on trust, humility, belonging, belief, and patience, plus one I'm keeping for next time, I landed on three questions for them to take from the room about how committed they really are to the Japan market, what they're actually doing to show they can be trusted rather than just saying it, and what's sitting on their own "no one tells you" checklist for Japan that they could start working through before they even land.

To my fellow speaker thank you for such a thoughtful session on the NZ–Japan partnership. It was an honour to share the floor with you in Hiroshima.

Huge thanks to NZ Law Limited and NZ CA (Chartered Accountants) for having me, and to every person in that room who chose curiosity about a lawyer's journey in Japan over live rugby ... I see you, and I appreciate you enormously.