The Catering Service Department receives orders for boxed lunches from hotels and companies in and around Tokyo. Since we are close to central Tokyo, such as Chiyoda and Minato wards, we often receive large orders for luxury bento lunch boxes with elaborate Japanese cuisine for international conferences, seminars, corporate executives and group tourists. Recently, the company has been focusing on developing products that only a longestablished company can offer, such as limited-time bento lunch boxes supervised by a master of the Japanese Culinary Institute.
Ningyocho Imahan has a solid position as a longestablished Japanese restaurant, and in order to live up to their trust and expectations, we pay close attention to the way we prepare our serving and handling of ingredients. It is only in Tokyo, with its large number of tourists and businessmen with high inbound demand, that we are required to handle such a large number and quality of orders, which gives me a sense of responsibility and satisfaction.

When I was a university student, I lived in Kita-ku, which is famous for its lively downtown shopping streets. After I started working, I moved to Koto-ku, which is close to my workplace. Edogawa Ward, where my family now lives, is a town for families with lots of greenery and parks and grounds along the Arakawa River. On holidays, I look forward to taking my junior high school daughter and one-yearold son for a walk along the river with a great view.I have moved around the downtown area of Tokyo so far. The downtown area of Tokyo is very easy to live in, and is full of supermarkets, shopping malls, schools, and a slow pace of life. On my way home from the office, I sometimes walk a few stops or ride my bicycle to enjoy a side trip. Tokyo has a well-developed transportation network, so it's easy to get around by train, but walking on your own is good exercise and a great way to discover new things.

In the catering service department, we often receive orders for a thousand of bento boxes in a large quantities, and in such cases, process control and quality assurance are the key. In order to complete cooking and serving within a limited time, it is important to consider an efficient work plan by calculating backward from the time limit and manhours. My role is to formulate a schedule from the day before, think about who should be in charge and what procedure to do, and give instructions on site. A detailed work plan that combines complex puzzles is required becasue the effort and number of workers vary depending on the type and number of bento boxes. In order to improve the efficiency of work planning, we created our own programs that make use of my experience in management and information processing as a student, to speed up and improve quality.
While we sell a new products, we work together with the sales department and the product planning department to think about the actual arrangement work and discuss how to handle the ingredients. In Japanese cuisine, delicate taste and ingredients, but also the beauty of the presentation is very important. We want to deliver beautiful bento boxed that will impress our customers, the moment they open their lids, and we carefully work from the customer's point of view every day.

During business hours, there is a tensed feeling as talking is strictly prohibited, but it is fun time to have a chat with all the staff at lunch break after being safely taken out to the customers in the morning. From the afternoon to the end of the day, there are office works such as sales management, procurement of ingredients, and process planning for next day. but this break makes me feel like "Let's do our best in the afternoon!"
The reason I chose Ningyocho Imahan is because I felt it was a company that inherited Japanese style management, that nurture people with care. I got married when I was an university student, therefore I focused on a company where I could work for a long time. I think it is a unique advantage of a Japanese companies to train and grow inexperienced new graduates. Some people may feel that the starting salary is lower than that of a foreign company, but I think it will be a great asset in your long career to be able to gain experience while being taught carefully.
Of course, you don't just have to do what you're told to do, but you need to be able to think for yourself and see if there's any way you can make the improvement. My job is to provide instruction onsite by establishing optimal process management and schedules, but I am not satisfied with the current situation, and I would like to propose ways to improve efficiency and quality. I want to work hard to build up my career.