My name is Yuko Fraser.
I previously worked for a radio station where I met many personalities from all over the world. In meeting them, I realised my knowledge of English and of the world was very limited. To widen both, I went to London in 2003 where I lived for 3 and half years.
Whilst I was there I worked for a UK college in various capacities, including working as a UK contact for Japanese students coming to study in the UK.
During that time I needed to go back to Japan and the college I was working with, offered me the opportunity to become an agent for them in Japan. It turned out to be a very positive and great learning experience for me.
During my time in London,I met my husband and business partner Ayodeji.
From living in London together, he dragged me to live in Spain and then in Cape Town, South Africa.
Living in Cape Town was a great experience for me and I discovered many things in Cape Town. One of my discoveries was the fact that Cape Town, was and is steadily becoming a destination for Japanese people, old and young, wanting to learn English and also wanting to enjoy the Cape Town experience.
Added to that, my time in Cape Town exposed me to South African manufacturers of beautiful handmade products. These were products that were made with love and care, had value and brought much needed prosperity to many of the people that created them. Many of them were made from recycled material and therefore eco friendly, even child friendly and would be a source of joy for any home they graced.
We decided there and then that once we got back to Japan, part of our business would be importing some of these products into the Japanese market as we believed that Japanese consumers would love them. These are products ranging from dolls for young and old alike, baby carriers, baby toys, handbags, bead work, stitched arts and craft and even small furniture.
Furtermore, whilst in Cape Town, I gave birth to my son in April 2010. As you can imagine, my experience in South Africa was a very positive one.
In November 2010, I moved back to Japan with my family.
With my experience of living in London and Cape Town, my experience of running an agency, and all the positive contacts I had made in both places, I had already started to make arrangements to run an agency in Japan that facilitated studying and living in London and Cape Town for Japanese people.
My experience in both Cape Town and London showed that many Japanese people would like the opportunity of studying English or simply studying outside of Japan and also that Cape Town and London had strong links to Japan at the political, economic and cultural level.
Co-incidentally,whilst all this was being put together, the former principal of my college in London that I use to work with, contacted me and proposed that I become an agent in Japan for a brand new college that she had launched in London.
This came at just the right time for me, especially with the London olympics just round the corner in 2012.
And so in a nutshell, this is how we came to be agents for colleges in London and in Cape Town. The story continues.......