TOMODACHI MetLife Women’s Leadership Program Year Three Launch in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Naha
“A year ago, I was sitting in this same room, in these same chairs, and I was very nervous”, Hikari Igarashi stated at the kick off event for the TOMODACHI MetLife Women’s Leadership Program in Tokyo. As she explained to this year’s program mentees and mentors about her experience of having participated in the program last year, she described the transformation she had undergone from a very shy girl to a young leader with confidence. “Now I know that there is nothing I cannot do”, Hikari asserted optimistically.
The third year of the TOMODACHI MetLife Women’s Leadership Program kicked off in Tokyo on September 11 with its first mentoring session, where motivated female university students were introduced to female mid-career professionals who will be their mentors for the next ten months. After briefly going over the key concepts of mentorship and hearing from past program participants, the mentees and mentors took on the marshmallow challenge – a design exercise in which teams tried to build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The team building, challenge fosters effective innovation by encouraging teams to break away from hidden assumptions and generate fresh ideas.
Following the session in Tokyo, kick-off sessions were held in Osaka September 18, Okinawa September 25, and Fukuoka October 2nd. The 49 mentees and 49 mentors will spend the next ten months focused on personal leadership development, financial literacy, and self-awareness. As these bright young women start their TOMODACHI journey, we hope that they will be able to break away from hidden assumptions about themselves and become the future female leaders of Japan.
