Naha, April 8, 2008 - In an empowering discussion on what it means to be a female entrepreneur in Japan, Merle Aiko Okawara, CEO of The JC Comsa Corporation, discussed how she began her company as a young woman in the mid 1960s with the hope of introducing a hitherto unknown ethnic cuisine called Pizza into the Japanese market. She discussed the cultural resistance to foreign food products when she began her company, shared with us the tribulations she faced as she tried to get financing to grow her company through the 1970s, explained how she discovered a unique solution to her company's labor shortage during the booming economy of the 1980s, and told how her wise management kept the company from experiencing many of the financial problems her competitors faced when the economic bubble burst in the 1990s.

Ms. Okawara discussed more than just the details of her professional success, she also spoke of the necessary mindset that an entrepreneur must have they work their way up in the business world. She told of her own experiences as a foreign born woman in the world of Japanese business and explained the difficulties she faced because she was cut off from both government support and the "old boy's network." Beyond that, Ms. Okawara gave us a sense of the pride she felt as her company became the first headed by a non-Japanese citizen, and only the second company to be headed by a woman, listed on the Japanese Stock Exchange and let us know that, in the end, the success is worth all the struggle.