Staff writer English-teaching? No. Military? No. Corporate transfer? No. None of the usual templates comes close to describing how Maia Maniglier ended up in Japan. Audacious bubble-era corporate recruiting experiment? That might do it.
The tale of the Israeli-born Frenchwoman's move to Tokyo began in Paris in 1989. Maniglier, then a Japanese major preparing for her final university exams, was told by a friend that one of Japan's department stores was looking to hire a Japanese-speaking French citizen on a six-month contract. It was holding an exhibition on France and wanted a native to help out with the planning.
"Because their financial year started from April 1, I had to have my university exams brought forward," the now 43-year-old explained at her Tokyo office late last month. "The day after the exams ended, I was on the plane."