Ally Hongo, 36, moved to Japan from her native Bulgaria as a teenager with her family. After completing her education, she embarked on a career as writer and editor at various media companies producing English content. In 2020, Hongo and her husband quit their jobs to start their own agency, Shiitake Creative, and last year they launched the inaugural Japan Travel Awards, an initiative to “promote diversity, inclusiveness and transformational experiences through the prism of tourism.”
1. What does your company do? Shiitake Creative helps companies, public sector entities and municipalities to promote their services, products and destinations through bilingual content creation.
2. What was behind the decision to start your own business? Working with various platforms in the media industry has been extremely rewarding. However, being tied to a medium has its restrictions.