Nobuo Yoneyama, general manager at the Washington, D.C. branch of Mitsui & Co., visited teacher Demitra Marafatsos’ international business class March 1. to talk about the inner workings of the company, a 136-year-old trading company and the challenges of a global business.

Founded in Japan in 1876 to export rice and import products from Europe, Mitsui operates in 67 countries, conducting trade and investing in infrastructure, energy, metals and other fields.  Yoneyama joined the company in 1981 and worked in the aerospace business arena, negotiating the import of American and European aircraft to Japan. 

Yoneyama said the main challenge of international trade was to look at every issue from multiple perspectives.

“You’ve got to spend some time to learn history and understand why people in the United States or Europe make a certain decision or not,” Yoneyama said.

He now works in the corporate section of the company, preparing reports for executives in D.C.  Yoneyama elaborated about the importance of networking in the process of gathering information.

“The challenge is to make human networks so that different viewpoints can be well-covered,” he said.  “You have to meet as many real people as possible to learn and to get correct intelligence.”

Marafatsos said she thought Yoneyama’s presentations were intriguing and informative.

“The kids were pretty impressed with his depth of knowledge,” Marafatsos said.  “We liked how he bridged the gap of what Japan could offer us and what we could offer together to help solve world problems.”

Sophomore Grant Payette said he appreciated Yoneyama’s professionalism and was impressed by Mitsui’s investment in green technology.

“Yoneyama said the company was looking for alternates to power cars, and that they’re already trying to power their own companies with natural gas and trying to use a lot of hydropower,” Payette said.  “I think it’s definitely important to invest in clean energy.”