Ask Japanese
Tsunoda Stylings is a Japan-based agency that strives to create successful, responsive websites that are fast, easy to use, and built with the best techniques. At Tsunoda Stylings, we search for new and experienced small business owners looking to promote their businesses without breaking the bank! Not too long after we celebrated the new year, we received a marketing and collaboration request from a popular Japan-based YouTube channel!
Let me introduce you to Mr. Arima! He is an upper management member at the parent company of Wao Corporation. Read below to learn more about him and the company’s newest collaboration with Tsunoda Stylings.
Jasmine: Could you tell me about Wao Corporation? When did you start? How long have you worked there?
Mr. Arima:It has been 9 years since we established the YouTube channel Ask Japanese.
At that time, there weren’t many channels creating videos targeted to overseas viewers interested in Japan, because it was the time called the first generation of YouTube’s growth period in Japan. Back then, we started Ask Japanese from the thought that we would like people around the world to know more about Japanese culture and Japanese people. The director himself has been involved in video production as a team member for 9 years.
Jasmine: How many staff members do you have? How many Foreign staff? How many languages do they speak?
Mr. Arima: The Ask Japanese staff only consists of two people, the director, and Cathy Cat. Cathy is trilingual and able to speak Japanese, English, and German fluently.
Jasmine: How many channels/talents do you collaborate with? How many languages does it support on your YouTube channel?
Mr. Arima: There are 5 channels listed under the talents of Wao Corporation
(There are many main languages in the videos including: Japanese and English/subtitles: Japanese, English, Spanish, etc.)
■Ask Japanese： Interviews with foreign or Japanese people on the streets of Japan!
■WAO-RYU! ONLY in JAPAN： Introduction to amazing Japanese culture, history, and food from the perspective of people from other countries.
■KAWAII-PATEEN： Share the cute fashion and makeup movie with the world!
■DoKiDoKi-Drawing： Provides narratives of how to draw animation and comics!
■MIKI-LAB・KIDS： Cute and fun experiment presented by Miki Igarashi, Women in Science!
Jasmine: How many videos do you usually release a week? How many staff are working on videos?
Mr. Arima: We release at a pace of 2-4 videos a week. For video production, 2 staff are working on this task.
Jasmine: How you think that this information Ask Japanese obtains from the interviews is useful for audiences?
Mr. Arima: We started “Ask Japanese” with the concept that we would like not only people around the world but also Japanese people to interact with different cultures. In fact, it is said that interview video clips of foreign people on Ask Japanese are used in classes at universities and high schools in Japan. I feel that our videos help in terms of educational aspects.
Jasmine: What processes do you usually follow when you think about questions to your guests in interviews?
Mr. Arima: Firstly, we always check trends or the news on SNS, YouTube, and other places. And we think about interview questions and review them with our interviewer, Cathy Cat.
Jasmine: What advice would you give to anyone wanting to start their own YouTube channel? Or would you like to move to Tokyo/Japan?
Mr. Arima: Nowadays, anyone can easily create videos. I think that it is best to share videos about things you enjoy. It is important to release videos consistently. It is possible to release videos even when you are not in Tokyo. I think the place does not matter if there are foreign people who want to share videos from Japan.
Jasmine: Any closing remarks you would like to give to our readers?
Mr. Arima: Share things via YouTube that you feel and see are of great significance. It is really hard to run channels as a business, but I think it’s outweighed by the feelings and learning I acquire through doing it. I believe these experiences cannot be obtained through other works.