Vietnam at the heart of Yabashi’s international approach

At Yabashi Holdings, international influences are considered vital to the Japanese organization’s good health and continued growth.

A construction, machinery and mining group made up of 17 companies – 10 in Japan, seven abroad – Yabashi has overseas firms in each of its three chief business divisions: wood products, metal products, and limestone mining and processing.

While also present in Myanmar, Singapore and South Korea, Yabashi has a particularly close relationship with Vietnam, where it has established three companies since 2000 – and is in the process of adding another.

“Japanese companies’ products are the result of the high levels of education the workers on the factory floor possess,” says President Tatsuyoshi Yabashi. “This leads to high-quality products. However, when it comes to value creation, I don’t think Japanese education is doing enough, so I believe we need to work in tandem with people from other countries.

“At Yabashi, our core strength is having companies in different countries and different industries, all independently working hard to achieve monozukuri – perfection and innovation in manufacturing. The variations between the group’s global locations trigger a synergic effect.”

Cultural understanding is crucial to maximizing international synergy, Mr. Yabashi adds: “I always tell my employees when they’re going on business trips abroad: Even if it only takes seven days to finish the work, stay for 10 days or more. Really get to know the culture of the area.”

"In addition, in 2025, I’m planning to build a canteen for our company that serves the traditional and most popular dishes of the countries of each of our employees. I want our employees to be able to experience with their five senses, tasting different cuisines, seeing different multicultural art and crafts, and so on.  We believe the more we understand each other culturally and business wise, the larger the synergic effect."