Yoko Wakebe: Training Automobile Mechanics as a Principal

I think it's best to start by explaining the differences between universities, vocational schools, and trade schools. As you know, a university is a higher education institution that conducts academic research, and upon completion of the curriculum, degrees such as bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees are awarded. They are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).

In contrast, vocational schools like ours are also higher education institutions, but they are characterized by being educational institutions that offer specialized courses within the category of special training schools. In our case, this specialized course is "Automobile Maintenance." Since the purpose is study, similar to a university, qualifications such as Advanced Specialist or Specialist are granted by MEXT. School accreditation and national examinations are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

On the other hand, so-called vocational training centers are different; they are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and aim to train workers. Specifically, the difference is that vocational schools are required to complete a certain number of hours of general education, whereas vocational training centers do not have that restriction. Also, graduating from a vocational school counts as educational background, while a vocational training center counts as work history.

Yes. It is mainly 18-year-olds who have finished high school. Additionally, there are some who enter because they want to become mechanics after having already entered the workforce once.

Our school has the oldest history among them. It was founded in 1977 by Mr. Tsutomu Oka, who was the president of Ehime Nissan at the time and wanted to create an institution to train mechanics. Until April of this year, it was a private school of the Oka family, but thanks to a donation, it was incorporated as a school corporation under the name Aiji Gakuen.

While managing Ehime Nissan in Ehime, Mr. Tsutomu Oka foresaw that as motorization progressed and the number of sales company outlets increased, there would be a shortage of mechanics. He wanted to train mechanics early on and wished to use the Nissan name, so he founded the school next to Ehime Nissan. I think he had great foresight.

In terms of employment, we are currently in a state where job offers are at 200% or 300%, so they are in high demand. Part of it is the declining 18-year-old population, but I think a major factor is that fewer young people aspire to be mechanics due to a loss of interest in cars.

As for employment destinations, besides Nissan Motor sales companies, there are suppliers, and for the first time this year, one student was able to join the development department at Nissan Headquarters, called NTC, which I think is a great achievement. Other than that, some go to Toyota sales companies as well. While the economy has its ups and downs, another feature of our school is that we have maintained a 100% employment rate since its opening.

There are two departments: one is the Automobile Maintenance Department, a two-year program aiming for the Level 2 national certification. The other is the First-Class Automobile Engineering Department, a four-year program aiming for the Level 1 national certification. There are 174 students in total, and there were 54 new enrollees this year.

At Nissan Motor, after gaining experience in charge of Europe and the US, I spent a long time in the domestic after-sales department. This is the department that takes care of customers after they purchase a new car, through inspections and vehicle maintenance.

In the Europe/US roles, ultimately it was the local people who had direct contact with customers, and there were limits to what a Japanese person could do, so I really wanted to work on the front lines in Japan. So, I promised that if they moved me to the domestic after-sales department, I would work ten times harder (laughs), and the job I was assigned there was called "Roadman."

I don't think many people know about it. In short, it's a job category where you continue to be on the "road," rolling out policies to sales companies and parts sales companies nationwide, picking up voices from the field, and feeding them back to headquarters.

Since sales companies are generally open on Saturdays and Sundays, I would go to the Tokyo headquarters only on Mondays and spend Tuesday through Sunday traveling around my assigned region.

I was the first woman in that department. My territory was Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu/Okinawa, and there were 58 companies in my charge.

I was called the "Resort Roadman" (laughs). One of those 58 companies was Ehime Nissan. That's why I used to visit here often as a Roadman. I even attended this school's entrance ceremony and gave a congratulatory speech.

Later, the current chairman, Mr. Yutaka Oka, asked me, "Would you like to run the school?" He was a classmate at Keio and a colleague at Nissan. At the time, I was still working at Nissan, and even when I moved to a parts company called Faltec, I was really busy, so it didn't happen. However, I retired due to family health issues, and after a year had passed, he invited me again, which is how I came to Matsuyama.

Mr. Oka had left Nissan Motor to succeed as the president of Ehime Nissan, but we spoke closely at the 25th anniversary of our graduation from the Juku, and I rediscovered the merits of the Ehime school. Truly, Keio is a place where human connections are made.

We are currently facing two major challenges. One is that the number of applicants has dropped sharply. Unfortunately, we are currently below capacity. We must somehow bring this up to capacity. We are gathering high school students from Shikoku as much as possible, but I believe we need to increase the target group from a more long-term perspective. For example, people who have entered the workforce once, or having experienced workers relearn.

Also, I think increasing the number of international students is a major mission. This year, two Myanmar students joined us, but I want to increase that a bit more to about 10%.

We always have applicants participate in an open campus before they apply, and when I look at the eyes of the Myanmar people who participate, I can clearly see that they truly love cars. It feels like the state of enthusiasm for cars that Japanese students had 30 or 40 years ago exists there now.

There is a reason why there are many people from Myanmar. The current chairman, Mr. Oka, felt the situation of young people moving away from cars and decided that something had to be done—to market Japan's maintenance technology overseas—and decided to build a maintenance school in Myanmar. The career route is to have them study at that school, practice maintenance technology on-site at a sales company like Ehime Nissan, then return to Myanmar to become teachers at the local school and train the next generation. Due to these circumstances, our school prioritizes taking international students from Myanmar.

Being a mechanic requires a national qualification, but the exam questions contain many difficult kanji. It is extremely difficult for international students to pass. I hope the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism will take this into consideration.

It's the national qualification exam I just mentioned. In our school's case, until three years ago, the passing rate for both Level 1 and Level 2 was 100%. However, two years ago, Level 1 became very difficult, and the passing rate dropped significantly nationwide. At our school, it was 60% this year. Since it's 23% nationwide, manufacturer-affiliated schools are still high, though.

From now on, cars themselves will become more electrified and computerized, whether it's autonomous driving or electric vehicles. You can think of a Level 1 mechanic as someone with the advanced ability to diagnose and repair such things. There are many sales companies that say, "We want Level 1 mechanics."

これから車自体が、自動運転にしろ電気自動車にしろ、より電動化、電脳化していきます。そういったものを診断・修理できる高度な能力を持つのが１級整備士と考えていただければいいと思います。「１級整備士が欲しい」という販売会社さんも多いのです。

JAMCA (Japan Automobile College Association) currently has 50 member schools, and there are five female principals, including myself. However, I haven't been very conscious of being a woman since I first chose Nissan Motor. During my Roadman days, I might have lacked self-awareness (laughs).

That's right. I wore a uniform and served tea. At that time, during the first interview, I was always asked, "How many years will you work?" and I answered five years for the time being. I wanted to retire upon marriage (laughs).

Not at all. Again, I can't say this too loudly, but when I joined the company, my TOEIC score was in the 400s (laughs).

I think I was the first woman for that as well. From around my third year at the company, the work became very interesting. I was blessed with good supervisors, and I was happy even if just one replacement part was sold.

At the time, there was a difference of opinion regarding direction between the president of the Nissan distributor in the UK and Nissan headquarters, so Nissan decided to create a 100% self-owned sales company. I participated in that from the after-sales side. We did everything from scratch, such as how to procure catalogs listing part numbers.

Nissan India had 50 people at the start. Besides Nissan India, there were a development company, a factory, a commercial vehicle company, and an Indian-capital company that only did sales. How to coordinate among these five companies was a major theme for me.

In the case of Europe and the US, motorization is advanced, so there were many parts I was being taught, but India was full of surprises. First of all, the human resources were mostly people with no experience in automobiles. Some had been working at supermarkets until yesterday, or were in agriculture or fishing, and how to educate such human resources was a major challenge.

欧米の場合、モータリゼーションが進んでいるので、私が教わっていた部分が多かったのですが、インドは驚くことばかりでした。まず、人材はほとんど自動車の経験のない人たちです。昨日までスーパーで働いていたとか、農業や漁業をしていたという方もいて、このような人材をどのように教育していくかが大きな課題でした。

I think what's most interesting now is human resource development.

It's only been two months, so I can't say for sure. However, I hope the students can have various experiences, just as I was raised.

Students take the lead in operations. Specifically, students handle everything from customer service and assisting mechanics in the pits to public relations. As part of their preliminary studies, members of the KONDO Racing Team, led by our partner Masahiko Kondo, recently brought a race car to our school and explained what racing is all about. The students' eyes really light up at stories like that.

A vocational school is a place to cultivate practical skills, and I want them to become professionals and members of society who can start working at sales companies or factories immediately after graduation. I believe the basics for that are etiquette and greetings.

専門学校というのは実践力を養うところで、卒業したらすぐに販売会社や工場で仕事が始められる職業人、社会人になってもらいたい。その時の基本は礼儀、挨拶だと思います。

特に販売会社の現場ではお客様と接することが多く、車をただ整備していればいいわけではない。フロントでお客様に整備内容を説明するのが大きな仕事になってきます。その時に基本的な挨拶ができなくてどうするのかということで、毎朝挨拶の訓練をしています。私もここに来て完璧な挨拶の仕方を習いました（笑）。