G20, Okamisan at Yunushi Ichijyo Ryokan

Chikako Ichijyo

G20, Okamisan at Yunushi Ichijyo Ryokan

Ms.Chikako Ichijyo was born in 1965 in Aomori prefecture, as the first daughter of the family business engaged in local construction and civil engineering. As it was often the case of these days, she started her career as the receptionist of SONY’s service station. Limited opportunity for women to have professional job, but mostly assistant.

She changed her job to be hotel woman with Akasaka Price Hotel where she met Mr. Ippei ICHIJYO, expected to be the 20th generation of YUNUSHI ICHIJYO RYOKAN at Shiroishi city, Miyagi prefecture.

Her career with this extremely high end hotel ( Shinise Ryokan ) started with succession problem, followed by stagnated local economy, and above all, the damage by the Great Earthquake in Tohoku ( 2011 ) are beyond explanation. She recalls her 20 years career as OKAMISAN ( grand hostess of RYOKAN ) is a kind of Life in The First Lane !

Session

Family Business in catastrophic times

Case Study

This is a case study and a dialogue about the major disasters experienced by Ichijo, a long-established inn in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, and the Maldonado family, a Venezuelan family conglomerate. The Ichijo family was hit by the Great Tohoku Earthquake, but made a dramatic recovery afterwards. The Maldonado family had all of their assets confiscated with the arrival of the Chavez administration, but the family emigrated to the United States and South America, where they started new businesses in their respective locations.