Yoshiko Shinohara

• JANUARY 21, 2009

Women to Watch

Japan's Shinohara Adapts Style to Economic Trends

As Temp Industry Takes a Hit, Executive Looks for Openings

How is "the mother of Japan's temp industry" wading through the current global recession, which has prompted the export-reliant Japan to cut production at the fastest pace in decades, resulting in tens of thousands of jobless temp workers? "My style is called 'hermit crab management,' " says Yoshiko Shinohara, president of Temp Holdings Co. Ms. Shinohara set up a temp-service agency in Tokyo three decades ago when such a service was hardly heard of in Japan, a nation that was once proud of lifetime employment. Ms. Shinohara, recently named one of The Wall Street Journal Asia's women to watch, says spending ...

JULY 12, 2004


Yoshiko Shinohara
President, Tempstaff, Japan

Yoshiko Shinohara knows something about adversity. She lost her father at the age of 8, her marriage broke up in her mid-20s, and a decade later she launched a temporary work agency in a tiny one-room apartment in central Tokyo with a grubstake of $9,000. Today her company, Tempstaff, is a $1.5 billion concern, and Shinohara, who never went to university, is praised in the press as a gutsy female entrepreneur who made it big.

JULY 12, 2004
What sparked the entrepreneurial itch in Shinohara when most of her peers in the 1960s preferred to master the intricacies of the Japanese tea ceremony? Part of it was travel. After her divorce, a curious Shinohara studied English and secretarial skills in Britain, then worked in Australia for a marketing company. She saw women managers thriving and was struck by how temporary-work agencies opened doors for them. "It was very impressive for me to see women breezing through their work in Europe and Australia," she says.

In 1973, Shinohara returned to Japan and at the age of 38 decided to launch her temp agency. It wasn't easy. She didn't know the first thing about running a startup. Still, what she lacked in managerial knowhow she more than made up for in drive. She started making calls to foreign and Japanese companies, sometimes as many as 20 per day. Business was so glacial at first that she taught English at night to pay the rent on her apartment, which doubled as corporate headquarters.

By the late-1980s, Tempstaff had established itself. Paradoxically, Japan's stretch of stagnation in the 1990s was a godsend, as companies hired more part-time workers to avoid the high cost of permanent employees. That trend has continued. In 2003 alone, the number of temps soared 21.8%, to 2.13 million workers -- 2.5 times as many as five years before. Today, Tempstaff serves 59,000 clients, employs 1,200, and expects profits to rise 4.5%, to $80 million, in the fiscal year that ended in March.

Now nearing 70, Shinohara has lost none of her enthusiasm. Every morning by 8 a.m. she's at company headquarters, now in a smart high-rise in central Tokyo. Her next mission: promote expansion to new areas. "Specialization in labor is constantly advancing," she says, "especially in the fields of medicine, education, and IT." Japan is changing, and Shinohara will change with it.