For many aspiring business leaders,an exchange term is a line on a résumé; for Douglas Nyakaatayi,it became a turning point. In a reflective first-person account for Poets&Quants, the London Business School MBA student traces how a semester in Japan did far more than satisfy his curiosity about a new market. Immersed in Tokyo’s classrooms, boardrooms, and backstreets, he discovered fresh perspectives on culture, leadership, and identity-insights that challenged his assumptions not only about Japan, but about himself.His story, part of the “Student Voices” series, offers a ground-level look at how global exposure, when framed by LBS’s international community and curriculum, can transform career ambitions into something deeper and more personal.
Immersive learning in Tokyo how London Business School brings Japan’s business culture to life
On the ground in Tokyo, classroom theories dissolve into the neon-lit reality of boardrooms, factory floors, and izakaya negotiations. Over the course of an intense week, we moved from morning briefings with multinational CEOs to late-night debriefs in tiny alleyway restaurants, where the unspoken rules of hierarchy and harmony were as crucial as any financial metric.LBS faculty acted less like lecturers and more like investigative editors, pushing us to interrogate what we saw: Why did a meeting pause for silence after a junior analyst spoke? What did it mean when an executive nodded but did not commit? Through structured reflection sessions and live company projects, the city became a case study we could walk through, question, and reframe in real time.
The design of the immersion was deliberately multifaceted,blending strategic analysis with cultural decoding and personal leadership work. We weren’t just touring companies; we were expected to contribute, present, and adapt on the spot. Core elements included:
- Site visits to both legacy conglomerates and fast-scaling startups to contrast decision-making styles.
- Interactive workshops on etiquette, negotiation, and stakeholder mapping in a high-context culture.
- Small-group projects co-created with Japanese partners, focused on real market challenges.
- Guided reflection labs linking our reactions in Tokyo to our evolving leadership identities.
| Experience | What We Practiced |
|---|---|
| Boardroom briefings | Reading nuance and indirect feedback |
| Startup visits | Balancing innovation with cultural norms |
| Team reflections | Reframing our leadership assumptions |
From classroom theory to Shibuya streets applying global management lessons on the ground
On paper, cross-cultural leadership sounds neatly structured: frameworks, models, and tidy diagrams on PowerPoint slides in Sussex Place. In Tokyo, it looked more like waiting in silence at a Shibuya crosswalk, realizing that order emerges not from control but from shared norms no one needs to announce. During our field trip, I began to read the city the way we’re trained to read balance sheets and org charts-spotting implicit incentives in the way commuters queue, noticing how risk is managed in convenience stores that never seem to sleep, and understanding customer obsession through the meticulous packaging of something as simple as bottled tea. What I had skimmed in case studies came alive as I watched Japanese managers balance innovation with social harmony, short-term metrics with multi-decade stakeholder trust.
Rather than just observe, we were pushed to test our assumptions.In team projects with local startups and established corporates, we were asked to recommend strategies that would resonate in Japan but remain scalable globally. The same classroom debates on stakeholder capitalism, organizational culture, and strategic adaptation suddenly had immediate consequences-our ideas would be challenged by executives who lived these trade-offs every day. To make sense of it all, I kept a small field notebook where I grouped my observations:
- Leadership in silence: influence expressed through listening, not volume.
- Risk with a safety net: experimentation framed within clear social expectations.
- Customer as community: products designed to minimize friction for the collective, not just the individual.
| LBS Concept | Tokyo Moment | Lesson |
|---|---|---|
| Global mindset | Shibuya scramble at rush hour | Coordination without command can outperform control |
| Service excellence | Konbini at midnight | Reliability is a competitive advantage,not a given |
| Stakeholder focus | Local coffee shop chain | Long-term trust can justify slower,steadier growth |
Confronting bias and building resilience what Japan taught me about my own leadership style
In Tokyo boardrooms and Kyoto side streets,I kept running into the same uncomfortable mirror: my assumptions. I arrived believing that effective leadership meant speaking first, owning the room, and pushing for fast alignment. Instead, I found decision-making rhythms built on pauses, deliberate silence, and a kind of collective sense-checking that felt almost orchestral. Moments that I read as indecision were, actually, disciplined listening. My London Business School toolkit gave me the vocabulary of strategy and culture; Japan gave me the shock of seeing how quickly those tools can calcify into bias.I realised I tended to reward people who “sound like leaders” in a Western context-confident, direct, argumentative-and under-estimate those who process information more quietly, but often more deeply.
That realisation became a training ground for a tougher, more sustainable kind of resilience. Leading multicultural project teams across time zones, I had to learn to stay effective when I wasn’t in my comfort language, my default pace, or even my familiar conflict style. Instead of doubling down on volume and logic, I began to experiment with:
- Structured silence – leaving space before decisions so different voices could surface.
- Rotating spokespersons – ensuring quieter team members represented the group externally.
- Reframing “pushback” as curiosity – asking questions rather than defending my position.
| Old Habit | New Practice |
|---|---|
| Equating speed with strength | Valuing depth over immediacy |
| Rewarding loud consensus | Inviting quiet dissent |
| Leading from the front | Designing space for others to lead |
What began as a study trip became a live experiment in unlearning-not abandoning my leadership style, but stretching it to include ambiguity, slower clocks, and a broader definition of whose voice counts.
Practical takeaways for prospective LBS students preparing for study trips that truly transform you
Pack less career anxiety and more curiosity. Before you board the plane, sketch out a personal “learning thesis” for the trip: what parts of Japan’s business culture do you want to understand, and what parts of yourself are you willing to test in a new context? Build a flexible schedule that includes corporate visits, solo walks through unfamiliar neighborhoods, and at least one conversation where you ask a local a question that feels slightly uncomfortable.Treat the Faculty‑led agenda as a backbone, not a cage-leave deliberate white space for serendipity. And be intentional about who you travel with: seek out classmates from different programs, sectors and cultures so that the debriefs over ramen become as valuable as the boardroom briefings.
- Prepare like a consultant: read company reports, recent Japan news and basic etiquette guides.
- Curate a “stretch” role: volunteer to lead one session, host a reflection circle or manage a client brief.
- Design reflection rituals: keep a daily field journal and record one mindset shift per day.
- Network with purpose: arrive with 3-4 themes you want to discuss with alumni and executives.
- Debrief back in London: translate trip insights into concrete career experiments within the LBS ecosystem.
| Focus Area | Before Japan | During Japan | Back at LBS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Career | Map target sectors | Probe executives’ challenges | Test roles via projects |
| Culture | Learn key norms | Observe, don’t judge | Compare with home context |
| Identity | Set growth goals | Notice emotional triggers | Refine your leadership story |
Future Outlook
what this journey to Japan underscores is that the true value of a London Business School education isn’t confined to case studies or classroom debates. It lies in the moments when theory meets reality-on Tokyo’s streets, in conversations with local entrepreneurs, and in the quiet reflections that follow.
For this student,Japan became more than a destination; it was a mirror.The experience reframed long‑held assumptions about leadership, culture, and success, while revealing new capacities for curiosity and adaptability. It also highlighted a central promise of LBS: that by stepping into unfamiliar environments, students can sharpen their global outlook and, just as importantly, come to better understand themselves.
As more business schools push to internationalize their curricula, stories like this illustrate what’s at stake. Immersive,cross‑cultural learning doesn’t just broaden one’s view of the world-it challenges the narratives students bring with them and shapes the kind of leaders they may become. At London Business School, Japan was the backdrop.The real conversion happened within.
