When people talk about studying in Japan,
the first images that often come to mind are still students, admissions, and degrees.

But before Tokyo Asabana officially began,
I had already been accompanying people who were midway through their careers,
repeatedly and seriously discussing the same question together:

If one plans to build a long-term future in Japan, what should the next step in life look like?

One of them was a first-generation female entrepreneur from China.

She was not studying for the sake of studying,
nor was she trying to add another polished label to her résumé.
What she was considering was something far more practical:

How to secure a more stable and sustainable future, without putting her business on hold.

From that perspective,
she later gained admission to Ritsumeikan University,
and planned to continue developing her entrepreneurial work
alongside her studies.

This kind of choice is not common.
It is neither “standard,”
nor does it fit into any ready-made template.

Yet through these moments of accompaniment,
one realization became increasingly clear to me:

For many entrepreneurs,
learning, identity, and career are never a single-choice question.

They are elements that often need to be
recombined and deliberately redesigned
as part of a larger life structure.

Tokyo Asabana was shaped precisely through
these real experiences of accompaniment and long-term observation.

It is not a platform created to manufacture “success stories,”
but a space meant to preserve
those few yet genuinely existing paths
for people who truly need them
—and who are ready to think seriously about their own choices.

Tokyo Asabana｜東京朝花
Founder Serena He
Nationally Certified Career Consultant / MBA
Education & Career Strategy Consultant for International Residents in Japan
hello@tokyoasabana.com