Talent Exchange

The ACCJ Internship Portal gives businesses and students a leg up on the competition.

Faced with a dwindling workforce, companies in Japan are locked in fierce competition to find young talent who can carry the organization forward and inject it with fresh ideas and vitality. Many overlook an option that offers tremendous advantages for employers and students alike: internships.

 A survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers—a 60-year-old professional association that connects more than 17,000 college career services professionals, early talent recruiters, and business solution providers—found that 84 percent of graduating seniors in 2025 participated in an internship, co-op, or other experiential learning program.

Students in Japan also take part in off-campus learning at a high rate—more than 85 percent according to a 2025 Mynavi survey—but the experiences tend to be shorter and less hands-on compared with those in the United States.

To help connect students with internship opportunities offered by American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) member companies, the chamber launched the ACCJ Internship Portal in 2017 and has continued to grow the platform.

The mission is to offer an opportunity to attract, engage, and cultivate the next generation of leaders, while promoting professional development of students. 

ACCJ member companies are invited to share internship opportunities through the ACCJ website, allowing students to easily explore options.

APCO, Big Picture International, Boeing, Cezars, EY, Fidel Technologies, Hays, the InterContinental Osaka, Kenja, and Morgan Stanley are among the many organizations that have shared openings through the ACCJ Internship Portal.

The ACCJ Education Committee started revamping the Internship Portal last January by expanding participants to students studying in Japan, maintaining the portal year-round, improving its look and accessibility, and increasing the number of sponsors. The changes have attracted more than 5,000 visitors to the site.

Company Benefits

Alan Brender, co-chair of the Education Committee, sees some companies hesitating to embrace interns. “Often they don’t understand what an internship entails, and they might think it will be too time-consuming, difficult, or expensive to offer a program.”

But there are many benefits that companies can reap from welcoming those preparing to enter the workforce into their office. These include:

• Recruiting advantage
• Enhanced employee performance
• Fresh ideas from young talent
• Cost-effective project assistance
• Improved brand recognition

Small companies can also reap these benefits, but often dismiss the idea because they believe they do not have the resources to provide interns with support. To overlook internships, however, would be to miss a great opportunity. All that is needed is to have a manager take one or two interns under their wing and get them involved in the operations of the company. Soon, even the smallest organizations can benefit from the energy and insights of dedicated interns.

Business Boost

Without a doubt, the opportunities being offered through the ACCJ Internship Portal are getting results.

“Students who take internships have real-life experience they cannot get from a part-time job,” said Nanami Takeuchi, an international business student at Temple University, Japan Campus (TUJ) who has been interning with Japan Travel since May 2025.

“It’s different working in an office than at a part-time job. There are more chances to interact with a variety of people, and the internship helps prepare you for a future career. I can see that value. Interns also benefit from working with people of different ages, backgrounds, cultures, and skills.”

The value goes both ways.

“There are so many benefits,” explained Erica Adams, director of the Career Development Office at TUJ. Adams has assisted TUJ students since 2009 as a career adviser. “It can be a great way, of course, to scout talent, and if it’s a company that hires new grads, it can be a pipeline into the organization. I think there is a really low chance of a mismatch if they hire somebody who has been successfully interning with them for a few months. The intern understands what they’re getting into, and the company understands the person they’re hiring, so it can be a really fail-safe way of onboarding new staff without spending a lot of resources on recruiting.”

Adams added that having junior staff manage an intern can be a great way to develop the leadership skills and groom them for management positions.

Hands-on Learning

The experience of Bobur Gulnetov echoes Adams’s advice about the recruitment benefits for companies. While a student at Lakeland University Japan, he did a three-month internship at the Peninsula Hotel.

“It was a great opportunity for me to develop a strong foundation in hospitality,” he said. “I learned teamwork and to pay attention to small details, which is really important in a corporation and also in personal life. Even though small mistakes might happen, because we are all human, the Peninsula taught me that paying attention to small details will help us with hands-on experience in guest relations and problem-solving. We can learn the expectations of guests, who expect the best. The internship helped build new skills. And at the end of the internship, I was employed full time at the hotel.”

Soren Dickson, who interned at the ACCJ in 2024, said that internships expose you to professionalism. “As a student, you hear about it, but you don’t really experience it. Interning is role-playing as an adult, learning how to be part of a team and what you are good at.”

The TUJ student built on that experience by joining the office of Diet representative Taro Kono for a three-month internship during which he researched the Japanese defense budget and defense industry and prepared briefings.

Get Started

Finding talent through the ACCJ is easy. Member companies can submit details of open positions through the chamber website. A list of guidelines and best practices is also available for those looking for ways to build the best two-way experience and mentor the next generation of talent while at the same time elevating their own success.

Visit the Internship Portal on the ACCJ website to get started.

Incredible Opportunity

The Bishop Family Memorial Scholarship continues to open doors for young talent.

Photo Miki Kawaguchi/LIFE.14

From left: Isabella Boulware and ACCJ Executive Director Laura Younger

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When Isabella Boulware logged on for a virtual meeting with the U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation, she thought it was just a second-round interview for an internship. So when she was told she had been selected as the next American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) Bishop Memorial Scholar—a fellowship that honors late ACCJ leader Bill Bishop and his family—she was a bit surprised.

“I was thrilled,” said the Austin native. “I hadn’t planned on working during my time in Japan, but when I received an email about the opportunity, I knew I had to go for it.”

An international business management student at the University of Arkansas, Boulware, whose minors include Japanese, has been on a yearlong exchange at Toyo University in Tokyo since September. She spoke to The ACCJ Journal about her experiences at the chamber so far. 

What was your first impression of the ACCJ?

Very positive. I researched the chamber when I first learned about the internship. As someone from the United States with an interest in working in Japan, the ACCJ’s mission immediately stood out to me. The team I’ve worked with, the professionals I’ve connected with, the events I’ve helped put together, and the projects I’ve contributed to have all made the experience incredibly impactful.

In which areas have you been most involved?

I’ve had the chance to take on a wide range of projects, which has been one of my favorite parts of working with the chamber. I’m still exploring where I want to focus in business, and the ACCJ has given me the opportunity to explore different aspects of the field. That’s helped me get a clearer sense of what I’m aiming for.

What has been your favorite event?

My first event was both my favorite and the one that left the biggest impression. It was on my first official day and was my introduction to the ACCJ. It was Building the Future of The Estée Lauder Companies in Japan, delivered by President and General Manager James Aquilina. I was impressed by the quality of the presentation and his effectiveness as a speaker. That event gave me a clear picture of the kind of professional I hope to be in the future.

How will you maintain your relationships?

I believe the relationships I’ve built at the ACCJ will continue to be an important part of my professional life. I plan to stay in touch with the people I’ve met, both personally and professionally. My coworkers, in particular, have become some of my good friends. Professionally, I will maintain connections through LinkedIn, email, and ongoing collaboration, ensuring that the relationships I’ve formed continue to grow.

What would you tell future Bishop Scholars?

This internship is an incredible opportunity. Make the most of each and every part of it. The ACCJ gives you a chance to work on a variety of projects and to meet people from across many industries. Build relationships during your time with the chamber; these are people who may be able to support you as you pursue your future.

Meaningful Mentors

Heather Kodhelaj and Leo Abufadil share how being chosen as Bishop Scholars has opened doors to their future careers.

From left: Leo Abufadil, ACCJ Executive Director Laura Younger, and Heather Kodhelaj at the 2025 ACCJ Shinnenkai

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In her final year of high school, Heather Kodhelaj’s philosophy teacher suggested that she go into the foreign service. “I didn’t see a clear path, but my mom encouraged me to start traveling.”

Though Kodhelaj was born and raised in the United States, her parents are Albanian and immigrated in 1998. On her mother’s advice, Kodhelaj went to Europe. When she returned to Philadelphia, she caught herself falling into a rut and headed to South Korea for more international experience.

“When I came back from Korea, I was changed as a person and had fallen in love with Asia,” she explained. “My mom and I bonded over her love of a Korean drama called Crash Landing on You. It’s about a North Korean and a South Korean who fall in love despite their different cultures. Having been raised under Communism, she really identifies with the story.”

Seeing how time abroad was shaping Kodhelaj, her mother encouraged her to keep going. “When I heard about the Bishop Scholarship, she said, ‘Take a chance, the worst they can say is no.’”

Kodhelaj arrived at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) on August 22, 2024, for a five-month internship provided by the scholarship established after ACCJ leader Bill Bishop, his wife, and daughter were killed on Christmas morning in 2022. The award, established by the ACCJ and the US-Japan Bridging Foundation, brings students from the United States to study at Temple University, Japan Campus, where Bishop was a lecturer and board member.

The experience, Kodhelaj said, opened her eyes and changed the impression she had of Japanese business culture. Working on the ACCJ–Kansai D&I Summit was especially meaningful.

“The collage of 10 years of their events, seeing how everyone was so happy, talking, interacting, not a phone in sight—it was just genuine human connection. That they had done this for a decade, even through Covid … the perseverance of people was really inspiring,” she said.

Kodhelaj was also inspired by the her interactions with the Women in Business Forum, which she credits with teaching her to be more confident.

“I struggle with impostor syndrome. At the first event I helped with, I asked the executive who was speaking how to get over that feeling that you don’t belong in a room, that you’re not supposed to be there,” she recalls.

“I learned that, at the ACCJ, it’s not about your title or how much money you make, it’s what knowledge you bring to the table. And you don’t always have to have something valuable to say; listening to others is valuable as well. Now I understand that everyone belongs in the room, you always belong.”

Kodhelaj said she is grateful for the experience, the chamber, and Bishop. “I wish I could have met him. I learned that his daughter had also been an intern. That was very emotional for me. I could feel how important my role was, what it means to be an intern at the ACCJ.”

Following her internship, Kodhelaj has returned to Temple University in Philadelphia for her final semester studying global relations.

Leo Tanaka Abufadil already had ties to Japan before arriving on January 14 as a Bishop Scholar. His mother is Japanese and he attended elementary school in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, during summers despite growing up in Oklahoma.

Now a political science and international studies major at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, the Tulsa native said he is “fixated on the bilateral relationship between Japan and the United States.”

To pursue that interest, he applied for the US-Japan Bridging Foundation Scholarship, which he received, and the foundation then said they had another opportunity they felt he would be right for. “I was honestly very moved by the memory of Bill Bishop,” Abufadil said.

“As a Japanese American, the Bishop family’s passion for cultivating the bilateral relationship resonated with me. My goal as an intern was to propel that relationship while honoring the Bishop family’s legacy.”

Coming in, Abufadil explained, he had an idea of what the ACCJ might be like. He expected to work with economics and trade relations while improving his formal Japanese, known as keigo. 

“But it’s been so much more than that,” he said. “Not only have I been able to sharpen my keigo, I gained a new perspective on how businesses operate in Japan. Something that was really illuminating and captivating is how intertwined business and government are. Being able to sit in on a lot of external affairs meetings, I could see the direct impact US and Japanese domestic and international policies each have on the other country. I find that quite fascinating.”

Abufadil said he especially loved that his time at the ACCJ wasn’t limited to one department or one activity. “There were a myriad opportunities. It was wonderful.”

The project he said he’s most proud of is the Student Internship Portal. “To see how the other interns and I, as well as our supervisors, worked so hard on this project, and to watch it take off, feels so rewarding. I love that I was able to make a tangible impact.”

He also recalls an unexpected moment with a member of a Japanese ministry.

“He was willing to talk to me and break down financial technology—something I had never engaged with in my life. People’s willingness to explain things and put them into perspective has been amazing. It’s something I’ll take with me for the rest of my life.”