I grew up here as a third-generation Korean foreigner. My father wanted me to become a diplomat — law school in the US, suit and tie, the whole script. Fast forward twenty years: I never left. Japan is my home, yet it still feels like a foreign country I’m permanently passing through. I’m a gaijin and always will be.  

And I’m not the only one anymore.  

That gap is my territory. I’m the diplomat for the growing Gaijin Empire — except I don’t represent governments. I build for the ones who come, and stay.