Yoichi Shimakawa
Senior Consultant and Intercultural Programs Designer
Yoichi Shimakawa, a native of Japan, specializes in globalizing training and development programs across cultures, facilitating global teambuilding and developing organizational cultures. For 25 years his passion has been developing systems and skills for communication across cultural borders.
With extensive expertise in intercultural productivity assessment, corporate culture development and instructional design for bicultural and multicultural audiences, he has delivered leadership and global management skills training programs in the US and throughout Asia. He is a certified facilitator of BlessingWhite’s Technical Leadership and MPG (Managing Personal Growth) programs. He helps both individuals and organizations increase their business productivity through effective skills for communication, conflict resolution and problem solving.
Yoichi has served North American, European and Japanese clients to deliver management skills programs, facilitate multicultural teambuilding for top executives of global joint ventures, and coach top executives on the development of skills, styles and strategies for increasing effectiveness and productivity in doing business across borders.
His clients include Apple, Daimler, DuPont, Honda R&D, Intel, Konami Corporation, Procter and Gamble, Teijin and Qualcom.
He holds bachelors and masters degrees in communications and is trained in internet-based instruction to meet increasing needs to assist clients in e-learning initiatives. He is known internationally in the cross-cultural field for his work on verbal and nonverbal communication characteristics across cultures. He is a co-author of Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication and has frequently conducted workshops on intercultural training and consulting at the International Society of Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR) conferences. He has served as a visiting faculty member at Keio University in Tokyo. Yoichi resides in Palo Alto, California and Tokyo, Japan.