Alastair Bourne

I was born in London and studied history at the University of Reading before joining an office equipment company in the UK. I then traveled extensively in Asia and Africa, and spent several years working in Japan and then Australia before finally returning to Japan in 1997. A fluent Japanese speaker, I worked as a translator before joining Nagano-based Seiko Epson Corp. in 1999 in their in-house translation department. Before long, I was transferred to Epson’s PR Dept. where I became responsible for global communications including press releases, executive interviews, web and social media and sustainability communications. I also worked in investor relations and corporate strategy, gaining a deep knowledge of Japanese corporate life from the inside. With the company’s increasing focus on sustainable products and operations, I became familiar with the benefits and challenges of corporate sustainability. I spend most of my spare time hiking near my home in Nagano Prefecture and beyond. In 2022, I became one of the few non-Japanese to climb all of Japan’s 100 famous mountains. On my hikes and travels around Japan, I noticed the direct impact of climate change on the mountains and their delicate environment and co-wrote with Henning Ohlsson Nature-Positive Leadership: What Can We Learn from Japan and Japanese Companies.

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Contact: alastair [dot] bourne [at] gmail [dot] com

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