Safia on the box in Tokyo as her autobiography jumps to 26th on Amazon.
Murakami Ryu is one of my favourite writers so what a pleasure to be able to meet him when I appeared on Cambria Kyuden which aired on Tokyo TV this week. The co-presenter is so gorgeous she makes me feel like a "blob"!
Usually I get so nervous doing TV and radio interviews in Japanese. I arrived in Japan from London that afternoon, had a shower and went straight over to the studio to meet Murakami and the team at Cambria Kyuden. Fortunately, I was too exhausted to be nervous, felt like I was in a dream, and the TV producer Mr Haramura was a real honey sending me positive vibes (he’s traveled around Nepal and Bangladesh with me for weeks and knows all about Fair Trade and the constant struggles we face!). Murakami Ryu was such a warm person, I instantly felt at ease - in fact, at parts, it felt like talking to an old friend at my favourite jazz venue the Blue Note.
Two other social entrepreneurs were featured; Murata Sayaka of Kamonohashi Project who rehabilitates Cambodian child prostitutes and Komazaki Hiroki of Florence, a nanny service set up to look after the sick children of working mums. Both were totally inspiring! It makes me feel so proud of the social enterprise movement that is taking Japan by storm with People Tree at its forefront. Social enterprise is likely to become the biggest catalyst of social change in the next decade.
At the People Tree shop in Tokyo I also did a signing of my autobiography which has now jumped to number 26 on Amazon Japan’s Best Sellers List! It’s great that so many people are interested in reading about how I started People Tree and business that can make a difference. I would love to be able to tell that tale in English as well so if anyone out there wants to help me publish it do that get in touch!
Thank you, TV programme Cambria Kyuden, for helping put the story of People Tree to 2,000,000 last night – our server nearly crashed!
