Hi travelers, I’m Zoe! This spring term, I am thrilled to be living in Tokyo, Japan doing a data science internship with a software company called Dataseed that specializes in sustainable and equitable AI.

A group of students in Tokyo

As a queer woman in a male-dominated field, I find meeting people with similar identities on my professional path difficult. In Japan, it is even trickier; as the country has a more socially conservative culture and less legally protected queer community.

In my host company, there are definitely more men than women. This isn’t necessarily new as tech is a male-dominated field in the US as well, but there does seem to be an increased sense of novelty that comes with introducing myself as a woman in machine learning. As I meet other people in my company, I am realizing that most of the other women in the office are in Human Resources or secretary-like positions, not tech. On my first day, a few of the men I introduced myself to seemed visibly shocked when I said I was working in data science. Although not directly negative, these interactions have made me feel slightly isolated as a woman in tech here. Regardless, everyone has been extremely welcoming and kind and I look forward to bonding with my coworkers in ways other than through our gender identities.

I was happy to learn that the project my host company assigned to me focuses on increasing diversity within business. Over my 2 month internship, I will create a database with financial, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data from 5 companies based in Japan. Once created, I will apply skills learned in my UO data science classes to perform multiple linear regressions and identify trends between increased diversity, environmental sustainability and financial profit. This project combines my passions for diversity and sustainability with my skills in data analysis. I am greatly looking forward to continuing my work with Dataseed and publishing my research.

The queer community is definitely more hidden in Tokyo as compared to Eugene and my hometown, Portland. Throughout my time here, I plan to explore the Japanese community resources and attend events such as Tokyo Pride in mid April (super excited!). I anticipate that the queer support in Tokyo may differ from my experiences in the US due to Japan's laws around LGBTQ+ relationships. Many existing traveler websites write that there are minimal resources for queer travelers and locals in Tokyo, and even fewer for women in the community; LGBTQ+ support in Japan tends to focus on men, leaving women's experiences overlooked. I look forward to exploring the community for myself!

Overall, I have found it very easy to adapt to life in Tokyo even only having been here for a week. All of the locals are extremely kind and patient even when language barriers have presented struggles, and my host company has given me flexibility and comprehensive projects which I look forward to.

 

By Zoe Tomlinson I Diverse Ducks Ambassador

GlobalWorks Tokyo, Spring 2024

 

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