For an executive at one of Japan¡¯s most famous companies, Justin Scarpone¡¯s story of what led him here has little to do with business.
¡°I¡¯ve been wrestling since I was 6, and in high school I was on a team that toured Japan,¡± says Scarpone, 56, who originally grew up in New Jersey. ¡°That got me into Japan back in the mid-1980s. (Later on) I studied Japanese in college in New York, did a year in Kyoto and then just decided to work and be based here.¡±
After relocating to Japan permanently in 1991, Scarpone became one of the first three non-Japanese permanent employees of trading giant Itochu. After five years there, he moved on to a startup creating homepages for businesses in the dial-up days of the internet. He joined Disney in 2002, where he would remain for 17 years overseeing several divisions including the company¡¯s games group, which released titles like the Kingdom Hearts series.
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