Yoshinobu INOUE

About Me

Born in Tokyo to a Protestant minister, I went on to spend much of my adolescence and early adulthood in the United Kingdom, attending boarding school in England and university in Scotland. Looking back, those early encounters with international environments in my formative years sparked a lifelong passion for travel and self-discovery.

If you are reading my short biography here, you likely feel the same way I do: travel is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding ways to learn about oneself and the wider world.

With an academic background in cultural history and political philosophy, I am particularly interested in identity — how we define ourselves, consciously or subconsciously, both as unique individuals and as members of broader communities. More specifically, I am fascinated by the complex process of cognitive demarcation that constitute the Self — in other words, the forging of imagined conceptual borders that separate is from is-not.

Although we may think, or persuade ourselves, that the identities we cherish coalesce into the solid foundations of who we are, the boundaries that define them readily blur, and can even disappear altogether, when put to the test. Yet, contingent and fragile though they may be, such identities are at the same time profoundly internalised and lived, arising dynamically and taking amorphous shape through our continual encounters with the ever-changing and elusive “Other”.

And I believe that the more deeply we dig into the différence that shapes our sense of self in our quest for authenticity, the more we uncover our shared humanity — that invisible yet indivisible thread connecting us all across space and time. It is this exquisite realisation of interdependence, and above all a sense of delicate continuity, that draws me to travel.

Professionally, for better or for worse, my journey has been anything but smooth or linear. I have held just over half a dozen roles to date — from research assistant at Keio University in Japan, to interpreter aboard a Japanese government research vessel, to 'Japan Market Specialist' at a Mumbai-based translation company in India, to licensing manager at NHK WORLD-JAPAN (the international branch of Japan’s public broadcaster), and digital marketer for a British FinTech firm, amongst others.

Eventually, my circuitous and peripatetic lifestyle came to a grinding halt. A growing sense of quiet discomfort and disorientation prompted an earnest reflection on what I truly wanted to do. The answer, though belated, was absolutely clear.

Today, I work as a freelance tour guide, interpreter, and translator. Whether leading walking tours through Tokyo’s vibrant neighbourhoods or helping someone find the right words and expressions in another language, I am able to do what I love: helping people connect in human and meaningful ways, whilst learning from each encounter with the people I meet.