About Claudia Chan

Claudia is a partnerships team officer for Australia-Japan Youth Dialogue who is currently based in Sydney. Furthermore, Claudia is a professional qualified Chartered Accountant specialising in working with businesses working within Japanese-Australian relationship. She has over 10 years of extensive professional business service experience in the management of Japanese businesses operating in Australia. Additionally, she has spent three years working in Tokyo in a large professional services firm working with large listed multinational conglomerates and helping to advise clients in significant financial trouble and corporate compliance. Her job included management of large multinational professional service teams, live translation to English for accounting technical client meetings for English only speaking senior personnel and being a key reviewer of listed and non-listed companies' published English financial information and press releases.

She was also the lead contact in Japan for technological implementation of global programs and processes for the firm. She also has been an advocate for helping young Japanese women in the corporate sector to learn how to drive their careers and succeed in a mostly male dominated field. Furthermore, she was a panellist and one of the lead trainers in cross-cultural business conduct and dialogue in Japan.

In late 2011, she was selected as an Australian delegate for the JENESYS program and was sent to the Tohoku region after the 2011 Tohoku Great Earthquake and Tsunami disaster. As such she has devoted a multitude of personal hours both in advocating and volunteering to help residents of the affected disaster area recover from the impact of the tsunami. As such, she has developed a love of Sendai's Ox-tongue (Gyuutan) and adores Fukushima's peaches.

Her favourite thing about Japan is sakura or cherry blossoms and despite being the busy season (hanbouki) in Japan during that period, she will travel around Japan to take photos of the mankai or cherry blossoms in full bloom and host ohanami or cherry blossom viewing parties with friends and colleagues.