Chikako Yoneda is a rare female owner in male-dominated Japanese shipping.
An economics graduate from Kyoritsu Women’s Junior College, she found herself taking control of Kumiai Senpaku, a medium-size company based in Tokyo, in 1995 after the death of her father, Toyoshige Shiraishi.
It was not her career choice, but “there was no male successor in the family”, she explained. “My mother was also working in Kumiai, and I joined to lessen her load.”
The
