Manga creator Hoshino Rene was born in Cameroon and grew up in Japan.

He turns the cultural gaps he encountered into humorous manga stories and shares them on social media.

In this program, we follow Rene as he meets young people with foreign roots

and puts their unique stories into manga.

There's no such thing as normal. We're all originals with individual lives.

I want people to go, "I see! That's what goes into living in Japan!"

This time, Rene meets an international student working a newspaper delivery job.

I want to succeed in life.

You just have to do it.

And have willpower.

This is our home. Things were always financially tight.

Originally from Mongolia,

he decided to spare no effort in making his dream a reality and threw his all into studying.

This year, he aims to land a job.

And while less than fifty percent of international students are said to find work in Japan,

he received an informal offer from a major accounting firm.

Yet despite his success, he remains humble.

I don't feel like I've done anything outstanding.

Rene talks with him to get the story behind his success.

Rene is on his way to meet an international student who succeeded in landing a job offer.

That must be it. The Tokyo School of Japanese Language.

That's his school.

He arrives at a Japanese language school in Shibuya, Tokyo.

- Do you have plans for your day off?
- On my day off, I want to go to Nikko.

About four hundred individuals from fifty countries and regions are enrolled here.

Rene heads up for his appointment.

Hello. You have excellent manners.

- I'm Saruul.
- Hello. I'm manga creator Hoshino.

Saruul is from Mongolia and came to Japan two years ago.

He will graduate this school soon and is set to join a Japanese accounting firm.

- Isn't it difficult to find a job in Japan?
- Yes. I think my situation was unusual.

- Did you go to a lot of job interviews?
- Just one. Of the company I'll be joining.

- You got the job in one shot?
- I was just lucky.

Saruul attends Japanese language school while working a newspaper delivery job.

The staff arrive at the newspaper sales office at two in the morning.

Before delivering the papers, they insert ads into each one.

Saruul has 250 houses on his route.

By the time he finishes, the sky has started to brighten.

His first class at school starts at nine am.

Today, they're studying business Japanese.

Sir, so the stockholders of a large corporation...

He's begun mastering financial terms.

How do the stocks differ?

By price?

Sometimes, it's a fight against sleepiness.

After school, Saruul has his afternoon delivery run from two to four pm.

This has been his routine for the past two years.

I get home and sleep.

I don't even check the time. It's a repeat of that.

I could use more sleep.

To balance work and school,

he limits his studies at home to one hour and gives it his full focus.

Through efforts like this,

he passed the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test

just one and a half years after arriving in Japan.

Saruul takes Rene to meet a teacher who helped him with his studies.

Hello.

This is one of my teachers.

Rene meets Furukawa Miwako,

Saruul's mentor who provides him with career and language advice.

I told him to take the Japanese proficiency test. He took it right away and passed.

Next, he scored well on an English assessment test that I recommended.

I know he's busy with work.

But he never shows it at school, and I've always wondered how he does it.

She tells me how impressive it is,

but I personally don't feel like I've done anything outstanding.

At just twenty-seven,

he has an attitude toward overcoming obstacles that Rene can't help but admire.

He's too mature.

If I'd met him when I was twenty-seven, I'd have been like, "He's amazing!"

Hoping to share Saruul's remarkable story with others, Rene begins turning it into manga.

He aims to capture Saruul's resolve and quiet strength.

Saruul's seriousness catches the eye even among the students intently studying Japanese.

Since coming to Japan,

he has shuttled between his newspaper job, school, and home and rarely goes out for fun.

But he just says, "It's tough at times, but it's okay, because I came prepared for it."

People usually have a major reason or motivation for moving countries.

My goal with this is to communicate what that was for him personally.

To learn more about Saruul, Rene visits his home.

This is it.

Excuse me.

Saruul lives in a dorm provided by the newspaper sales office.

This is my room here.

From here is your private space.

What's that nice smell? What is it?

This. I made it.

- Is that your dinner?
- Yes, it is.

Saruul has been cooking his own meals here every day for the past two years.

I also make my own noodles.

He tries to save as much money as he can to send back to his family.

This is fried rice. It's called Budaatai Huurga in Mongolian.

I make it often. Because it's easy to make.

Saruul is from a town on the outskirts of Mongolia's capital city Ulaanbaatar.

A low-income area with little local industry,

many of its residents are from rural provinces.

This is the house that Saruul used to live in.

Called a ger, it's a traditional Mongolian dwelling.

- We all lived in one room.
- Really?

The whole family in one room.

- No way. So zero privacy.
- Zero.

Saruul is the second oldest of four siblings.

His parents worked in construction and were often away from home,

leaving him to care for his younger siblings.

It would be minus thirty degrees at seven in the morning.

I'd carry my brother to his kindergarten. It was a twenty-minute walk one way.

My parents worked in construction, so there weren't many jobs in winter,

and we often lived on borrowed money.

Seeing that, I became determined to at least achieve financial independence.

It's hard for children as well. To see their parents struggling.

While in high school,

Saruul began working part-time at construction sites and washing dishes in kitchens to help support his family.

I'd be at work, then home. And different things made me reflect on my future.

I decided to make a complete break from that environment.

Around that time, he came across something online that would change the course of his life.

It was a support system that offered scholarships to students while they worked newspaper delivery jobs.

The scholarship covered school fees, accommodations, and more.

Saruul, who was then twenty-three, quit his job,

staking everything on his decision to study in Japan.

I was determined to do it. That's all.

For him, the biggest obstacle was kanji characters.

To overcome it, he memorized thirty a day.

His efforts paid off.

A year later, he passed the application test and achieved his first goal of coming to Japan.

Interesting.

When we first met, I assumed you were the type that had no trouble studying.

A top student.

But it turns out you're actually a go-getter making a change and studying for it.

Talking with you today has helped me discover new things.

Every year, about thirty students come to Japan from Mongolia

using the same scholarship that helped Saruul achieve his dream of studying abroad.

This year, two new students have been assigned to the same newspaper sales office as him.

I'm twenty-two years old. Thank you for having me.

Saruul will be training twenty-year-old Maralmaa, who arrived in Japan just three days before.

Double-check this map during deliveries.

- What if it takes long?
- That's fine. You'll get used to it.

- It's heavy.
- Let me see.

Like Saruul, Maralmaa comes from a low-income family.

She's left her mother and three siblings in Mongolia and is in Japan for the first time.

This is my younger sister.

- Younger sister?
- Yes.

- How old is she?
- Four.

Sorry.

Thinking about my family makes me cry.

Her dream is to study the recycling business in Japan.

But being away from her family seems to be taking its toll.

I wish I could tell her, "Don't give up."

It's hard manual work even for a guy, so it must be even tougher for a girl.

It's enough to make you cry, but if she can hold on for two years, she'll make it.

There's an end in sight. I want her to focus on that.

Hearing that Saruul wants to encourage his fellow international students,

Rene decides to reflect that in the manga.

Saruul is a hard worker.

He also has a vision, so his story can help motivate and encourage others.

Rene decides to center the manga on how Saruul carved out his own path.

In a way, he's clearing a path for others.

People who come after him can follow it or use it as a reference for their journey.

The question now is how to wrap it up. That's what I'm stuck on.

Saruul is in the process of securing full-time employment -

no small feat considering that only forty percent of job-seeking international students are successful.

For his job search, he turned to an employment consulting company.

There, he gained information on job openings and received advice on the process.

We're a company that specializes in air conditioners.

Information sessions are also held here by companies looking for international workers.

Currently a seller's market, many companies are looking for personnel regardless of nationality.

This is Yanagawa-san. She helped me with my job search.

He received his job offer here.

Learning that Saruul wanted to start his own business,

Yanagawa suggested a job at an accounting firm,

which would provide him with business experience on multiple fronts.

The staff also provided pointers on how he could improve his performance at job interviews.

Saruul is on the reserved side and plays down his struggles and hard work.

But his experiences are full of things that would impress Japanese companies.

So we told him to talk about his qualities, such as his learning speed.

He needed to sell himself more.

Here's footage from his job interview.

This is Saruul.

He's proactively talking.

Taking the staff's advice,

Saruul made a point of communicating his upbringing and accomplishments.

His motivation to learn impressed the interviewer, resulting in a job offer.

What I liked the most was how the staff talked to me in a polite and kind way.

If I'd gone to a more formal place, I don't think it would have worked out.

Talking with others gives you perspective.

You probably wouldn't have thought about pitching your strengths more.

I'd like some career advice myself.

Two weeks later, the manga of Saruul's story is complete.

- Hello.
- Saruul!

- Hello.
- It's been a while.

Rene meets up with Saruul to have him go over the manga.

Thank you.

Wow. Is that me on a delivery run?

I feel like I'm turning in a draft to my editor. I'm that nervous.

The manga is about Saruul's life-changing decision

to move to Japan and forge a new path for himself.

Why are people drawn to unknown worlds?

Some leave their home countries

and set out for foreign lands.

And I met one such adventurer.

The story opens with Saruul's arrival in Japan

and his efforts to balance his studies and job.

It also depicts his earlier life in Mongolia.

The latter half covers the steps he took to secure a job offer.

People noticed his single-minded determination,

including the staff at the language school and the job consulting agency.

And it brought him to a new job at an accounting firm, starting this spring.

As the saying goes, like attracts like.

And people with sincerity will attract those who appreciate it.

It's great.

Seeing some newcomers struggle, I'd been wanting to use my journey as an example

and show them how far you can go. And I think this more or less covers it.

That makes it all worth it!

The manga was shown to students at the Japanese language school.

I aspire to be like him. And get a job in Japan.

Thanks to him, the future seems less uncertain.

I feel more confident.

Back at the newspaper sales office...

Welcome back.

Maralmaa receives a copy after returning from her morning delivery run.

As Saruul is a person of few words,

this is the first time she's learning about his journey.

I think it's wonderful.

I want to work hard like him and earn this same kind of support.

It's difficult sometimes, but I just have to keep believing in myself.

I'll do my best.

Saruul has graduated from the Japanese language school

and is now on his way to start a new leg of his journey.

Today is his first day at the accounting firm.

He's one of sixteen new employees.

Work smart, not long.

A cheerful work atmosphere will draw people to our company.

Saruul will undergo training and study investing and finance for the next two and a half months.

He'll then be assigned to a post.

I feel like I'm finally at the starting line.

I'm going to head straight for my goal.

Saruul shares another big dream that he has.

While he aims to work, gain experience, and eventually become an entrepreneur in Japan,

his dream is to use his business to help invigorate his home country.

The path he creates will serve as a guide for others who come after him carrying the same dream.

He's a trailblazer who is making the way easier for others.

That's the kind of person I found him to be.