At the forefront of the company’s
decision-making processes
—taking on the challenge of
international tax management
at a global company.

My search for a position where I could support top-level
decision-making through finance and taxation led me to NSK.

Looking ahead to my future career, I had wanted a chance to be more involved with the decision-making processes of a company - a position where I could offer my own proposals and influence the way the company is managed. This search led me to NSK. After graduating university, I initially worked at a financial institution, following which I obtained qualification as a tax accountant and moved to a major tax accounting firm. However, there were a lot of inquiries from clients after the firm had made decisions on their tax accounting, and I felt frustrated that I could do nothing to change those decisions, even if I knew there was a better way to handle their tax situation. I made the decision to change careers after coming to the conclusion that it would be more effective to support the growth of the company from the inside, from the finance and tax management side of its operations.

The reason I chose NSK was that they offered me a management position that allowed me a lot of discretion in the company’s decision-making process. In other words, it was exactly the type of position where I felt I could make a difference. In addition, the position would allow me to get involved in international taxation as NSK had a global business with locations all over the world. The fact that the company had a sound financial standing was also attractive. Another reason was that up to that point in my career, I had only worked in the service sector for a financial institution and tax accounting firm, and jumping into the world of manufacturing sounded like an interesting prospect. I always feel inspired when talking with our engineers because you can sense the passion that they have for manufacturing.

Working for a global company means there are many perspectives to consider,
which although challenging, makes the job exciting.

With business sites across the globe, at NSK I am involved a broad range of tax-related work, from identifying and evaluating international taxation risks in each country to developing and implementing measures to mitigate those risks. The diversity of the work is what makes tax management at NSK so interesting. For instance, the same transaction might be subject to taxation in one country but not in another. As such, we have to consider questions like, “why is this taxable in these countries?” “What kind of a contract should we enter into to optimize taxation?” “Do we need to go back and reconsider the transaction itself?”. To be honest, this can be challenging as the tax systems and the tax authority’s interpretation of tax law differs from country to country. However, after gaining experience tackling these sorts of issues, you eventually reach a position where you can give advice to your colleagues. For example, “this country will take a hard-line stance on this particular issue, so its better to take a different approach rather than force a confrontation,” or, “you need to take care on taxation in this country as we have encountered issues in the past.” This is what makes the job so interesting.

Recently, I worked on a project to carve out one of our business segments and turn it into a joint venture. This involved an international reorganization of the business, as we worked to establish a new independent company with entities not only in Japan, but across the world. Due to the significant financial transactions involved and the impact on subsidiaries in multiple countries such as China, Thailand, and the US, we had to look into a wide-range of matters such as confirming that the required notifications had been submitted to local authorities and evaluating the risk of losing our tax losses carried forward from the reorganization in order to ensure that we followed the appropriate procedures. While large-scale projects like these do not come up frequently, this was an extremely valuable experience that although was challenging, provided me with many learning opportunities.

Achieving significant tax savings by reviewing
the company’s business operations against taxation criteria

In addition to minimizing taxation risks, implementing an appropriate tax savings strategy is another of the Tax Management Group’s critical roles. We have to review various tax credit eligibility requirements, and carefully determine whether they are applicable to the company. In fact, I helped achieve significant tax savings by investigating and calculating the possibility of meeting the eligibility requirements for a certain tax credit system.

Although it was a time-consuming procedure, in the end, we were able to receive several hundred million yen in tax credits, which represented a significant cost reduction for the company. As a member of the Tax Management Group, I was very happy that our hard work paid off. While this was a tax savings opportunity that anybody could have noticed if they understood the system, it is noticing these things that counts.

Constantly collecting and analyzing information
on the tax systems around the world is a key part of the job

Just like when you forget to include an attachment to your income tax return and risk not receiving a refund, the corporate tax system is quite rigid. As such, it is essential that members of the Tax Management Group are knowledgeable about the tax system and up to date on the latest information. This applies doubly when dealing with foreign taxation, where the tax systems differ by country. It is essential to leverage NSK’s regional headquarters structure to obtain information from the local tax managers as well as gather information from experts and professional journals. Currently, I am the manager of the Tax Management Group. As many of the members of the Tax Management Group have a thirst for knowledge and are eager to learn, we hold a study session once a month, in which different members take turns at being the instructor. I feel that our group members will gain a deeper understanding of the material if they teach each other in their respective areas of expertise, rather than having me fill the instructor role every time. Through initiatives such as these, our team is working to improve our knowledge of tax issues.

NSK also has a training program called the NSK Japan Management College. This is an extremely well-developed program that consists of lectures given by professors from prestigious universities and sessions facilitated by business school professors. The program is available to employees selected by the company, regardless of whether they joined the company as a new graduate or as a mid-career hire, and I have also had the opportunity to participate in the program. One section of the program is an assignment where members work in a group to select a key management challenge facing the company and propose a solution to these issues. Taking part in the program was a very stimulating experience as I had the opportunity to was work together with members from a variety of departments and learned about areas outside of my field of expertise, such as marketing and business strategy. Elevating my perspective to that of the company’s senior management’s provided a great chance to think about the bigger picture of what NSK is focusing on and aiming to accomplish. The fact that NSK provides these types of learning opportunities is another great part about working here.

Message

NSK’s Finance Division Headquarters is a place where you can think independently to identify issues and take measures to address them. The open corporate culture makes it easy to consult with both your supervisors and colleagues, so if you like to take on new challenges and develop and implement solutions, it's a great place to work. In the future, I hope to globally unify the tax management organizational structure and build a framework for even closer collaboration between our tax management staff across the world. Currently, each site handles tax management independently, but in the future I want to centralize information and establish more strategic tax management. Although we are still just laying the groundwork, I would love to work with like-minded colleagues who can help us give shape to this vision.