Mihoko Christie

Mihoko was born and raised in Chigasaki, a popular town aside the Pacific Ocean near Tokyo. She was the youngest of a four-generational household, which also included many cats and a dog. Encouraged by her mother, Mihoko first travelled abroad while still a high school student to spend a year staying with a local family and attending senior high in Bridgewater near Boston, Massachusetts.

Mihoko’s experience in the USA led her to study English Literature at Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo. To further her English language skills and to pursue her growing interest in wellness, she subsequently moved to the London region to study aromatherapy and reflexology. Here, in 2008, Mihoko first met her husband, Paul Christie, who was visiting the UK on business from Japan. Soon after, she moved back to Japan to join him at his home on the Kunisaki Peninsula in Oita Prefecture, Kyushu.

As one of only a handful of Japanese-English speakers in the area at that time, Mihoko was quickly embroiled in Walk Japan’s growing business helping to manage the company’s administration while Paul was away, frequently, on tour and other business. In 2010, she played a pivotal role in establishing The Japan Travel Company K.K., which has ever since handled Walk Japan’s in-country operations. The company’s first COO, Mihoko assumed the position of President & Representative Director in 2021.

Mihoko relates that she gains great satisfaction from her role leading a large team helping overseas visitors enjoy a truly immersive and enriching experience of Japan. Her satisfaction is amplified through being involved with tours that are intimately and effectively encouraging sustainable regional development, a significant and growing issue in Japan because of its declining and ageing population. Since moving to Oita, Mihoko has become keenly aware of the potential of Japan’s rural regions and is witness to the positive impact on her immediate local economy of Walk Japan’s tour and Community Project, which is centred on the Kunisaki Peninsula and something that she is also deeply engaged with.

Mihoko is the mother of four boys aged 14 to five years of age, which keep her firmly engaged in family life as well as in her career. In recent years and as her children have grown more able to fend for themselves and each other, Mihoko has found time to re-engage with her interest in wellness and the wider community by studying for and qualifying, in 2021, as a Clinical Listening Specialist from the Institute of Grief Care at Sophia University, Tokyo. Currently, she is continuing her studies at the same institution to become a Spiritual Caregiver.

Mihoko cherishes her life in Oita’s beautiful countryside, where she says nature’s ever changing vibrancy throughout the year, and all its flora and fauna are a continual source of strength and revitalisation. Whenever she has a moment to herself she likes nothing better than to tend the garden around her home.