Life at Deloitte - Tomoko Miyahara - Annual Review 2008

Japanese roots to Indian dreams

Although her career has spanned many countries, Tomoko Miyahara, a tax senior manager on international assignment, has always had her eye on India.

When did you first fall in love with India?
How did your journey to Deloitte India begin?
Was there a moment you knew it was meant to be?

When did you first fall in love with India?

During a backpacking trip through India while in college. I stayed with the family of an Indian professor in Calcutta, and I was very well taken care of.

How did your journey to Deloitte India begin?

I had almost given up the idea of working in India when Deloitte United States opened its Hyderabad, India, office. I began working with that office and traveling to Hyderabad regularly. At the same time, many Japanese companies were doing business in India, and the Japanese Services Group, which has a presence in New York, Tokyo, and India, needed someone with an accounting and taxation background to communicate in both Japanese and English—a perfect fit for me.

Was there a moment you knew it was meant to be?

Twenty years ago, I visited the Mecca Masjid, a famous mosque in Hyderabad. There’s a saying that once you sit on the mosque’s seats, you’ll come back to Hyderabad. My friend made me sit on a chair and said, “You will be back.” Twenty years forward, I was traveling to Hyderabad and my friend said, “I told you.”
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Tomoko Miyahara on . . . her international assignment experience

After years of longing to work in India, Tomoko Miyahara finally began her three-year international assignment to Deloitte India’s Delhi office in February 2008.

Why was this position right for you?
The Indian member firm needed better communication with Japanese clients. It was right for me because of my English-speaking background—and because I haven’t seen a Japanese accountant who likes India as much as I do!

What have you learned?
I’ve learned a lot more about the different areas of the business since I’m so frequently explaining Deloitte’s services to clients.

Exploring Bollywood
Tomoko Miyahara steps onto the dance floor

Before moving to India, Tomoko Miyahara stayed connected to her passion for Indian culture by taking Bollywood dance classes in New York—which she continues today in Delhi.

Unfamiliar with Bollywood? The term—a play on Hollywood and Bombay—is used to describe Mumbai’s Hindi-language film industry, which is the world’s largest film producer in terms of the quantity of films produced per year. Each film features several musical numbers, with the actors dancing a fusion of modern and classical Indian dance known as Bollywood-style dancing.

In recent years, Bollywood dance has leapt off the silver screen and into local dance studios and gyms, which offer beginner and advanced dance lessons, as well as Bollywood-inspired exercise classes. In addition to her morning yoga class, Bollywood dance is keeping Miyahara on her toes in India.