The passion and creativity of Japanese wedding/event producer, Yoshi Nojiri are the subject of a new documentary titled The Ultimate Wedding Planner, produced by Miami Beach-based Sea Star Films and directed by Celia Evans. It’s a story about someone achieving global success, but it’s also more than that. Nojiri’s ascent and multifaceted personality provide an insightful case study on what it means to be zealously immersed and engaged in what you do (whatever that may be), which can beget fulfillment, and prosperity.
“I expect people to be obsessed with their work,” Nojiri tells Global Trend News. “I don’t care for a ho-hum existence. You should quit if you don’t have passion. ”
Nojiri himself had to start from scratch, although it was chance that gave him the impetus to embark on his vocation. “When I was younger, I wanted to become like my father, who’s the president of a construction company,” he says. “But he told me my older brother would eventually take over. That’s why I had to think of my own business for the future—find my own way.”
When he was 20, Nojiri attended a friend’s wedding party, which he found to be rather banal. He did some research and realized that the Japanese wedding market was huge, yet the actual events at the time were boringly conventional and unfashionable, so he made it his mission to change that, to tap into people’s imaginations and create the most far-out and fanciful realms of wonderment in which to party and celebrate a union.
About 15 years ago, with $200,000 borrowed from his father and an office of only three people, he launched his company. He has since built a wedding planning empire, often using unorthodox methods, like donning a Santa suit on Christmas Day as he gave a potential investor his proposal . Before he knew it, at only 28, he was able to take his company public—the youngest Japanese businessman to do in the country’s history. He now produces over 22,000 weddings a year, as well as sumptuous events for such luxury clients as Audi, Cartier, Dior, and Ferrari.
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