As the CEO of Renault-Nissan, Carlos Ghosn leads one of the world's largest car manufacturers. A business world superhero, the Brazilian-French corporate Titan saved Nissan Motor Company from near bankruptcy in the 90s. His fluency in French, Portuguese, English, and Arabic help him navigate the waters of international trade.
But although Ghosn has Brazilian and French citizenships, he now splits his time between Paris and Tokyo, where his limited knowledge of the Japanese language leaves him at a disadvantage. That's where the very awesome Yuki Morimoto comes in.
Not just any interpreter, Morimoto seems to be the only interpreter who could keep up with a man like Ghosn. She takes her job so seriously that she almost becomes him when she translates what he's saying into Japanese, mimicking his tone, hand gestures, facial expressions, even his moods. Nissan's Japanese employees say that when some hapless exec incurs the wrath of Ghosn, they get yelled at twice; once by the man himself and once by Morimoto in their native tongue.
Morimoto has been Ghosn's right hand woman in Japan for the past 12 years, and says rather than providing a literal translation of everything he says, she attempts to convey his meaning, his vibe, and his passion. She says that aside from the restroom, she goes everywhere with Ghosn while he's on business in Japan.
A real ball of energy, Morimoto got into interpretation only after she screwed up an impromptu translation session for a South African pharmaceutical executive she was working for. She already had a degree in English, but the gaffe prompted her to take interpretation classes in Osaka. Not long after, she landed a job as Ghosn's interpreter.
We could think of worse gigs than being the mouthpiece of one of the automotive industry's biggest superstars.