Tokyo, 25 May 2026 – PUROSI and Mercuri Urval (MU) Japan announce a strategic collaboration that brings leader selection and leader development into a single, continuous process for Japanese organisations. The joint offering combines Mercuri Urval Japan's executive search and leadership assessment with PUROSI's leadership development and AI-powered coaching. It addresses a gap most companies still face, where these two functions sit in separate silos despite supporting the same outcome.
PUROSI, founded in Finland in 2024, is a management advisory and human capital development firm operating in the Japanese market. Current engagements include Big Four professional services firms and leading Japanese industrial and manufacturing organisations. Mercuri Urval Japan is the Japan operation of Mercuri Urval, an international executive search and leadership advisory firm originally founded in Sweden with nearly 60 years of practice.
The collaboration responds to Japan's productivity-culture gap, which work-style reform (hatarakikata kaikaku) has not yet closed. Both firms frame Japan's productivity question as a leadership and culture question, with the stakes sharpened by demographic change, labour shortages and accelerating technological transformation.
"In many organisations, leadership selection and leadership development still happen separately. We see increasing demand from Japanese companies for approaches that connect these more strategically and consistently over time. Through our collaboration with PUROSI, we combine executive search with impactful AI coaching, enabling seamless onboarding and sustained success for placed executives, and giving our clients a far more holistic leadership support."
Pekka Tarkka, Director and Team Leader of Mercuri Urval Japan
Mercuri Urval Japan offers leadership assessment and executive advisory, helping organisations identify leaders aligned with the culture, capability and direction they are building toward. PUROSI’s work begins with the management team and continues into the wider organisation as each engagement requires. The premise is that culture starts to shift when leaders develop their mindset and behaviour. The PUROSI approach combines facilitated workshops with continuous AI-powered coaching, developing self-awareness, resilience and self-leadership at every level of the organisation.
Working from both sides towards the same outcome, with Mercuri Urval Japan focusing on the leaders an organisation chooses and PUROSI focusing on the culture that lets those leaders thrive, these two firms draw on a Nordic tradition of leadership development where wellbeing and sustained performance reinforce each other.
"Japan has long set a global benchmark for craftsmanship, dedication and collective commitment to quality. What makes this momentum exciting is the opportunity ahead, to build on those strengths with new behaviours and mindsets that reinforce competitiveness, innovation capability and productivity. With Mercuri Urval Japan, and PUROSI’s AI-powered coaching, we work alongside organisations that want to define the next era of high-performing Japanese leadership and to build the future-proof and resilient companies this era requires."
Nora Tåg, CEO and Co-Founder, PUROSI
Shared values of harmony, reliability, collective responsibility and a strong work ethic, give the Nordic-Japanese cross-cultural partnership a natural starting point. The conditions PUROSI and Mercuri Urval Japan focus on, including trust, psychological safety, and the leadership behaviours that allow skilled employees to bring their full capability to work, connect directly to Japan's policy direction on workplace wellbeing. This includes the Cabinet Office's Well-being Indicators framework and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Health and Productivity Management programme, both of which position workplace conditions as a foundation for sustained economic performance.
About PUROSI
PUROSI (Ahlman & Tåg Oy) is a Finland-born, Japan-raised management advisory and human capital development company, founded in 2024 by Satu Ahlman (Chair) and Nora Tåg (CEO), and operating exclusively in the Japanese market. Current engagements include Big Four professional services firms and leading Japanese industrial and manufacturing organisations, and the company has an academic partnership with Aalto University Executive Education. www.purosi.co
About Mercuri Urval (MU)
Mercuri Urval is an international executive search and leadership advisory firm originally founded in Sweden, with nearly 60 years of operating history across executive search, leadership assessment, and talent advisory. MU specialise in the accurate assessment and selection of leaders.
Our evidence-based approach and deep industry expertise help clients make better leadership decisions. MU Leader Selection Science™ ensures inclusive, science-based and quality-assured services tailored to each client’s context and needs. Its Japan operation is led by Director Pekka Tarkka.
Media contact
Sofia Hjort Lönegård
Head of Marketing and Communications, MU
Mobile: +46 709 76 87 97
Sofia.hjort.lonegard@mercuriurval.com
Sources
[1] Cabinet Office of Japan (内閣府), Well-being Dashboard. https://www5.cao.go.jp/keizai2/wellbeing/index.html
[2] Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI / 経済産業省), Health and Productivity Management (健康経営). https://www.meti.go.jp/policy/mono_info_service/healthcare/kenko_keiei.html