When Lisa Yamai was small, she was swept away by a river on three separate occasions. “I almost died each time, but there was always an ‘outdoor person’ that saved me,” she says. 

Yamai, who is the third-generation president of the Japanese camping and outdoor brand Snow Peak, refers to “outdoor people” a lot during our conversation. They’re capable people, people who like camping, who know things about nature and how to cooperate with the land. They’re the sort of people she grew up with.

Yamai is a native of Niigata, a prefecture pinned between rugged mountains and a stormy sea on the west coast of Japan’s main island. It’s also the location of Snow Peak headquarters, which is cradled in the foothills of Mount Awagatake to the east of Sanjo City. It’s here, in t...