“Boss, I Did My Best and My Best Wasn’t Enough Today”

In a previous entry “Goodbye My Good Old Yankees,” I wrote about my love for the Yankees in 1990s.

Now, the Yankees are not what they were in 1990s at all, but we can still see Derek, Andy, and Mo, who have survived from back then to now, and are still playing on the field. However, Mo will retire at the end of this season.

I read an interview of Mo, which was about his faith. It was really interesting and impressive to me. I’d like to quote a passage which interested me most.

I ask Rivera how it felt to lose the 2001 series, and he answers that God was in charge that day as he is on all others. “I did my best. I did everything within my power. I did everything within my power to win that game for us. Guess what? Didn’t happen. And you think I’m going to start like a child, Oh oh oh, I be crying? No, I did my best. My best wasn’t enough that day. I looked my boss into his eyes, and I said, ‘Boss, I did my best and my best wasn’t enough today.’ I can sleep comfortable and move forward.”

He thinks that his talent isn’t his own property but a gift from the God. He just does his best and he doesn’t care about the consequences, because only God can decide them. He looks down at himself from the God’s view, and he has been performing at his full potential.

I am not a Christian, so I don’t believe that my talent is a gift from God, but it might be very important to think that my talent isn’t inherent.

I can manage somebody else, because I see their ability in an objective way. Likewise, it is really difficult for me to manage myself, because I can’t objectively judge my own ability.

The desire to possess leads a wrong decision. I am trying to throw away my desire and just do what I can.

Milton and the Chocolate Town: Milton Hershey’s Amazing life

I’ve just finished reading the book “The Emperors of Chocolate.”

As I wrote in my previous entries, “"Gibu Mi Chokoreito": Ration D Bars and Japanese Children” and “The Ethics of Protestantism and The Spirits of Chocolate,” this book is about the U.S. chocolate industry, focusing especially on the competition between Hershey and Mars.

I was interested in Milton Hershey, who was a founder of the Hershey Company. His life was full of amazing stories.

He was born in 1857 in rural Pennsylvania. His parents were Mennonites, who were similar to the Amish. His mother expected that he would be a farmer like the people in his community were, and he went to school just until fourth grade.

But he didn’t become a farmer, instead he established a candy maker. In 1893, he found that chocolate machinery was exhibited at World’s Columbian Exposition and he bought all of the equipment after the exposition. He became the first major chocolate maker in the U.S.

At that time, Milton Hershey didn’t know how to make chocolate, so he learned it through trial and error. In the end, he created a chocolate with unique Hershey’s flavor. Because of its flavor, Hershey’s chocolate became quite popular in the U.S., but they couldn’t sell it well abroad.

Although his chocolate was almost dominat in the U.S. market, Milton Hershey himself was rarely interested in business. Using the huge profit by his chocolate, he began to build the city Hershey, near his birthplace.

In the early twentieth century, Milton Hershey built not only his huge chocolate factory but also infrastructure of the city Hershey, like streets, transportation, water supply, a park, a swimming pool, a theater, a hotel, and a church, and he supported his factory workers to build their own houses.

Since he didn’t have any children, he transferred a great part of his assets to the Milton Hershey School Trust fund to support the Hershey Industrial School, where many orphans, who got a scholarship from the fund, studied.

The fund had a majority stake in the Hershey Company, so the Hershey Company virtually earned profit in order to support the fund. It is the ultimate philanthropy.

After his death in 1945, the Hershey Company changed. In his days, although the Hershey Company  didn’t do marketing, their chocolate sold quite well and earned huge profit.

But the competition in the chocolate market got more severe, and it got more difficult for the Hershey Company to support the city Hershey. And now, the Hershey Company is an ordinary “Fortune Top 500 company.” 

Someday, I want to visit Hershey’s Chocolate World and stay Hotel Hershey in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Being Just Ordinary: My Impression of the Movie “Fight Club”

Ben Folds, one of my favorite rock singers, sang in his song “Rockin’ the Suburbs” as follows:

Let me tell y'all what it's likeBeing male, middle-class and whiteIt's a bitch, if you don't believeListen up to my new CD

I perfectly understand what he meant.

I grew up in an ordinary uptown in Tokyo in an ordinary middle-class family. I was almost happy, because my family wasn’t poor and I wasn’t discriminated. But nothing special ever happened in my childhood. I was a male, middle-class and Japanese child in Tokyo.

And now, I become a male, middle-class and Japanese "salaryman” in Tokyo. I don’t have any special complaints about my life, but sometimes I feel, “it’s a bitch, if you don’t believe.”

Last weekend, I watched the movie “Fight Club.”


The main character, who was played by Edward Norton, is young, single, male, middle-class, and white-color, enjoying his urban life. His life seems to be perfect, but he suffers from insomnia. He begins to dream another life.

This movie reminded me of the movie “American Beauty,” which I really love.


It is about a typical “happy” American family somewhere in an urban area. People in the family begin to do what they want in their heart, and the family is getting broken down.

I think that nobody can be just ordinary. At this time, I don’t get violent like “Fight Club” and quit my job like “American Beauty,” but I can’t be just an ordinary Japanese “salaryman.” When I “look closer” at my heart, I also would find something in it.

I write my weblog in English very eagerly. In order to be an ordinary Japanese “salaryman,” it is completely useless to do it, but I can’t stop it. My colleagues can’t understand why I keep doing such a thing. I don’t want to fight someone with bare knuckles in the Fight Club, but I also want to do something unordinary.

I might be lucky for me that what I want to do incidentally isn’t antisocial. It might be possible for me to fall down (rise up?) from my ordinary “salaryman’s” life to “the Fight Club,” someday.

The Ethics of Protestantism and The Spirits of Chocolate

I’m reading the book “the Emperors of Chocolate.”

As I mentioned in the previous entry “"Gibu Mi Chokoreito": Ration D Bars and Japanese Children,” this book is about the U.S. chocolate industry, focusing especially on the competition between Hershey and Mars.

The chocolate industry is one of the typical industries in the U.S. When you read the history of the chocolate industry, you can understand the characteristics of the U.S. industries.

For example, Forrest Mars, who made Mars Corporation the biggest chocolate company in the U.S., was the typical capitalist, who Max Weber described in the book “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.”

I’d like to summarize what Weber meant in it briefly. Of course this summary is my own interpretation, so if you want to know exactly what he meant, you should read his original book.

He pointed out that the modern capitalists behaved in rational ways with irrational motives.

In every region, in every age, there were people who wanted to be rich. They wanted to be rich, because they wanted to spend money for their own desire. So when they really became rich, they began to live extravagant lives. In short, they were utilitarian.

The first modern capitalists were Protestant. They worked quite hard for success, because they believed that their success proved that they were selected by God. In fact, many of them got successful, because they worked quite hard. After they became rich, they didn’t spend money for their desire but they invested their money to their business. So they got much more successful and earned much more money. They were not utilitarian but ascetic.

Forrest Mars was an ascetic hard worker. His father and Forrest had a conversation as follows:

“My father says, ‘we’re making enough money. We have an airplane, we’ve got the fishing place, we got horses. Why do we need any more?’” recalled Forrest.
It’s a question he himself would never ask.
“Why do I want to go on?” Forrest mused. “I want to go on because it’s fun. I like building businesses… I like the tension. I like the gamble… The word challenge isn’t too good a word for it. I think it’s better to say the truth: I like the tension.”

He was greed for business but not for money. He had “the ethics of Protestantism and the spirit of capitalism.”

Wittgenstein, Barbara Minto, and Me

I am now reading Ludwig Wittgenstein's "Tractatus Logio-Philosophicus." Of course it is hard to understand it and I have to read the same sentence again and again to understand what Wittgenstein meant, but I am really enjoying reading it.

In the preface of this book, Wittgenstein wrote, "Perhaps this book be understood only by someone who has himself already had the thoughts that are expressed in it ― or at least  similar thoughts." I have been thinking about the same problem, about which Wittgenstein wrote in "Tractatus Logio-Philosophicus," even though my thoughts are so shallow.

My problem is how to write and how to make a presentation in business. I use Barbara Minto's "The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking, and Problem Solving" as a reference. One of good points of this book is that it deals with not just how to write but also how to think at the same time. I think that writing and thinking are indivisible, because if one thinks illogically, they cannot write logically. If people want to write or to make a presentation logically, they must think logically.

In "Tractatus Logio-Philosophicus," Wittgenstein wrote about thinking logically and expressing it in a language. He thought about this problem radically and in principle, and Barbara Minto thought about it quite practically, but both of them dealt with the same problem in similar way.

I think that Barbara Minto was apparently influenced by "Tractatus Logio-Philosophicus," because her "pyramid principle" was along the same line as writings in "Tractatus Logio-Philosophicus," which has the strict structure. In fact it is difficult to understand "Tractus Logio-Philosophicus," because Wittgenstein's thoughs are so deep, but the way of writing, itself, is quite simple to understand. In this sense, "Tractus Logio-Philosophicus" is a good example for us on how to think and to write logically.

I am frequently told that I am argumentative and sophistic, and I answer back that I am just logical. Sometimes I make people angry because I make a quite logical assertion persistently. But Wittgenstein was far more logical and persistent than I. Wittgenstein's biography encourages me, and I have confidence that I should be more logical and persistent, whatever people tell me.

Wittgenstein's life seems to have been eccentric and unhappy for people around him, but I guess that he might have been satisfied with his life, even if it could not be said that it was happy, because he lived his life in the way he believed. I also want to live my life in the way I believe.

Why Do Firms Exist in Market Economy

I think that Fridrich Hayek was one of the greatest economic and political thinkers in the twentieth century, who insisted that the collective intelligence of general public was better than the wisdom of elites. He supported market economy and criticized planned economy.

Basically I also believe that market economy works far much better than governments and governments should play just accessory roles, because market economy reflects the collective intelligence of general public and governments are based on the "wisdom" of elites.

But if market mechanism is more effective than any organization, why do firms or governments exist in market economy? Why do firms work better than market economy?

Ronald Coase answered this question in his book "the Firm, the Market, and the Law." His answer is "transaction cost."

In order to explain why firms exist and what activities they undertake, I found it necessary to introduce a concept which I termed in that article "the cost of using the price mechanism," "the cost of carrying out a transaction by means of an exchange on the open market," or simply "marketing costs." To express the same idea in my article on "The Problem of Social Cost," I used the phrase "the costs of market transactions." These have come to be known in the economic literature as "transaction cost." I have described what I had in mind in the following terms: "In order to carry out a market transaction it is necessary to discover who it is that one wishes to deal with, to inform people that one wishes to deal and on what terms, to conduct negotiations leading up to a bargain, to draw up the contract, to undertake the inspection need to make sure that the terms of the contract are being observed, and so on." Dahlman crystallized the concept of transaction costs by describing them as "search and information costs, bargaining and decision costs, policing and enforcement costs."

The Internet gave a great impact on the structure of transaction costs and firms should adjust themselves to it. This change brought the rise and fall of Apple and Sony. Now that Apple successfully adjusted to the new structure of transaction costs, but Sony failed it.

Drucker pointed out that the role of enterprise as follows.

Because it is the purpose to create a customer, any business enterprise has two ― and only two ― basic function: marketing and innovation. These are the entrepreneurial function.

In a sense, it's true. Apple has succeeded, because they concentrated in marketing and innovation. But at the same time, Foxconn also has succeeded, because they got the order of fabrication from Apple.

The key factor of success is to clear up their own position in the new structure of transaction costs. Any organization should identify that what cost they can save in the market economy.

The North Wind and the Sun

When I asked my man to do his task, he emailed me that he couldn't do it immediately with full of silly excuses.

I knew that he just wanted to delay it and his excuses were just "excuses." But I was really tired at that time. When I feel tired, I couldn't control myself. So I wrote an email to him, which shot down his excuses completely.

And then what would happen? Nothing!

He just wanted to delay his task, whether his excuses were right or wrong. If I pointed out that his excuses were not logical at all, he would never feel motivated. My email was so logical that he couldn't retort, so he just ignored my email.

And I got much more tired.

I had a talk with the vice president of my company about how to manage my department. "Do you think which is better the north wind or the sun?" I asked. He answered, "The sun must be better!"

I blew the north wind to him and it didn't work at all. I should bright like the sun to him. I should be patient to make someone move with the sun. In order to be patient, I should keep being calm and sunny.

Idealism and Pragmatism: the Presidential Election of the U.S.

Obama won the presidential election.

I wrote "From the standpoint of Japanese view I think that President Obama is so underestimated from American people." in the entry "President Obama and Mitt Romney", so I wasn't surprise with his victory at all.

I think that Mitt Romney isn't bad. He is a quite competent businessman, and he could do well if he became the president of the U.S. But Obama is historic and special. He is the first non-white president of the U.S. and his family and he are really cool and sweet. This is the photo that was uploaded on Obama's Facebook wall when his victory came out. He is attractive.

The recession after Lehman Shock wasn't Obama's fault, and it can't be overcame easily because its cause is deep-rooted. Huge trade imbalance between the U.S. and emerging countries is the background of this problem, and there is no silver bullet to solve this situation.

Even Romney can't make jobs, because it isn't the president but businesses that make jobs and the government just can support businesses. Romney, who believes in the power of business sector, also might think so at the bottom of his heart.

When I heard Obama's speech, I was moved by his high ideal. But now, American people want pragmatic solution more than high ideal, don't they? Romney seems to be quite pragmatic.

At the end Obama was reelected, but his political situation isn't easy because Republicans dominates the house. ("Obama Wins a ClearVictory, but Balance of Power Is Unchanged in Washington" The New York Times) I hope that he will make his high ideal for the next four years. He doesn't have to be reelected any more, so he can do what he really wants to do.

American Whaling and Japanese Modernization

Recently I read Eric Jay Dolin's "Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America." 

I've been interested in whaling for a long time, partly because I love the novel "Moby Dick" and partly because whaling deeply influenced to Japanese modernization. I have many other reasons why I've been interested in it, but I don't have enough time to write about all of them.

I've been to Nantucket Island, which is famous for the resort for celebrities living in the East Coast of the U.S. and the Nantucket basket. But for me Nantucket Island is the place where Ishmael got on the whale ship Pequod in Moby Dick.

Before I read the book "Leviathan," I knew about the history of American whaling in fragments, but I got a better overall knowledge about it from this book. I could now understand how Nantucket became the center of American whaling.

According to "Leviathan" the golden age of American whaling was from the 1820s to the 1850s, which is just when Japanese modernization began. From the 17th century to the early 19th century, the Edo Bakuhu, samurai's regime, which strictly closed the country, ruled Japan. In 1868 Edo Bakuhu was overturned, and the new government accelerated Japanese modernization.

The main reason why Edo Bakuhu was overturned was that it couldn't handle the threat of Western countries. In 1853 the fleet of the U.S. navy led by Matthew Perry arrived at the Tokyo bay to demand to open the country. Because of this affair Edo Bakuhu opened the country and many Japanese realized that Japan should be modernized to avoid being colonized by Western countries.

In the background of this affair there was American whaling. After the war of 1812, American whaling made great progress. Before that, its main fishing places were in the Atlantic, and then they expanded to the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. In the 1820s a fishing place off the coast of Japan was discovered and many whale ships from America appeared around Japan.

Edo Bakuhu wanted to close the country, but the foreign whale ships arriving off the coast of Japan resulted in contacts between Japanese people and foreign whalers. Sometimes American whale ships saved Japanese drifters, and some of them were taken to America and got an education there. Sometimes American whale ships shipwrecked off the coast of Japan and Japanese coastal people saved them.

One of the most famous Japanese drifters is John Mung. He was helped by American whale ship and taken to America. He leaned English and became a whaler. And then he smuggled himself back into Japan. When the fleet leaded by Matthew Perry arrived at Japan, there were only two English interpreters in Japan including him.

One of the main reasons why the U.S. government sent the fleet to Japan was to secure supply bases for American whale ships, but ironically at that time the golden age of American whaling was ending. Although the main use of whale oil was for lights, in the 1850s oil fields was discovered and developed in America and whale oil was replaced by kerosene.

I learned from the history of whaling that globalism wasn't just a recent phenomenon and an unexpected side of Japanese modernization. I think that you can find another unexpected side of American and world history from the book "Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America."

Why do I buy Apple Products?

I'm using an iPod classic, an iMac, an iPhone4S for private use, and a ThinkPad in my office.

I'm not a believer of Apple, and basically I don't care about the brands of IT devices. But now the products of Apple are invading our home.

I had been using MS-DOS and Windows PC for private use and in my office, and I was satisfied with them. My impression of Apple ten years ago was that they were stylish but unreliable. I heard that Mackintosh frozen all the time with a bomb icon.

My first Apple product was the iPod classic. I wanted to bring all of the songs that I bought, and at that time I didn't have any alternative. Although I thought that iPod classic was useful, I didn't like it in particular. But rather I was impressed by iTunes. I put all data of my music CDs into iTunes, so it meant that it was difficult for me escape from iTunes.

When I changed my PC at home, I impulsively decided to buy an iMac, partly because the barrier of migration from Windows to Mac OS has been getting lower. The computer environment, in which I can use a browser and MS-Office, is enough for me, so now I don't care whether it's Windows or Mac OS.

The more I use the iMac, the more I became to like it, because it is really nice to touch. Especially I love the feeling of the Magic Mouse. I can't do without it. Nowadays the specs on PCs are not different so much, so the feel of them are important for me. In this mean iMac is as same as my Mont Blanc's fountain pen, whose touch is really nice.

I also like a ThinkPad because of the touch of the keyboard and the TrackPoint. But unfortunately I guess that ThinkPad will not evolve much more, so I will not buy ThinkPad for personal use.

And then I bought iPhone4S, because I didn't want to abandon iTunes. As I wrote, I don't care about the brands of IT devices, but I find that I have already been taken up by the environment of Apple.

Apple is awesome.

The Fact Is, I'm a Patient with Depression

Sometimes I listen to the Anderson Cooper's podcast, 360, on my way to the office. It's a little hard for me to  completely understand what he says, but I'm really interested in his program.

I heard the rumor that he was gay, so when I read the article, "The Fact Is, I'm Gay." I wasn't surprised, but I'm interested in the reason why he came out at this time.

I'd like to quote his message.

But I've wanted to retain some privacy for professional reasons. ... As long as a journalist shows fairness and honest in his or her work, their private life shouldn't matter. ... It's became clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something. ... The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn't be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.

I've suffered from depression for five years. For now the symptoms have abated, but I guess  I'll never make a full recovery. I have to live with depression.

I know that there are many people who have suffered from depression in my company. After I suffered from depression, I was transferred to the division that I belong to now. Most people here have some sort of problem, such as depression, autonomic imbalance, experiences of harassment, and so on.

Most of them don't "come out of the closet," because the fact that they have these problems makes them face obstacles in their career. There is discrimination and contempt for depression in my company. In fact, some people doubted that I actually suffered from depression, and my evaluation was downgraded because of it.

But I "came out of the closet." I don't hide the  fact that I'm a patient with depression. I want to show and prove that even we, people with depression, can achieve something. I'm really happy to give confidence to people with certain problems.

I became a chief of this division. I know that each of us have our limits, but I'm trying to achieve something as a team. I always think about what we can do and how we should do them thoroughly.

he fact is, I'm a person with depression, have been for five years have been, always will be, and I couldn't be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.

Thank you, Anderson.

Now It's a Bad Time for Music Producers, But It's a Good Time for Listeners

Some music producer despaired about the future of pop music on his weblog. He wrote that the budget for making a CD had decreased so drastically that music producers could no longer produce a good sound.

I think that one of the main reasons why the budget has decreased is related to the widespread use of the internet.

I listened to pop music most in the 1980s. At that time, the main media for pop music were TV and radio music programs, records, and cassette tapes. I listened to my favorite music on my Walkman, which was, of course, a cassette tape player.

The time of music programs on TV and radio and the sales space in record stores was limited. TV and radio mainly played chart songs, and record stores sold records and cassettes of those songs. The following week, the TV and radio would play other chart songs, and the record stores would then sell those songs.

Of course we could buy pop "classics" such as "Abbey Road" by the Beatles in a record store, but we had to go to a lot of trouble to buy records and cassette tapes of less famous musicians. I used to go around to many used record stores to hunt for the records, which I desperately wanted.

The internet changed everything. Now, you can find almost any song on YouTube, and buy it through iTunes. I download all of the songs that I buy onto my iPod so I can listen to them anytime and anywhere I want.

Before the age of the internet, music producers competed on the chart. But now, they have to compete against all pop music: past, present and from anywhere in the world. The increased competition has resulted in a decrease in the budget for making a CD.

Now it's bad times for music producers, but it's good times for listeners. We, listeners, can get everything far more easily through the internet. I really enjoy collecting my favorite music videos on my tumblr.

Visualization with a Whiteboard

Toyota is famous for intensive visualization (見える化) of information in their factories. They think that visualization is necessary to find and solve problems quickly. ("Data visualization drives Toyota's product development")

In Japan there is a proverb "百聞は一見に如かず", which means, "One look truly is better than a hundred words." Sometime we thought that we understood each other by just talking each other, but after that we often found that we misunderstood each other. Verbal communication is imperfect.

Whenever I hold a business meeting, I must use a whiteboard. I bought a portable whiteboard, and when there is no whiteboard in a meeting room, I bring it.

I summarize what participants say with bullet points and charts during meetings. It's helpful to understand each other and make the meeting more efficient.

At the end of the meeting, I write the conclusion of the meeting and confirm it with the participants on the whiteboard. In a meeting without a whiteboard, we often feel that we have reached a conclusion, but in fact it isn't certain. Writing down the conclusion on the whiteboard makes everything clear.

After that, I take a photo of the whiteboard and send it to them by e-mail. We can skip taking minutes of the meeting. This way is simple and easy.

Playing with "Cool Biz"

Last year I wrote an entry about "Cool Biz".

I'd like to quote this entry to explain what "Cool Biz" is.

It's quite hot in the summer season of Tokyo, but, as I wrote in the previous journal, a typical "salaryman" always wears a dark business suit and tie, no matter how hot it is.

The ministry of Environment started a campaign called "Cool Biz". They insisted that salarymen should take off their jackets and ties in order to save the environment. Do you understand the relationship between salarymen's suits and the environment? They said that companies should raise the temperature in their offices to save electricity and salaryman should take off their jackets and ties to be able to stand high temperatures. Poor "Salarymen"!

Anyway "Cool Biz" has spread over salarymen and they have taken off their jackets and ties in the summer season. And of course it has been hotter in their office.

"Cool Biz" started in the beginning of May. Now I don't have to wear my jacket and tie while working in my office.

As I wrote in the previous entry about "Cool Biz", my company's dress code is so ridiculous that I'm trying to resist it.

A few years ago, Kazuhiro Kokubo, who was a member of Japan's snowboarding team for the Vancouver Olympics, was criticized for wearing the Japanese team's uniform of Japan's team in a quite rough way.

How do you think of his sense of fashion?

It's cool, isn't it? I think that he is a professional snowboard player and his fashion as a snowboarder is a part of his profession. If he wore a uniform in the proper way, he wouldn't look like a snowboarder and his fans would feel disappointed.

I read a newspaper article about Zuckerberg's hoodie. He wore his trademark hoodie at the meeting with Wall Street bankers, and someone blamed him about his fashion.

What's the matter? Should Zuckerberg wear a well-tailored suit? Kokubo is Kokubo, and Zuck is Zuck.

Japanese high school girls are trying to wear their uniforms in a "kawaii " (cute) way. A game is more interesting, because it has rules. They enjoy their fashion under the rules of uniform.

Now I'm trying to enjoy fashion within the rule of "Cool Biz".

One day, I wore a jacket and a tie just for form, but the jacket made of linen was casual, and I undid the top button of my shirt and loosened a knit tie.

Another day, I didn't ware a jacket and a tie, but I wore a blue striped shirt and a dark grey pleated pants looking like a "salary man".

I'm playing with "Cool Biz".

Paul Stuart and Paul Smith

When I go to work, I wear a business suit. It's a kind of "cosplay" for me. In the morning I change into a business suit, and I can feel my role as a "salaryman".

I used to buy Paul Stuart's suits, shirts and ties. Paul Stuart, which was founded in New York, is a traditional American wear store.

Although I don't know why, I don't look nice in Italian suits, and I think that British suits are too traditional for me. So I liked Paul Stuart's suits and when I wear them, I feel as if I were a businessman working in Manhattan. (It's New Yorker "cosplay" for me.)

I was one of the regulars at the Paul Stuart store in Ginza, Tokyo. I also loved the atmosphere and the staff members of this store. It was really nice and cozy to talk with familiar staffs and to choose new suits, shirts and ties.

But Paul Stuart Japan was bought by a Japanese apparel maker, Sanyo Shokai, and everything had changed. Paul Stuart Japan was "Japanized" and lost its New York flavor. I couldn't do New Yorker's "cosplay" wearing Paul Stuart's suits any more. I have great regrets about it, but I won't visit Paul Stuart store in Ginza, Tokyo.

Last summer I made a journey to the East coast of the U.S. and I visited the Paul Stuart store near Grand Central Terminal in New York. I enjoyed buying a shirt with broad blue stripes, which was very popular among New Yorkers.

But I can't visit the Paul Stuart store in New York very often, so I've changed the store where I buy business suits. Now I wear Paul Smith business suits. Paul Smith is a British designer but the suits aren't too conservative and look smart.

Now I go to the office wearing a Paul Smith business suit "cosplaying" a snob "saralyman".

Paul Stuart Japan
Paul Stuart U.S.
Paul Smith Japan
Paul Smith U.K.

Paperless Environment

At home I use iMac with a wireless keyboard and mouse. There is no cable coiled up like a snake on my desk and I'm satisfied with the simplicity of iMac.

At the office I use ThinkPad. My company gives us three choices of PC, a ThinkPad notebook, a ThinkPad laptop and a Lenovo's desktop PC. I chose a ThinkPad notebook with a high capacity battery.

I always bring it in the office. I stopped printing out documents and I read them on its display at the meetings.

I write a minute of the meeting while we are making a discussion and I send the minute by e-mail just when the meeting ends. Before I began to use my ThinkPad, I wrote the draft of a minute on my "notebook" by my hand, and then I typed it by PC on my desk and sent it by e-mail. Now I can save my time.

I like the feeling of the keyboard and the pointing stick of ThinkPad, but it's too small for me to use it on my desk. When I'm back to my desk, I connected a display, a mouse, and a keyboard to my ThinkPad.

It's very convenient to use two displays. I open a browser on one display and write by MS-Word on another display with reading references on the browser. Before I began to use two displays, I printed out the references and I wrote with reading the paper.

Now I'm considering that I should buy another display at home.

How to Manage a Baseball Team in the Big League: My Impression of the Movie "Moneyball"

I watched the movie "Moneyball" last weekend. I enjoyed this movie, mainly because I've devoted myself to Major League Baseball. (Of course I've read the original book "Moneyball" and I wrote a journal about it.) 　



In addition, I could really understand what Belly Beane, who was a leading character of this movie, wanted to do.

I became one of the managers of my company this August. The main role of managers is maximizing the performance of the team under many restrictions.

Belly Beane is a general manager of Oakland Athletics, which is much poorer than big teams, such as New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. These teams buy star players of Athletics, but Belly Beane can't stop them. The restriction that he faces is money.

I have many restrictions to manage my team. I have no right to select the members of my team. I have to manage given members. It's the biggest restriction.

Belly Beane thought that Athletics couldn't beat Yankees, even if a poor team kept doing the same thing as a rich team. So he changed his approach and began to use findings of sabermetrics (statistical analysis about baseball). Many his staffs resisted his change, but he stuck to his belief.

I'm trying to change my predecessor's approaches, and sometimes I come across resistance. But if I wanted to make my team more efficient, I should break it down.

In this movie Belly Beane always talked straight about what he thought of. I also want to and try to talk straight. But all of my colleagues don't talk straight and sometimes we can't discuss enough. I wonder if the person, Belly Beane, talk straight or business people in the U.S. talk straight.

We can't Get Anything without Paying a Painful Price - What I've Gotten through Suffering from Depression -

I've been suffering from depression for about four years. I've almost recovered from it now, but I'm still going to a psychiatrist and taking antidepressant and sleeping pills.

When I developed my depression, I worked quite hard as a project manager. I suddenly became not able to go to the office and took three month medical leave. And then the next year I took three month medical leave again and transferred to the division that I belong to now.

I lost a lot of things because of depression.

As I wrote, I almost recovered but it doesn't mean that I can work as hard as I used to. Basically I loved and still love to work as a project manager, but I will never do it again. Even now sometimes I get so tired that I can't do anything expect lie on the bed.

But at the same time I've gotten a lot of things from depression.

Before I suffered from depression, I didn't know myself well. Of course I don't perfectly understand myself now, but I know myself far more than before suffering from depression.

At that time I was too self-confident. I believed that I could have done anything if I seriously tried doing it. But in fact I couldn't do things well and I was always disappointed with what I had done.

Depression made me know that what I could do was so little. Sometimes I can't even get out of the bed. Lying on the bed is just all of what I can do. And now I accept myself as someone who can just lie on the bed. I think that it’s really important to accept.

After accepting myself I've been able to think of what others think of and feel. Before suffering from depression, I wasn't satisfied with others and myself. I always required too much to others and I didn't give them anything. Now I think about what I can give someone else first. I can get satisfied with what I gave them, even if it was so tiny. And I'm happy, even if I can't get anything back. Interestingly, I can get more when I give someone without expecting something back than I require something to others.

I may be able to do a job as a project manager better now than before because of suffering from depression, but my depression wouldn't allow me to do a job as a project manager.

We can't get anything without paying a painful price. But I could get things that are worth their price.

And life goes on.

Reading the Air

There are expressions that can't be easily translated into other languages, because these expressions are so deeply imbedded in their specific cultural context. "空気を読む (kuki wo yomu)" is one such example.

If I try to translate it into English directly, it would be something like "reading the air". In this context "the air" refers to the unspoken thoughts or feelings among any group of people. "The air" isn't articulated as such but it's implicitly understood that people should obey implicit "the air" by trying to work out what everyone else is thinking and felling and thereby not go against the unspoken consensus.

Although Japanese people share the same culture (to be more exact, of course, there are varieties of cultures in Japan), they can't "read the air" perfectly, because it should be able to be understood without words. Those people who can't "read the air" well are sometimes criticized as being "空気を読めない人 (kuki wo yomenai hito)".

I don't like to "read the air" and I always try to talk about, and do, those things which I really want to talk about and do. But because I am only such Japanese person living in Japanese society, I sometimes find myself unthinkingly "reading the air" and obeying "the air" unconsciously.

Some of my younger colleagues have confessed to me the difficulty they have had trying to "read the air". I always tell them that they don't have to "read the air". After all, no one can perfectly "read the air", because it's implicit. I refused to read "the air" and have gone ahead and and done what I have wanted to do and in this way have been able to survive in Japanese society.

"Reading the air" has many detrimental effects. For example in a business meeting participants try to work out the thoughts and feelings of others without asking directly ("read the air"). They won't give their own opinion for fear of going against "the air". As a result, we can't reach a truly creative conclusion at such business meetings, because we don't have any "real" discussion.

Steve Jobs said, "Stay hungry, stay foolish." in the end of the speech he gave at Stanford University.



These words are really suggestive and can be interpreted in many ways. I interpret them as an admonition to think broadly and radically without any prejudice. This attitude is very far from "reading the air".

I want to say to the young people of Japan, "Don't read the air. Stay foolish. Be free."

Don't decide things by "easiness" but "love"

I just got promoted to a manager in my company at the beginning of this October and I had a chance to talk to my people about how to work.

In Japanese the word "楽 (raku)" has two meanings: easy and enjoyable. I think that it's really important to enjoy your work (仕事を「楽」しむ) but it doesn't mean doing easy work (「楽」な仕事をする). Sometimes you have to make a great effort to enjoy your work, but I want you to try to enjoy your work.

Just before I had suffered from depression, I did easy work but didn't enjoy working at all. At that time I had some staple clients and got certain profits from my projects, so I got a high rating in my company. But I completely lost any interest in my projects and I hated to do them. When I woke up, I thought about how long I had to do such projects and felt a feeling of despair.

And then I suffered from depression and took three months of sick leave. Of course I caused my clients and coworkers a great trouble. I failed as a project manager.

If I really disliked my work, I should have quit these projects. I would lose staple clients and a high rating, but I should have tried to develop new projects that I really loved to do, even if it was hard to do so.

Jun Miura and Tomorowo Taguchi said in their book "Bronson would say so (ブロンソンならこう言うね)" as follows.

Don't decide things by "easiness" but "love".
「楽」で決めるな。「好きで」決めるんだ。