＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
There is a proverb that goes, “The third generation writes the word ‘house for sale’ in Chinese characters(Karayo).”
＜「売り家と唐様（からよう）で書く三代目」＞
The first generation struggled to leave a fortune, and the second generation lived comfortably thanks to it, but the third generation fell into poverty and finally had to put the house up for sale.
The “house for sale” card is written in a stylish “Tang style,” meaning that the third generation was addicted to “Doraku” and indulged in amusement, neglecting the way of business. Tang style” refers to a Chinese style typeface.
However, in the “path of the arts,” it seems that second and third generation performers are often better than the first generation. This is because in the harsh world of art, if they are said to be “worse than the first generation,” the popularity business will not survive, so they will work hard to improve. As a result, the third generation may further hone their skills, or further develop the skills of the first and second generation performers and create a new style of performance.
Another, perhaps not so good analogy, is Kazuo Taoka, the third head of the anti-social Yamaguchigumi clan.
Therefore, not all the third generation are bad performers.
In terms of politicians, there is the example of “the first was Kishi Nobusuke(Prime Minister), the second was Abe Shintaro(Foreign Minister), and the third was Abe Shinzo(Prime Minister).” Opinions on the third, Abe Shinzo, are divided, and it is difficult to judge at this point.
１．Kaguyahime” at Otsuka Kagu
Otsuka Furniture was founded in 1969 when Katsuhisa Otsuka (1943- ), left his father(a paulownia chest craftsman)’s Otsuka Tansu Store to establish Otsuka Furniture Center Co., Ltd. and open a furniture store.
He opened large-scale showrooms in Tokyo and Osaka and sold luxury furniture. He successfully captured the demand for bulk purchases after marriage, and achieved growth through “investing heavily in advertising” and “a customer service method of creating membership system(customer file)”and “when entering the store having a salesperson accompany the customer.”
However, the company’s performance subsequently stagnated due to a slump in housing demand, the rise of new forces such as Nitori and IKEA, and a scandal involving share buybacks, and in March 2009, President Katsuhisa Otsuka’s daughter, Hitotsubashi University graduate and former Fuji Bank employee Kumiko Otsuka (1968- ), was appointed president. As she was the “daughter of a furniture store owner,” she was apparently nicknamed “Kaguyahime” (Princess Kaguya) “.
She decided that her father’s customer service methods were “a psychological burden on customers and were keeping them away,” so she aimed to “create a store that is easy to enter, easy to see, and comfortable to walk into,” changing the store’s atmosphere to a more casual one and adopting a less aggressive approach to customer service, which had a certain effect on improving business performance, such as increasing the number of customers entering the store.
However, Katsuhisa dismissed Kumiko, who felt that Kumiko’s policies were a “denial of the business direction he had established.” After the company fell into the red, Kumiko returned to the position in January 2015.
As a result of this “father-daughter battle” and “family feud within a family-run business,” the company’s performance remains sluggish.
Kumiko was a strong-willed woman, and although she had experience as a bank credit officer, she did not seem to have had the “business instinct” or “business acumen” that her father, the founder, had. It’s unfortunate to think that things might have turned around for the better if she had been able to find a way to reconcile her father’s business practices, selling luxury furniture, rather than completely denying them.
２．The young master of the Kuzumochi shop Funabashi-ya
Funabashi-ya, the kuzumochi shop, was founded in 1805 and is a long-established Japanese confectionery shop with over 200 years of tradition. The main store is located in Kameido, Koto-ku, Tokyo, and is famous as the “original kuzumochi shop.” It is a specialty of Kameido Tenjin, and is said to have been eaten by famous people such as Saigo Takamori and Akutagawa Ryunosuke.
Funabashi-ya’s Kuzumochi has a good texture and is the only fermented Japanese confectionery, so it is said to be good for your health. In order to provide a natural flavor without using preservatives that can cause allergies, the expiration date is only 2 days after the 450-day manufacturing process.
Recently, the eighth-generation head of the family, Masashi Watanabe (1964- ), has appeared on television and his “management reforms” have become a hot topic. After graduating from Rikkyo University, he joined Sanwa Bank and gained experience in dealing and branch sales.
However, when his grandfather, the sixth-generation owner, fell ill, he decided to join Funabashi-ya. Having seen the struggles of his father, the previous owner, he returned to the family business, but when he first joined the company, he was shocked by the “old-fashioned way of doing things in a workplace with a strong artisanal spirit.”
Once the craftsmen decided that their work was done, they would start drinking in the evening, and they continued to buy from their long-time suppliers, such as red beans, sugar, and agar, at wholesale prices that remained high since the bubble era.
The craftsmen were not motivated, and many of them were quitting. He realized that “I was only looking at the system, not the people. There is no point in having an organization that is not something that everyone can work together to create,” and he changed his own behavior. He began to work closely with the craftsmen and respect their autonomy.
He then embarked on a “management reform.” While he maintained the traditions that should be protected as a long-established store, he launched a project centered on young people to develop new products that would be accepted by young people. He continues to innovate by developing “kuzumochi pudding” using fermented starch and partnering with the long-established “Mikado Coffee” to develop and serve coffee that goes well with kuzumochi.
Currently, they are working on improving the “distribution system for nationwide delivery” of Kuzumochi, a fresh confectionery.
In addition, the appointment of officers is decided by a “general election of leaders.” This is not based on seniority, but on a “point system” and “ability-based” system, and they also strive to foster open human resources through “one-on-one meetings.”
【オーク無垢材】オランダ/総革/フォークロア/アームソファ/1脚/1人掛け/IDC大塚家具【中古】
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