＜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
In the past, I wrote an article about the retirement of top athletes, and this time, I would like to consider the difficulties of “retirement” for those who have become “top-notch” in their respective fields, such as executives, doctors, and bureaucrats.
1. business manager
Yoshishige Ashihara, honorary chairman of KEPCO, was a talented and outstanding manager who was called the “founder of KEPCO.” He served as president for 12 years from 1959 to 1970, and after becoming chairman in 1970, he continued to exert a strong influence within the company through his son-in-law and confidant, Chimori Naito (later vice president).
However, in 1986, KEPCO was featured in a series of articles in the “Asahi Journal” magazine titled “Corporate Exploration,” and its “one-man rule,” which could be seen as a kind of “fear rule,” became public knowledge.
This led to an outpouring of criticism both internally and externally, and in 1987, Mr. Ashihara and Mr. Naito were dismissed from the board of directors. This is known as the “Kanden February 26 incident.
Although I am also an outsider, I have heard rumors of Mr. Ashihara’s “dictatorial management by an old man with real power”.
Shigeru Okada, president of Mitsukoshi, was also involved in a “presidential dismissal drama” similar to that of Mr. Ashihara of Kansai Electric Power Co. After becoming president in 1972, he left one executive after another who was critical of him and established a dictatorial regime known as “Emperor Okada.
He was also accused of a special breach of trust for lining his own pockets through questionable accounting practices.
The words of John Acton (British historian and thinker) are true: “Power always corrupts”.
2. doctor
Shigeaki Hinohara (1911-2017), who passed away at the age of 105, was an “active doctor for life. He wrote many books and was often seen on TV continuing his medical practice and speaking at lectures even though he was over 90 years old.
Here are some of his achievements and episodes.
In the 1970s, Dr. Hinohara started to call “adult diseases,” such as heart disease and stroke, “lifestyle-related diseases,” and spread awareness of their prevention among the public.
In 1970, when I was Chief of Internal Medicine at St. Luke’s International Hospital, I encountered the “Yodo-go hijacking incident” and was taken hostage. It was the first hijacking incident in Japan, and when the group responsible said, “We hijacked this plane,” most people did not understand, so Dr. Hinohara raised his hand and explained that hijacking means taking over a plane and holding its passengers hostage.
He was detained for four days and was even prepared to die, but after his release, rather than seeking fame as an internist, he came to believe that he was given life after the incident and stated that the incident led to a change in his outlook on life.
When the “Sarin gas attack on the subway” by Aum Shinrikyo occurred in 1995, the 83-year-old Dr. Hinohara made the decision as director to open St. Luke’s International Hospital, suspending all normal operations and taking the lead in treating 640 victims.
I think that Dr. Hinohara is a rare example of a doctor who did not become a don and fulfilled the role of an “active doctor for life.
However, in general, I feel that the world of doctors is also more of a sordid affair, with power struggles within university medical departments and fierce bargaining over misdiagnosis, as in Toyoko Yamazaki’s novel “The Great White Tower”.
3. elite bureaucrats
The high-level bureaucrats in Kasumigaseki compete fiercely for the ultimate goal of becoming “Administrative Vice-Minister.” When one of the last few remaining in the “Vice-Minister Race” is confirmed to become “Vice-Minister,” the remaining bureaucrats “give way” to their successors and “retire” from their positions.
They move on to become the chairman or president of an external organization, or the chairman of a think tank. This may be an unavoidable choice, but I think it can be called a “graceful exit.
As a side note, there is a four-character idiom, “Kyuryu Yuutai” (急流勇退), which comes from “the Shao Ji Hearing and Seeing Records”(邵氏聞見録).
It means “to maintain one’s integrity by decisively retiring when one’s work is going well, one’s results are showing, and one’s future is still promising.
Recently, there has been a series of scandals involving administrative vice-ministers, and I would like to introduce just one here.
Kihei Maekawa, former administrative vice minister of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), has resigned due to “the problem of intermediary of amakudari (descent from heaven).
During the previous “corruption of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology” incident, he apologized to the House of Representatives Budget Committee, saying, “I have undermined the confidence of the people in the Ministry of Education and the Japanese government, and I deserve to die for it.
But behind the scenes, he has been quietly approaching the Prime Minister’s Office about extending his retirement age.
In response, the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary responded, “Mr. Maekawa should take responsibility and quit, and it is difficult to extend his retirement. Mr. Maekawa reportedly pleaded with the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary to “at least let him continue until March (retirement age),” but the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary refused, saying, “Dispositions on such issues must first be discussed on the premise that the head of the administrative staff takes responsibility.
Ostensibly, Maekawa stated that he “offered to resign on his own initiative,” but Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga stated, “This is completely different from my understanding,” and “At first, he showed no intention to quit on his own as the person in charge and clung to his position fondly. Later, he was subjected to severe criticism from the public over the issue of amakudari and eventually resigned.
It should be obvious which one is “lying”. Later, he was also involved in controversial issues such as “the issue of paying attention to the Prime Minister over Moritomo/Kakei Gakuen” and “the issue of excusing his going to brothels as a survey on women’s poverty issues.
Government officials, like politicians, should “retire with dignity. This is especially true for the “Administrative Vice-Minister.
He was the exact opposite of “Kyuryu Yuutai” (急流勇退)”.
He retired in disgrace
Incidentally, his “motto” is “Menjyu Hukuhai” (to obey and disobey). This means that he pretends to obey his superiors on the surface, but inwardly he is disobedient and rebellious. He has also published a book by the same name.
