At the height of the bubble period in 1988, there was the Furusato Creation Project started by the then Takeshita Cabinet. This project was to issue 100 million JPY to local government for regional development. There was even a person who renovated 100 buses into karaoke buses and sold them to their municipality. But they were not able to sell even 1 bus. That was where I came in and rented these buses to turn a small corner in the middle of Tokyo (that was vacant due to land sharking) into a karaoke town. By that time, there were 80 or so businesses that I was managing.

During the height of the bubble I was able to get a loan above 100 billion yen, but once it crashed and resulted in the financial crisis, the banks all came asking for their money back. This was at a time when profits were up and we had no bad debts. Likewise, we did not shrink our business and had even just recently paid back the loan down to 44 million yen. We were taking a much needed break at this point.

<<But in 1997, an “Incident” Occurred>>

Since we had already started the pickle business in China by then, we visited a bank to ask for a loan, because we needed some funding to farm daikon radish. But the person in charge had told me that they could not loan me anything since I was on a black list of some sort. I was shocked when hearing this. That couldn’t be? I had not invested in real estate, nor have I ever defaulted in paying back neither the principal nor the interest. My business has always received loans as a prime candidate. But now, out of the blue, we faced the possibility of being held under the control of the Resolution and Collection Corporation.

I was able to figure out what happened when I dug in deeper. The issue was a loan from our main bank, the Hokkaido Takushoku Bank, Ltd. (hereinafter, “Takugin”). The loan was in the amount of 20 million, executed in the form of a bill of exchange due to our long relationship. We had an agreement that this bill of exchange was to be rewritten once a year to keep Takugin from asking their money back. That was why we were not asked to pay the money back for several years, and we continued to stamp our approval of the rewrite.

However, things were different that particular year. There was fine print within a thick stack of contracts regarding the rewrite of the bill of exchange that read “loans to be paid in lump.” The person in charge at the Takugin came to all the way to my house while I was away on business. My wife knew nothing about this. When I first heard about this from my wife on an international call, I thought it was the usual rewrite of the bill of exchange. So I told her to stamp my seal of approval. Looking back now, Takugin eventually filed for bankruptcy the following year. The person in charge must have been looking for a way to collect as much money as possible at that time. In either case, if this was such an important contract that it asks for “loans to be paid in lump,” then the information should have been explained to me in detail, not just my wife stamping a seal of approval. If anything, was it even permitted to add such important fine print without any explanation to a contract about rewriting a bill of exchange? I was so angered at the way they did this, but it was already too late. In order to return the rest of my loans in lump, I had to liquidate my entire business.

<<A Chance to Return Back to Roots>>

Upon my return to Japan, along with lodging protests to Takugin, I had to begin liquidating my business. During this time, I did something I regret to this day. I reprimanded my wife for stamping my seal of approval to such an important document. It was only when I saw her crying that I came to my senses. I did not work this far to make my wife cry, I did all of this to make her happy. And, I repaid all of my loans. It was with these thoughts that I remembered my determination, when I abandoned my dreams of becoming a fighter pilot, a member of the legal community, as well as my entrance into the world of business. I have been working with the purpose of bringing happiness to my customers through their enjoyment of delicious seafood. Although I had lost everything, this reminded me of my basic motivation for work success.