I hadn't seen this section of the Nikkei newspaper lately, but yesterday, a friend told me.
One of the seniors of your beloved alma mater is in the Nikkei section. Maybe tomorrow, the name of Sendai Niko will be in the paper.
Sunday, I took a look, and it was right.
Naturally, the scene he describes is the same as the one I spent at my alma mater and the one in Sendai.
I had never spoken to any other high school girls, and the road he took from his home in Tsunogoro-cho to his alma mater was the same one I took, but the way I went was also very different.
It is no exaggeration to say that my high school years were spent 'escaping' from home.
Anyway, I was in no position to do studying.
I asked his second brother, a childhood friend of mine, to borrow a light truck with only a desk, books, and a bedding bag, and escaped to an apartment at the back of Ichibancho, the busiest street Sendai. It was at the height of the heat. It was too hot to study in this windowless room, and I was exhausted.
In the school, I heard that a wealthy man, the richest man in Sendai, was looking for our high school students to act as live-in tutors.
I immediately raised my hand.
I borrowed a Hand Cart from the janitor's office. With the help of two real friends, I carried my desk, books, and bedding bag from Ichiban-cho to Tsunogoro-cho, through Aoba-street, and across the Ohashi over the Hirose River.
It was a challenging journey in the hot summer months and bothered them.
So, unlike my seniors, I had never once talked to another high school girl during my high school years.
So it came as a surprise to me when a fellow Natori native told me one day in the cafeteria, 'You're from the girl's school across the river, you're known as Ikeda Shuichi from Sendai Niko," he said.
Ikeda Shuichi was an actor who played the main character of 'The story of Jiro,' an NHK drama series that was watched at dinner time by every household in Japan at that time.
In high school, I had never spoken to a woman in my life, and because of this, I did not have many female acquaintances.
It was a significant negative influence on me in later years.
Since I was known as a 'handsome youth' among female students, I would have enjoyed my youth to the fullest if I had been an average person.
Come to think of it; I once lived in an apartment in Kawaguchi, where my childhood friend was working at Nissan Motor, for a short time.
It happened when the landlady of the apartment, an old lady who grew up in Tokyo, took me to Mitsukoshi for shopping.
I was having a nice lunch when she said in her genuine Edo dialect, 'You should stop going to Kyoto University and go to Haiyuza Theatre Company, you've got a nice face.'
I vividly remember being at a loss for a response to such a sudden remark.
He commuted from his home in Tsunogoro-cho to our alma mater by walking across the Yodomi Bridge without unnecessary trouble and suffering.
On the other hand, I had no idea that I was being idolized by the students of the girls' school under the Yodomi Bridge, where I walked to school every morning, with a helplessly distressed heart.
Even after I was told in the school cafeteria, I never felt the slightest inclination to be a female student.
My resume.
Tadashi Onodera
I entered Sendai Second High School, a boy's school within walking distance from my home.
In junior high school, I was fascinated by the sound and broadcast equipment. I longed to be a Broadcasting Committee member, so I joined the Broadcasting Committee without hesitation.
During the school lunchtime announcements, I imitated the disc jockey.
We would set up a trumpet speaker on a cherry tree in the schoolyard for the annual sports day held in May, but I remember that the newly-departed cherry blossoms were covered with caterpillars, and we were stuck with them.
My best memory is that our high school's meager budget only allows us to buy a few LP records a year, and one of my seniors, who was a year older than me, negotiated with the owner of the Revival house in the city to let us record the soundtrack of a movie that was being shown.
The bulky, open-reel recorders would be hauled from the high school to the movie theater and recorded in the projection room.
It allowed me to see a lot of Elvis Presley and Connie Francis movies for free.
Besides, we would play the music for the school broadcast.
Nowadays, it's unthinkable that we are so fussy about copyrights, but it was a very significant time.
I miss the regular game against Sendai Daiichi High School.
Daiichi and Daiini high schools are the oldest rival schools as prestigious, and they played baseball and other ball games once a year.
There were many fans in the city.
The baseball games were so packed with spectators that they were known as the 'City of Trees game between Waseda and Keio.'
On the night before a regular-season game, a cheering squad led a procession to Ichibancho, Sendai's largest downtown area, and the town was filled with a festive mood.
I can still say that there was a coffee shop that served us, high school students, alcohol-infused drinks in secret.
There was also interaction with the girls' school.
We proposed to work with the broadcasting club of Miyagi Gakuin High School, which was known as the best school for girls in Sendai, and we worked with them on a joint program.
I don't remember what kind of program we made, but I have fond memories of the fun we had at what would be called a "Matching Party" nowadays.
When I was in my third year of high school, we were divided into two classes, one for the humanities and one for the sciences, according to our career paths, and I chose the sciences without hesitation.
One of my classmates was Ryoji Chubachi, who later served as president of Sony and chairman of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.
By the way, I became president of KDDI in June 2001.
Immediately after the Internet bubble burst at that time, there was a fierce headwind in the information and communications industry in general.
Besides, the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States added to the social turmoil.
KDDI itself had just been established as a result of the reorganization and integration of several companies.
Many internal conflicts were resulting from the vital personal connections and culture of the various parent companies.
When Mr. Chubachi became president of Sony in 2005, it was a difficult time for the company.
In the '90s, Sony had a star manager who was much celebrated by the public.
But it is in the shadow that Sony gradually eroded the competitiveness of the framework electronics, and the stock market took a hard look at the company.
In such a difficult situation, Mr. Chubachi was suddenly promoted to president.
At that time, he said, 'I don't know why I'm going to be president.' Mr. Chubachi called me and asked me to give him some advice as someone with experience.
I remember laughing with him as I replied, 'It's the role of us northeasterners to struggle. Just take a 'so-what' attitude.'
One of the seniors of your beloved alma mater is in the Nikkei section. Maybe tomorrow, the name of Sendai Niko will be in the paper.
Sunday, I took a look, and it was right.
Naturally, the scene he describes is the same as the one I spent at my alma mater and the one in Sendai.
I had never spoken to any other high school girls, and the road he took from his home in Tsunogoro-cho to his alma mater was the same one I took, but the way I went was also very different.
It is no exaggeration to say that my high school years were spent 'escaping' from home.
Anyway, I was in no position to do studying.
I asked his second brother, a childhood friend of mine, to borrow a light truck with only a desk, books, and a bedding bag, and escaped to an apartment at the back of Ichibancho, the busiest street Sendai. It was at the height of the heat. It was too hot to study in this windowless room, and I was exhausted.
In the school, I heard that a wealthy man, the richest man in Sendai, was looking for our high school students to act as live-in tutors.
I immediately raised my hand.
I borrowed a Hand Cart from the janitor's office. With the help of two real friends, I carried my desk, books, and bedding bag from Ichiban-cho to Tsunogoro-cho, through Aoba-street, and across the Ohashi over the Hirose River.
It was a challenging journey in the hot summer months and bothered them.
So, unlike my seniors, I had never once talked to another high school girl during my high school years.
So it came as a surprise to me when a fellow Natori native told me one day in the cafeteria, 'You're from the girl's school across the river, you're known as Ikeda Shuichi from Sendai Niko," he said.
Ikeda Shuichi was an actor who played the main character of 'The story of Jiro,' an NHK drama series that was watched at dinner time by every household in Japan at that time.
In high school, I had never spoken to a woman in my life, and because of this, I did not have many female acquaintances.
It was a significant negative influence on me in later years.
Since I was known as a 'handsome youth' among female students, I would have enjoyed my youth to the fullest if I had been an average person.
Come to think of it; I once lived in an apartment in Kawaguchi, where my childhood friend was working at Nissan Motor, for a short time.
It happened when the landlady of the apartment, an old lady who grew up in Tokyo, took me to Mitsukoshi for shopping.
I was having a nice lunch when she said in her genuine Edo dialect, 'You should stop going to Kyoto University and go to Haiyuza Theatre Company, you've got a nice face.'
I vividly remember being at a loss for a response to such a sudden remark.
He commuted from his home in Tsunogoro-cho to our alma mater by walking across the Yodomi Bridge without unnecessary trouble and suffering.
On the other hand, I had no idea that I was being idolized by the students of the girls' school under the Yodomi Bridge, where I walked to school every morning, with a helplessly distressed heart.
Even after I was told in the school cafeteria, I never felt the slightest inclination to be a female student.
My resume.
Tadashi Onodera
I entered Sendai Second High School, a boy's school within walking distance from my home.
In junior high school, I was fascinated by the sound and broadcast equipment. I longed to be a Broadcasting Committee member, so I joined the Broadcasting Committee without hesitation.
During the school lunchtime announcements, I imitated the disc jockey.
We would set up a trumpet speaker on a cherry tree in the schoolyard for the annual sports day held in May, but I remember that the newly-departed cherry blossoms were covered with caterpillars, and we were stuck with them.
My best memory is that our high school's meager budget only allows us to buy a few LP records a year, and one of my seniors, who was a year older than me, negotiated with the owner of the Revival house in the city to let us record the soundtrack of a movie that was being shown.
The bulky, open-reel recorders would be hauled from the high school to the movie theater and recorded in the projection room.
It allowed me to see a lot of Elvis Presley and Connie Francis movies for free.
Besides, we would play the music for the school broadcast.
Nowadays, it's unthinkable that we are so fussy about copyrights, but it was a very significant time.
I miss the regular game against Sendai Daiichi High School.
Daiichi and Daiini high schools are the oldest rival schools as prestigious, and they played baseball and other ball games once a year.
There were many fans in the city.
The baseball games were so packed with spectators that they were known as the 'City of Trees game between Waseda and Keio.'
On the night before a regular-season game, a cheering squad led a procession to Ichibancho, Sendai's largest downtown area, and the town was filled with a festive mood.
I can still say that there was a coffee shop that served us, high school students, alcohol-infused drinks in secret.
There was also interaction with the girls' school.
We proposed to work with the broadcasting club of Miyagi Gakuin High School, which was known as the best school for girls in Sendai, and we worked with them on a joint program.
I don't remember what kind of program we made, but I have fond memories of the fun we had at what would be called a "Matching Party" nowadays.
When I was in my third year of high school, we were divided into two classes, one for the humanities and one for the sciences, according to our career paths, and I chose the sciences without hesitation.
One of my classmates was Ryoji Chubachi, who later served as president of Sony and chairman of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.
By the way, I became president of KDDI in June 2001.
Immediately after the Internet bubble burst at that time, there was a fierce headwind in the information and communications industry in general.
Besides, the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States added to the social turmoil.
KDDI itself had just been established as a result of the reorganization and integration of several companies.
Many internal conflicts were resulting from the vital personal connections and culture of the various parent companies.
When Mr. Chubachi became president of Sony in 2005, it was a difficult time for the company.
In the '90s, Sony had a star manager who was much celebrated by the public.
But it is in the shadow that Sony gradually eroded the competitiveness of the framework electronics, and the stock market took a hard look at the company.
In such a difficult situation, Mr. Chubachi was suddenly promoted to president.
At that time, he said, 'I don't know why I'm going to be president.' Mr. Chubachi called me and asked me to give him some advice as someone with experience.
I remember laughing with him as I replied, 'It's the role of us northeasterners to struggle. Just take a 'so-what' attitude.'