After a long time, a friend who graduated from Kyoto University visited my house the day before yesterday.
It was a very welcome visit, like a Christmas Eve present.
During our conversation about all things under heaven, we discussed how I came to publish my book.
My book was on the bookshelf.
The cover design was decided upon when I was in Kitano Hospital.
Kitano Hospital is a large hospital equivalent to the Kyoto University Faculty of Medicine.
In the style of "The White Tower," the head of the department and five or six young doctors would go around to each patient's room.
When the publisher sent me several ideas for the cover design, the second round of visits took place.
When I was talking about which one I should choose, one of the young doctors said:
"Kisara-san, would you let me do it? I'm good at this sort of thing."
I immediately left it in his hands.
I told the acquaintance at the beginning of this story that this was the cover.
This morning, while thinking about how grateful I was for yesterday's visit, I turned the pages of my book for the first time in a long time.
I have always felt embarrassed about my books.
That's why I didn't read them that often.
I realized again that this was also a significant loss.
For about a year, my book was on the social science and economics shelf at the main Kinokuniya Umeda store, alongside books by such leading commentators as the late Taichi Sakaiya and Yoichi Takahashi.
The person in charge at Kinokuniya said that although my book was not likely to be a bestseller, it would sell a certain number of copies, so it was displayed on the shelf.
One day, I noticed it had disappeared from the shelf, so I asked the person in charge why.
He replied, "I was confident that it would sell a certain number of copies, but it didn't sell as well as I had expected..."
As readers will know, this was a completely natural result.
The reason is that I am a completely unknown figure in journalism.
What's more, I appeared under the pen name of Akutagawa Kenji, which I had no choice but to do for reasons that my close acquaintances and readers are well aware of.
If I had appeared under my real name, the many acquaintances and friends I have made through business would have bought the book.
I announced in this column on June 1st, 2011, that the book would be published on December 1st.
I wrote an introduction to the book and published it.
At this point, if you searched for "the turntable of civilization," you would find over 20 million hits, with pages 1 to 70 filled with chapters in various languages from this column.
However, the criminal in question created over 100 blogs on each blog management company, such as "driving agency" and "secretarial agency," and began a crime of reverse SEO attack against this column.
After writing blogs with stupid and incoherent content, they posted blogs that published each chapter of this column without permission.
They filled up pages 1 to 10 of the search results with such things.
Immediately, the number of searches for this column dropped sharply to 1/100.
Furthermore, this criminal started committing outrageous crimes on Twitter, such as saying things like "Kisara-san, the vicious writer who is also known as Akutagawa Kenji" and "Kisara-san, the vicious real estate agent who is also known as Akutagawa Kenji."
Simply put, a genuine Japanese sweets shop was in the corner of a completely unknown shopping district.
It is the age of the Internet.
Everyone has a smartphone.
If a criminal like this were to write slanderous comments such as "the ingredients in that shop are made from ○○," that Japanese sweets shop would go bankrupt instantly.
I was made keenly aware of this when I re-read this book.
As the person in charge at Kinokuniya Umeda Main Store saw, this book is a masterpiece.
The fact that this masterpiece was buried by the criminal in question is an unforgivable crime against the world and humanity in the 21st century.
It was a very welcome visit, like a Christmas Eve present.
During our conversation about all things under heaven, we discussed how I came to publish my book.
My book was on the bookshelf.
The cover design was decided upon when I was in Kitano Hospital.
Kitano Hospital is a large hospital equivalent to the Kyoto University Faculty of Medicine.
In the style of "The White Tower," the head of the department and five or six young doctors would go around to each patient's room.
When the publisher sent me several ideas for the cover design, the second round of visits took place.
When I was talking about which one I should choose, one of the young doctors said:
"Kisara-san, would you let me do it? I'm good at this sort of thing."
I immediately left it in his hands.
I told the acquaintance at the beginning of this story that this was the cover.
This morning, while thinking about how grateful I was for yesterday's visit, I turned the pages of my book for the first time in a long time.
I have always felt embarrassed about my books.
That's why I didn't read them that often.
I realized again that this was also a significant loss.
For about a year, my book was on the social science and economics shelf at the main Kinokuniya Umeda store, alongside books by such leading commentators as the late Taichi Sakaiya and Yoichi Takahashi.
The person in charge at Kinokuniya said that although my book was not likely to be a bestseller, it would sell a certain number of copies, so it was displayed on the shelf.
One day, I noticed it had disappeared from the shelf, so I asked the person in charge why.
He replied, "I was confident that it would sell a certain number of copies, but it didn't sell as well as I had expected..."
As readers will know, this was a completely natural result.
The reason is that I am a completely unknown figure in journalism.
What's more, I appeared under the pen name of Akutagawa Kenji, which I had no choice but to do for reasons that my close acquaintances and readers are well aware of.
If I had appeared under my real name, the many acquaintances and friends I have made through business would have bought the book.
I announced in this column on June 1st, 2011, that the book would be published on December 1st.
I wrote an introduction to the book and published it.
At this point, if you searched for "the turntable of civilization," you would find over 20 million hits, with pages 1 to 70 filled with chapters in various languages from this column.
However, the criminal in question created over 100 blogs on each blog management company, such as "driving agency" and "secretarial agency," and began a crime of reverse SEO attack against this column.
After writing blogs with stupid and incoherent content, they posted blogs that published each chapter of this column without permission.
They filled up pages 1 to 10 of the search results with such things.
Immediately, the number of searches for this column dropped sharply to 1/100.
Furthermore, this criminal started committing outrageous crimes on Twitter, such as saying things like "Kisara-san, the vicious writer who is also known as Akutagawa Kenji" and "Kisara-san, the vicious real estate agent who is also known as Akutagawa Kenji."
Simply put, a genuine Japanese sweets shop was in the corner of a completely unknown shopping district.
It is the age of the Internet.
Everyone has a smartphone.
If a criminal like this were to write slanderous comments such as "the ingredients in that shop are made from ○○," that Japanese sweets shop would go bankrupt instantly.
I was made keenly aware of this when I re-read this book.
As the person in charge at Kinokuniya Umeda Main Store saw, this book is a masterpiece.
The fact that this masterpiece was buried by the criminal in question is an unforgivable crime against the world and humanity in the 21st century.
Buy and be done with it
2010/10/25 p114
As I pointed out in "The Turntable of Civilization," the Nikkei newspaper reports that foreign investors hold 30% of the total issued stock worth about 300 trillion yen.
That's 88 trillion yen.
It's only 88 trillion yen.
There is no need for this 30% to be subject to short selling and languish.
To put it in the way of a shōjo manga, "buy and be done with it."
There is no doubt that the slump in stock prices will end and that Japanese stocks will become "a shelter from the storm" (Shelter From The Storm by Bob Dylan), the complete opposite of the situation now.
Right now, they are treated as worthless paper, but they will become platinum paper worthy of the excellence of Japan and its large corporations in particular.
Every time they raise capital, they are subject to heavy short-selling by event funds, and the share price falls by 20% in a very short period of time.
On top of this, the amount of money they plan to raise is revised downward. This ridiculous situation, where they are continually being trampled on by foreign capital, will come to an end.
What remains is what I have mentioned many times before: the media must immediately change their idiotic, low-level ways of doing things.
The government and the private sector must collaborate to demonstrate the hard-working spirit of our nation's workers, who are among the most diligent and highly qualified in the world.
We must make the most of the unique characteristics of our country, which has some of the world's most intelligent people and the highest educational standards, and lead the world for another 170 years as a super economic power that complements the United States.
Immediately end the comic-like situation in which people like Takashi Tachibana, Hiroshi Hoshi, and the prosecutors somehow represent our country and continue to undermine national strength.
The prosecutors are simply one arm of the government and a group of people who are paid well with our taxes.
Our country comprises 90% of wonderful workers who are diligent, have a delicate sensibility, and are highly motivated to improve intellectually.
The 10% elite are there to serve this fantastic nation.
They use their superior intellect day and night, without thinking of themselves, to serve the people.
They must remember that they are paid over 10 million yen yearly for their work.
Those who have done remarkable work to benefit the national interest should be given even higher salaries than the high salaries paid to prosecutors now and made to serve the country for the rest of their lives.
There are bureaucrats (and prosecutors are also bureaucrats) who think about things like secret funds and the practice of bureaucrats taking cushy jobs in the private sector after retiring from the civil service.
They need to change the mindset of bureaucrats who only think about their own vested interests, claiming that they are following precedent.
I think that Japan, a country where the "turntable of civilization" has turned as if to mark the end of the 20th century, should do these things.
That is the role Japan should play in the world.
By moving just 88 trillion yen, we can create a capitalism that is not the egoism of 20th-century capitalism but one that greatly reduces the conflict with democracy in the 21st century.
If we can do this, Japan will be able to make up for the "lost 20 years of Japan" in the next 20 years.
The precious national wealth and personal assets, which are the fruits of the labor of our seniors who demonstrated their precious working spirit after the war and of people like me who have worked like horses for 40 years, are still worth over 1,400 trillion yen.
We still have 500 trillion yen left to spend.
With the exception of a few TV station employees who are just messing around, I am convinced that no one in our country doesn't like to work hard.
On the contrary, our country is overflowing with young people and citizens who can't wait to work.
That is the truth of Japan, a country I love dearly.
2024/12/2 in Kyoto
