Linchpins in Japan

During my recent trip to Japan, I had opportunities to meet many linchpins in Japan. I did not name them as such to their face, but I had a quiet pleasure of recognizing them in my mind.

One such occasion was when I accompanied my boss, @s_ishizuka, to a podcast recording session. He recently published a book called The Zappos Miracles in Japanese and was asked to be interviewed for a podcasting program. The producer/interviewer of this program is a young guy in his late 20s to early 30s. He is one of the best-known alpha bloggers in Japan specialized in book reviews.

My boss has never been recorded for podcasting before, so we had no idea what to expect. When we arrived at the studio, we were amazed by how compact the place was! There was a small table where the interviewer and interviewee (my boss) would sit face to face, and five of us, me and my colleague, a sound engineer and two interns who studied journalism in college sat on the floor circling the table, not unlike children eager to hear a bedtime story.

What moved me about this experience was the handmade quality of the setting. There was nothing extravagant about the studio, but it was well set-up. The sound engineer proudly demonstrated the quality of his recording equipment, a nifty-looking gadget the size of an oversized cell phone. Two curtains hang from the pole on two sides of the tiny room so as to absorb the noise, we were told. And the place smelled of dream and ambition! From this tiny studio just big enough for two people to sleep, they were broadcasting their own version of gospels to the world.

The producer/interviewer told us that he used to be a journalist for a traditional newspaper. Just as he was about to embark on his journey, representing the voice of justice and uncovering the truth for all of us general public to read, he fell ill. He suffered depression, and what finally got him out of the darkness and despair was a book.

From then on, he decided to be a book reviewer and to introduce books of inspiration to young readers like himself. Because books change one's life for the better, he said.

I will never forget the simple but extraordinary feeling of excitement that I felt as I sat on the floor of that compact studio, hugging my knees to my chest. As the quiet but confident voice of the interviewer filled the room and streamed into my ears, I felt strangely connected to the thousands of listeners who were listening to the program out in the world over the Internet. I did not know those people and, most likely we would never meet, but at that very moment I was connected to our collective hope for a better life.