Author: Satoru Hirose

 

Live with your bucket list.
「死ぬまでにやりたいことリスト」と共に生きよう。

 

One of the most inspiring books in my life is Before I Die by Candy Chang.

It’s like a bucket list in public. It’s also amazing to know that people around the globe have similar (if not the same) wishes like each one of us does.

It will never be late to start something meaningful to you. Like a 2007 American film The Bucket List. Like a 1952 Japanese film Ikiru directed by Akira Kurosawa.

“Before I die I want to ________.”

Every morning, ask this question and fill out the blank. Do something to live the life you want. Every single day. Our life shines most brightly when we are conscious of its end.

And never forget to dream big. If we know our life is worth pursuing something big — really big — we won’t easily give up on our life.

 

 

Don’t give up on everything just because you dealt with a bad thing.
悪いものに接したからといって、全てを諦めない。

 

In Japan, some people kill themselves due to overwork, discrimination and harassment at workplace. My foreign friends usually don’t believe that, but it actually happens sometimes.

One of such cases has been widely broadcasted on media. Woman in early her twenties, who also had had a great education, killed herself after suffering from abusive environment of her workplace. The company she worked for is considered as one of the most influential public companies in Japan.

This case is not rare. Even though abused employees do not commit suicide, many of them become mentally ill and are forced to leave the workplace — either voluntary or involuntary.

Let’s face it — some companies are really evil and immoral, although they may look good from the outside. They are killing people or making them sick, rather than growing them. But it doesn’t mean that ALL companies are bad.

We don’t have to give up on all companies just because we dealt with really bad ones or we heard about evil companies on media. Some of them are really good and keep improving themselves to be better. We just haven’t heard of them as much as we hear about evil ones.

Where darkness exists, so does light. And vice versa. Let us see both of them as it is. And remember that it is always up to us to decide how to label them.

 

 

Question everything.
あらゆるものを疑おう。

 

At least in Japan, journalism is becoming like comedy. Popular comedian and idol become an anchor. Not a few commentators don’t know what they are talking about. But they talk anyway because that is how they get paid. If we blindly believe what they say, we will easily lose sight of what is going on in this world.

We can love and respect others, and it’s great if we do so all the time. But at the same time, we have to verify what they say. ESPECIALLY what famous or authoritative people say. They are very good at unconsciously manipulating (oftentimes, in the name of ‘managing’ or ‘leading’) others without giving them enough information.

In this world, there are many low-quality information as well as reliable, high-quality information. Chances are, if we gather necessary information by ourselves, we can identify who says the right thing and whom we can rely upon. This is the benefit of information-driven society.