Takashi Miki: Past and Future

I wonder why I was given such an opportunity, but over the past few years, I have started golf tournaments with seniors and juniors from my university club. While drinking at night, we had the chance to listen to the Keio University Cheerleading Team's fight songs on video. I happened to see the moment Keio beat Koryo at Koshien on TV and heard the "Juku-ka," which filled me with an indescribable sense of nostalgia and pride. Since then, I have listened to "Juku-ka" and "Wakaki-chi" many times (it's a secret that my daughter told me, "Dad, you didn't go to Keio for high school, did you?"). With all this happening, I decided to take this opportunity to reflect on myself since graduating from Keio and think about the future.

After graduating in 1990, I joined a company, and in 1996, due to various circumstances, I somewhat naturally joined my father's company. I am what you would call a second-generation successor. Our business focuses on the planning, proposal, production, and delivery of original shoppers (paper bags, plastic bags, boxes, etc.) used in-store by specialty stores for apparel, cosmetics, jewelry, food, and more. It is a very niche field. While our proposals, including materials, change over time in response to trends like current environmental issues and SDGs, we approach our work with the pride that these are "one of the important tools for expressing each customer's branding." I like to think that many of you have seen or held one of our shoppers at least once.

The first thing that surprised me when I joined the company was my father's complete one-man management style. In 2007, I eventually became the representative, but from there, I spent over a dozen years dealing with problems outside of our core business: my father's reckless investment in new businesses as co-representative and the resulting deterioration of our finances, a scam my father fell for in his desperation, conflicts with my father, and friction with long-time directors and executives who couldn't speak up to him. In 2020, I finally brought internal closure by dismissing my father, but with our core business taking a major hit from COVID-19, I honestly think to myself that we have done well to survive amidst the chaos.

In the midst of all this, this year we achieved business restructuring through the transfer of the aforementioned separate business, and our core business is showing signs of improvement from the adversity of COVID-19 thanks to the efforts of our employees. These days, I feel like I want to take the time to seriously consider the future of the company, as well as the future for myself and my family.