It has been almost a year since the monkey photograph was featured as National Geographic’s Photo of the Day on March 10, 2015. It feels much longer ago, but in truth it has only been a year since photography truly pulled me in. I came to understand how important post-processing is, and began spending much more time developing images. I also started uploading finished photographs to several online communities to see how people responded. I have not entered many contests yet, but from now on I would like to try creating images with a stronger sense of intention — photographs that might stand up in competitions as well.

After submitting work to a site called LensCulture, I was given an account and began publishing image projects there. Link >>>　　Unlike Fukudoya Gallery, the site tends to value storytelling more strongly than spectacular scenic photography, so I approach it more as project-based work. Part of it is certainly self-indulgence, but I would still like to create projects that convey something meaningful.

I have not updated the LensCulture site for a very long time, so the link has since been removed.

The photograph shows Okoshiki Coast in Kumamoto Prefecture, which I visited in 2015.

Looking back at Fukudoya Gallery, I realized that recently I had not updated it very often because my time had been taken up by other things. Unlike LensCulture, the purpose of this gallery is to introduce places through the photographs I have taken there, so I felt I should increase the pace a little. With that in mind, I organized and uploaded photographs taken across Kyushu in 2014 and 2015 under the title Home Kyushu. I hope you will enjoy them.

Fukudoya Gallery was renewed in 2026, and the original pages from that period are no longer available.

In the latter half of last year, the current leader of my company asked me to speak to some recently hired employees about the work and experiences that had shaped my career. I ended up giving three sessions. In the first, I spoke about my experiences beginning in 1988, when I was living in Chicago and approached an American construction company during the U.S.–Japan construction talks, and how, after returning to Japan, I transferred into that company and became involved in management and business development up to the present day. Using old magazine articles and other materials, I explained the history of our activities in Japan and the transitions the company itself had gone through.The second session focused on communication — both within foreign-affiliated companies and in working life more generally. The third was about the business philosophy I had believed in for nearly thirty years.

The image shows material used in the training sessions.

　　　

The younger employees seemed to enjoy the talks. After the first session, some volunteers even started a social gathering for younger staff called the “Around Thirty Group,” and they began inviting me as well. I now enjoy meeting with them about once a month. It is also amusing that I am the only person there over forty.

The original organizer, seeing the response from the younger employees, apparently felt that opportunities like this kind of education were necessary. As a result, he asked me to conduct monthly training sessions during the first half of 2016. Those sessions began in February. Since I needed time to prepare them — sometimes reusing material from lectures I had once given at a university — this too became a major source of motivation to keep living through the extended warranty period.

So the warranty has been extended by another year. What will happen from here, I wonder. I will continue to report from time to time.

See you again.