Reiwa 6 (2024) "Dragon, the Pair of Carp, Swim up the Waterfall."

The World of 2023
The Nobel Prize in Physiology from a year before was awarded to the research in the field of the origins of humankind. Still the reason why Homo Sapiens survived and other humankind including Neanderthals was exterminated is not known. With that in mind, our species may exterminate sometime in the future. And the new Homo Alien (Shohei Otani, Naoya Inoue, Sota Fujii, Trump and Putin) may be already existing?

The Letter chosen to symbolize the year 2024: 哲 tetsu
The meaning of the letter 哲 is to cut through it (折) with the mouth (口). The reason or logic is clear and wise. 『哲学』 or "philosophy" brings up the feeling of a tone of solitude that is dignified far away from life. The images of wise people such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Lao-tzu, Confucius and Buddha come up naturally. Let us look for the shadow or sign of this letter in actions that will be leading the year.

"I see dreams every night. There is a machine that measures the ten senses. When you put an old and rotten wood on that machine, the scale shows the letter "sorrow". When you put a well-polished pottery, the scale points at "pride". When I put my old and favorite desk on it, the scale sprang up and pointed to "tenderness".
People say that dreams are the result of tired bowels. And I forget those in 5 minutes after I am awake. Several years ago, I had a dream that I was playing with Galileo Galilei. I also participated in Major Leagues. When I close my eyes and swing my bat, it becomes a home run. There is a sport gymnasium on the other side of the bench. There is a cafeteria along the window and Darvish was having a coffee, smiling and saying "Hi".
There is a red new car at the gas station. A lady in a vivid colored dress throws a key to the staff, saying that "put my car upside down" before going into a restaurant.
Yet a dream that I had 10 years ago was astonishing. I was sitting on a seat at a lottery site with about 100 people. There was an announcement of a special prize. Then I had a bad premonition. Soon after my name was announced, and I knew that the prize was a black Boston bag. It was said that things and stock worth about 5 billion yen are inside. I will not work anymore. I stood up, determined, to go up to the stage. I had this dream during 15 minutes of having a little nap on a bullet train.
I won the first prize twice in my life with the New Year card lottery. The probability that a person will receive the first prize was one in a million. And so, for anybody who posts the new year card it would take 2000 years if he posts 500 cards a year.
The movie that I put my own rating at 21st was "Dear Hunter", "Apocalypse Now" and "Platoon", the trilogy from the Vietnam War. "Dear Hunter" was about three soldiers who served in the Vietnam War and lost their youth, depicting incidents such as the cut off of both legs, mental disorder from Russian roulette and ending lives in Vietnam. "Apocalypse Now" portrays a story of a lieutenant who was given a mission to assassinate a former colonel who built his own kingdom in the innermost depths of a jungle and was performing evil and religious rites. "Platoon" follows a new U.S. Army volunteer serving in Vietnam and veterans who argue over the morality of the war.
The Vietnam War ended in 1975. The trilogy (named by Yoshimura) are anti-war movies that portray the realities of the war that America lost. However, the death counts of American soldiers are 60,000 although those of Vietnam including civilians are 3 million. If that is the case, the actual circumstance of the calamitous war is the darkness.
Despite all of that, the situation afterward is strange and mysterious. The Soviet Union collapsed, and China revealed it territorial ambition from its long historical background. And as it is said that "Yesterday's enemies can be a friend today", the rapprochement between America and Vietnam was achieved. Today Vietnam and America have a friendly relationship over politics, economy and other fields, overcoming the different political systems. Asked about a favorite country, Vietnamese say it is America. Those anti-war movies might have calmed the vengeful spirits?"

"In June 2003 we received the Monde Selection Grand Gold Medal for "My French Cooking" and "Honey Sugar Butter Blend", and Gold Medal for "Cheese Fondu" and "Butter Blend with Sesame". It was the first time since we received the Gold Medals for "Jumbo Hotcake" in 1992, 1993 and 1994 consecutively.
In the autumn 2005 we received a report written in English and Japanese from a company called "Plimsoll" in England. The report was titled "The Analysis of Japanese Dairy Product Producer with the top 75 companies." The analysis ranges over the companies' increase of revenues, pre-tax profit margin, the number of employees, average salary, total assets, debt, liquid assets, and depreciations, ratings in 16 points including influential people, active people, cooperate value, added value, cash-rich, and effectiveness. It also categorizes 18 winners, 16 up-and-coming, 17 sleepers and 18 losers. Marinfood was rated 7th, over major dairy corporations.
A document from the board meeting of a cheese ingredient producer "Warrnambool" from Australia, although we did not have commerce at that time, included the following sentence: "Marinfood is a shining star."
The revenue at that time of Marinfood had just reached 8 billion yen. Who liked what?"


"A human being is, essentially, able to accomplish anything as you would like to. If you think you cannot, you cannot. If you believe that you can then you can. That is, everything goes as you trust yourself and impose on yourself."

"1. I participated in a stockholders' general meeting of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in Omaha, Nebraska 6 years ago. The chairman and CEO Warren Buffett was 87 years old then. His partner and vice chairman Charlie Munger was 93 years old. The meeting was held at a basketball arena. 30,000 people participated from all over the world.
The two sat on the stage and answered stockholders' questions one after another. It started at 9 am, there was lunch break and it ended at 4 pm, so 6 hours in total answering by themselves. No such company activity exists in Japan. They do not hold such meetings for 6 hours and chair people do not answer consecutively like that.
That is how and why we would call it the capitalist' morale. Munger passed away at the age of 99. Buffett is 93 years old this year. How will he do from now on?

2. When you look at companies with long histories. Japanese corporations overwhelm. There are 80,000 corporations in the world that have more than a 100 years' history, and Japanese companies occupy 41 % and they are 33,000. American companies are 19,000, Swedish companies are 14,000. Companies that have more than 200-year history are 2,100. Japanese companies are 1,340 (64%), 240 American companies, and 200 German companies. When you talk about companies that have more than 1000 years of history, there are only 12 in the world. 9 companies are from Japan, and one in each in England, France and Australia. I do not know why companies with long history exist in Japan a lot. It is a mystery.

3. In the meanwhile, everyone should know that Japanese GDP sank to the 4th, lost the lead to Germany. Now Toyota is the only one company that is within 50 top companies in market capitalization. There were 32 Japanese companies 30 years ago. More than half were Japanese. What happened? It was surely in the middle of a bubble economy, yet I cannot help but wonder what has happened since then.

4. At the year end of last year, interesting documents came to me. National branding index showed that Japan became the number one the first time, according to the market research company Ipsos.
The index starts from I culture, II national character, III sightseeing, IV exporting, V governance, VI investment and migration, and in total Japan got the number 1.
I heard news like this the first time in a long time. For the reference, the second was Germany, the third Canada and the 6th was America.

5. Japan accomplished the number 1 in the following 6 indexes; exporting was the highest, contribution in scientific technology, site creativity, and attractive products. Also, Japan acquired high evaluations in national character, sightseeing, easy employment and active cities.
Mr. Anholt, the founder of Ipsos, said, "The International image of a country not only has substantial influence over trade, sightseeing investment and attracting human resources, but also geostrategic currents that will form the future of our world and us."

6. Except Germany and America, Japan is the first country that achieved this position. The fact that Japan is now one of the most admired countries substantiates that soft power balance of the world is changing in front of our eyes.
We just entered the era of a new order. The national branding index of this year is a sign that demonstrates that the era of Asia has just started.

7. It is such a fun and pleasant news to hear. Let us walk our business path that is true to its name."


We are born in this era accidentally by fate's mischief, in the eternal history of the universe, working at Marinfood, we engage in the food industry.
We persevere in a changing environment, surviving harsh competition, challenging our goals and sustaining revenues and profits. How shining our lives will be, our one and only, if we can create and be a prime mover for creating a nice and excellent company that leads to the future.

Today we received messages from clients.
"Congratulations to a newly married couple. The party menus look gorgeous and tasty! I was interested in mini hotdogs that looked easy to make." (Y.K. from Osaka)
"Recently a TV program was introducing Marinfood products. The reason why Marinfood is stunning is that the products of Marinfood are delicious in simple and everyday-like." (K.N. from Ibaragi)
"I purchased Uni butter the other day. The day that I purchased it I made potatoes cooked with butter. Today I put the Uni butter on tofu, with dashi soy sauce and green onion. I was very happy to find it when I first saw it." (E.K. from Chiba)
"It is the number one homepage site. It is my favorite. I will continue looking at Marinfood." (R.E. from Saga)
"I looked at video 'the attraction of drinking alcohol by yourself'. I recognized its charm. This sense feels like traveling by yourself. When it is tough to cook, recipes from the site are helpful." (N.I. from Nagano)

This year the Business Development Plan Meeting numbered 38th. The journey till today was as if we were climbing up the winding slope slowly and sluggishly. Last year the Stylino 98 gathered the industry's attention, and I came up with a new year's resolution, "Dragons, pair of carp, swim up the waterfall".

I will continue to devote myself to determine the direction, be resolute with my idea, and promote passionate management with sincerity to accomplish Marin's Dream. I recognize this as my mission from heaven.