A New and Old Fan

We went to Seattle last spring to visit Company A, who purchased our Falcon printing machine. When I went inside the factory, I found the Falcon set up in a very nice arrangement.

I took a look at the control panel and wondered whether the machine was working well,

and then I took an even closer look.

In their factory, 350 boxes are produced per minute for an order of 50,000 boxes. That hardly happens in Japan.

One of the staff of the American factory said, “I've been working at cardboard factories for 40 years and I've never seen a machine installed so smoothly like this. I really want to thank Mr. H and Mr. T from the assembly division of ISOWA Japan and Mr. A, who is an electrical mechanic, also from ISOWA Japan, as well as Mr. C from ISOWA America, who came here to get it installed.”

He continued: “Actually, Company B is in the same business as us, and they visited us here this morning. They purchased a machine from one of ISOWA's competitors, but seeing how this Falcon printer operated very effectively, they said, 'We should have gotten one of these too.'"

Later we went to lunch together with our clients. At the end of the lunch, someone said, "Let’s flip to decide who is going to pay. Heads or tails?"

It was a surprise. I've never done such a thing before. But anyway, I picked heads.

Who paid after all? I'll leave it to your imagination. Now there is one more ISOWA fan in America. No doubt about it!

Company C is also in Seattle, and we visited them too.

They have been an important customer of ours since my father's day. If we had not had their business, ISOWA America would not be what it is today. They are very progressive and have the most brilliant technical skill in the American cardboard industry. It was in 1976 that my father first met them.

“European and American manufacturers are swayed too much by immediate profit and don't have the energy to work on long-term development. ISOWA is the best. Also, their products provide high cost-performance in terms of maintenance.”

“ISOWA experienced a generational change, and now ISOWA itself has changed. I'd like to pay my respects. We've also had a change of generations. Both of us have good leaders and dependable young people.”

“I expect them to make an epoch-making development that is going to be a legendary in the cardboard industry.”

After the meeting, we had a meal together at a seafood restaurant along the seaside of Seattle.

This time nobody seemed to have a coin, so they treated us to a feast without any coin toss. (laughs)

Let's put our heart and soul into our creating and manufacturing to make a legend!

Looking back on our own growth of the past 10 years

The MC Association (manager and chief association) is a brotherhood for our management team. We held a farewell and welcome party for Mr. I, who left, and for Mr. H and Mr. K, who joined the MC Association this year.

Mr. Shibata from Scholar Consult Co., who is attending a general meeting of stockholders tomorrow as an auditor, also joined the party.

After the meeting, there was a project like a lecture or dialog given by Mr. Shibata. This is becoming our tradition. Tomorrow's theme is "Growth of ISOWA over the past decade." So this time we made time for everyone to give a speech about their own growth over the past 10 years.

It was great, really great.


I was listening to the speeches and thinking about the results of our corporate culture reform, which is the sum total and multiplier effect of our executives' growth over the past decade.

Isowa, a managing director, made a strong declaration: "We at Hooper (ISOWA's affiliated company) will do our best. It might take a long time to be like ISOWA, but I would like you to support us."

Of course I will.

After the speeches of all the members, Mr. Shibata started telling us what didn't make sense. "It was so regrettable." I couldn't understand what he meant.

"Actually I forgot to bring a notebook and couldn't take notes during your amazing speeches. It was so regrettable that I couldn't memorize all of today's stories because much of the material for my talk is actually from ISOWA." Finally I understood what he wanted to say.

And then the organizer said, "Well, company executive Isowa will make a brief speech, finally, but before that …" The door opened and some cakes came into sight.

At first I just thought it was for the departing Mr. I, but to my surprise, the cakes were to celebrate my birthday, which is coming in two days.

I didn't know how they decided the number of candles, but anyway, I gave a puff to put out the candles. I easily blew out all the candles on the cake in front of me. And when I tried to put out the other candles on the other cakes, before I got out of breath, I lost my balance and almost stuck my head into a pot of shabu-shabu. That was close. I'm sorry. I think I have to write up an accident report.

By the way I heard that they prepared two cakes so everyone could have a piece.

They were delicious, indeed.
Thank you for celebrating my birthday.
Let's do our best for our next 10 years of growth, shall we?