2011年11月27日日曜日

マザーハウスというストーリー

ご存知の方も多いだろうが、私が心から応援している会社の一つにマザーハウスがある。

先週末、マザーハウスのバッグを衝動買いしてしまった。帰り道たまたま友人が働いているマザーハウスのお店に寄ったらその日発売のバックが置いてあった。


http://www.mother-house.jp/collection/brand/mens/menstoplist/mg11120.php


以前から旅行に使えるボストンバックが欲しいと思っていて、デザインも気に入ったので、普段は倹約と熟考を心がけているつもりが、思いがけずの購入だった。

皮革の質感にくわえ、持ち運びしやすそうな軽さ、間口の広い形状、中のルンギ生地のさりげなさ、旅行にちょうど良い大きさといった「デザイン」に惹かれたのは言うまでもない。だが思わず購入してしまった理由はそれだけではない。私が気に入っているのはなにより、このバックとマザーハウスという会社にまつわる「ストーリー」である。

代表の山口絵理子さんのことを知ったのは、彼女の著書「裸でも生きる」(講談社BIZ)からだったが、この本の衝撃はいまだに忘れられない。最初読み始めたとき、彼女は周りにもいるような、開発経済に興味を持つ普通の大学生に思えた。だがそれは読み進めていくうちに、全く違っていたことに気づいた。彼女は国際開発機関でのインターンに疑問を持ち、途上国の現実を知りたいがためバングラデシュに単身渡ったかと思うと、なんとそのまま現地の大学院に通いだした。そして「途上国から世界に通用するブランドをつくる。」という強い想いを胸に、バック製作を学び、現地で工場の裏切りに何度も遭遇しながらも、自らのデザインしたバックを生み出したのである。


詳しくは本書や当社Webサイトのメッセージ(http://www.mother-house.jp/company/message.php)に譲るが、彼女の情熱は別のこの言葉に集約されている。




「バッグは沢山見てきたけれど、そのバッグを買うことの深い意味を人に語れるバッグが欲しくて」(山口絵理子)


「夢を現実に落し込んでいくような会社をつくりたい。」(山口絵理子)




彼女がつくっているのは、「バック」だけではないのだ。それは、そのバックが形になるまでの悲喜こもごもの「ストーリー」であり、そうした「ストーリー」を現実のものにしていく「会社」である。
雑誌の記事かどこかで誰かがこのようなことを語っていた。


「客は、「ストーリー」を買っているのだ。客は、単にバッグを買いたいのではない。大げさに言えば、最貧国のアウェーの環境で戦い続ける、若きベンチャー社長のファイティングスピリットの「象徴」であるバッグをこの手にしたい。そんな気持ちが湧いてくるのではないか。」


まさにそうだと思う。私が衝動買いしたバックを手にした時の感覚も、まさにこのようなものだった。このバックにはバングラデシュの直営工場・マトリゴールの移転記念エンボスが押されている。代表の山口絵理子さんをはじめとして、日本のスタッフ、バングラデシュのスタッフとその家族、それを支えるたくさんの人々の想いが詰まったバックだ。マザーハウスのトップページに掲載されている現地マネージャー・モインさんの生き生きとした表情と揺るがぬ想いは感動的である。(http://www.mother-house.jp/


「物語はモノ語り」とは良く言ったもので、私たちの身の回りにあふれるモノには、マザーハウスのバックのように「ストーリー」が詰まっている。モノは、言葉を発しないために普段はなかなか気づくことがないが、改めてモノと向き合ってみるとそこには必ずそのモノの歴史があり、関わる人の想いがある。そうした決して言葉で発せられることのないモノのストーリーに耳を傾けることは、生活や人生をとても豊かなものにしてくれるだろう。高度な消費社会に生きる私たちは、そうしたストーリーに耳を傾ける心の持ちようをなくしてしまってはいないだろうか。


この会社の行っている事業は、近い将来の社会のあり方、人々の生き方を映し出しているのだという手応えを強く感じる。会社もストーリーを現実の形に落とし込んだひとつのモノである。語ることはつきないが、これからもいろいろと応援していきたい会社だ。




#2-16 The magic of disaporas [19th Nov, 2011]


The magic of disaporas [19th Nov, 2011]
November 27th 2011 10:00-12:00
Ueno Renoir
Iino, Ogawa, Kurasawa, Yamagata, Ido, Murakami, Sugahara and Tomozawa



Articles we discussed
[Leaders][The Euro crisis] The German problem
[Leaders][Free trade in the Pacific] A small reason to be cheerful
[Asia][America in the Asia-Pacific] We’re back
[Asia][China’s economy] Fearful symmetry
[F&E][Japan’s economy] Whose lost decade?


In contrast to a week before, eight people gathered this week in Ueno. Several Renoir café is located in Ueno. We used the one near from Ueno Park. For the first time, Murakami prepared his handouts and made his presentation about China’s economy. Some members presented in English but most of our discussion was in Japanese.

The first article Ido picked up was about the important role of German to settle the Euro crisis. Many of German’s economic establishments think that big rescue is not good for the dull southern governments such as Greece so if Mrs Merkel wants to save euro by buying bonds or other ways, she must challenge them in her country. Ido questioned us about German’s merit to rescue other countries. As the article mentioned, German certainly enjoyed Euro economy. They got advantages from euro exchange rate and got profits by expanding their trade. We also discussed German’s responsibility and the similarity between Euro crisis and Southern America’s crisis decades ago.

TPP was a hot topic this week so Ogawa and Kurasawa picked up articles related to America and the Pacific. We discussed much about protectionism and free trade policy. We mostly agreed the decision of Japan to join TPP discussion but some concerned of influences to medical industry, agriculture and livestock industry. Ogawa also pointed out based on the article that we have to understand TPP not only as an economical issue but also security issue. America admits China’s “peaceful rise” of their economy but America is also considering power balance between the Pacific. The region is the world’s most economically vibrant region, which proved to be the source of the greatest threats to security over coming decades. China is at the heart of things.

Our next discussion focused on China’s worsening economy. Murakami pointed out China’s dilemmas. Because of the Euro crisis deepen, china’s economic tightening is over and its easing has begun. (EU accounts for a fifth of China’s economy) However, they fear housing bubble burst because of the tightening. We understand the world is connected each other and China’s economy is also challenging situation.

The last article Yamagata chosen describes positive aspect of Japan’s economy. He picked up it because he wanted to make it clear what is a solution for Japanese fiscal problem by seeing positive side. The article mentions that Japan is suffering from “Structural pessimism”. And it focuses the strong points that Japan has. Yamagata commented that he agrees to the idea that it is better to compare Japan with US and Europe than China. But he also said that he disagrees to the too positive observation of the article.

Even on Sunday morning, this Renoir café was crowded with people. This might be because the place the café is located is convenient for most of the people who have something to do in Ueno. A party of eight people was larger than expected so we have to consider if more people come to join the study group.

2011年11月20日日曜日

#2-15 That’s all, falks [12th Nov, 2011]

That’s all, falks [12th Nov, 2011]
Shibuya ON THE CORNER – NO.8 BEAR POND 20th Nov, 2011 10:00-12:00
Ogawa, Yamagata and Shimada


What we discussed:
[Briefing][South Korea’s economy] What do you do when you reach the top
[Special report: Europe and its currency][The causes] A very short history of the crisis


This week we gathered at Shibuya after a long time. A friend of mine introduced me the café last week so we decided to use it right away. BGM was a little bit loud but it was comfortable to sit and talk in this space. Some of our members couldn’t join us so we were only three but we started our discussion as usual.

The first article Ogawa picked up was “What do you do when you reach the top” from Briefing. This article is about South Korea’s economy and as the title implies, it says that South Korea needs new tactics and innovation because it has already reach the top of the world economy like EU and Japan. The reason Ogawa chose the article to was that he wanted to focus on difference between Korean and Japan’s current situation and to discuss what we Japanese have learned from mistakes in the lost two decades that Korea didn’t have experienced. The situation of Korea looks similar to Japan in 80’ and 90’. As Korea, we also need innovation and new tactics to make it realized. But we had already 2o years after we reached to the top like Korea confronts now. Is Japan changed to be a front-runner? If we already changed our economy from a follower to a front-runner, we might get some new experiences and learning that Korea doesn’t have. We discussed mainly on problems and hardships of Korea’s economy. We can easily find faults with a neighbor but its difficult to find ourselves’. 

The second article was from special report on Europe and its currency. From several articles, Shimada picked up “A very short history of the crisis”. He chose it to comprehend euro zone crisis and to discuss the solution for it. The article mainly criticizes Germany attitude towards the crisis and insists that Germany should contribute and take a responsibility mentioning low interest rates and profitable trade that they have enjoyed for a decade. The economist thinks the only solution for the problem rests on German’s shoulder. Shimada pointed out another interesting discussion point: If the low interesting rate is one of the main factor for the euro crisis, is Japan also fell into the same crisis in near future? We followed the current situation of Japan’s debt and concluded we need to continue following the topic.

Our discussion sometimes goes into a demonstration of each person’s knowledge. This doesn’t favorable style. I want to make our discussion, so to speak, a battle of values, ethics and morals. What we encounter is the problem we couldn’t find the right solution easily. There is no right answer for such a kind of problem. All we need is to choose our way to step forward. To make a decision, we follow our own compasses such as sense of values, morals and ethics. This is our aim in our discussion.

2011年11月13日日曜日

#2-14 The missing middle [Nov 5th, 2011]


The missing middle [Nov 5th, 2011]
Yoyogi Renoir Nov 13th, 2011
Ono, Ogawa, Tomozawa, Tsuji and Sugahara

Articles we discussed:
[Leaders][A euro referendum] Greece’s woes
[Asia][Banyan] Echoes of dreamland
[Business] Land of the wasted talent

5 people gathered this week including 2 guests as observers. Tsuji is a friend of Ono and he met Ogawa once before graduate. He is working at a governmental financial organization. Sugahara joined us for the second time and she met Ono for the first time. We discussed 3 articles, which is the fewest among our recent discussions. We could discuss and share our thought using enough time.

The first article we followed was “Greece’s woes” from Leaders. Ono picked up the article because he was interested in a word “Political capital” introduced in this article. This word is new for me. It means the power that popularity confers on a politician. We had two discussion points. The first is evaluation of “comprehensive package” to save the euro, arranged on October. The second is political capital of our government to realize reconstruction of the economy. We also mentioned a possibility of a tax increase and a national debt failure.

The second article we discussed is “Echoes of dreamland” from Banyan. “Five Power Defense Arrangement”(FPDA) consist of 5 countries, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Britain. This arrangement concluded in 1971 during a cold war and still work as a multilateral security agreement with an operational dimension. Ogawa picked up the article to see not only economic agreement such as TPP but also security agreements around Asia.

Last article Tomozawa picked up was “Land of wasted talent” from business. The topic of the article is a demographic catastrophe and Japanese firms. As we already know, Japan’s population of 127m is predicted to fall to 90m by 2050. As recently as 1990, working age Japanese outnumbered children and the elderly by seven to three. By 2050 the ration will be one to one, which cause labor shortage. We mainly discussed based on a opinion of Ms. Sugawara. She introduced us the realities and difficulties of raising children and she mentioned that the discussion of the article was like “an armchair theory”. It was interesting discussion because usually we discussed among the same generation but today didn’t.

It was a second time we use Renoir in Yoyogi. This place is not crowded so we can easily get seats for members. Tomozawa and Ogawa changed their presentation in English. It always impressed us that Ono prepares advanced argument based on his macro economic knowledge. I think I should prepare for the discussion much more.

2011年11月6日日曜日

#2-13 Europe's rescue plan [Oct 29th, 2011]


Europe's rescue plan [Oct 29th, 2011]
Sendagaya Good Morning Café Nov 6th, 2011
Ogawa, Yamagata, Tomozawa, Miyabe, Murakami and Sugahara


Articles we discussed:
[Japan’s free-trade dilemma] Yes, it should
[Briefing] [Hedge fund in Asia] The crocodiles are coming
[Finance &Economics][Student loans in America] Nope, just debt


This week we gathered at Sendagaya, Good morning café. We had a guest this week. Sugahara-san is a lady who is a translator of National Geographic magazine. She found our group on the Internet and tried to make contact with us. We appreciate for her effort. Murakami joined us for the second time. We already know each other but I met him for the first time in this study group. 6 people gathered and we discussed mainly TPP, funding for students and briefly hedge funds.

The first article was about student loans in America. The article reckons that student loans in America could possibly be the next credit bubble. Ogawa chose it to know why they think it is and wanted to discuss who should pay the cost of education. Education benefits students themselves principally but also benefits the society as well. Parents are responsible for their children education when they are small. But whether parents are responsible for children’s college education or not is debatable. Our debate quoted the case of the university of Tokyo, which offers tuition free system for students from low-income households.

Secondly we moved to a topic of TPP. The Economist had not taken the topic in previous issues but this time the prime minister of Japan, Mr. Noda decided to join the discussion of TPP so they focused on the topic. Tomozawa made his paper summarizing approval argues and disapproval argues. The interesting point of our discussion was an exit strategy Japan might have. Investments for international project always have a withdrawal clause for the case the project turns out to be unprofitable. If we reckon TPP is not profitable to join, could Japan make a decision to withdrawal from the treaty? Does Japan have an exit strategy? Japan should have a kind of withdrawal clauses or principles that we can make negative deceptions.

Lastly we picked up the article about Hedge funds in Asia. Hedge funs see Asia as a new centre for their business. But they will have to work hard to make it so. We followed up the way of making profits by hedge funds. They hedge risks of a downturn trend. We also discussed social values of them.  Considering a market as a whole, we need them to keep liquidity of the market. But some argues that they are like evils that make no values to our society. We need more discussions about it.

This café located by the side of Tokyo gymnasium. So sometime we hit an athletic competition held in the gym. The café is crowded every time we use it. The day was also.