Chapter 4 　Birth of Setsuden-mushi (a profitmaking device) 　4.2 Setsuden-mushi's Growth Expectations and Setbacks 　4.2.2 Approach to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun

4.2.2 Approach to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun

　I myself fully agree with Mr. Hiroyuki Torii's argument. And when I look at the current attitude of major manufacturers toward the development of information technology, I have serious doubts about their attitude besides the pursuit of convenience. In other words, I feel that their improvement and development of better technology is characterized by the following.

(1) Everything is done side-by-side among major companies.

2) Gradual and deliberate repetition of improvements of several tens of percent to create replacement demand, and

(3) As a result, they are producing a lot of waste.

Why can't and won't we reduce wasteful energy consumption such as standby electricity consumption to zero at once?

　This editorial article by Mr. Hiroyuki Torii was brought to me by Mr. Toshiaki Sato, a long-time friend of mine, who has given me good advice on the development of Setsuden-mushi from time to time.

　I truly felt that I had gotten the right idea, and was eager to somehow get in touch with Hiroyuki Nakajima, the editorial board member. At that time, Mr. Tomofumi Kimura, a reporter for Nikkei BP, was giving a lecture on industrial machinery design at the Hiroshima Prefecture Eastern Industrial Technology Center in Fukuyama City, a neighboring city. It was on October 14, 1994, just five days after the editorial article by Mr. Nakajima was published.

　After listening to the lecture, I asked the lecturer, Tomofumi Kimura, a reporter at Nikkei BP, to look at the editorial article written by Hiroyuki Nakajima in the Nikkei Shimbun and the Setsuden-mushi prototype that I had developed. I then asked him to take a look at the specific method and device I had already developed to solve the problem of standby electricity consumption that Mr. Nakajima had pointed out in his editorial.

　A few weeks later, I received a phone call from Mr. Yoshikawa, a reporter from the Science and Technology Department of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, and he gave me a long phone interview.

　The interview was published as an article (https://1drv.ms/b/s!Ai_aaa4f_vZzgwcBt5uc43t17QBF?e=lhjWaF) on the 5th page of the Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun on December 21, 1994, saying that my company had developed a device to reduce the amount of electricity consumption to zero during standby. It was reported as the top article on page 5 of the Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun dated December 21, 1994.

　Only less than half a year had passed from the development of the handmade Setsuden-mushi prototype to this report. My expectations were greatly inflated. But then I experienced the harshness of business.

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