決　断 （日刊工業新聞社編、1999年出版）　4. 翻訳商売が節電虫を生む Translation business gives birth to Setsuden-mushi.

ところが、釜本社長のフィールドはこれだけで終わらなかった。ひょんなきっかけから、ファクスの消費電気を節約するヒット商品「Setsuden-mushi」の開発者となるのである。一体、何の接点もありそうにない英語とはどうつながったのか―。

翻訳の仕事で顧客との文書のやり取りにファクスが欠かせない必需品であり釜本社長は1台50万円もするころから愛用していた。とはいえ1日のうち実際に動いている時間はごくわずか。それ以外のいわゆる待機時間中は電気を浪費している。「これはもったいない。室温も上昇させる。何とか待機時間だけ電気を止める装置はできないか」。ある時、ふとそんなアイデアが浮かんだ。根っこは技術者。凝り性の性分に火が付いた。装置の試作に没頭しているうち、1994年、ついに独力で完成した。ファクスに電話回線から送・受信の呼び出し信号が送られると、回線の電流が微妙に変化する。釜本社長はここに着目した。「節電虫」はこの電流を感知するセンサーを内蔵。回線とファクスの間に接続し、感知すると自動的にスイッチを入れ、5分後には切れる仕組みで待機電力を100％カツトする。試験した結果、電気代に換算してファクス一台で年間3000円節約できた。

「これはいける」と釜本社長は直感。「素人がモノを売ろうなんて無理。お金もかかる。これ以上新しいことに手を出すのは、やめた方がいい」という周囲の説得に目もくれず、セールスに出歩いた。案の定、当初は全く売れなかった。

「節電虫を試してみたい」。一台も売れずお先真っ黒だったところ、1996年突如として注文が舞い込み始めた。1994年に開設したインターネットのホームベージ（ＨＰ）が、思わぬ効果を生んだのだ。ＨＰやメールリンクで自分の考え方が紹介されたのをきっかけに、節電虫は注目を浴びた。特に、「電気を節約すれば発電所の二酸化炭素の発生量も減らせる」といううたい文句が、環境対策に敏感になり始めた大企業や自治体の心をつかんだ。さらに、ＨＰの開設先で見込みのありそうなところも探してダイレクトメールで攻勢。ユーザーが新規ユーザーを紹介する好循環を呼び、この年だけで800台販売した。販売力がなくても、時代のニーズを先取りした商品はきっかけさえあれば売れることを学んだ。

　However, President Kamamoto's field did not end there. In a strange turn of events, he became the developer of Setsuden-mushi, a hit product that saves electricity consumed by fax machines. How did it come to be connected with English, a language that never seemed to have any connection with?

　Faxes are indispensable for the exchange of documents with clients in the translation business, and President Kamamoto had been using them since they cost as much as 500,000 yen each. However, there are only a little time in a day when the fax machine is actually in operation. During the rest of the day, when they are on standby, electricity is being wasted. "This is a waste of energy. It also raises the room temperature. Can't we somehow make a device that turns off the electricity during the standby time?” One day, such an idea suddenly came to him. He is an engineer at heart, and this sparked his passion. As he immersed himself in the trial production of the device, he finally completed it on his own in 1994. When a call signal is sent or received from a telephone line to a fax machine, the current in the line changes slightly. This is what President Kamamoto focused his attention. The Setsuden-mushi has a built-in sensor that detects this current change. The Setsuden-mushi is connected between the line and the fax machine, and automatically switches on when it detects the current change, and switches off five minutes later, thereby cutting standby power consumption by 100%. As a result of the test, he was able to save 3,000 yen a year on the electricity bill for one fax machine.

"President Kamamoto's intuition told him, "This is a good idea. But the people around him were against him saying, "It's impossible for an amateur to sell something. it costs a lot of money. it's impossible for an amateur to sell something new, and it is not good to be messing with anything new any more.” As expected, the product did not sell at all at first.

　"I want to try Setsuden-mushi," one customer said. In 1994, Mr. Kamamoto opened an Internet home page (homepage), which had an unexpected effect. He said, "If you save electricity, you can save money. In particular, the phrase "saving electricity will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide generated by power plants" caught the attention of large corporations and local governments that were beginning to be sensitive to environmental measures. In addition, he searched for potential customers that had set up websites and sent direct mails to them. This led to a virtuous cycle of users introducing new users, and 800 units were sold in that year alone. He learned that even if we don't have the sales power, we can sell products that anticipate the needs of the times as long as we have the right opportunity.

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