Episode 5 Hatsuko

A woman who majored in science to take over the family business
My wife was raised in a fourth-generation matriarchal family

Hatsuko Hashimoto, whom I met shortly after entering Ehime University, is from Tokushima City. Her family has been a matriarchal family
for four generations. Her grandmother, Yoshiko, is the daughter of a rice dealer. Her father helped develop the business from a small rice
dealer to one of the largest in Tokushima. Her mother, Yoko, is still active as an indigo dyeing artist, hoping for the revival of indigo, which
nearly went out of fashion after the war. Her father, Akira, was a banker. As he was transferred every two years, Hatsuko had to switch
elementary schools four times and junior high schools twice.

As I wrote last time, she was among the only two women in the Engineering Department in the same grade. The presence of women in the
Engineering Department was rare at that time. I think that most of the women in sciences were students studying in the Pharmaceutical
Department.

It was impressive that she said “I will eventually have to take over the family business” when I asked her why she chose to major in
engineering. She said her mother also told her from an early age that “women should also acquire specific skills.” I had never had such a
thought, so I was already simply impressed by what a fine woman she was.

Her science orientation seemed to have been largely influenced by an encounter she had in elementary school. Influenced by her tutor, she
developed an interest in mathematics, which remained her favorite subject as she continued her education into junior high and high school.
On the other hand, she was not good at the national language, citing as a reason for this being she “liked the world where everything can be
put into a formula like mathematics and physics”.

Her interest in computers was nurtured earlier than mine, when she was in junior high school. His father worked in the bank’s business
development division and was responsible for the introduction of online computers. Hatsuko was also interested in it, after receiving some
manuals from her father.

Of all the computer-related jobs, she chose to be a programmer. When she was a senior in high school, a college preparatory magazine she
read drew her attention to a description of programmers, in addition to pharmacists and teachers, as examples of careers for women in the
sciences. Although it was still an underdeveloped field, it said that the lack of physical labor meant that women would also be able to plan
active roles as men do.

At Just System, which I and Hatsuko later founded together, half of the employees were women. As is still the case today, there is no gender
gap in the competence of information technology (IT) engineers. She led the engineering team and made every effort to create a comfortable
workplace for women. These efforts supported the rapid growth of “ICHITARO,” but I will leave the details of these developments for a
later episode.

My time as a student with Hatsuko and other friends passed by like a flash, and I found a job at Nishishiba Electric, a Toshiba-affiliated
company. It was located in Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture. Hatsuko followed her first ambition and joined Takachiho Burroughs (current
Nihon Unisys) in Tokyo as a programmer.

In fact, even later on, I don’t recall formally asking her to marry me, but by this time, the two of us were talking about getting married in the
future.

Himeji and Tokyo. It was a so-called long-distance relationship. At that time, there were no such conveniences as cell phones, and even
though it was right after the Shinkansen line was extended to Okayama, we, as a young couple, felt that we were far apart, compared to how
people feel today.

Hatsuko lived in a women-only apartment when she was a student. On the day she was to leave for Tokyo, I helped her move out, and while
we were both busy, it was already time for her to leave.
We were parting for a brief while.

My wife grew up in a fourth-generation matriarchal family
(Hatsuko is in the front row, left in the photo).