Episode 11 Starting a business in Tokushima

The dark tunnel with no way out
Over 10 million yen per unit
No sign of receiving orders

The family home of his wife Hatsuko was located in a town called Nakajosanjima-cho, Tokushima City, near the mouth of the Yoshino
River and right next to the campus of Tokushima University. The reception room by the entrance became the first headquarters for Just System.

The reception room had nothing in particular that appeared like an office with only a sofa, a desk, and a telephone. A little later we installed a computer, but unlike today, it was as big as a desk and took up so much space that the room was already cramped.

July 7, 1979 was the anniversary of the founding of the company, because on the night of the Star Festival, when we were having dinner at home with the Hashimoto family, I announced, “Let’s make today our foundation day.”

As mentioned in the previous episode, at JustSystems, which Hatsuko and I founded together, we had a distributorship agreement with Japan Business Computer Corporation (current JBCC Holdings).
My job was to market JBCC’s office computers (called off-comp) to local businesses.
As with the sales training in Osaka, the first thing I did was legwork, or door-to-door marketing. I went from one local company to the next with catalogs in my hand. I went to every one of the local companies with a catalog. “May I please meet with the chief of the general affairs department?” I would say this and bow my head at the reception desk, however, it was difficult to go any further.
So far, this is no different from what I did when I was in Osaka, but the difference is that I visited the same companies as many times as I could. Even if I get turned away at the reception, I would say, “I am sorry to interrupt you. I will come back again,” and leave with a smile. I repeated this over and over again.

The first thing I did when I started the business was to buy a new car. While I was a company employee in Himeji, I drove a blue car. But I switched to a white Civic as I thought the blue one would not look like a company vehicle. I loved Honda cars.

And so the days went by, but there was one more thing in common with the Osaka days. The thing is that I couldn’t even get a feel for getting the negotiation off the ground, let alone receiving an order. Every few days or so, they would say, “Well, let’s hear what you have to say. But I couldn’t go on from there.

At the time, office computers were expensive commodities, costing more than 10 million yen each. Therefore, it was difficult to obtain an order even if they were willing to listen to me.

Although we called it a company, there were only two people there, me and Hatsuko. Whenever I came home, I would always make small talk with my wife’s grandmother, Yoshiko. Even without me saying, “It didn’t go well today either,” she must have sensed it. She would always say, “Welcome home, Kazu-san. I have some news for you today. ” She always gave me something to talk about this way.

Born in the Meiji era, she was well versed in economics, having graduated from a girls’ school and helped run her family’s rice dealer. She was the one who suggested that we return to Tokushima to work in the computer industry. She was opposed to our marriage until the very end, but once we became a couple and started our own business, she was always there to support us.

Still, days just passed by without any orders being placed at all.

“How long will the days go on like this ? Will it be really fine if I keep doing this job ?”
Gradually I began to feel trapped. Occasionally, I would run into a company that would take a look at my catalog, which somehow kept me in the right frame of mind. But the negotiations never go any further, and I am back to square one.

It was six months after we moved to Tokushima that I could finally see the light at the end of the dark tunnel I had been walking through
every day with no way out.

With an office computer of those days