In early spring in 2020, news reports on the novel coronavirus infection were hitting the headlines day in, day out. I was preparing to visit our affiliate companies in the Netherlands and the United States, for both of which I served as a board member. As I proceeded to buy the air ticket, I realized the world was being overwhelmed by the spreading wave of coronavirus infection. Since the Japanese government declared a state of emergency on April 7, we as a company were forced to decide that all our employees would begin working from home starting the next day. Despite lack of preparation and work rules for stay-at-home work, they demonstrated remarkable resilience in shifting their work style. The newly introduced measures contributed to reducing the number of employees working from office. Until now, it has remained less than half the total workforce. I have nothing but gratitude for them.

In late May in 2021, more than one year into the pandemic, I received a proposal from our young employee who joined the company in 2020. It was about refurbishing our office interior on our own initiative. To introduce an eye-catching feature in part of the office space, it insisted that we take a do-it-yourself approach to produce interior design that looks as appealing as something like a popular café on social media. I was deeply impressed by this proposal and began to think about asking like-minded members to carry out refurbishment during the upcoming summer holidays. On the other hand, I was wondering if such a plan would fail to bring expected results as it seemed somewhat drawn up hastily. One day in mid-June, I visited my favorite restaurant in Mejiro for lunch—it serves tasty grilled fish—but it was fully occupied. Then I went to another one only to find it was also full. Without other options, I was strolling along an unfamiliar back road nearby, wondering where to have lunch. Then I casually looked up at an office building I was passing by. What attracted my attention was its second-floor space, which apparently was vacant. Its large glass window especially impressed me. Suddenly, an idea came into my mind: “I would like to move to this place.” What happed to me was exactly a bolt out of the blue. Incidentally, a blue sky was spreading over my head. Back to the office in a haste, I called the property’s management company. Unfortunately, I was told a new lease for the space had already been signed. Even after returning home, I continued online searching until midnight for information about vacant office spaces and found one that appeared worth considering. Next morning, I called its management firm to make sure if it was still available. As it was open for a lease contract, I started to arrange a viewing of it. Less than 24 hours had passed since I was struck by the bolt out of the blue. As this point, however, I came to realize that I should consult with Mr. F, a real-estate agent who had been supporting us in our relocation plans since 2017, instead of acting all by myself. Although we had stayed out of touch with him since the end of 2019, we were able to receive substantial support from him while we were moving forward with our new relocation plan. Finally, we embarked on the relocation work and accelerated the move toward working in a new environment.

From early July to early August in 2021, we conducted negotiations with renters of two candidate offices over the lease terms and viewings while informing them of our requirements. In early September, we had negotiations with two candidate interior design firms, and in late October, we decided to sign a contract with one of them. In November, we started to work on determining details about the relocation. After the turn of the year, interior refurbishment work started on January 6. We moved in a new office at the end of February and started working there on March 1^st.

As I wrote in the first half of this column, our office relocation plan was shelved at the end of 2019. However, the coronavirus pandemic apparently affected my way of thinking as well as the society in general, leading up to my reviving the idea of moving to a new office, prompted in part by the proposal from our young employee. I encountered the building that houses our current office while I was conducting online searching late at night of the day I had a bolt-out-of-the-blue moment. Our current office features a large glass window, which seems somewhat related to the main feature of the vacant office space on the second floor of the building I happened to look up at while walking on the back street in Mejiro. What a coincidence! A bolt from the blue may not come by chance.

President

Yoshiharu Sugawara