The Japan Economic Journal

December 26, 1987

Crossing paths;
Welcome to the 'Hotel Conversation'

BYLINE: By Fumihiro Hishikawa; Fumihiro Hishikawa is president of Konami Industry Co.

I started an intensive study of English 27 years ago when I was an up-and-coming government official. I was firmly convinced that the internationalization of Japan was inevitable and that English-speaking ability would become a vital necessity. As I was conveniently transferred to Tokyo after finishing four years of evening English conversation classes, I made it a rule to visit major hotels twice a day -- once in the early morning and again at night, and enjoy conversation with foreigners staying there. This way, I have already talked with more than 4,000 foreign people.

"I have never forgotten about you, the most incorrigible hotel invader in Japan! ", a boy at a hotel told me the other day with a look of nostalgia.

As I have always been quite eager to explain Japan, particularly Hyogo Prefecture and Kobe City where I grew up, I have often been dubbed, with a note of admiration, "voluntary, roving ambassador of Japan".
My success ratio in starting up conversations with foreign people at the hotels was extremely high, standing around 99.9%. In many cases, the conversation led to exchanges of letters and formations of close friendships. It is primarily because of this hotel gambit in my youth that I still receive a great number of Christmas cards from overseas friends to this day.

Some of the famous acquaintances I made at hotels include Lou These, professional wrestler; Joe DiMaggio, baseball giant; Chasrafska, one time queen of gymnastics, and more than one Miss Universe.
Frank O'Doul, who introduced American baseball to Japan in the postwar years, was kind enough to invite me to dinner every time he came to Japan. A great number of American soldiers on furlough from Vietnam told me many vivid stories of the Southeast Asian war which still linger in my mind.

When I talked with an elegant elderly couple in a hotel lobby, I was very surprised to find that the wife, as a small girl, had presented a bouquet to the Emperor of Japan (then Crown Prince) at a train station in the Netherlands during the monarch's trip through Europe many years ago. I also vividly remember conversations with an American nuclear physicist, a brain surgeon, and a chairman of a U.S. railway company.

An American lady suddenly started crying and asked for forgiveness for her country when I told her during our conversation that I had been exposed to an atomic bomb at Nagasaki. I never fail to remember this vignette whenever the memorial day for the atomic bombing of the Kyushu city comes around every year. The 4,000th person to sign my "foreigner hunting" record book proved to be a very handsome pilot of Seabroad World Airlines.

I shall never be able to fully thank all those people who so greatly enhanced my English speaking ability. It is primarily due to their kindness that I have developed a truly international view of the world and successfully switched from government to business.