In 1976, while a university student, I started as a part-time worker. We didn’t have a retail store, so we sold products from a space in front of the farmers’ cooperative and other stores. We arranged four plastic bottle cases with a plywood board on top, and the wagons with products were placed on, flew red flags and banners, and had an ordinary toolbox instead of a cash register. At night, we used a blue tarpaulin to cover everything before going home.

At that time, the house of the former president (Hirotake Yano, founder of Daiso) was our office and warehouse. He had extra boxes stored around the house, so we had products in an empty lot covered by the blue tarpaulin. All staff members sold outside and came back to the house, sometimes late in the night, and had dinner and drank a bit together. We were like a family.

One thing I remember about the era of the moving stall was the truck. I borrowed a truck from a director, and he brought me three sake bottles full of water. He said, “The radiator has a hole in it, so replenish it every half hour.” I was surprised that we had to use a truck with a hole in the radiator. It was like that back then. I was so absorbed in work that I didn’t differentiate work from free time. I really enjoyed that life.