Recently, my dog, whom I started breeding about six months ago, has been making a lot of toilet mistakes. Every time he does this, he soils the carpet on the floor, so the carpet is washed every day. Therefore, ironically, the carpet is always kept clean.
 
On a similar matter, it is said that drinking lots of water is good for one's health. They say that by frequently expelling bad things from the body, such as fat, sugar, and salt, the body is kept clean and adult diseases are prevented.
 
At one major cram school for junior high school entrance exams, classes change every month according to the results of a monthly test. Because of this, there is a tremendous sense of competition among the children. I can almost hear a grandmother from an idyllic rural family saying, "You don't have to make your children compete so much," but it does seem to be a source of continuous effort.
 
Contrary to the above, employment in companies has been increasing recently, but the tendency to stay with the company, protected by lifetime employment, is still strong, and metabolism remains sluggish. I have heard not a few people deride old men who do not work as “fairies". This is a very unfortunate situation, as companies are going bankrupt due to labor shortages, and there is a mixture of a surplus and a shortage of workers.
 
The real aim of the "new capitalism" that Prime Minister Kishida frequently talks about seems to be the realization of job mobility. However, he has been moderate in his tone, as saying so would provoke a furious reaction from the largest vested interests, the workers in regular employment. Perhaps because of this inability to make the best use of human resources, 32 Japanese companies were ranked among the world's top 50 companies in terms of market capitalization at the time of the bubble economy in 1989, but today only one company, Toyota, ranks among the top 50. The strong sense of defensiveness, the point deduction principle, and the siloing of the organization all keep people stuck in one place, and companies become rigid.
 
As part of my daily routine, I allocate one hour in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening for English, one hour and 30 minutes for the Nikkei, 30 minutes for the English-language newspaper (WSJ), and 30 minutes for economic magazines. Although there have been some additions and changes, the daily routine has remained virtually unchanged for the past several years.It sounds good when I say it like this. However, since we have been doing this for so long, it would not be worthwhile to stop now, and we may continue to do so due to such inertia. We need to start new needs, abandon new unnecessary ones, and increase our metabolism by taking into account the information we need at the time, our future prospects, and other such factors. Like the operation of a soccer league that keeps the best by promoting the top teams from the lower league to the upper league and relegating the lower teams from the upper league to the lower league.
 
Time can neither be created nor hoarded.