午夜剧场

"What kind of work do you do?" Answering this question is very difficult.

I am the store manager of Kojimaya, a specialty store for dried fruits and nuts that operates a physical store in Ueno's Ameyoko and an online shop.

Since online retail is still not fully understood by everyone, I am often asked, "What do you do in a typical day?" but explaining it is difficult.

While I handle specialized matters, order processing and inquiries are basically handled by outsourced contractors in China and our staff. Shipping is handled by an outsourced warehouse in Shizuoka, and the website is created by professionals. I do develop new products sometimes, but that isn't my main focus.

On recent business cards, perhaps to make the work seem more impressive, you see titles like "Frontier Business Division Media Project Promotion Office Technical Product Management Senior Manager and... (continues)." They seem to explain everything but explain nothing. It just makes it hard to fit the name onto a delivery slip.

To avoid such a situation, until 2016, my title was "Managing Director and Head of Online Sales Department," but I still struggled when asked "What do you do?" When I thought about my work then, I finally realized something. Maybe the explanation of my work should be: "What kind of person do I want to be? What kind of influence do I want to have on the world?"

So, I simplified my business card to "Kojimaya Executive Director / Advanced Explorer of Dried Fruits and Nuts," choosing to give myself a title.

Sometimes I respond to customer inquiries. Sometimes I issue invoices, and sometimes I think of marketing strategies.

However, my job is "to know the world's dried fruits and nuts more deeply and to spread that knowledge."

Since adopting this title, questions from others have centered on dried fruits and nuts. Naturally, to be someone who can answer those questions, I need to study. As a result, I appeared on the TV show "The World Unknown to Matsuko" for the "World of Dried Fruits" segment. Since then, I have been invited by many media outlets.

"What do you do?"

I believe that to answer this, you must decide on your own title, and that this will create your own future.