2010-8-19

My classmate and close friend D… When he left for the United States, I was also the one who arranged for his home to be leased as company housing to a well-known major corporation, so that he could leave without worries about what he was leaving behind… He was practicing law in New York…

Because I was a golf fanatic at the time and went to Hawaii frequently, he sent me a letter…
“I have never told anyone this, but the truth is that I have been thinking of spending the latter half of my life somewhere like Hawaii… I have no intention of continuing to practice law in Hawaii, but if I did, I would have to qualify as a lawyer there all over again… I love the sea and golf as much as you do…”

“KISARA, come to New York. New York in summer is Humid!, though.
You can play four different sports in a single day, so come.
New York is wonderful.”

He invited me several more times after that, but I was devoted entirely to Hawaii. At the time, I was also telling people around me that New York was tomorrow’s Tokyo and loudly declaring that I had no need to go there… Above all, I did not want to spend my holidays in a city… Having grown up by the sea, I simply wanted to be beside it.

If, at that time, I had accepted his invitation and gone to New York instead of heading to Singapore and Bangkok, by now I would have repaid Japan threefold… I think I would have left this foolish country and would now be enjoying life somewhere in the world.

Those who can invest in Japan without exchange-rate risk are the recent investors from mainland China (since the exchange rate hardly fluctuates, there is no problem at all) and investors from Europe and the United States… It is they who move exchange rates, so it is self-evident that, while they may move them to their own advantage, they would never move them in a way that causes themselves a loss.

Through his connections, I would immediately have gained access to more than enough Wall Street money and would have been running one of Japan’s leading fund companies…
For I have the pride and confidence that, when it comes to judging Japanese real estate, I am second to none.