I actually feel like the phrase 'big in Japan' is not appropriate for me. The reason is that there are more people who sympathize with my practice in America than there are domestically in Japan.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The typical big Japanese company has somewhere between a third and 40 percent of its revenues coming from developing countries, and about a third of Japan's exports are also to the emerging countries, so in a strange way, Japan, which has very little internal growth, its big companies are a good way to play the emerging markets.
It is hard to be an individual in Japan.
The fact of the matter is that fewer people in Tokyo are able to do business in English than in many other big Asian cities, like Shanghai, Seoul or Bangkok.
Sometimes when you're in different countries, everything has become so homogenised and there's a Starbucks and McDonald's everywhere, and you could feel like you're in Florida. But in Japan, you know you're there.
It's a big deal when you play in a rock band and you conquer Japan. You know, it's a big deal.
Japan is a great nation. It should begin to act like one.
Japan has only 100m people. Asia has 4bn. At least one-third, maybe nearly half, will become middle class, and this is a big opportunity for Japanese businessmen.
Opening new stores outside of Japan is important, but training our employees is even more important.
In Japan, sometimes it's hard to know what you are looking at.
I feel grateful to be this size; after all, if I weren't small and had not achieved these world records, I might never have been able to visit Japan and Europe and many other wonderful countries.