KANEKO GANKYO-TEN Futako Tamagawa Rise Store Manager
Hideo Higashino
A free spirit and a wanderer. Hideo Higashino joined KANEKO OPTICAL when there was only one Kaneko-owned store, and is now in his 22nd year with the company. Since 2000, he's been witness to the creation of Kaneko's retail template as the company rolled out stores across Japan. "Free spirit" and "wanderer" are apt words to describe Higashino in his younger days. Currently manager of Kaneko's Futako Tamagawa Rise store, Higashino came to this role through a slightly unorthodox route.
In 1998 Higashino was a senior at the University of Shiga Prefecture. That was about the lowest point in what people were calling the job search "ice age." But Higashino looked on with detachment as his classmates sweated daily over their job quest.
"The work situation for our generation was definitely tough, but lots of people around me were finding jobs. I watched them from a distance, thinking, 'Wow, that's amazing.' As if it was someone else's problem (laughs). I personally had no idea what I wanted to do, so I couldn't make a move – that's why I was not in a hurry." The only job that interested Higashino after he joined the workforce was in apparel. "I had always liked clothes, so I interviewed at only one company, a well-known boutique. I passed the first and second rounds of interviews without a hitch, but was dropped after the third interview." Higashino was nevertheless light-hearted. "My attitude was, I'm not going to drop dead just because I don’t find a job," he chuckles.
Whether or not he realized it, two years earlier Higashino had already taken the first step that would lead him to his current career. Motivated by his love of fine clothing, Higashino often took a train from his home in Shiga to shop in Kyoto, especially in Kitayama, an area known for its many high-end stores, even by Kyoto standards. Here he discovered a certain eyewear boutique then attracting attention in the industry, on par with fine specialty stores in Tokyo and Osaka. The boutique's careful selection of eyeglass brands and designers, and their stimulating and original designs, made a deep impression on Higashino. Later, clutching the money he'd saved from his part-time job, he went back to the store to buy his first pair of eyeglasses. Then something interesting happened.
"When I went back to classes wearing the glasses I'd bought, I was surprised at the great reception I got. Everyone kept asking me, 'where did you buy those?' And even better, all the good comments were coming from girls (laughs). I'd always felt my taste in clothes wasn't matched by the glasses I owned. Now I suddenly realized how much difference a pair of glasses can make." Higashino's thinking about eyewear had suddenly changed. And what he was experiencing was happening in cities all over Japan. This was the "eyewear boom" that began in the 1990s.
A Glimpse of the Future
Let's consider the changes in the Japanese eyewear market behind Higashino's experience. In the late 1980s, the "licensed brand" boom was at its peak, with designer brands and major foreign clothing brand names taking the lead. But there were also retailers starting to appear in urban areas such as Tokyo who offered high-design eyeglasses that didn't rely on brand names, similar to "select shop" boutiques for clothing. The store that lit the fuse was Optician Loyd, which opened in 1985 in Harajuku, Tokyo. <br> Kaneko Optical made great efforts to sell its own first brand, "BLAZE," to this store, finally gaining acceptance and laying the foundation for later breakthroughs.
Then in the 1990s, the licensed brand boom subsided. Users began to realize they could choose from a wider diversity of products matched to their own sensibilities, without the stimulation of brand power or name recognition. The number of eyewear specialty shops, which was the category pioneered by Optician Lloyd, began to grow throughout Japan. Young entrepreneurs in their 30s such as Shinya Kaneko of KANEKO OPTICAL started blazing a path to the future with the proposition that eyeglasses can be a fashion item in the same way as clothing. This was just the time when Higashino was beginning to react to eyeglasses. He too could see a different future emerging.
Eyewear magazine MODE OPTIQUE launched when Higashino was about 20. The magazine featured a host of elegant domestic brands at the center of the eyewear boom. Higashino religiously purchased each new edition of the magazine, and already owned several pairs of glasses purchased at boutique stores. "When I was about two months away from graduation, still without a job, I thought, 'what am I really interested in?,' and what came to mind was eyewear. So I walked into the store in Kitayama where I'd bought my first pair of glasses and told the owner, 'I want a job in eyewear.' At that point, I was somehow more interested in eyeglass production rather than working as a salesclerk in a store. He responded,"Sabae City in Fukui is the center of eyeglass manufacturing. Why don't you go there first?' So I said 'that's it – I'm going to Sabae.' As usual, I had no plan (laughs)."
A Reckless Young Man Becomes Store Manager
One morning when school was on break, Higashino packed a toothbrush, a change of clothes, and a copy of his beloved MODE OPTIQUE into his favorite Yoshida Kaban "PORTER" bag and headed for Sabae. "No plan Higashino" made a plan. He noted three manufacturers mentioned in the magazine with offices in Sabae to call directly for appointments. He was not even sure the companies were hiring. But it didn't matter to him even if they weren't. His enthusiasm must have come through on the phone, because both the first and second companies he called were happy to accept a visit from this unusual young man. Life is not so easy that he could just fall into a job like that, but the president of the second company offered him to introduce him to someone at KANEKO OPTICAL. Oddly enough, KANEKO OPTICAL was the third company he'd been planning to call.
Taking advantage of this introduction, Higashino was able to meet the general manager at the KANEKO OPTICAL home office. He explained how he was currently a student, how he had bought his glasses with money scrimped from his part-time job, and how he had arrived here by reading Mode Optique. "We talked about lots of things, and maybe he thought, 'this guy is interesting,'" Higashino recounts. Higashino was also able to meet then managing director Shinya Kaneko, who happened to be in the office. As soon as Kaneko met him, he asked Higashino, "So, do you like eyewear?" Higashino immediately declared, "Yes, I love it. I want to work in this industry. I brought a change of clothes and a toothbrush, so I'm ready to start work today." Kaneko happened to be looking for young talent. Higashino's daring strategy led him to him a lucky break. He was officially hired by KANEKO OPTICAL, and now could leap into the world of eyeglasses. Old-timers at KANEKO OPTICAL still talk about this episode.
When Higashino hired on in 1999, the company still had only one directly owned store, in Hakodate. Higashino was assigned to work at the home office, doing product inspections and shipping work in the manufacturing area. He had definitely found work in the eyeglass field, but he gradually began to wonder if this was the job he really wanted. When he saw the world of eyeglass manufacturing up close, he quickly realized it was too much for him. At the factory, he somehow ended up being everyone's helper. By his second year with the company, he'd already come to a dead end. Around that time, now-president Kaneko saw Higashino as "a talent who could jump to the forefront of the eyewear business." He believed Higashino's abilities might be better harnessed with customers in a store than in a production setting. Just then, a decision was being made behind the scenes to open a second directly owned store in Tokyo. The timing was right, so Kaneko instructed Higashino to relocate to Tokyo. For Higashino, who had been struggling with the gap between his vision of the eyewear field and the reality of the job, this was a godsend.
Once on the store floor, Higashino began to show his ability, just as Kaneko had foreseen. He worked at several affiliated and directly managed stores from 2001 onward. KANEKO OPTICAL was then releasing the SPIVVY collection, and their Craftsman series, typified by artisan Taihachiro Kinsaku, was becoming a big hit, spurring more store development. "All the stores were hard to launch, but it was fun. The more I got used to working at the stores, the more I realized the importance of the humble jobs I'd done at the home office. I had witnessed how much work and support goes on behind the scenes before products are finished and put on display in stores. Knowing this, I naturally take my work with the products more seriously. We can't simply send a product back to the factory. We have to explain the product to the people who want it, and to sell it properly. I think I have a stronger awareness than other staff members of the importance of that."
The outsider who didn't go to job interviews, the young man who "snuck in" to the company through brash and unofficial means, will be 45 this year. Now he's a store manager with wide experience. In the 22 years since he joined the company, he's hit countless walls and obstacles. "I'll be honest, there have been times when my wanderer self has shown its face, and I've wondered if there isn't a better job for me out there. Still, nothing can compare to the pleasure of this job once you experience it."
"Put in the extreme, working in a shop means repeating the same thing every day. But I still enjoy this job. I enjoy talking with customers whether the conversation relates to eyewear or not. There are a lot of people who go out of their way to come to the store just because I'm here, and I really appreciate that. After such a long time, there have been lots of changes in my feelings and in the environment, and I've had many thoughts. But the president found me, so to speak. I owe him a debt of gratitude which I still haven't finished repaying, so I have to keep working hard (laughs)."
PROFILE
Hideo Higashino
Born in Osaka. Following high school, entered the University of Shiga Prefecture. While in college, he was one of the first to react to the eyewear boom and decided to make a career in eyewear, moving to Sabae City in Fukui Prefecture. With no appointment, he contacted KANEKO OPTICAL and ended up getting hired. After working at the home office for less than two years, he was transferred to Tokyo as staff, becoming store manager in Nagoya and Marunouchi Tokyo starting in 2003. Currently store manager at the Futago Tamagawa Rise store.
In 1998 Higashino was a senior at the University of Shiga Prefecture. That was about the lowest point in what people were calling the job search "ice age." But Higashino looked on with detachment as his classmates sweated daily over their job quest.
"The work situation for our generation was definitely tough, but lots of people around me were finding jobs. I watched them from a distance, thinking, 'Wow, that's amazing.' As if it was someone else's problem (laughs). I personally had no idea what I wanted to do, so I couldn't make a move – that's why I was not in a hurry." The only job that interested Higashino after he joined the workforce was in apparel. "I had always liked clothes, so I interviewed at only one company, a well-known boutique. I passed the first and second rounds of interviews without a hitch, but was dropped after the third interview." Higashino was nevertheless light-hearted. "My attitude was, I'm not going to drop dead just because I don’t find a job," he chuckles.
Whether or not he realized it, two years earlier Higashino had already taken the first step that would lead him to his current career. Motivated by his love of fine clothing, Higashino often took a train from his home in Shiga to shop in Kyoto, especially in Kitayama, an area known for its many high-end stores, even by Kyoto standards. Here he discovered a certain eyewear boutique then attracting attention in the industry, on par with fine specialty stores in Tokyo and Osaka. The boutique's careful selection of eyeglass brands and designers, and their stimulating and original designs, made a deep impression on Higashino. Later, clutching the money he'd saved from his part-time job, he went back to the store to buy his first pair of eyeglasses. Then something interesting happened.
"When I went back to classes wearing the glasses I'd bought, I was surprised at the great reception I got. Everyone kept asking me, 'where did you buy those?' And even better, all the good comments were coming from girls (laughs). I'd always felt my taste in clothes wasn't matched by the glasses I owned. Now I suddenly realized how much difference a pair of glasses can make." Higashino's thinking about eyewear had suddenly changed. And what he was experiencing was happening in cities all over Japan. This was the "eyewear boom" that began in the 1990s.