Born in Hiroaki City, Aomori Prefecture in 1969

I moved to Toyota City in Aichi soon after I was born, so my memories of Aomori are like visiting the graves of my childhood during Obon, which also serves as a family trip. My father used to run a barber shop that he inherited from his grandfather, but he didn’t like the way of life that was laid out as a successor. I started working as a worker. After being hired as a full-time employee, my family was invited to Aichi Prefecture. I think my father chose his own way of life, and since I was a child, I have never told him lies. Live honestly and freely! And I was told to take responsibility for that way of life. Ever since I was a child, I have been tall and have good motor skills, so I devoted myself to baseball, hoping to become a professional baseball player in the future. Looking back at the essays I wrote at the time; I often wrote that my dream for the future was to become a professional baseball player.

My father was the person who understood me the most.

My father always played catch after work. I looked forward to seeing my father come home every day, and now that I am a parent, I understand how he felt when he came to Aichi Prefecture. When I became an elementary school student, I joined a local youth baseball team. Became captain of the team, pitcher, and number cleanup hitter. Of course, I joined the baseball club in junior high school, and every day was immersed in practice from morning till night. “I want to be a professional baseball player in the future.” I was thinking only about baseball rather than studying. As a result, when I was in the third year of junior high school, I received invitations from several competitive schools in the Tokai and Kansai regions. At that time, it was normal for third-year junior high school students to participate in practice at the high school where they got a job offer after the summer tournament was over. I was strong only in the spirit of losing, so I didn’t feel like losing even though I was in the third year of junior high school, even when I watched the practice of seniors in the third year of Koshien regular school. It was supported by the fact that my seniors, who had been regulars since my youth baseball days, were regulars in Koshien from the first year, and I decided, “When I enter the school, I will definitely become a regular from the first year and go to Koshien in the summer.” And I was determined to become a professional baseball player. It was partly because I liked baseball, but also because I wanted to make a lot of money and help my struggling mother. And I received a job offer to a local competitive school in baseball early.

Failure

However, in the winter of my third year of junior high school, just before entering high school, I suffered a serious injury, a torn ligament. Fatal injuries for athletes, not just baseball. Even if the injury heals, will you be able to move as before? Even if he can walk, he will not be able to play an active role as a professional baseball player. My anxiety was right, and my hospital stay continued until the summer. I missed the high school entrance period, and I gave up even going to high school and gave up baseball. “If it wasn’t for those injuries…” I guess that was the ordeal I needed. When I was discharged from the hospital, the Koshien Tournament had started on TV. The Aichi representative school was that strong school that had received a job offer. And not only my seniors from the youth baseball days, but also my first-year classmates participated as regular players. I couldn’t accept the frustration and reality. I didn’t put any information about high school baseball, such as Koshien TV broadcasts and newspapers. I never watched baseball until my classmate graduated.

I became a member of society at the age of 15 without even being mentally prepared

Without a clear sense of purpose, I was working in a small-town factory, drenched in oil. At that time, I was listening to Shogo Hamada’s MONEY tapes until they were worn out. It was also a conflict with myself. But never give up! When I was a child, my father used to say to me when I was playing catch, “Don’t lie! Be honest and live freely! And take responsibility for that way of life.” However, because of his youth, his source of dynamism becomes a repulsion against the adults around him, and he quits any job immediately. Naturally, I was really worried about my family. I turned 18 and got my driver’s license. At that time, there was a person who introduced me to a “sales job for used car sales”. It was an unexpected opportunity for me, who had been listening to Shogo Hamada’s MONEY every day while working in a factory covered in oil. As a junior high school graduate, I never thought that I would be able to get a job that involved “suits, ties, and leather shoes.” And since I love clothes more than eating three times a day, I chose this “sales position” for “dress” at first. However, when I joined a used car sales company, a harsh reality awaited me. At the morning assembly every Monday, there were about 30 salespeople who were harassed by their superiors, and some senior salesmen burst into tears of frustration.

No time to cry!!

“I had to give up my dream of participating in Koshien and becoming a professional baseball player due to an injury. However, in this business world, I will never lose. I will be the star player of sales and the cleanup hitter.” It is. From the third month after joining the company until I left the company for five years, I was able to consistently rank in the top three among the 30 salespeople. This is thanks to the guidance of the store manager, who I still respect even now, inspired by the frustration of having to give up baseball.

I’ll make more efforts, driven by regret.

When I joined the company, when the economic bubble was at its height, “new used cars”, which were luxury foreign cars that could sell for more than new cars, were selling like crazy. However, with the end of the bubble economy, the number of sales people decreased, and in the end, there were only three people, the president, the store manager, and myself.

Moreover, unfortunately, the president evaporated, and only the store manager and I were left at the company.

I wasn’t informed that they were on the brink of bankruptcy. Is it a little difficult to manage? I remember feeling like this. At that time, there were 6 customers who were in charge of me who only kept money and did not deliver the car according to the company’s policy, so I could not act irresponsibly. That’s why, even if it was just me and the store manager, I couldn’t run away, ignoring the customers who believed in me.

I arrived at a lawyer through the introduction of an acquaintance of my mother. Then she consulted a lawyer. But my lawyer told me that you, who aren’t even an officer, don’t need to go that far. They spoke.

However, it is the hometown where I was born and raised. When I was a child, my father’s words, “Don’t lie! Be honest and live freely! And take responsibility for how you live” are always burned into my mind. I chose to personally pay the amount of over 10 million yen that the company caused to the customer. It was a lot of money for me, so even after changing jobs, I was able to pay it off by delivering newspapers every day and working part-time on weekends until I turned 34.

I stayed in the company until the end because I wanted to give back to the store manager who taught me how to do business when I was only in junior high school.

However, unexpected words from the manager

“Saito, you should find a job soon. I was spoiled that I wanted to work with the store manager. So, the store manager grasped my personality and dared to continue talking like this. “Saito, why don’t you become a carpenter? A craftsman is good! If you learn your skills, you can make a living anywhere. Your educational background doesn’t matter. With your skills, you can make a living.” I wouldn’t be who I am today without the manager’s words. Thanks to the manager who pushed me away at that time. Then he introduced me to a childhood friend of the store manager who is a carpenter in the family. I decided to start training as an apprentice carpenter as soon as the store manager advised me. I am 23 years old. It’s too late to start a carpenter apprenticeship. However, the president I had trusted had disappeared and I was heartbroken.

Six months later, we were married

The used car sales company that I loved so much went bankrupt, and I just changed jobs to a carpenter. My wife’s parents must have been worried. However, I had no option to extend the wedding. I put pressure on myself by not procrastinating. Besides, I have experience working as a craftsman since I was 15 years old. It was also a great confidence booster. I told myself over and over again that it was just a change from “smell of oil” to “smell of wood” and concentrated on learning carpentry work. From the names of carpentry tools to construction terminology, types of wood, and so on, every day was a new discovery, and I couldn’t help but enjoy learning the work on site. Every time I introduced myself to the craftsmen and lumber dealers whom I met for the first time at the construction site, they asked me, “Why did you decide to become a carpenter after graduating from university?” When you hear the word carpenter from the age of 23, everyone assumes that you are a university graduate.

Every time I was asked such a question, it was troublesome to explain things like “I graduated from junior high school or went bankrupt at my previous job,” but I won’t lie!

Around this time, I came to feel that it was my belief. But not everyone I meet will give me words of encouragement. When I heard about junior high school graduates, there were heartless words such as “Didn’t you work until that age?” But I mutter this in my heart.

“I’m a big rookie who made a late debut,” I said.

The forward-looking attitude remains the same today as it was in the past. What I am grateful for is that the master carpenter who guided me was a carpenter who specializes in full-fledged carving of solid wood by hand. “Saito-kun, how is the smell of this tree?” “This is the local pine tree. The pine tree smells like this.” So, the master taught me the scent of the tree, the name, and even the characteristics of the tree. And he taught me all the manual work, such as marking and carving wood, which is now rare. It is still my property. As for the interior materials, it was a genuine home building that used a lot of natural materials such as making solid flooring by yourself and painting walls. I am still grateful that I was able to train as a carpenter under such a master.

By learning to engrave by hand, drawings are drawn in my head

And I learned one more thing. It is the teaching that tools are the life of a craftsman, and that “Those who use poor tools and those who cannot clean the workplace and worksites will not be good craftsmen.” This teaching is still shared with many colleagues and is thoroughly practiced in my field. During my apprenticeship as a carpenter, houses were built with solid wood for floors and ceilings, and solid wood or plaster for walls. The way I learned to build a house was to build a house using natural materials. I was going to be a carpenter like my master. However, I fell on the second-floor beam and injured an old ligament again. I was unable to squat down, and the doctor suggested that I should give up on field work and choose a different job. For the sake of my family, I had no choice but to give up the carpenter’s path.

7 years of carpentry training, at the age of 29

I’ll make use of the knowledge I’ve cultivated during my carpentry apprenticeship! With that determination, I changed jobs to a site supervisor at a construction company. Since I had given up on the path of becoming a craftsman as a carpenter, I wanted to do a job where I could acquire knowledge from the setup of the entire process of building a house. But my choice was wrong. The construction company where I got a job as a site supervisor was a so-called construction company that sells real estate and houses as a set. It was completely different from the real house building that I learned during my carpentry apprenticeship.

The flooring is plywood and there is no painted wall in the room.

I still remember it well. When I went to inspect the interior construction work at a new construction site nearing completion, my eyes were flickering and my nose was tingling. It’s so painful for me with rhinitis that my eyes are bloodshot. I thought it would be terrible if the customer felt this kind of phenomenon, so I immediately called the president and reported it. But the president’s reaction at the time was… I was told, “After three months, it will disappear and you will get used to it. If a customer asks you that, answer that.” This is clearly problematic sick building syndrome. I didn’t train as a carpenter or enter the world of architecture to work with these buildings. One day after a long period of frustration, I decided to change jobs. Then I decided to join a remodeling company. I trained as a carpenter and had experience as a foreman, so I wanted to learn about large-scale renovation work. Knowledge of new construction is necessary for large-scale renovations.

I always thought that renovation was more difficult than new construction.

Recently, interior contractors and painters are all doing renovation work. However, unlike new construction, renovation does not go from 1 to 10. It will be a work content that dismantles a part of the completed building and further raises its functionality. Renovation is a difficult job without experience in new construction. That’s why I can’t do a job that disrespects renovation. And I wanted to build a real house that I had built during my apprenticeship as a carpenter. There was an unexpected by-product of my training at a renovation company. It is that I was able to gain experience in large-scale construction of buildings and condominiums, and that I was involved in the work of facilities such as stores and non-residential facilities.

And what I learned through design

Today, it is no exaggeration to say that our company is synonymous with new construction of wooden non-residential buildings, buildings, and large-scale renovation work of facilities. We are committed to construction as a prime contractor.

At Nagoya, Gunma, Tokyo

Balboa Studios is based in Nagoya, Tokyo, and Gunma. All of our staff, including myself, have experience as craftsmen and are familiar with on-site work. Based on our experience in building homes that incorporate natural materials, we not only build homes, but also propose playful and comfortable spaces. We are a Monozukuri site group that consistently supports the design and construction of stores, offices, and new construction of wooden non-residential buildings.

In recent years, we have received many inquiries about office and store design and construction from managers who are running stores and companies.

Most of the stores and offices will be renovated and remodeled. Renovation and remodeling work is a construction that creates more value by making use of existing buildings, unlike those that are created from scratch like new construction. In a way, it’s going to be a harder job than new construction. No, it’s a difficult job that can’t be done without the basics of new construction. At Balboa Studio, we believe that it is important to deepen trust with management by making use of our experience in new construction.

Balboa Studio Inc.
Representative Director Koji Saito