President Sadoshima (Cork) x President Sasai (TRYT)　Clue to live life on your own terms until the end — What will the future hold for nursing care?

Have you ever thought about “how to live life on your own terms until the very end of your life?” No matter how healthy we are, our lives will eventually come to an end. We interviewed Yohei Sadoshima, the founder, President and CEO of Cork Inc., and Hidetaka Sasai, CEO of TRYT Group and President and Representative Director of TRYT Inc. on various issues related to nursing care, which everyone needs to face in a super-aging society, and its future situation. Cork Inc. led by Sadoshima has agency contracts with such well-known manga authors as Norifusa Mita, the author of Dragon Zakura and Chuya Koyama, the author of Space Brothers. Meanwhile,TRYT Inc. and its group operate human resources-related businesses and provide ICT solutions in the medical and welfare fields.

(Left: President Sasai of TRYT; Right: President Sadoshima of Cork)

―Profile
President and CEO, Cork, Inc.
Yohei Sadoshima
Born in 1979. After graduating from the Faculty of Letters at the University of Tokyo, he joined Kodansha in 2002. While working as an editor for the weekly magazine “Morning”, he launched manga projects such as Dragon Zakura (Norifusa Mita), Space Brothers (Chuya Koyama), Modern Times (Kotaro Isaka), and Fill in the Blanks (Keiichiro Hirano). In 2012, he left Kodansha and founded Cork, a creator agency whose mission is to change each and everyone’s world through the power of storytelling. The company has agency contracts with well-known authors, edits their works, creates and manages fan communities, and discovers and nurtures new authors. His books include “How to Develop Your Powers of Observation: How Top Creators See the World and Emotions Instantly Hijack Your Brain*.”
*Published in Japanese only, and the book title is a direct translation of original Japanese.

President and Representative Director, TRYT Inc. (CEO, TRYT Group)
Hidetaka Sasai
Born in 1967. Graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo and completed his MBA at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business in 2000. After working for a major domestic bank and a foreign consulting firm, he became President of Colin Medical Technology Corporation, a medical equipment manufacturer, in 2005. He later held top management positions at companies including St. Jude Medical, Inc. and LIFEDRINK COMPANY, Inc. In October 2019, he became President and Representative Director of TRYT Inc. and TRYT Group CEO.

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Mr. Sadoshima, you have been involved in the production of “nursing care manga” that TRYT distributes to nursing care workers. What do you think is the value in conveying the work of nursing care through manga?
(Sadoshima) Occupations such as nursing care, which mainly focuses on interacting with people, are referred to as “emotional labor.” Because humans are emotional creatures, their happiness depends greatly on whether or not they have someone nearby who can respond to their emotions there and then. In other words, “emotional labor” is a type of work that can have a significant positive impact on people’s lives. Meanwhile, labor that involves dealing with people’s emotions is difficult to be established as a skill and to be explained with words. Therefore, it is not easy to measure its value in an economic sense. Although emotions are hard to be described in terms of capitalism, they can be easily portrayed in manga. Through manga, we can make the value of “emotional labor” visible, helping readers realize the importance of nursing care.

What common points are there between manga, which effectively expresses elements that are hard to be recognized, including emotions generated at actual work sites, and the human resources service industry, which connects work and people?
（Sasai） I feel that there are likely some common elements between the two because they both deal with emotions and connect things. When it comes to the job of matching companies posting job openings with job seekers looking for work, there would be no need for a person to act between them if the job opening website has a comprehensive search function for their desired conditions. However, when people consider changing jobs, they tend to be concerned with something and want to consult someone about it. By communicating with a career advisor, job seekers can clarify what they are looking for in a job and uncover career aspirations that they may not have been aware of. This ultimately helps them make good decision. I think that the process of confronting job seekers’ emotions and drawing out their intentions is the ultimate job of a career advisor. I believe that this is one of the values that only people can provide, no matter how digitalized or efficient things become.

Digitalization and digital transformation are progressing in every industry. How do you think nursing care in Japan should change in the future?
（Sadoshima） If the health status of the care receiver were provided with data in advance, it would help the caregiver to obtain clue to reach the person’s physical and mental state more easily. This would, I believe, help the caregiver in doing even something including being more attentive to the emotions of those receiving care when just talking to them. When power suits and robots become more widespread, caregivers, who currently spend a lot of time providing physical support such as transferring and bathing, will be able to spend more time attending to people’s emotions and feelings. If this happens, the quality of care will improve and care receivers will be more satisfied, which will ultimately lead to increased motivation among care workers.

（Sasai） As ICT and robotics advance, I think the parts of work that humans have provided up until now will be largely replaced by technology. As a result, the world will probably change to one where people can live without relying on others. Unlike in the past, when people were often cared for by their family members, including children and grandchildren, an increasing number of people are living out their lives alone. In reality, those receiving care would be much happier if they were able to live on their own. So, I think it would be great if we could use technology to create an environment where each person can live a physically independent life. Meanwhile, regardless of the progress of digital transformation, we should continue to value each person’s individuality. My late father-in-law received day service support in his later years, but he said he was not a big fun of activities including the simple games and dance that were provided at the day service center. He had owned his own business for many years and his mind was still clear. He enjoyed talking with me about stocks and business management until the very end. I believe that we each have our own accomplishments, our own responsibility , and our own way of life, and we want to stick to our own style until the very end of our life. What may be meaningful recreational time for one person may be unbearable to someone else. Care receivers all think differently, each to their own. This is quite a difficult issue for caregivers to handle.

（Sadoshima） I agree that some people find certain activities unbearable for themselves. For example, care receivers are usually encouraged to participate in playing games because it’s simply good for them to move their bodies. However, if they are asked to participate in an event with nearby kindergarten children to communicate with them, playing the same games will take on a completely different meaning. Perhaps because the current social system aims for efficiency, it may have become too biased toward prioritizing a single goal, such as physical exercise.

Just as the world has a system in which there are people who sell products and people who buy them, in the field of caregiving, there are people who give care and people who receive care. No matter which side we are on, we all have a role to play, staying connected within a large community. Meanwhile, in the biological world, one organism eats something and defecates while another organism eats the defecation, and so on in a cycle. Just as such animals feed on the seeds in the feces without knowing that they are cleaning them up, we are “just living” for our own sake. The difference in our roles such as caregiver and care recipient does not matter much; rather, both caregivers and care recipients are human beings who coexist in society. Simply because we all have our own roles and our own value to society, we have come to care for each other.

This is a form of “circulation,” which humans have effectively used in order to survive in society. On the other hand, in a capitalist society that is based on exchange rather than circulation, people are so conscious of one-to-one relationships which end up difficulty in feeling such a form of circulation. Currently, we are creating “helpers” with the clearly defined role of caregiving. In the future, however, technological innovations such as AI will allow us to accumulate information on who needs what and who can do what, which will lead to matching people to help each other. As a result, people will be able to coexist and create many forms of circulation. I hope that such a world can be realized.

Finally, how would you both like to experience your life’s ending?

（Sasai） Fortunately, I am currently living a healthy life both physically and mentally, so I find it hard to imagine my sense of values changing in my final moments. (laughs) Ideally, I’d like to stay healthy until the very end and be able to continue working in some way until when that day comes. That’s what I vaguely think.

（Sadoshima） I’m the opposite of Mr. Sasai. I want to know how many years I have left to live — three years or whatever. Then I would like to take time to prepare for the end of my life and see how my body gradually weakens. Since that is likely a one-time experience, I would like to know what it feels like for my body to deteriorate, and how badly I’ll feel the fear of approaching death, right until the very end.