[Music]
I am often asked why I first came to
Japan and when I’m asked that question I
often respond my love affair with Japan
began in a bathroom that usually gets
some you know response and I’ll explain
but first let me tell you that I was
born and raised in a middle-class family
in Los Angeles but was lucky to be able
to go to Stanford University I went to
Stanford with big dreams it’s gonna be a
doctor or a major league baseball player
and I certainly was going to see the
world on one of the great Stanford
University exchange programs well the
dream of becoming a doctor ended very
quickly in my first quarter I got an F
in chemistry
well I retook chemistry in the second
then my advisor in the in the medical
school said Keener do you really want to
be a doctor or do you just want to play
baseball and and have parties be the
social director of your freshman
dormitory and you know I’m kind of
ashamed to say I chose the latter
but we had some we have some really
in baseball I did quite well I hit over
300 on the Freshman team but in my last
game that first year I tore up my
shoulder and the doctor said it would
take a year at least to to heal so I
kind of lost my focus on on baseball too
and my focus on some other things and
what did I focus on I mentioned earlier
the bathroom story I’m gonna come back
to that now I went to Stanford wanting
to go overseas someplace but I didn’t
know where in about my third or fourth
week in school I walked into the
bathroom to relieve myself and above the
urinal was a sign that said spend a
summer in Japan if you’re interested
come to the explanation for this about
the Stanford University exchange program
and let me say I went to that meeting
and my interest was pricked
oops did I say that I’m sorry well yeah
I was selected as one of the 12 students
on the springac summer exchange program
and I came and had my 19th birthday a
summer of 65 in Tokyo and as you can see
I was hooked
I went Japanese but in my sophomore year
I went back to Stanford I found focus I
started studying Japanese intensively
and I became the chairman of the
Stanford ko exchange program well and I
and I and and in my junior year I
applied for a year’s scholarship and I
was able to come to Tokyo to KO in for
my last year in college and I graduated
in 68 but I look back at those years in
college and I didn’t study I wasn’t a
good student at all to my great regret
but what I did do I did learn was social
skills communication and I learned that
if you make people laugh you can become
friends and friends is one of the
biggest parts of your blueprint for
success the Japanese have a word called
Stowe’s I sung it normally means your
set your wealth but if you change the
stone to mean person it becomes a play
on words and it means your your wealth
of friends and your wealth of friends is
invaluable as a blueprint for success in
that senior year at Keio I worked at
that nichibei Kiowa gakuen the Japan
America conversation Institute taught
English to make money to go back to
graduate school of business and I met a
young professor and he said you’re funny
you tell a lot of jokes so he invited me
to be with him on NHK so I taught talked
with him on NHK English but I didn’t
just do it straight had to have some fun
all the time so I would get behind the
camera when I was bored and about the
same time another teacher at the
nichibei Hyuga clan told me there was an
advertisement in The Japan Times to work
at the World’s Fair in Osaka interpreter
guides for the American pavilion and I
applied and I was lucky I was one of
sixty interpreter guides that made it to
the American pavilion out of more of a
thousand of that applied and at the
American pavilion since I had extensive
background in sports often I was allowed
to take the sports personalities that
came through the American pavilion and
in March of 70 the San Francisco Giants
professional baseball team came and I
was able to take the Giants through and
with the Giants owner there was a man by
the name of Cappy Harada Cappy Harada is
the legendary bridge between Japanese
and American professional baseball Cappy
had been MacArthur General MacArthur’s
personal aide during the occupation in
World War two and after World War two
and Kathy was given the job of
restarting Japanese professional
baseball after the war and it was Cappy
who brought the legendary Joe DiMaggio
to Japan in February of 1954 along with
Joe’s even more famous wife Marilyn
Monroe Cappy and I became good friends
and stayed in close contact
she stills I son we stayed in close
contact I went back to the United States
after Expo 17 I was going to go to
graduate school of business and while I
was waiting I got a call from happy she
does I sung and he offered me the job of
becoming a minor-league general manager
for a team in Lodi California he had
sold that team to a Japanese man by the
name of mr. Naugle Yoshi Nakamura and I
was able to be GM for two years and then
Nakamura invited me to come to Japan and
help him with his new Japanese team in
Fukuoka the Tahil Club Lions which has
now become the Sabre Lions in 1974 I
came and joined the Lions as the
director of sales and promotions and I
wanted to start things with a splash so
I thought outside of the box what could
I do
how about if I had a real lion as a
mascot I don’t think anybody in Japan
has ever thought of doing something like
this a little bit crazy I found out I
didn’t know how to get a lion but I
found out at the time that if you had
the money a little over 400 thousand yen
I think it was goodbye a lion but what
do you do with it after it arrives on
your doorstep when Radek on which we
named her arrived we hadn’t planned
where Dada would stay so for the first
two weeks out at John stayed in my
apartment a lot of fun to have a little
lion in you’re in you’re in you’re in
you’re in your room but one evening when
I came home Radha John came running to
the door you know like a little dogwood
and grabbed my shoe and put a claw right
through the top of the shoe all the way
through the bottom just missing my two
toes and yeah I knew then that we had to
get a real trainer for Radha John soon
and and built and build her cage which
we did in that same year 74 a really
close friend that I had met at Stanford
onobu taught asaji the son of the owner
of
Tory who is now the chairman of Suntory
he came to Fukuoka and we went out that
night and set a personal record for both
of us for the amount of or the number of
bars that we went to we went to 14 in
that night now for him it was mainly
business but for me it was just a lot of
fun we even went in a gun gene bar put
on World War 2 uniforms and sang World
War 2 fight songs with all these other
crazy people in the restaurant kind of
nutty right but it was a lot of fun
we’ll never forget that and later then
with Saji son we bought the Birmingham
Barons and I had a baseball a basketball
player by the name of Michael Jordan who
quit basketball and played baseball for
for another talk after this a lot
happened to me because of personal
friendships those ison I was able to do
a lot of first things I was able to do
the first major sports licensing in
Japan was able to write sports columns
and sports books be the first gaikokujin
sports broadcaster speaking in Japanese
and also started the first sports bars
and restaurants in Japan here’s one of
my attics in – in Kobe had a lot of fun
here and I know a lot of other people
had a lot of fun here a lot of laughter
and I was able to increase my Stowe’s
Ison Network extensively because I had
these sports bars here’s a couple my
little friends walk’n Ohana and talk on
Ohana just before they became Yokozuna
and I think you’ve seen talking to Hana
in the news a lot recently
usually not smiling so much but I can
tell you back in the day we smiled a lot
and we laughed a lot you can see that
laughter is one of my big parts of a
blueprint for success it’s just amazing
what laughter can do when I go into a
convenience store or a restaurant and I
get the bill and I’m able to put down
the exact change
before the person behind the counter can
say anything I say keep the change
old city of Aida say and the person
behind the counter first looks stunned
and then they burst into laughter almost
every time it’s great try it my
blueprint for Laughs L is learn learn
the language I learned the language well
enough that I’ve been able to do my own
sports shows and I’ve had two of my own
shows here was Barr and Marty’s bar able
to enter interview terrific people like
the legendary sada Haro Ichiro Suzuki we
were both a lot younger than weren’t we
that’s over 20 years ago but you know
learning the language is not enough you
have to learn the culture as well I
always tell people this you’ve got to
learn about the culture I watch a lot of
TV I watch toku Donny in the morning i
watch hodo station i watch Sunday
morning i watch all these those shows
because you’ve got to know what’s hot
you got to know about the culture not
just one thing otherwise helping you
keep up with the water cooler talk a in
laughs adapt in 2005 through another
personal great relationship I was
introduced to Hiroshima Kootenay owner
of rock 10 and that led to my becoming
the first general manager of foreign
general manager of any professional team
in Japan but you know that first year
wasn’t easy we didn’t have a great team
that was one of the big problems but
another problem was is that getting our
foreign players to adapt the first
player I sign and sign for the most
money didn’t like Japan at all because
there wasn’t a McDonald’s on every
corner and he couldn’t he and his family
couldn’t get Diet Coke at the stores
close to there in their home that family
never tried Japanese food they didn’t
try to learn it learn to like it and
since he didn’t adapt at all I had to
fire him after the
first year you understand it’s really
important to understand the culture that
you’re living in it’s still kind of hard
for me except that people will come up
in Japan and say oh you gained weight
pretty much the name well in some cases
it’s true but you know in in in some
cultures this is going to lose your
friends maybe maybe forever you just
don’t say this in certain cultures but
in Japan if you understand Japan it used
to be in Japan that gaining weight was a
sign of prosperity okay so there’s no
big you know stigma to saying it but
Japanese please be careful when you say
it to us foreigners we don’t we don’t
really like to hear it anyhow
understanding the language and and that
and the culture is really important but
I want to stress one thing you know you
don’t have to agree with it I don’t
agree with a lot of things I see in
Japan but I think I understand them so
trying to understand is really important
give giving the Japanese love to give
they love to give praise oftentimes when
you meet someone people will say when
they’re introducing to someone this
person is someone who’s really taking
care of care of me a lot know kono kata
neo say one not Dimas but oftentimes
it’s not even true but they say it
anyhow it’s just the way it’s done here
you know and the pitchers in Japan when
they pitch a game a good game they’ll
always give praise to the catcher you
know
Masahiro Tanaka won 34 games for us or
24 games for us in 2013 and had no
losses and he always praised Shima the
catcher after the game let me tell you
Shima wasn’t winning those games it was
Margaret but is accepted in this society
it’s part of the way they do things and
it’s good to understand that and go
along with that custom last one harmony
my friends very popular book Robert
Whiting’s book you got to have wha
it’s the most popular baseball book ever
the key he says in this book for being
successful in Japan is not your skill
level as a player it’s whether you can
fit in with the group if you can be in
harmony with the group that’s the key to
success and harmony can be seen here in
Japan when there’s a time of crisis I
was so impressed with the Japanese after
311 when people said patiently in line
for a pay phone or patiently in line to
get groceries at a you know the few
supermarkets they were open and there
was no cutting in line
it’s beautiful harmony I’m often asked
how can I be like you well I have no
easy answer I don’t think maybe you want
to be like me in some cases but anyhow I
didn’t take a sink symbol a simple you
know one path but I can tell you that
you know you can obviously see that I
think laughter is a very important part
of the blueprint for success you know
nurturing friendships and treasuring
them and here you are here’s your laughs
learn abundantly adapt endlessly
understand openly give ceaselessly and
live in harmony with your hosts and if
you’d like this little talk today you
can keep the change well city by e this is not my stock
I am often asked why I first came to
Japan and when I’m asked that question I
often respond my love affair with Japan
began in a bathroom that usually gets
some you know response and I’ll explain
but first let me tell you that I was
born and raised in a middle-class family
in Los Angeles but was lucky to be able
to go to Stanford University I went to
Stanford with big dreams it’s gonna be a
doctor or a major league baseball player
and I certainly was going to see the
world on one of the great Stanford
University exchange programs well the
dream of becoming a doctor ended very
quickly in my first quarter I got an F
in chemistry
well I retook chemistry in the second
then my advisor in the in the medical
school said Keener do you really want to
be a doctor or do you just want to play
baseball and and have parties be the
social director of your freshman
dormitory and you know I’m kind of
ashamed to say I chose the latter
but we had some we have some really
in baseball I did quite well I hit over
300 on the Freshman team but in my last
game that first year I tore up my
shoulder and the doctor said it would
take a year at least to to heal so I
kind of lost my focus on on baseball too
and my focus on some other things and
what did I focus on I mentioned earlier
the bathroom story I’m gonna come back
to that now I went to Stanford wanting
to go overseas someplace but I didn’t
know where in about my third or fourth
week in school I walked into the
bathroom to relieve myself and above the
urinal was a sign that said spend a
summer in Japan if you’re interested
come to the explanation for this about
the Stanford University exchange program
and let me say I went to that meeting
and my interest was pricked
oops did I say that I’m sorry well yeah
I was selected as one of the 12 students
on the springac summer exchange program
and I came and had my 19th birthday a
summer of 65 in Tokyo and as you can see
I was hooked
I went Japanese but in my sophomore year
I went back to Stanford I found focus I
started studying Japanese intensively
and I became the chairman of the
Stanford ko exchange program well and I
and I and and in my junior year I
applied for a year’s scholarship and I
was able to come to Tokyo to KO in for
my last year in college and I graduated
in 68 but I look back at those years in
college and I didn’t study I wasn’t a
good student at all to my great regret
but what I did do I did learn was social
skills communication and I learned that
if you make people laugh you can become
friends and friends is one of the
biggest parts of your blueprint for
success the Japanese have a word called
Stowe’s I sung it normally means your
set your wealth but if you change the
stone to mean person it becomes a play
on words and it means your your wealth
of friends and your wealth of friends is
invaluable as a blueprint for success in
that senior year at Keio I worked at
that nichibei Kiowa gakuen the Japan
America conversation Institute taught
English to make money to go back to
graduate school of business and I met a
young professor and he said you’re funny
you tell a lot of jokes so he invited me
to be with him on NHK so I taught talked
with him on NHK English but I didn’t
just do it straight had to have some fun
all the time so I would get behind the
camera when I was bored and about the
same time another teacher at the
nichibei Hyuga clan told me there was an
advertisement in The Japan Times to work
at the World’s Fair in Osaka interpreter
guides for the American pavilion and I
applied and I was lucky I was one of
sixty interpreter guides that made it to
the American pavilion out of more of a
thousand of that applied and at the
American pavilion since I had extensive
background in sports often I was allowed
to take the sports personalities that
came through the American pavilion and
in March of 70 the San Francisco Giants
professional baseball team came and I
was able to take the Giants through and
with the Giants owner there was a man by
the name of Cappy Harada Cappy Harada is
the legendary bridge between Japanese
and American professional baseball Cappy
had been MacArthur General MacArthur’s
personal aide during the occupation in
World War two and after World War two
and Kathy was given the job of
restarting Japanese professional
baseball after the war and it was Cappy
who brought the legendary Joe DiMaggio
to Japan in February of 1954 along with
Joe’s even more famous wife Marilyn
Monroe Cappy and I became good friends
and stayed in close contact
she stills I son we stayed in close
contact I went back to the United States
after Expo 17 I was going to go to
graduate school of business and while I
was waiting I got a call from happy she
does I sung and he offered me the job of
becoming a minor-league general manager
for a team in Lodi California he had
sold that team to a Japanese man by the
name of mr. Naugle Yoshi Nakamura and I
was able to be GM for two years and then
Nakamura invited me to come to Japan and
help him with his new Japanese team in
Fukuoka the Tahil Club Lions which has
now become the Sabre Lions in 1974 I
came and joined the Lions as the
director of sales and promotions and I
wanted to start things with a splash so
I thought outside of the box what could
I do
how about if I had a real lion as a
mascot I don’t think anybody in Japan
has ever thought of doing something like
this a little bit crazy I found out I
didn’t know how to get a lion but I
found out at the time that if you had
the money a little over 400 thousand yen
I think it was goodbye a lion but what
do you do with it after it arrives on
your doorstep when Radek on which we
named her arrived we hadn’t planned
where Dada would stay so for the first
two weeks out at John stayed in my
apartment a lot of fun to have a little
lion in you’re in you’re in you’re in
you’re in your room but one evening when
I came home Radha John came running to
the door you know like a little dogwood
and grabbed my shoe and put a claw right
through the top of the shoe all the way
through the bottom just missing my two
toes and yeah I knew then that we had to
get a real trainer for Radha John soon
and and built and build her cage which
we did in that same year 74 a really
close friend that I had met at Stanford
onobu taught asaji the son of the owner
of
Tory who is now the chairman of Suntory
he came to Fukuoka and we went out that
night and set a personal record for both
of us for the amount of or the number of
bars that we went to we went to 14 in
that night now for him it was mainly
business but for me it was just a lot of
fun we even went in a gun gene bar put
on World War 2 uniforms and sang World
War 2 fight songs with all these other
crazy people in the restaurant kind of
nutty right but it was a lot of fun
we’ll never forget that and later then
with Saji son we bought the Birmingham
Barons and I had a baseball a basketball
player by the name of Michael Jordan who
quit basketball and played baseball for
for another talk after this a lot
happened to me because of personal
friendships those ison I was able to do
a lot of first things I was able to do
the first major sports licensing in
Japan was able to write sports columns
and sports books be the first gaikokujin
sports broadcaster speaking in Japanese
and also started the first sports bars
and restaurants in Japan here’s one of
my attics in – in Kobe had a lot of fun
here and I know a lot of other people
had a lot of fun here a lot of laughter
and I was able to increase my Stowe’s
Ison Network extensively because I had
these sports bars here’s a couple my
little friends walk’n Ohana and talk on
Ohana just before they became Yokozuna
and I think you’ve seen talking to Hana
in the news a lot recently
usually not smiling so much but I can
tell you back in the day we smiled a lot
and we laughed a lot you can see that
laughter is one of my big parts of a
blueprint for success it’s just amazing
what laughter can do when I go into a
convenience store or a restaurant and I
get the bill and I’m able to put down
the exact change
before the person behind the counter can
say anything I say keep the change
old city of Aida say and the person
behind the counter first looks stunned
and then they burst into laughter almost
every time it’s great try it my
blueprint for Laughs L is learn learn
the language I learned the language well
enough that I’ve been able to do my own
sports shows and I’ve had two of my own
shows here was Barr and Marty’s bar able
to enter interview terrific people like
the legendary sada Haro Ichiro Suzuki we
were both a lot younger than weren’t we
that’s over 20 years ago but you know
learning the language is not enough you
have to learn the culture as well I
always tell people this you’ve got to
learn about the culture I watch a lot of
TV I watch toku Donny in the morning i
watch hodo station i watch Sunday
morning i watch all these those shows
because you’ve got to know what’s hot
you got to know about the culture not
just one thing otherwise helping you
keep up with the water cooler talk a in
laughs adapt in 2005 through another
personal great relationship I was
introduced to Hiroshima Kootenay owner
of rock 10 and that led to my becoming
the first general manager of foreign
general manager of any professional team
in Japan but you know that first year
wasn’t easy we didn’t have a great team
that was one of the big problems but
another problem was is that getting our
foreign players to adapt the first
player I sign and sign for the most
money didn’t like Japan at all because
there wasn’t a McDonald’s on every
corner and he couldn’t he and his family
couldn’t get Diet Coke at the stores
close to there in their home that family
never tried Japanese food they didn’t
try to learn it learn to like it and
since he didn’t adapt at all I had to
fire him after the
first year you understand it’s really
important to understand the culture that
you’re living in it’s still kind of hard
for me except that people will come up
in Japan and say oh you gained weight
pretty much the name well in some cases
it’s true but you know in in in some
cultures this is going to lose your
friends maybe maybe forever you just
don’t say this in certain cultures but
in Japan if you understand Japan it used
to be in Japan that gaining weight was a
sign of prosperity okay so there’s no
big you know stigma to saying it but
Japanese please be careful when you say
it to us foreigners we don’t we don’t
really like to hear it anyhow
understanding the language and and that
and the culture is really important but
I want to stress one thing you know you
don’t have to agree with it I don’t
agree with a lot of things I see in
Japan but I think I understand them so
trying to understand is really important
give giving the Japanese love to give
they love to give praise oftentimes when
you meet someone people will say when
they’re introducing to someone this
person is someone who’s really taking
care of care of me a lot know kono kata
neo say one not Dimas but oftentimes
it’s not even true but they say it
anyhow it’s just the way it’s done here
you know and the pitchers in Japan when
they pitch a game a good game they’ll
always give praise to the catcher you
know
Masahiro Tanaka won 34 games for us or
24 games for us in 2013 and had no
losses and he always praised Shima the
catcher after the game let me tell you
Shima wasn’t winning those games it was
Margaret but is accepted in this society
it’s part of the way they do things and
it’s good to understand that and go
along with that custom last one harmony
my friends very popular book Robert
Whiting’s book you got to have wha
it’s the most popular baseball book ever
the key he says in this book for being
successful in Japan is not your skill
level as a player it’s whether you can
fit in with the group if you can be in
harmony with the group that’s the key to
success and harmony can be seen here in
Japan when there’s a time of crisis I
was so impressed with the Japanese after
311 when people said patiently in line
for a pay phone or patiently in line to
get groceries at a you know the few
supermarkets they were open and there
was no cutting in line
it’s beautiful harmony I’m often asked
how can I be like you well I have no
easy answer I don’t think maybe you want
to be like me in some cases but anyhow I
didn’t take a sink symbol a simple you
know one path but I can tell you that
you know you can obviously see that I
think laughter is a very important part
of the blueprint for success you know
nurturing friendships and treasuring
them and here you are here’s your laughs
learn abundantly adapt endlessly
understand openly give ceaselessly and
live in harmony with your hosts and if
you’d like this little talk today you
can keep the change well city by e this is not my stock
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