Taro's Blog

In a parallel universe, I would be a failed train driver. I derailed a lot in my file, personally, academically, and professionally. One particular cause that derailed my professional life at an early stage was my father’s refusal to accept digital technology, especially computers and their keyboards. In other words, he, 93 years old, and I had a digital divide back in 1993-94.

In 1992, graduated from RIT with a Bachelor of Science degree in Printing and Applied Computer Science. My major was practically a double major in printing management and computer science. I wanted to take over my father’s business, a small print shop, and transform it into a computer-aided digital design firm. Use Apple Macintosh computers, phones, emails, Apple OneScanners, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, QuarkXPress for the professional prepress, and the Indigo E-Print 1000 digital press for the professional output. Utilize the power of the PostScript language.

However, there was a major obstacle: the digital divide. My father would never understand or accept computers. As a matter of fact, he still keeps his principles. He only uses a cellular phone as a pure telephone in 2025. No text, email, music, video, or entertainment purposes. (Seriously, he should donate his brain to a research group for the advancement of scientific knowledge.)
日本の高齢者のITスキルが、世界の中でも著しく低い理由

As a trial, I lobbied hard and persuaded my father to invest JPY 1,000,000 in my proposed starter kit. The kit consisted of a copy of QuarkXPress page layout software (JPY 50,000), a Macintosh computer including peripherals (JPY 200,000), an image scanner (JPY 250,000), and a PostScript-compatible laser printer (JPY 500,000). I even won a project of language translation from English to Japanese for Apple Computer. Unfortunately, from my father’s perspective, my humble win from Apple Computer was marginal, and my attempt was a waste of money and time.

He openly criticized me in the company. He labelled me a failure. I was heartbroken. As icing on the cake, he purchased a small printing press for JPY 10,000,000, ten times more than my starter kit. That was the nail in the coffin. To soothe my pain, I had to leave my father’s company, leave Japan, head to Colorado, and join Quark, Inc. in June 1994.