🎯 Want to learn real Japanese used in business? Book a lesson with me on Preply now! 👉 https://preply.com/ja/tutor/3450777?utm_medium ——— 📣 このポッドキャストでは、日系企業で働きたい方向けに、ビジネスで使われる日本語やマナー、面接・業界研究のコツなどを解説しています。 ◆ 無料メルマガ（濃い学びを得たい方に） https://my162p.com/p/r/odSmegng ◆ YouTube（ビジネス日本語を動画で） www.youtube.com/@Shigeki-Sensei ◆ブログ https://businessnihongo555.blogspot.com/ ◆Instagram https://www.instagram.com/shigeki_sensei555/ ◆電子書籍 www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0DSWMHJRZ ◆文章はこちらでも書いています。 https://shigekisaito.substack.com/ ◆ご感想・お問い合わせはこちら https://forms.gle/Ph1frcztsKPEH5H79
最新エピソード
自分に厳しく、他人に甘く
What does it really mean to be strict with yourself but generous with others? In this episode, I reflect on different types of managers I encountered during my career. Some highly capable people expect everyone around them to meet the same standards they set for themselves. Others work extremely hard but give their employees surprising freedom. I share the story of an exceptional sales manager who sometimes let his team sleep, relax, and work only a few hours—yet consistently delivered results. Perhaps good leadership is not about demanding that others become like you. Being capable yourself does not automatically justify expecting the same from everyone else.
奢り方には、人間性が出る
Paying for someone else’s meal may seem like a small gesture, but it can reveal a surprising amount about a person. In this episode, I reflect on my experiences of being treated to meals and drinks while working in Thailand and Vietnam. Some people paid reluctantly or immediately expected something in return, while others simply paid for everyone without making a fuss. What impressed me was not the amount of money, but the grace and generosity of the gesture. Being treated also requires good manners and genuine gratitude. Perhaps the way we give and receive says more about us than the money itself.
好きなことを仕事にするべきか
Should you turn what you love into your work? In this episode, I explore why our interests and preferences should matter when choosing a career. Following your passion does not guarantee success, and financial stability cannot simply be ignored. But choosing a job only because it seems safe may eventually leave you wondering what you actually wanted to do. Sometimes it is better to seriously pursue something, fail, and discover that it was not right for you than never try at all. A career is not only about earning a living. It is also about deciding what deserves your time and commitment.
鈍感力より、雑になる勇気。
Can we really train ourselves to stop caring about what other people say and do? In this episode, I question the popular idea of developing a thicker skin. Perhaps sensitivity is not something we can simply switch off. Instead of trying to become less sensitive, I suggest another approach: becoming a little less demanding of ourselves. Modern culture often celebrates careful routines, tidy homes, healthy habits, and “mindful” living. There is nothing wrong with any of that, but constant self-management can become exhausting. Maybe what we need is not greater emotional toughness, but the courage to live a little more casually.
引きこもりたいという本音は隠さざるを得ないのが現代人の偽らざる心情だろう
Perhaps many people secretly want to withdraw from society more than they are willing to admit. In this episode, I reflect on my own tendency to stay home, avoid unnecessary social interaction, and struggle with conventional institutions. I talk about leaving high school, later going to university, and eventually discovering that corporate life was especially difficult for me—not because I disliked working, but because constant workplace relationships exhausted me. Being able to adapt to a company is certainly a useful ability, but it is not the only measure of a person. Perhaps being unsuited to corporate life does not mean being unsuited to life itself.
営業マンが売りたい時と、お客さんが買いたい時は違う
Customers have their own timing when it comes to buying. In this episode, I reflect on my years of experience in sales and a difficult truth every salesperson faces: sometimes you can explain everything clearly, answer every question, build trust, and still fail to close the deal. The reason may be surprisingly simple—the customer simply does not need the product right now. Salespeople have targets, commissions, and pressure to sell, but customers have their own circumstances. Sometimes the best thing you can do is explain the product honestly, answer their concerns, and then leave politely. Not every customer needs to buy today.
職業病ですから
Years ago in Bangkok, a recruitment agent impressed me by instantly recognizing a pattern in my job search. When I said, “You know the industry well,” he replied, “It’s an occupational hazard.” For some reason, that phrase stayed with me. In this episode, I explore why it felt slightly performative: a form of modesty that quietly advertises professional expertise. I also consider how our image of competence is changing. In the age of AI, being able to memorize everything and answer instantly may matter less than finding, checking, and processing information efficiently. Perhaps professionalism no longer needs to look so professional.
近道を売る人ほど、近道していない
Why do people who sell shortcuts rarely take shortcuts themselves? In this episode, I explore a strange contradiction in the online business world. Many successful marketers promise faster results, proven methods, and ways to avoid unnecessary mistakes. Yet they often spent years creating content, testing ideas, failing, improving, and building an audience. Good advice can certainly reduce wasted effort, but efficiency is not the same as eliminating practice. Perhaps the real lesson is not the shortcut they sell, but the long, repetitive work they actually did. A shortcut may shorten the road, but it cannot make the road disappear.
焼畑ビジネスで気を付けなければならないポイント
How can you tell whether a business opportunity is already burning out? In this episode, I examine “slash-and-burn” business models, especially those built around teaching people how to make money online. The early entrants may succeed, but problems arise when students become sellers of the same methods and the market depends on a constant supply of newcomers. I discuss several useful questions: Who is the final consumer? Does the product have value without being resold? How many people actually succeed? What did the successful people sell? Sometimes a market looks prosperous only because yesterday’s success stories are still being advertised. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ●ビジネス日本語学習者のための無料メルマガ講座 https://my162p.com/p/r/odSmegng ●ビジネス日本語学習者向けブログ ビジネスのために日本語を学んでいる人のための情報を発信しています https://businessnihongo555.blogspot.com/ ● Substack日々考えたことや感じたことを自由に書いています https://shigekisaito.substack.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
自己啓発産業のサプライチェーン
What if the self-help industry has its own supply chain? In this episode, I look at self-help through the lens of manufacturing. Ideas such as mindset, personal branding, resilience, and journaling are imported, translated, adapted, shaped into familiar formulas, mass-produced as social media posts, and distributed to consumers. Some creators act like trading companies, others like mold makers, factories, wholesalers, or retailers. This does not mean self-help is worthless. The more interesting question is where value is added, where ideas become diluted, and where they turn into copies. Perhaps every motivational idea has its own manufacturing history. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ●ビジネス日本語学習者のための無料メルマガ講座 https://my162p.com/p/r/odSmegng ●ビジネス日本語学習者向けブログ ビジネスのために日本語を学んでいる人のための情報を発信しています https://businessnihongo555.blogspot.com/ ● Substack日々考えたことや感じたことを自由に書いています https://shigekisaito.substack.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
現代人は、人生を攻略ゲームに変換することで、不確実さから逃げているのではないか
Why are modern people so obsessed with optimization? In this episode, I explore the possibility that optimization helps us cope with uncertainty. Life has no clear roadmap, but goals, numbers, routines, and success formulas can make it feel like a game with rules. We want success to have a reason and failure to have an explanation because randomness is uncomfortable. Yet effort does not always produce results, and success may depend partly on timing, circumstances, and luck. Perhaps we do not need more strategies for mastering life. What we need instead is the ability to live in a world that cannot be fully mastered. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ●ビジネス日本語学習者のための無料メルマガ講座 https://my162p.com/p/r/odSmegng ●ビジネス日本語学習者向けブログ ビジネスのために日本語を学んでいる人のための情報を発信しています https://businessnihongo555.blogspot.com/ ● Substack日々考えたことや感じたことを自由に書いています https://shigekisaito.substack.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
自己啓発屋の思想はなぜテフロン加工されているのか
Why does self-help thinking sometimes seem Teflon-coated? In this episode, I explore how certain ideas appear designed to repel criticism, failure, social problems, and even self-doubt. When reality challenges the message that “everything depends on you,” another positive slogan can simply provide a fresh coating. I contrast this with a “wok-style” philosophy: scratched, burned, blackened, and shaped by direct contact with reality. Perhaps good thinking should allow failure, contradiction, other people’s suffering, and uncomfortable facts to stick. There is nothing wrong with ambition or desire. But when desire is sticky while criticism slides away, something strange begins to happen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ●ビジネス日本語学習者のための無料メルマガ講座 https://my162p.com/p/r/odSmegng ●ビジネス日本語学習者向けブログ ビジネスのために日本語を学んでいる人のための情報を発信しています https://businessnihongo555.blogspot.com/ ● Substack日々考えたことや感じたことを自由に書いています https://shigekisaito.substack.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
空手形ばかり切るビジネス
Is modern self-help built on promissory notes? In this episode, I explore how online businesses often sell promises whose value can only be judged in the future: change your habits and your life will improve, invest in yourself and you will succeed, or build systems and you will become free. On social media, people even seem to endorse each other’s promises through likes, comments, and mutual praise. But eventually, every promise reaches its maturity date. What actually remains after one, two, or three years? Perhaps sustainable business is less about selling grand dreams and more about delivering small, concrete value today. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ●ビジネス日本語学習者のための無料メルマガ講座 https://my162p.com/p/r/odSmegng ●ビジネス日本語学習者向けブログ ビジネスのために日本語を学んでいる人のための情報を発信しています https://businessnihongo555.blogspot.com/ ● Substack日々考えたことや感じたことを自由に書いています https://shigekisaito.substack.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
働きすぎる社長は、本当に優秀なのか
Is a CEO who works constantly really a great CEO? In this episode, I explore the difference between working hard and actually managing a company. During the early stages of a business, founders often need to do everything themselves. But as a company grows, the skills required may change. Executives must learn to delegate, step away from daily operations, think about the future, and sometimes simply wait. Practical tasks feel satisfying because they have clear endings, while strategic thinking often produces no immediate result. Perhaps great management is not about staying endlessly busy, but knowing when to work, delegate, think, and do nothing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ●ビジネス日本語学習者のための無料メルマガ講座 https://my162p.com/p/r/odSmegng ●ビジネス日本語学習者向けブログ ビジネスのために日本語を学んでいる人のための情報を発信しています https://businessnihongo555.blogspot.com/ ● Substack日々考えたことや感じたことを自由に書いています https://shigekisaito.substack.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
人畜無害はノーリスク・リターンな徳である
Is being harmless the same as being a good person? In this episode, I question why modern society often treats harmlessness as a moral virtue. Traditional virtues such as courage, justice, generosity, and honesty usually involve some kind of cost: risk, conflict, sacrifice, or responsibility. Harmlessness, however, can often be achieved simply by avoiding conflict, strong opinions, and difficult situations. There is nothing wrong with living quietly and peacefully, but not harming others is different from actively doing good. Perhaps we have begun giving too much moral credit to people simply because they appear pleasant, gentle, and unlikely to cause trouble. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ●ビジネス日本語学習者のための無料メルマガ講座 https://my162p.com/p/r/odSmegng ●ビジネス日本語学習者向けブログ ビジネスのために日本語を学んでいる人のための情報を発信しています https://businessnihongo555.blogspot.com/ ● Substack日々考えたことや感じたことを自由に書いています https://shigekisaito.substack.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AIで空いた時間に、仕事をしてはいけない
What should we do with the time AI saves us? In this episode, I argue that efficiency should not simply lead to more work. If a task that once took three hours now takes one, perhaps the remaining two hours should belong to us. We can play games, read, walk, nap, or do nothing at all. Modern life often turns even rest into another productivity tool, but rest does not need to justify itself. AI and automation should not exist merely to increase the density of work. Their real promise may be giving human beings more time in which they do not have to work. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ●ビジネス日本語学習者のための無料メルマガ講座 https://my162p.com/p/r/odSmegng ●ビジネス日本語学習者向けブログ ビジネスのために日本語を学んでいる人のための情報を発信しています https://businessnihongo555.blogspot.com/ ● Substack日々考えたことや感じたことを自由に書いています https://shigekisaito.substack.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
苦しみの資産化 ── なぜ不幸はYouTubeで価値を持つのか
What happens when human suffering becomes an asset? In traditional accounting, humiliation, loneliness, unemployment, and painful memories have no monetary value. But on YouTube, those same experiences can generate views, donations, subscribers, and advertising revenue. In this episode, I explore the strange economics of turning personal suffering into content. The most disturbing possibility is that success may create a conflict: you want to escape your suffering, but your audience may value you precisely because you suffer. When unhappiness becomes profitable, recovery can reduce your market value. Perhaps some parts of life should simply remain outside the market. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ●ビジネス日本語学習者のための無料メルマガ講座 https://my162p.com/p/r/odSmegng ●ビジネス日本語学習者向けブログ ビジネスのために日本語を学んでいる人のための情報を発信しています https://businessnihongo555.blogspot.com/ ● Substack日々考えたことや感じたことを自由に書いています https://shigekisaito.substack.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
深いことを言いすぎる時代
Why does everyone sound so “deep” these days? In this episode, I explore the inflation of philosophical language online: words like freedom, meaning, identity, structure, desire, and authenticity now appear everywhere. The problem is not thinking deeply, but mistaking abstract language for depth itself. When profound-sounding words are used constantly, philosophy can become little more than background music. I argue that the weight of a thought may depend partly on how long someone has remained silent before saying it. Perhaps true depth comes not from speaking endlessly about life, but from knowing when not to. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ●ビジネス日本語学習者のための無料メルマガ講座 https://my162p.com/p/r/odSmegng ●ビジネス日本語学習者向けブログ ビジネスのために日本語を学んでいる人のための情報を発信しています https://businessnihongo555.blogspot.com/ ● Substack日々考えたことや感じたことを自由に書いています https://shigekisaito.substack.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
壁打ちは環境負荷が高い
Is AI “brainstorming” bad for the environment? In this episode, I half-jokingly ask whether we really need data centers running around the world just to help us organize our thoughts. People now use AI to reflect on their careers, emotions, goals, values, and daily frustrations—tasks that once required only a notebook, a walk, or a quiet evening. Of course, AI has many valuable uses, but perhaps not every vague feeling needs computational power. Sometimes the most environmentally friendly form of reflection is simply thinking for yourself, writing something down, or doing absolutely nothing for a while. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ●ビジネス日本語学習者のための無料メルマガ講座 https://my162p.com/p/r/odSmegng ●ビジネス日本語学習者向けブログ ビジネスのために日本語を学んでいる人のための情報を発信しています https://businessnihongo555.blogspot.com/ ● Substack日々考えたことや感じたことを自由に書いています https://shigekisaito.substack.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
なぜ私たちは自分を『最適化』し続けるのか
Why are we constantly trying to optimize ourselves? In this episode, I look at how modern life encourages us to adapt to systems rather than question them. Employees optimize for promotions and performance reviews, while independent creators optimize for algorithms, clicks, followers, and engagement. Even after leaving the office, the logic of evaluation often remains. I also explore what happens when this mindset enters creative work: people search for the “right” titles, topics, styles, and opinions, only to become increasingly similar. Perhaps originality begins where optimization stops, and where we allow ourselves to remain inefficient, strange, and slightly outside the expected answer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ●ビジネス日本語学習者のための無料メルマガ講座 https://my162p.com/p/r/odSmegng ●ビジネス日本語学習者向けブログ ビジネスのために日本語を学んでいる人のための情報を発信しています https://businessnihongo555.blogspot.com/ ● Substack日々考えたことや感じたことを自由に書いています https://shigekisaito.substack.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------