A desire to compete with only his skill
It was a natural course of direction for Mr. Nakamura to end up working in the National Astronomical Observatory, although he said even now he doesn't like stars. "I like things to rotate fast such as engines, so things rotating one cycle per day or a cycle per year don't really suit me", he says laughingly. After the war, valuable but broken measuring equipment, made in Germany, was easily obtainable for disassembly to be repaired at the observatory. It was very lucky that then-top technology was available at hand". He enjoyed his work at the observatory as a skilled worker, however he realized the difficulty of promotion with little academic credentials, and thus decided to start his own business. Although he was very skillful, he was not good at making money. So he put himself on a trial where he can compete only with his skill. His production includes the observation equipment for the 8th South Pole observation corps, a 103 telescope, which is the biggest in Japan, a monitoring camera mounted on the Space Shuttle, and non-contact 3-dimensional measurement devices. Often, other bigger manufacturers are unable to catch up with the technology produced by only thirty three or so workers. Especially those industries where the substance is more important than brand names, such as cranial neurosurgical microscopes for operations, has been the specialty, and ensured big sales for Mitaka Kohki Co. Ltd.
"My job is to make something useful"
Nakamura continues, "The production at a small factory such as ours is easily copied by others. So we need to always be one step ahead of everybody. The important thing is to have a goal, and to think. I often tell the young workers to be open minded and have different approaches because what is required is not always the same. Sometimes you have to be super analytical. Although, you can't figure out our machines even if you disassemble them", he laughed. Currently Nakamura is developing various applications employing "sub-micron technology", which is the specialty of Mitaka Kohki Co., in the area of future fiber optical communication networks. "It is not enough for a skilled worker just to satisfy your curiosity. Our true goal is to produce something easily useful for anybody. I am hoping the name of our town will be famous for something favorable to the people in the whole world by producing things beneficial to humans. That is my dream", he said.
