The Professionals

Enormous gantry cranes, 127 meters long, tower over the wharf at the Port of Yokohama. From the operator's cabins perched 50 meters above ground, crane jockeys, the rock stars of the port, orchestrate the critical work of loading and unloading vessels. Shigeru Kamiakutsu can shift around 50 containers per hour, 50% faster than the global average. But Kamiakutsu himself doesn't aim for a certain number of containers per hour. "Working as a crane jockey", he says, "is not a track meet". For him, handling the containers gently is paramount. Many of his fellow port workers are onboard the container ships during loading. They say the sound of a 40 ton container being set down roughly is like cars colliding head-on. And they can't help but flinch when each huge steel box, as it is lowered toward the deck, blots out the sun and plunges them into darkness. They are handling hundreds of containers a day like this at ultra-close range. Kamiakutsu tries to minimize their stress by setting containers down gently. He pauses just 20cm above the stack, then slowly lowers the container the rest of the way. This crane jockey puts care for his colleagues first. And that attitude fosters teamwork that results in one of the world's most efficient port gantry crane operations. It might be humanly possible to put up better numbers by driving the crane to the limit in the interests of the bottom line, but Kamiakutsu doesn't think like that. For him, efficiency at the cost of being considerate of his coworkers would be no win at all.

Robot researcher Yoshiyuki Sankai created the world's first cyborg-style robot. The robot reads electrical signals sent by the brain when it wants to move a muscle and interprets them as an instruction to move. The robot can instantly carry out the kinds of complex movements made by human beings, and it's attracting a lot of attention as a tool for physiotherapy. For those with spinal injuries or stroke-related paralysis, wearing Sankai's robot can restore a sense of moving one's own limbs, which can, in turn, help to improve nerve function, even in cases where physical recovery was previously considered impossible. Sankai is sensitive to the feelings of patients and their families, people struggling in difficult circumstances. His robot technology has evolved to work together with those who need it. It's this feeling factor that lies behind Sankai's technological breakthroughs.

Sankai says, "I believe that the desire to help others is what drives technical evolution. Every person's life has an end. There's a time limit. That means we have to keep striving for faster progress. I want to keep going for as long as I can".

The Number 83 Saga Myojin Maru has landed the biggest annual haul of skipjack tuna four times since 2004. This boat's captain is Manabu Myojin. Skipjack tuna swim a different route every year, making them difficult to find. Myojin uses unique methods to track them, studying tidal currents and sea temperature. His detailed analysis and hi-tech equipment have opened up new fishing grounds and led to record-breaking catches. His bold, trailblazing spirit has other captains and fishing researchers calling him a genius.

Kyogen is a world-famous Japanese comedic stage art, and actor Mansai Nomura embodies that tradition. Many kyogen pieces skewer the powerful from the perspective of the common man and paint amusing portraits of human desire and vanity. Born into the venerable Nomura kyogen family, Mansai began acting career at age 3. His life was "fated", and even now his artistic path appears endless. People are bound by their past. Mansai will continue to use the skills he acquired in his childhood training. His strong resolve and pride are evident as he continues to explore the life of a kyogen actor.

Takeru Furuta, age 75. They call him the King of Cleaners. How good is he? Individual customers use his services, of course, but so do department stores, luxury brand boutiques and even other cleaners! The most challenging cleaning jobs from around Japan are sent to him. Using an arsenal of advanced cleaning methods, Furuta and his team rejuvenate these wardrobe treasures to like-new condition. Whenever he works, he always remembers that his customers have entrusted him with precious memories. Every piece of clothing has a story. Furuta revives not just garments, but the memories within.
Furuta is often entrusted with garments that other cleaners have damaged, or have refused to take on. Even with his 60 years of experience, he sometimes wants to turn a job down, for fear he will ruin a garment. But he always tells himself, "There has to be some way. If I back out when people bring me the tough ones, then what's the point of doing this job? A professional faces fear head-on". Meet Takeru Furuta, a man who can conquer any stain, a man who has dedicated his life to the craft of cleaning clothes.

"Packaging manager" is a highly specialized occupation that involves taking responsibility for all packaging processes across a company. Yoshikazu Okazaki plays this role at a major manufacturer of bathroom fittings, where he has been designing packaging for 30 years. Okazaki is an iconoclast - at work, he was initially a problem employee who failed to apply himself. But when he was given a shot at designing packaging, he felt an affinity with the work, which had long been treated as an afterthought. He threw himself into his new job with gusto. 
While many companies outsource their packaging design to cardboard manufacturers, Okazaki handles his company's in-house. The point that he always stresses is that as soon as packaging reaches the customer, it becomes trash. For him, packaging is a form of technology that must be optimized to minimize waste and get products to their destinations safely. Okazaki's packaging designs relentlessly eliminate the unnecessary, using the absolute minimum of material. By improving his designs year by year, he has saved the company at least 1.7 billion yen over a 10-year period. He's become known as a "company treasure".
If Okazaki takes on a job, he'll persevere until he does it better than anyone. That's what makes him a true professional.

Etsuo Asano's vegetables are acclaimed by chefs from around the world as having perfect flavor. The secret to the ultimate flavor is the meticulous way Asano has tended his fields for the past 50 years. Asano's goal is not to grow the biggest, fattest vegetables, or achieve the highest yield: instead he specializes in maximizing natural vitality. This is the essence of Asano's philosophy, which comes from over 50 years of vegetable farming. Asano isn't satisfied with just supplying the vegetables he grows to chefs. He also cooks the vegetables himself to assess how their flavor changes when heated, and listens carefully to chefs to find out exactly what they are looking for. The most important thing for Asano is that the people who ultimately dine on his vegetables find them as delicious as Mother Nature can make them. Asano also experiments with growing rare vegetables from around the world in his greenhouses. It's not uncommon for years to pass with new seeds growing properly. But Asano never succumbs to impatience in the face of these difficulties. He simply observes what nature does, and learns from the power of growing things. He describes himself as "always learning from Mother Nature".

It was 13 years ago that the iPod digital music player took the world by storm. The eye-catching shiny metal case of this iconic device catapulted metal polisher Kazuo Kobayashi, who applied the mirror finish to the device, to fame in the manufacturing world. You would never guess from the look of his small factory, surrounded by rice fields in rural Niigata Prefecture, that he is booked solid with orders from all around Japan for polishing medical devices and other precision components.
What customers come to Kobayashi for is his exceptional skill in polishing metal, down to the micrometer. Polishing is an industrial craft technique for removing material from surfaces in microscopic increments to create smooth finishes. But the slightest mistake in how much pressure is applied can wear away depressions. Kobayashi uses his long years of experience and finely honed sense of touch to achieve maximum smoothness with the minimum amount of polishing. From simple pots to complex medical devices, his ability to polish anything to perfection is second to none. This program follows Kobayashi's enthusiasm and passion for polishing.

He has amazed the world with creative endeavors across a stunning range of media and venues: figure skating exhibitions, concerts for pop supergroup Perfume, video for Tokyo's 2020 Olympic bid, high-profile TV commercials and much more. He is Daito Manabe, and his philosophy for creative expression is extremely simple: Do stuff nobody else does. With any project Manabe is involved in, he will expend every ounce of energy he has to bring forth something no one has ever achieved before. Manabe says of himself, "I have a tendency to avoid things that other people are likely to be trying. I want to do one-of-a-kind work. That's the value I have. That leads to really terrible cost-performance, which makes things hard. I always think about what I'll be doing in 3 years, when anyone can do this and it's not special. I guess that's a factor in being able to keep creating new things".
To help him create the kinds of spectacles that no one has seen before, once a week Manabe visits a university research lab or company to check out state-of-the-art devices and materials. He is also very interested in historical forms of expression - for example, how technology has been incorporated into dance performances in various eras. He has posted the results of his historical explorations, stretching all the way back to the 17th century, on a website. Keenly interested in the very latest innovations and the trends of bygone eras, Manabe believes that engaging with both of them, day in and day out, gives him the inspiration to create new things.

"I want to have this precious garment fixed". Requests to restore damaged clothing pour in from around Japan to Takao Matsumoto, a wizard of the art known as "invisible mending". The technique involves removing threads from the pockets and hems of damaged items, and using them to make repairs. In a career spanning 55 years, Matsumoto has even worked on synthetic fibers and leather. Such materials can't be fixed using conventional invisible mending methods, but Matsumoto uses his precise and detailed skills to make them like new. His motto is "if asked, accept". This reflects his pride as a professional, and his belief that taking on challenges is the way to improve one's skills. He believes deep down that objects have "life". He pours his heart and soul into his work, and says the extent to which he can grasp people's feelings when restoring their clothes is where his true abilities as a craftsman shine through. One day, a request comes in from a woman who received a cardigan from her mother, who's passed away 40 years ago. But the cardigan is so full of holes it looks beyond repair. Join us as we focus in on a veteran craftsman's soulful efforts to support his customers, and even weave together the memories their garments hold.

Shintaro Hayashi is a prosthetist and orthotist. He helps people who have lost parts of their bodies due to unexpected accidents by creating authentic-looking artificial fingers, ears, hands and feet. He creates extremely lifelike prostheses made of silicone resin that are indispensible part of these people's lives. This program portrays how seriously Hayashi dedicates himself to his profession.

The Number 83 Saga Myojin Maru has landed the biggest annual haul of skipjack tuna four times since 2004. This boat's captain is Manabu Myojin. Skipjack tuna swim a different route every year, making them difficult to find. Myojin uses unique methods to track them, studying tidal currents and sea temperature. His detailed analysis and hi-tech equipment have opened up new fishing grounds and led to record-breaking catches. His bold, trailblazing spirit has other captains and fishing researchers calling him a genius.

Kyogen is a world-famous Japanese comedic stage art, and actor Mansai Nomura embodies that tradition. Many kyogen pieces skewer the powerful from the perspective of the common man and paint amusing portraits of human desire and vanity. Born into the venerable Nomura kyogen family, Mansai began acting career at age 3. His life was "fated", and even now his artistic path appears endless. People are bound by their past. Mansai will continue to use the skills he acquired in his childhood training. His strong resolve and pride are evident as he continues to explore the life of a kyogen actor.

Pediatric surgeon Atsuyuki Yamataka is known as the "final hope for young lives." He treats children that other doctors can't, and has helped more than 10,000. His expertise is difficult surgery on infants and children with difficult illnesses. A slight error in surgery on a newborn can be fatal. But Yamataka's goal is simple: The safest and most reliable surgery. The fear of a difficult operation makes him study hard, which gives him confidence. A young girl with a serious lung condition is brought in for help. Watch as Yamataka tests his limits to save a life.

It is now 40 years since Japan's postwar construction rush, but a lack of earthquake resistance, and buildings falling into disrepair have recently triggered a new rush - this time in high-rise demolition. It was against this backdrop that Hideki Ichihara developed a new method of deconstruction that solves the issues of noise and dust associated with more conventional demolition techniques.
In Ichihara's own words: "Creating technology is not something to be done alone, but as a team". His great strength is his ability to mobilize the people around him. In order to create unprecedented technologies, Ichihara collaborates across departmental boundaries, taking onboard ideas from any and all comers. "Let's do something exciting together". This was his mantra as he sought suggestions at budget and management meetings, from participants not typically associated with technology development. Caught up in Ichihara's enthusiasm, those around him quickly find themselves sucked into his whirlpool of innovation. The resulting technology, which has won admiration from all around the world for Ichihara and his team, is overflowing with the verve of engineers striving to create something new.

Airports, train stations and buildings: In places where lots of people gather, cleaning staff play an invaluable role. Haneda Airport in Tokyo was named the world's cleanest for 2 years in a row. Supporting this achievement from behind the scenes is Haruko Niitsu, a veritable craftsperson of professional cleaning. Today she takes great pride in her work, but her career began in adversity and a long search to find her place in life. Niitsu herself has nothing but admiration for the specially trained pros who clean windows up high. One such person is Nobuyuki Hanyuda, a craftsman of window cleaning who is known as the best in the business. In his field, just one mistake can be life threatening. But Hanyuda has spent 30 years polishing windows on high-rise buildings to a shine. His guiding principle is to "fear becoming too relaxed about work, and to always be a beginner at heart". Join us as we focus in on professionals who keep Japan looking beautiful!

In a rural Japanese town, buyers constantly lineup at a small supermarket run by an 80-year-old couple, who are local celebrities. The customers come here for the home-made traditional Japanese delicatessen. Wife Sumiko starts preparations for the deli at 2 a.m., cooking 100 types of dishes, while managing 35 staff members. Sumiko experiments through trial and error every day to make her dishes better, competing with home chefs. This episode introduces the struggle of a couple who found unconventional ways to compete with a major supermarket.

Late at night when most people are sleeping, professionals patrol the streets of Tokyo in search of leaky pipes. They're experts who use their ears to detect water leaks that could cause accidents, such as the ground to collapse. One particularly skilled expert was dispatched to improve the water supply system in another country, Myanmar. Hisafumi Shogi has spent his career making sure people have access to an essential service. He says the job "isn't for quitters". As he listens for leaks, Shogi constantly admonishes himself to improve. He asks, "How different will I be tomorrow from who I am today? It's no good if there's no change. Even if it's just a tiny bit, I think it's good to change day by day." 

On this program, we follow Shogi as he works in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon, where an inadequate waterworks has left residents struggling. Shogi's mission is to make sure local families have stable access to running water.

30% of Japanese households have a pet, making veterinary medicine a booming field. One vet who has won the absolute trust of countless families is Motokazu Hasuoka. The clinic he runs is small, but it draws dozens of people and their precious pets each day - often, the animals' cases have been called hopeless by other vets. Hasuoka gives care to a wide range of furry and feathered patients, no matter how small, from cats and dogs to hamsters and baby chicks. 
Hasuoka's strength is his careful examination procedure, which leads to astute diagnoses. He takes his time feeling each pet all over, checking breathing rhythm, body temperature and whether any internal organs are swollen. When he notices something unusual, he works to get to the bottom of it. By not rushing his examinations, he can make the best recommendations for treatment.

Shipbuilding developed as one of postwar Japan's foremost industries, and giant Japanese ships are considered the best in the world. The key is their streamlined forms. A single ship consists of hundreds of individual steel sheets. But the shape of each one is unique, so it's difficult to make them by machine. For half a century, a 69-year-old artisan named Koichi Kuzuhara has handcrafted the required complex curves. First, he heats the steel with a flame to expand it, and then cools it with water to make it bend. Kuzuhara's mastery of the art known as "line-heating" allows him to form ideal shapes that are precise down to the millimeter. His skills have earned him admirers at overseas shipyards, who call him "the king". Even after such a long career, Kuzuhara gives the job his full attention, and always does his best. In line heating, there's never "a right way" to do things, says Kuzuhara. "It's up to you to find the solution to a problem. It's difficult, even after 50 years. But maybe that's why it's so interesting".

As in-home medical care becomes more common in Japan, it is not uncommon for patients with ailments such as diabetes and kidney disease to struggle with managing their dietary habits at home, compared to being in a hospital under constant supervision. Many end up being re-hospitalized as a result. One home care dietitian, however, has been able to achieve dramatic improvements in the eating habits of around 1,000 people - her name is Ikuko Nakamura. Her approach acknowledges that she is the "bearer of bad news", and that certain medical conditions demand highly restrictive diets as part of the treatment. Understanding that she is the one who must impose these unwelcome rules on patients, Nakamura strategizes carefully about how to win them over. Case by case, she has pioneered a dedicated, responsive approach to medical intervention through diet.