apanese entrepreneurialism:Flying high

展翅高飞

Sep 28th 2006 | TOKYO

From The Economist print edition

A tale of balloons and small business

一个关于气球和小型企业的故事

IT IS 2008, and an enormous, gloriously hued dragon balloon, symbolising China's tradition and virility, winds around the Olympic Stadium in Beijing. As it nears, it breathes fire to light the Olympic torch. For the moment, this is just an idea in the head of Naoki Nishi, boss of Show Corporation (in Japanese, Fusen Kobo, or balloon factory), based in Hiroshima, but there is every chance of its becoming reality.

2008年，在北京奥林匹克体育场的上空飘浮着一个巨大、色彩艳丽的龙形气球，它象征着中国的传统文化和力量。当气球靠近时，它喷出的火焰将点燃奥林匹克圣火。现在这还只是Naoki Nishi脑中的一个想法而已，但这个想法很有可能成为现实。他在广岛拥有一家名为Show公司（日文称为Fusen Kobo，或气球工厂）的企业。

Mr Nishi does not fit the stereotype of a Japanese businessman. He used to work in the trade division of a Mazda Motor subcontractor. When his company foundered in the early 1990s, he was appointed head of restructuring. To his company's amazement, he decided to fire himself to cut costs. With many people in similar straits, jobs were hard to find, but by some quirk he had acquired a hot-air balloon licence while at his previous company. He cashed in his pension and insurance for capital and established a start-up in 1993. His initial hot-air balloon strategy failed, however. Then flyaway balloons caught his eye.

Nishi并不是个典型的日本商人。他曾在一家马自达汽车分包公司的销售部门工作。这家公司于20世纪90年代初倒闭，他负责公司的重组。但令其公司意外的是，他决定解雇自己以减少开支。当时工作很难找，因为许多人都处于类似的困境。不过机缘巧合，他在从前的公司工作时获过一张驾驶热气球的执照。他将自己的养老金和保险换成现金充作资本，于1993年创办了一家公司。然而，他最初的热气球策略失败了。后来，飘浮的普通气球吸引了他。

Show Corporation now has 16 employees in Japan and 71 in China, where it has based production, and it has cornered the market for large, inflatable character balloons in Japan. At the closing ceremony of the 2002 World Cup in Yokohama, Mr Nishi inflated a balloon 20 metres high in the shape of Mount Fuji in one minute using 25 fans, having beaten more than 250 rival companies for the contract. Show also rents vehicles made out of balloons to Disney World in Florida. They are popular with grandparents accompanying children.

目前Show公司在日本有16名员工，而中国作为生产基地有71名员工。在日本，该公司已经垄断大型特色充气气球市场。2002年在横滨举行的世界杯闭幕仪式上，Nishi打败250多家竞标公司，在一分钟之内用25个鼓风机吹起一个富士山造型气球，高达20米。公司也向弗罗里达州的迪斯尼乐园出租载人热气球，这在那些陪孩子来的老人中是很受欢迎的。

The firm's biggest source of profit now is an environmentally friendly design of balloon. Traditional flyaway rubber balloons were under attack from environmentalists and quickly losing their popularity. Show invented a new type from Japan's traditional, delicate mulberry-bark paper. The firm's reputation was made with events such as the 1998 Winter Olympics, which took place in Nagano, when its doveshaped balloons were released to prevent live birds being singed by the Olympic flame. Recently (to purists' dismay), Show switched to cheaper rubber balloons that dissolve after exposure to ultra-violet rays. It sells about 200,000 to 500,000 of these every month in Japan, and is expanding its market overseas, from Britain to Dubai.

公司目前最大的利润来自一种环保型气球。传统气球因其是橡胶制品且随意漂浮而受到环保主义者的谴责，很快就不再受欢迎了。Show公司利用日本一种传统的精美纸张发明了新型气球，这种纸是由桑椹树皮做成的。通过一些重大场合，公司开始小有名气。如1998年长野冬季奥运会，公司放飞了一些鸽子造型的气球，以免活的鸽子被奥林匹克圣火烤焦。最近，Show转向一较为便宜的橡胶气球生产（这令纯粹主义者感到不满），这种气球在紫外线照射下可以分解。在日本，该气球每月的销量是200,000到500,000左右，在海外从英国到迪拜(阿拉伯联合酋长国之一)，其市场也不断扩大。

Now Mr Nishi is inundated with requests for balloons that can be used in industry. The company has developed an inflatable cushion to break the falls of workers who clean high ceilings. Having found that most deaths in the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004 were caused by bodies being hurled against hard things, rather than drowning, Mr Nishi also makes inflatable life jackets that protect the vertebrae from up to 200kg (440lb) of weight. Show's success has brought more private investors, a change from the early days, when 50 banks turned it down for a loan. Mr Nishi continues to build his fortune on air.

现在，许多人都要求Nishi生产一些工业用气球。公司已经制造了一种充气气垫，工人在清洁较高的天花板时若不慎摔落，这种气垫可减轻由此带来的损伤。2004年印尼海啸中，许多死者不是淹死的，而是由于身体撞击硬物致死。Nishi得知此事后又制造出一种救生衣，可以保护脊椎在200公斤（440磅）压力下不受损害。Show的成功也吸引了更多的私人投资，而从前有50家银行都拒绝向其提供贷款。Nishi会继续“从空中”赚钱。

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