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Your dreams and philosophy determine the products you choose to make.

In the late 1920s they also began to develop shutters. However, you can't make a camera from just a lens and a shutter. Olympus was a microscope manufacturer, and so they needed someone who knew about cameras. Again they turned to the University of Tokyo Research Institute for assistance and were introduced to Eiichi Sakurai. Then a student at the university, Sakurai had a keen interest in photography. After recruiting him, the company was at last ready to start designing cameras. Eiichi Sakurai joined Olympus in 1935, and this marked the beginning of Olympus cameras. His profound understanding of cameras allowed Olympus to bring a variety of new products to the market. Manufacturing is a complex business: you need to invest around a billion yen in facilities and equipment just to make one simple camera. For a camera like the OM, the cost is almost 10 billion yen, so there are always debates and problems. I was eventually able to get my own way and develop the OM SLR camera. We also created compact SLR cameras, which sold worldwide. You might think that everything was smooth sailing for me, but there were mountains to climb and chasms to cross. Somehow I found a way through, and as a result we were able to create these products. Deciding which products to make is the same as deciding how to live your life. What matters most is your vision. You must have a vision, a dream, a philosophy, for the course of your future will change depending on whether or not you have a vision. You can't simply drift through life nonchalantly; the first step is to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life. Even after you've made that decision, the rest of the world is unlikely to move according to your plans. This much is clear if you think about Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi. Eventually you will run into opposition or obstacles. There is a best-selling book called Baka no Kabe (Idiot Barrier). I believe there are two barriers: the technology barrier and the barrier of accepted wisdom. You can't achieve anything until you break through both of these barriers. It may seem strange for a designer to talk about these two barriers, but I will do my best.

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