According to the ADK employee, their President Masao Inagaki is a special and decent leader. He is always the first to come to the company and shares the same office with other employees. He likes to quote Confucian proverbs in his conversation. Not long ago, People's Daily's Tokyo-based correspondent paid a special visit to the famous Japanese entrepreneur who is proficient in the Chinese ancient philosophy.

Masao Inagaki was born in 1922. He has been full of aspirations for China since he was a little boy. He was so familiar with "The Analects of Confucius" that he could recite every word of it at primary school. He believed that China and Japan had a long history of close mutual exchanges and correspondence since they started to contact more than 2,000 years ago. Those people who risked losing their lives and traveled for thousands of miles to China in the Sui and Tang Dynasty were great historical pioneers. It was through their efforts that the knowledge of Chinese characters, Buddhism and Confucianism were spread to Japan, which constituted the origins of the Japanese culture. Among them, the Confucian thought has an extremely profound influence on Japan. Early in the Edo Age, nearly all the warriors studied the Confucianism. Many major figures participated in the Meiji Restoration were under the influence of Confucianism. In terms of philosophy and thinking method, China and Japan are actually interlinked and somewhat consistent to each other.

Masao Inagaki recalled that when he was young many Japanese wanted to visit China. They looked at China as a great neighbor of Japan, but couldn't find any opportunities. So, Masao Inagaki taught himself Chinese and prepared to go to Beijing for a study. However, his dream was broken by Japan's invasion of China. Having no choice, Masao Inagaki started to read "the Four Books and Five Classics" and the "Twenty-Four Dynastic Histories" by himself. Although at that time China was in the most difficult time in its modern history, Masao Inagaki deeply believed that Chinese culture will demonstrate its formidable vitality and China will certainly revive some day in the future.

Time flies. After adopting reform and opening policy in late 1970's, China started to report a rapid economic growth. At this moment, Masao Inagaki has set up the ASATSU- DK INC in Japan. He was so happy to see China's development. In 1979, Masao Inagaki led the Japanese advertisement delegation to visit China. Soon after that, ADK became the first Japanese advertising company to enter China. So far, ADK has set up 16 joint ventures in China.

Masao Inagaki told the correspondent that ADK INC. is dedicated to promote Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges. For example, Japanese Sumo is one of their cultural traditions. He likes it very much and wanted to introduce it to the Chinese audience. That is also what the Chinese Embassy in Japan wanted. So Masao Inagaki commuted between Japan and China without considering profit issues. Finally he pushed it through for the two countries. In June, 2004, Japanese Sumo was performed in Shanghai and Beijing. It was the first performance made after 31 years since its initial presentation in China. The wonderful performance made a great sensation in the country. For next year, ADK proposed to introduce the Japanese kabuki performance to China, which will give the Chinese audience another good opportunity to know more about the Japanese traditional culture.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the establishment of ADK INC. Masao Inagaki invited experts from China's Jingdezhen to make thousands of Chinese paperweights and gave one to each ADK employee. He also ordered some reproductions of Ming Dynasty's China plates and presented them as gifts to his friends. Masao Inagaki added that ADK also prepared gifts to the Chinese students in Japan. In April, ADK and Tokyo University will formally launch the scholarship program named "Tokyo University & ADK Fund for Chinese Students". The program will last for 10 years. During the 10 years, some famous universities in China such as Peking University, Tsinghua University and Fudan University will altogether recommends 7-8 outstanding graduates each year to go to Japan for pursuing a two-year master program.

In ADK's office hall, there hangs a plaque with the inscription "Whole Staff Manage" by Shao Huaze, former editor-in-chief of People's Daily. This is what Masao Inagaki has advocated as the enterprise spirit since he set up his business. He explained that "Whole Staff Manage" refers to the policy that within the company, every employee, no matter at what level, a staff should make joint efforts to know, to discuss, to act as a unit, to make decisions, to take responsibilities and to experience. Everyone should behave with the consciousness of managers. Just as the famous Chinese theorist Mozi said, "Being modest will make people love each other and communication will benefit both. Masao Inagaki hopes that people can treat each other humbly, make 120% efforts, and follow the principle of fair benefits distribution. He pointed out that nowadays many Chinese and Japanese enterprises are learning from the US enterprises and paying too much attention to the growth in quantity. This is not recommendable. Given the big quantity of American companies in the US, Americans can simply find a new job if they are laid off. However, China and Japan have different situations. People of these two countries should enhance Asian traditions to be diligent and creative. They should earnestly focus on one issue and achieve a balanced development between the profits, benefits and the enterprise culture.

Masao Inagaki's favorite Chinese adage is quoted from "Xiaoyaoyou" by the ancient philosopher Zhuangzi who lived in the same period of time with Confucius. The main meaning of the adage is that it is as if you were armed with the correct spirit of heaven and earth and can defend yourself from various kinds of other spirits, so that you can feel totally free in your mind, then what will you be afraid of? In other words, be broad-minded, forgive others and share with others the happiness. Masao Inagaki believes that the Confucianism has profound power to touch people's mind. For an enterprise, the management is actually focusing on people's mind. For a country, the administration is also focusing on people's mind. People will only feel happy when they get spiritually satisfied. The Confucianism happens to bring people this kind of satisfaction and stability. For a long time, philosophers in different countries have been studying the Confucianism. It's believed that with the development of China, the Confucianism will draw more attention from the people in the world and will certainly benefit the whole world.

Editor: Yan