Naoto Oishi (Faculty of Economics)
Yui Kajita (Faculty of Letters)
Yasuyuki Nakae (Faculty of Economics)
Ryohei Miyazawa (Faculty of Policy Studies)
Daniela Lemmermann (University of Hamburg)

    Athlete Genki Ohmae (23), who was an offense player for the J-League Shimizu S-Pulse soccer team and is now headed for Germany to play for Fortuna Düsseldorf next season, gave a seminar talk at Doshisha University on December 12th, 2012. A bustling crowd of people – many of them students who had experience with soccer – gathered in the Kambaikan lecture room to hear Ohmae’s talk about his personal experiences, including the hardships and the achievements he has had in his life so far, and his goals for the future. “It wasn’t an uptight ‘lecture’ talk at all,” says a student, “He was joking around and spirited, telling us his actual life, his own story.” At first, the audience all looked at him as “the soccer player Ohmae Genki,” but soon, they were drawn in by his personality and felt connected to him. Through his talk, Ohmae told the youths gathered there the meaning of living with a positive attitude.
    Born in Yokohama in 1989, Genki Ohmae has been playing in a team since junior high school. His senior high team became the strongest in Japan. In addition to his team’s success, Ohmae himself was named the top goal scorer (Golden Shoes, or tokuten-ou in Japanese) in all three national cups they participated in – an achievement heretofore unheard of. After senior high, he joined Shimizu S-Pulse. For the first two years, however, he could not play in real games. Although he even considered quitting soccer then and going to university instead, there were always people around him who encouraged him, and this gave him the power to keep up his efforts. As a result, he was able to participate in games from his third year, and since then, he has become a regular and an important player for the team. Right now, he is set to transfer to Düsseldorf in the first division of the German Bundesliga, and he is living his dream. How can we live like him? Let’s find out how he became who he is now.
    Ohmae is not the type of athlete to show off his hard work. He works perseveringly in an inconspicuous way, away from people’s eyes. However, he believes, “If you keep on working hard, even when no one is looking, there will always be someone who notices your efforts.” From all his experiences, he became more confident. He learned that persistent hard work never goes to waste – that someone will always be watching, and it will be recognized and rewarded. He knew that he had worked harder than anyone else, and that is where his confidence comes from. Just the stoutness of his legs tells a tale of more hard work than one can imagine.
    Everyone says being positive is good – but why so? We can find the answers in Ohmae’s story. “The main impression I got from the seminar was that Mr. Ohmae is a very ‘positive’ person,” a student tells us. “I could tell that he had to overcome many obstacles to be where he is now – but because he is optimistic, he doesn’t look at it in a bad light. He harnesses the hardships into positive energy.” Ohmae conveyed to the students the important message that everything depends on our perspective, the outlook we have on life. When we have a positive outlook, even unpleasant things will not drag us down. This gives us the power and courage to keep on trying – to keep on challenging ourselves. For instance, imagine practicing tobibako (vaulting horse) in P. E. class – if we get scared after one mistake, we cannot jump the second time, but if we stay positive and do not fear mistakes, we can jump after all. “Being positive is good” because it gives us the power to challenge ourselves, and this brings us closer to success.
    “Mr. Ohmae gave us many insights about living life,” comments a student. The message that Ohmae hit home was this: by finding something that we really want to do, we can encourage ourselves to work hard, challenge ourselves, and as a result, enjoy the life that we are living now.To live the “now” that we have – by finding our own passions – is such a simple thing, something that we could all do if we really tried. We would like to call to all the youths who are struggling right now – especially the students going through job hunting – to remember to set a goal and challenge yourself to do not just anything, but what you want to do. Even the dreaded “shukatsu” can be a chance – a chance to think about yourself and take a step closer to realizing your goals. Fly to your dreams – the future is in your hands!