25 years since my first trip to the Philippines

 It's been 25 years since I first arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines in November 1995. Nowadays, because of the pandemic, I don't have face-to-face interaction, but until about March of this year, people born around that time visited my house frequently.

For example, students who volunteer to participate in Japanese NGOs working on Negros Island and local staff who accept them. Others are Japanese students from an English school, their Filipino teachers, and a young housekeeper when my house was completed. Many of them were born in the mid-'90s, regardless of whether they were Japanese or Filipino.

By the way, my first trip to the Philippines was a complete business trip. At that time, I was a TV product designer working for a vibrant Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer. I was promoted to become the Chief Designer for Southeast Asia / Middle East Markets. My first job as a chief designer was a month-long market research starting from Malaysia.

The reason why Malaysia was the starting point is that there were factories and development bases for markets including India and the Middle East near the capital Kuala Lumpur. The general managers of product planning, engineering, production, sales and human resources were employees from Japan. However, the design department alone did not exist in Malaysia, so they invited designers from Japan at the required time to request design work.

This is because the number of designers in the company was very small compared to the staff in other departments, so it was difficult to set up a design organization overseas.

After arriving at Malaysia headquarters, I also toured Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, India, and the Philippines for several days each. The purpose was to visit the local production department and mass retailers. In the 1990s, the bubble economy collapsed in Japan, and although the boom before that was lost, the Southeast Asian economy was still strong.

Business owners in each country strongly requested product design tailored to their respective countries and regions. So, designers from Japan, not just me, were invited to gorgeous restaurants and bars every night. However, all I was taken to was a Japanese restaurant. Expecting local food, I wasn't very happy. Moreover, I couldn't drink alcohol.

In terms of work, I was able to give design presentations directly to the CEO in every country. This was a really comfortable working environment compared to Japan, where I had to have meetings so many times to decide on one product design. If my idea was good, it was decided in one meeting, and if it wasn't, they clearly pointed out what was wrong.

It is much more efficient than a meeting in Japan with no specific instruction on how to refine it. Therefore, the designer did not have to feel any meaningless stress. From now on, this was the golden age of my career. But to tell the truth, the first impression of the Philippines was terrible.

It was night when I arrived at NAIA. Of all the Southeast Asian airports I've seen, NAIA was the darkest and dirtyest. At that time, international flights arrived and departed only in the dilapidated Terminal 1. When I left the gate, there were a surprising number of people waiting there. In the Philippines, all airports are off-limits to the terminal except for passengers with tickets and staff. This rule hasn't changed 25 years later.

So, people waiting for family and friends, taxi calls, and even pickpockets for tourists' money are all waiting in the same place. It was my first visit to the Philippines, so I might have been in trouble without picking up by local employees.

Interestingly, after I visited the Philippines many times and made many Filipino friends, I got used to the negative aspects of the country. Two years later, by the time I met my wife, I had adapted to the climate, the food, and the national character of the Philippines. Even for me, who has experienced more than 20 countries, this kind of feeling is only in the Philippines.

Of course, I've had a lot of annoyances and disappointments since I actually started living in the Philippines. Fortunately, they didn't make me give up on the Philippines. Already I spent nearly half of my life with Filipinos. So far, I have no regrets.