盛宴--为壹匠的青春十八 (e-Jan's 18th anniversary)
在许多文化里，从私人的结婚纪念、毕业纪念到国家或政治性质的建国纪念、独立纪念。“周年”似乎总被作为一个重要的“计量单位”出现在这些大大小小的场合里。而公司的成立纪念，自然也不会是例外。
2018年3月6日，e-Jan迎来了她十八周岁的生日，而纪念晚宴则选定在同一周的3月9日周五晚上，在六本木举行。
It is assumed that in many cultures, anniversary is something needs celebrating in memory of an event, which could range from private occasions to national ones, such as a wedding, or the foundation of a republic, or the Independence Day of a nation. That makes no exception for a company, neither.
On March.6th, 2018, our firm, e-Jan turned 18, and we had an anniversary dinner party at Roppongi on March.9th, Friday in the same week.
在e-Jan“一把手”史郎先生的提案下，公司决定将这次的18周年纪念晚宴办得“隆重”一些，地点不再是往常的公司总部内，而是在能够一览东京绝美夜景的六本木新城的顶楼会员俱乐部举行。由于举办场所有着装要求，每个人都被要求不能穿着随便而最好要盛装出席。
而这一决定让不少的员工和受邀嘉宾也许多少觉得奇怪，疑惑主要来自于18，对于日本来说并不是一个具有很特殊意义的数字，也不“逢五逢十”，这样“盛大”庆祝的意义是为什么呢？
这里又不得不说到，日本文化中十分讲究的“少则得”，这从日本的饮食文化、和贯穿古今的建筑装饰风格上就能感受出来。日本文化，不仅是主张“以简御繁”，“至简至美”是许多日本人共有的审美观。这在某种程度上，使“低调”、“内敛”、“含蓄”成为了日本国民性格中的一部分。
Proposed by Shiro, our President, instead of having a drinking party as in the previous years at the headquarter, the company decided to hold the 18th anniversary at Roppongi Hills Club, a membership club where you could enjoy the amazing night view of this magnificent city, Tokyo. And it is also a place which applies a dress code to its guests.
Shiro wants to have a formal and decent celebration of this 18th anniversary, or to some extent, a grander celebration than ever before. His willing puzzled not only his own employees but as well as the invited guests, 18 does not contain any special meaning in the Japanese culture, hence the confusion that why an 18th anniversary should be celebrated grandly?
As it might be known to you, “less is more” is, probably, one of the doctrines in the Japanese culture, “the simplest the best”, could be somehow regarded as an aesthetics shared by many Japanese people. Such kind of sense and taste of beauty can be traced, felt and observed in the Japanese cuisine, their interior design and architectures in now and past.
Being modest, moderate and having self-controls on sentiments could be concerned as some things commonly shared among the Japanese nation.
那么回到刚才的那个问题，究竟为何，e-Jan会想比起往年更为盛大地庆祝一下这个18周年呢？
第一，是因为今年首次设立了“壹匠奖”，用以表彰在过去一年里在技术开发、业务改革、创新项目三大板块上做出较大贡献的团体。由全体公司员工评选出各个项目的获奖团体，并由史郎先生代表董事会宣读表彰文然后颁布奖状。不是通过口头上或是公司通告来表扬，而是用正式颁奖的形式，就是为了能够加强一种“仪式感”。而这“仪式感”之所以重要，是在于“仪式”带来“意识”，一种对于自己团队辛苦付出而得到了相应肯定的“荣誉意识”，也是一种“勤勉意识”--为了能得到这样的表彰，无论今年是否得奖，都会被激励着通过自己努力希望明年能够得到大家的认可而得到表彰。
第二，是因为e-Jan在CACHATTO这一产品问世15年后的2018年，总计超过1000家日本和海外的公司选择使用CACHATTO，而用户也超过了43万人。e-Jan的顾客里，有七成以上是日本的顶尖上市公司或是日本的政府机构，可以很有自信的说，e-Jan的每一个人都通过参与CACHATTO的企划、开发、销售和售后服务在为改变、改善着日本的工作环境，参与着塑造和改善这个社会。
So after all of those cultural matters mentioned above, let’s come back to the question again, why would Shiro, would e-Jan, try to celebrate her 18th anniversary grandly?
Firstly, for giving the ‘This is e-Jan’ Award. The award was set to honour those who contributed to the firm remarkably in the past one year in three fields, product function development, workflow improvement as well as innovation.
All members at e-Jan had the chance to nominate, and then voted to decide the winning teams for this award, notwithstanding that we could simply finish the awarding ceremony at the office, we moved the stage for it to Roppongi Hills Club, whose atmosphere allowed us to feel a stronger sense of ‘ritual’. Having a formal ‘ritual’ to honour some members at the company is important. T ritual brings the sense of honour, honoured to be praised by other members for what you contributed to the company, honoured to be a part of the winning team, which was made possible through working together hard and closely. The ritual also gives us a feeling of ‘being encouraged’, no matter whether or not one has received the award or not this year, one will be encouraged for trying to work even harder, not only by herself but together with the team, to be recognised by others so that one can be in the winning team next year.
Another reason is that after CACHATTO was first released to the market more than 15 years ago, by March, 2018, we have honourably welcomed over 1,000 companies/institutions join in the club of CACHATTO with over 430,000 users altogether. Among e-Jan’s clients, over 70% are listed companies or governmental institutions, which enables every e-Jan member to be confident to say, that we are, through our participation in the design, promote, develop, sales and support of CACHATTO, we are structuring the Japanese society with a rich history, we are changing the workstyle of this country which is often connected to rigidity, a lack of innovation and being conservative.
18岁，对于一个人来说是其风华正茂、青春美好的年华。而对于e-Jan也是如此，18岁在许多意义上对于e-Jan是一个里程碑，但她的精彩故事，才刚刚开始。这之后章节，等待着我们每一个身处其中的人去共同书写好、绘画出这“未完待续“。
One is probably in her best season of her life when she is 18, young and energetic, dares to challenge, trying to discover every possibility even to the extreme; dares to fail, not being care about what other people may judge; dares to dream, to conceive, to believe, to achieve.
e-Jan is now in her 18, and as a member of this company, together with all other colleagues, we are looking forward to joining to write the next chapters of her story with hope and belief.
--by Z.A.Y (from China, living in Japan since 2010)
2018年3月6日，e-Jan迎来了她十八周岁的生日，而纪念晚宴则选定在同一周的3月9日周五晚上，在六本木举行。
It is assumed that in many cultures, anniversary is something needs celebrating in memory of an event, which could range from private occasions to national ones, such as a wedding, or the foundation of a republic, or the Independence Day of a nation. That makes no exception for a company, neither.
On March.6th, 2018, our firm, e-Jan turned 18, and we had an anniversary dinner party at Roppongi on March.9th, Friday in the same week.
在e-Jan“一把手”史郎先生的提案下，公司决定将这次的18周年纪念晚宴办得“隆重”一些，地点不再是往常的公司总部内，而是在能够一览东京绝美夜景的六本木新城的顶楼会员俱乐部举行。由于举办场所有着装要求，每个人都被要求不能穿着随便而最好要盛装出席。而这一决定让不少的员工和受邀嘉宾也许多少觉得奇怪，疑惑主要来自于18，对于日本来说并不是一个具有很特殊意义的数字，也不“逢五逢十”，这样“盛大”庆祝的意义是为什么呢？
这里又不得不说到，日本文化中十分讲究的“少则得”，这从日本的饮食文化、和贯穿古今的建筑装饰风格上就能感受出来。日本文化，不仅是主张“以简御繁”，“至简至美”是许多日本人共有的审美观。这在某种程度上，使“低调”、“内敛”、“含蓄”成为了日本国民性格中的一部分。
Proposed by Shiro, our President, instead of having a drinking party as in the previous years at the headquarter, the company decided to hold the 18th anniversary at Roppongi Hills Club, a membership club where you could enjoy the amazing night view of this magnificent city, Tokyo. And it is also a place which applies a dress code to its guests.
Shiro wants to have a formal and decent celebration of this 18th anniversary, or to some extent, a grander celebration than ever before. His willing puzzled not only his own employees but as well as the invited guests, 18 does not contain any special meaning in the Japanese culture, hence the confusion that why an 18th anniversary should be celebrated grandly?
As it might be known to you, “less is more” is, probably, one of the doctrines in the Japanese culture, “the simplest the best”, could be somehow regarded as an aesthetics shared by many Japanese people. Such kind of sense and taste of beauty can be traced, felt and observed in the Japanese cuisine, their interior design and architectures in now and past.
Being modest, moderate and having self-controls on sentiments could be concerned as some things commonly shared among the Japanese nation.
那么回到刚才的那个问题，究竟为何，e-Jan会想比起往年更为盛大地庆祝一下这个18周年呢？
第一，是因为今年首次设立了“壹匠奖”，用以表彰在过去一年里在技术开发、业务改革、创新项目三大板块上做出较大贡献的团体。由全体公司员工评选出各个项目的获奖团体，并由史郎先生代表董事会宣读表彰文然后颁布奖状。不是通过口头上或是公司通告来表扬，而是用正式颁奖的形式，就是为了能够加强一种“仪式感”。而这“仪式感”之所以重要，是在于“仪式”带来“意识”，一种对于自己团队辛苦付出而得到了相应肯定的“荣誉意识”，也是一种“勤勉意识”--为了能得到这样的表彰，无论今年是否得奖，都会被激励着通过自己努力希望明年能够得到大家的认可而得到表彰。
第二，是因为e-Jan在CACHATTO这一产品问世15年后的2018年，总计超过1000家日本和海外的公司选择使用CACHATTO，而用户也超过了43万人。e-Jan的顾客里，有七成以上是日本的顶尖上市公司或是日本的政府机构，可以很有自信的说，e-Jan的每一个人都通过参与CACHATTO的企划、开发、销售和售后服务在为改变、改善着日本的工作环境，参与着塑造和改善这个社会。
So after all of those cultural matters mentioned above, let’s come back to the question again, why would Shiro, would e-Jan, try to celebrate her 18th anniversary grandly?
Firstly, for giving the ‘This is e-Jan’ Award. The award was set to honour those who contributed to the firm remarkably in the past one year in three fields, product function development, workflow improvement as well as innovation.
All members at e-Jan had the chance to nominate, and then voted to decide the winning teams for this award, notwithstanding that we could simply finish the awarding ceremony at the office, we moved the stage for it to Roppongi Hills Club, whose atmosphere allowed us to feel a stronger sense of ‘ritual’. Having a formal ‘ritual’ to honour some members at the company is important. T ritual brings the sense of honour, honoured to be praised by other members for what you contributed to the company, honoured to be a part of the winning team, which was made possible through working together hard and closely. The ritual also gives us a feeling of ‘being encouraged’, no matter whether or not one has received the award or not this year, one will be encouraged for trying to work even harder, not only by herself but together with the team, to be recognised by others so that one can be in the winning team next year.
Another reason is that after CACHATTO was first released to the market more than 15 years ago, by March, 2018, we have honourably welcomed over 1,000 companies/institutions join in the club of CACHATTO with over 430,000 users altogether. Among e-Jan’s clients, over 70% are listed companies or governmental institutions, which enables every e-Jan member to be confident to say, that we are, through our participation in the design, promote, develop, sales and support of CACHATTO, we are structuring the Japanese society with a rich history, we are changing the workstyle of this country which is often connected to rigidity, a lack of innovation and being conservative.
18岁，对于一个人来说是其风华正茂、青春美好的年华。而对于e-Jan也是如此，18岁在许多意义上对于e-Jan是一个里程碑，但她的精彩故事，才刚刚开始。这之后章节，等待着我们每一个身处其中的人去共同书写好、绘画出这“未完待续“。
One is probably in her best season of her life when she is 18, young and energetic, dares to challenge, trying to discover every possibility even to the extreme; dares to fail, not being care about what other people may judge; dares to dream, to conceive, to believe, to achieve.
e-Jan is now in her 18, and as a member of this company, together with all other colleagues, we are looking forward to joining to write the next chapters of her story with hope and belief.
--by Z.A.Y (from China, living in Japan since 2010)