During the course of my career, I believe I made a decent contribution to the development of ship building and marine engineering in Japan. I had been Chairman of the Society of Naval Architects of Japan, Chairman of the Japan Society for Computational Engineering, and a member of the Science Council of Japan.
I retired from the University of Tokyo at the age of 61, in 2004, and am now a Professor Emeritus at Tokyo University.
Four years later when I was 65, I started learning combative Karate, or Karate as a sport. My decision to engage with full contact Karate, in which competitors strike their opponents directly with arm thrusts or leg kicks, was admittedly a bit reckless at my age. However, four months after I started Karate, I was asked to take part in a Tokyo tournament as a competitor in the senior category (40 years or older). I unexpectedly won the first bout, and then the second, and so on.
Surprisingly for all the spectators as well as for myself, I had survived to make the final bout with a younger black belt opponent who had 15 years of experience.
The spectators were excited and cheered loudly. But the goddess of victory didn’t smile upon this old beginner at that time. The following year, I fought again with that same black belt competitor, and this time I beat him, thanks to one more year’s experience.
Three years later at the age of 70, I advanced to the first tier and earned a black belt of the first Dan (grade). I gained the second Dan three years later, and then the third Dan in 2019 at the age of 76.