FULL TRANSCRIPT (Transcribed by George Trachilis and AI) ————————————————– 0:00-0:12 Narrator: “Mr. Katsumura, on this program, we’ve explored various approaches to athlete development. This time, we’re focusing on what you might call the ‘collective essence’ of those methods. This ‘collective essence’…” 0:12-0:28 Narrator: “…is something that will benefit not only coaches and athletes but also everyone watching. We want to delve into the core of what Japan can do to win the World Cup.” 0:28-0:35 Narrator: “The Japanese national team achieved a historic first victory against the powerhouse Brazil.” 0:35-0:42 Narrator: “While various aspects of this victory have been reported, there’s one particularly interesting story.” 0:42-0:56 Narrator: “It happened at halftime when the team was down by two points. Despite having many young and inexperienced players, Doan and Minamino gave positive encouragement, rallying the team.” 0:56-1:05 Narrator: “In the second half, Japan played with a completely different energy, staging a remarkable come-from-behind victory.” 1:05-1:13 Narrator: “Mental control has the power to instill confidence in people and dramatically transform a team. There are many methods, but today we’re focusing on the Harada Method, which Uniqlo founder Yanai is a big fan of.” 1:13-1:21 Narrator: “Shohei Ohtani puts the Harada Method into practice. The creator of this method is today’s brain, Takashi Harada.” 1:21-1:33 Harada: “Pride is something you can create yourself. You think for yourself, decide for yourself, act for yourself… When you set a goal, it doesn’t mean everyone will reach it, right?” 1:33-1:45 Harada: “We do analysis, but let’s put that aside for now. Japanese sports instruction is often misguided. It really resonated with me.” 1:45-1:55 Narrator: “The Harada Method breaks through the current situation for people who lack confidence, organizations and teams that struggle to produce results.” 1:55-2:18 Narrator: “First, let’s see how effective the Harada Method is for the growth of individuals and organizations. You can tell just by looking at the faces of those who are practicing it.” 2:18-2:26 Narrator: “First, please take a look at this.” 2:26-2:34 Katsumura: “Wow, that’s big! That’s huge, Ohtani!” 2:34-2:42 Narrator: “He’s huge from the start! He’s the number one player in the universe! Coach Sasaki of Hanamaki Higashi High School…” 2:42-2:55 Narrator: “…came to learn about my Harada Method. He then provided what he learned to the team, including Ohtani and pitcher Kikuchi.” 2:55-3:08 Narrator: “There’s a chart that Ohtani wrote when he was a high school freshman. This is the cornerstone of Ohtani’s evolution and the symbol of the Harada Method.” 3:08-3:18 Narrator: “At the center of the 64 keywords is the goal you want to achieve.” 3:18-3:25 Narrator: “As a freshman, he already declared his goal of being the first pick in the draft by eight teams.” 3:25-3:34 Narrator: “Written around it are eight elements he believes are necessary to achieve his goal. Words like ‘body building’ and ‘humanity’ are also listed.” 3:34-3:42 Narrator: “Furthermore, there are eight specific actions for achieving each of those eight elements.” 3:42-3:50 Narrator: “It’s a mysterious shape, but I think many of you have seen it before.” 3:50-4:01 Harada: “This is originally a design created by Kukai 800 years ago.” 4:01-4:15 Harada: “It’s called the ’64 Thinking Windows.’ Kukai’s teachings say that when humans gather 64 hints or actions related to what they psychologically desire, they can instantly enter that world. That’s why…” 4:15-4:25 Harada: “…64 is important.” 4:25-4:34 Katsumura: “Wait a minute. There’s ‘cleaning the room’ and ‘luck’ in the lower section. This includes picking up trash, but also ‘caring for teammates’ and…” 4:34-4:40 Katsumura: “…’not being swayed by the atmosphere.’ Normally, you’d focus on your own play, right?” 4:40-4:50 Harada: “The Wall Street Journal came to me asking why Ohtani picks up trash during games. People overseas thought it was a cleaning activity.” 4:50-5:02 Harada: “But Ohtani believes he’s accumulating good luck by doing that, and he puts it into action. When I explained that to people overseas, they were amazed.” 5:02-5:13 Katsumura: “So it’s not just cleaning! It’s amazing that he included luck and humanity as a high school freshman.” 5:13-5:21 Kakitani: “For me, it’s the mental aspect. I had an unstable career.” 5:21-5:37 Kakitani: “I couldn’t be grateful as a person, and I often played selfishly or negatively in soccer, which is a team sport. So, I think it’s amazing that he thought it was necessary to have goals, not be swayed by the atmosphere, and be considerate of others when he was a freshman.” 5:37-5:50 Harada: “But even Ohtani used to get frustrated when he got hit as a pitcher and was scolded by his seniors. So…” 5:50-6:01 Harada: “…Shohei Ohtani wasn’t born suddenly. He gradually improved through his own efforts. If you have mental training, you’ll see changes.” 6:01-6:07 Harada: “But even then, they hadn’t yet participated in or won the Koshien tournament. Usually, when you ask a high school freshman what their goal is, they’ll write ‘participate in Koshien’ or ‘win the tournament,’ but he wrote ‘first pick in the draft by eight teams.'” 6:07-6:23 Harada: “So, why could he write something so extraordinary? That’s the secret of our method.” 6:23-6:39 Narrator: “The Harada Method is a technique for setting goals, thinking about the path to achievement, and carving out your own life. Today, it is practiced by not only athletes like Ohtani, but also by more than 150,000 people in 600 companies, including famous companies such as Uniqlo.” 6:39-7:00 Narrator: “Furthermore, it has been translated into six languages and is being deployed in 25 countries and regions. The starting point for all of this was leading an unknown track and field club to become the best in Japan.” 7:00-7:11 Harada: “Right after graduating from university, I became a health and physical education teacher at a public junior high school in Osaka. But at the time, it was very rough, with violence against teachers and everything.” 7:11-7:25 Harada: “Female teachers were even being beaten up. So, I thought that just studying wouldn’t be enough, and I started training the children through track and field.” 7:25-7:39 Harada: “I don’t have any experience in teaching track and field.” 7:39-7:46 Harada: “That’s the important point. I don’t teach them. I only teach the basics that are written in the physical education textbook, and then the athletes are free.” 7:46-7:57 Harada: “I study and learn myself. The main thing I focused on was the way of thinking.” 7:57-8:05 Harada: “At first, I was just yelling and giving punishments to motivate them, but we never became the best in Japan. I realized that this was wrong, so I went to a 3,000-person seminar by Zenjiro, who said, ‘You can create your own mind.’ I was like, ‘Can you really create your own mind?’ And he said, ‘Yes, you can.'” 8:05-8:16 Harada: “When I studied a little more, I came across the world of mental training and learned that you can train your mind. So, I unraveled it step by step and created it. When I introduced it to the children…” 8:16-8:27 Harada: “…we became the best in Japan in five years, and it was called a miracle.” 8:27-8:34 Kakitani: “When you were improving your skills, was there anything that triggered it?” 8:34-8:45 Kakitani: “It was when I was told to practice with the older students in elementary school. The success I had there changed my mindset completely.” 8:45-8:56 Kakitani: “I’m very grateful to the coach who gave me that opportunity, but it was more like I was given the place rather than doing it myself. That confidence that I had was called self- efficacy.” 8:56-9:07 Harada: “It’s called self-efficacy, the feeling of ‘I can do it, I can do it, I did it.’ The most important thing for an excellent coach is to raise that as much as possible. The easiest way to do that is to praise them.” 9:07-9:16 Harada: “The goal is independence, so you think for yourself, decide for yourself, and act for yourself.” 9:16-9:28 Narrator: “So, this time, we’re going to delve into the essence of the Harada Method. The theme for the first half is this.” 9:28-9:47 Narrator: “The Harada Method for raising independent children. The Harada Method promotes mental growth and fosters independent children by writing things down. From here, let’s learn what to write and how to write it.” 9:47-9:51 Katsumura: “First of all, what is important to write down?” 9:51-9:59 Harada: “First of all, it’s the goal. Japan has set the goal of winning the World Cup, right? So, first, you set a goal.” 9:59-10:22 Harada: “The second is the purpose. Why do you want to win? Setting a goal and a purpose together increases intrinsic motivation. It’s the guidance of the human heart. It’s easy to set a goal. For example, everyone is aiming to go to the Inter-High School Championships or to participate in Koshien, so you just write it down and pretend to be heading towards it. But it’s important to write down the purpose.” 10:22-10:30 Harada: “For example, the Nadeshiko Japan won the World Cup in Germany, but that was the year of the 3.11 earthquake.” 10:30-10:47 Harada: “The players said, ‘We must aim to win the World Cup.’ And why? Because they wanted to give courage and energy to the people who were affected by the disaster. So, the goal was to win the World Cup.” 10:47-10:55 Harada: “The purpose was to give courage and energy to the disaster victims and the people of Japan. When these two are aligned, people’s motivation explodes.” 10:55-11:05 Harada: “Have you ever experienced anything like that?” 11:05-11:17 Kakitani: “Well, in my case, when I achieved my goal of becoming a soccer player, I didn’t set a new goal. I couldn’t because I didn’t have a purpose for my dream of becoming a soccer player.” 11:17-11:26 Kakitani: “Now I can think about it, but at the time, I was just overwhelmed.” 11:26-11:35 Narrator: “The important thing is to verbalize why you set that goal, even the purpose.” 11:35-11:50 Narrator: “It is said that directing the arrow not only to yourself but also to your family and society leads to high motivation. When you set a goal, not everyone can reach it.” 11:50-11:55 Katsumura: “What kind of mindset should you have at that time?” 11:55-12:03 Harada: “We do logical analysis, but we don’t delve too deeply into it. We just put it aside and move on to the next thing.” 12:03-12:10 Harada: “That’s right. That’s right. Japanese sports instruction is often misguided. When you fail, they thoroughly criticize you and show you the video 100 times, so you gradually lose confidence and your image gets worse. We do face failures, but we move on to the next thing right away.” 12:10-12:28 Harada: “You said that you didn’t set a new goal after becoming a soccer player, and that’s exactly it. We create a goal for the future and then keep stacking them up higher and higher. That’s what we call ‘leaving it to the job.'” 12:28-12:36 Harada: “Isn’t that just right?” 12:36-12:45 Kakitani: “I can’t believe how much this resonates with me. I think that’s why I’m here today.” 12:45-12:53 Harada: “It’s never too late. It’s never too late to start now.” 12:53-13:10 Harada: “Please do it and change Japanese soccer. Once you have a goal and a purpose, the next thing to write is the specific actions to achieve it. That’s where you use the Open Window 64 that I introduced at the beginning.” 13:10-13:19 Narrator: “Actually, I had Mr. Kakitani do this Open Window 64 right before the program started.” 13:19-13:29 Kakitani: “You’re asking me to do something impossible again! I can’t write something like this on the first try.” 13:29-13:43 Narrator: “Here’s the Open Window 64 that Kakitani wrote just before the program, where he wrote down specific actions to achieve his goal.”