Discovering Cool Japan: Vikram Channa at TEDxFukuoka
[Music] making documentaries is a bit like cosplay you get to be different people different cultures each time you're in the heat of the edit arguing with filmmakers Japanese filmmakers and filmmakers from other parts of the world the intensity of the experience at 3:30 in the morning leads to deep Impressions and insights about cultures and today I'm here to discuss five unique insights which I was able to observe while making films in Japan over the last three years the story began on March 11 2011 with the tragic events of the the Hoku uh tsunami and events and in that context at that time this Channel decided to make a wonderful series called rebuilding Japan which I was part of and in the making of that series something truly cool emerged for me which have kept me about Japanese culture since which is the resilience of the people each of the five each of the six films we made in the rebuilding Japan series captured that Amazing Grace in the context of deep tragedy one of the clips I want to show you first today is about kesan Numa and the story of a sake maker um a person by the name of sugar rasan who is the sacho of OT and they make a wonderful brand of sake called senden despite the events of what happened on March 11 Sugi arasan went on to decide to make his sake immediately after the tsunami so he could Brew hope he could Brew kibo to inspire the people of his City [Music] it's a magical process a Timeless tradition these men are turning rice into sake a brew forever associated with Japan but for the first time in this brewery's 100e history they're doing things differently has long been famous for its sake but Cena was destroyed by the tsunami of March 2011 now this man is fighting to rebuild his community against the o to recreate his worldclass Zak and restore hope in his [Music] hometown it's not just manga Jpop Sushi Hello Kitty resilience a wonderful thought uh which which explains the spirit of Japanese culture um but resilience that we discover that I discover in the course of making these films was only scratching the surface the tip of the iceberg in another film we discovered Jedi like qualities Japanese people have how many of you took the subway today raise your hands only two three were you able to guess the speed at which the train was traveling okay I'm going to show you a clip from a film which which was about Japanese punctuality Japanese culture of always being on time especially their trains and in this clip you'll see something truly amazing and Jedi like about Japanese drain driv [Applause] oh the driver continues to accelerate and decelerate as Mr hatah dictates precisely 35 kmph now try doing that so we thought what's the magic here my own Instinct was must be something Hightech you know that's what Japan is right cool technology visit techn visit stuff like that and then we actually discovered something completely counterintuitive it's completely surprised me personally so if you can play the next clip Ki Yuki's method involved memorizing the passing scenery and using landmarks as markers for acceler in or slowing down with no instruments drivers were able to gauge Time by Instinct allowing trains to run on time so I was looking for Hightech something funky something from the future which can help get these drivers to predict the time instead this film led to the discovery of this amazing Japanese forgotten hero who taught train drivers way back a 100 years ago almost to use their peripheral vision to understand passage of time as an image and then as signpost go by to absorb them into your larger vision and predict time but that's not all he could also get them to predict the time in such a way that they could guess in how much time they will arrive at the next station precisely it's like saying I want to run the 100 meters in 8 Seconds and then actually achieving it and those are the tests that still happen um in the context of training Japanese drivers so this this human touch is what makes Japan truly cool and special the any of these strains given the technology Japan has could become driverless and completely automated and yet this culture persists in not wanting to be Hostage to technology but to balance technology with fine human touch and that balance was truly wonderful um that was what was surprising and it's it's an idea which I share intimately with whoever I talk with you know in the experience of making this film but the next example I want to talk about another case study another observation just because the Japanese love the human touch doesn't mean they won't show off their Hightech cool funky technology whenever they get a chance out here a lead pencil is being cut precisely into a pyramid a human a single piece of human hair is being divided into 35 sections this is kiru or cutting technology from Japan it's used to cut silicone Wafers into smaller and smaller chips onto it circuits can be embedded like you can see and these chips as you well know Drive pretty much what we consume every day Smart TVs iPhones Android phones pretty much everything so where did this amazing technology come from the technology is amazing it made me wonder um when I discovered this fact while making this film that Japan controls nearly 80% % of the market share for kiru technology and cutting silicon Wafers if it was 20% 30% 40% even 50% and there were other countries involved I said okay fine 80% almost and then I thought of this image if you can play the next image please this is a country which makes the katana which used to make the katana more than you know few hundred years ago is the kiru technology showcased by the corporations which make cutting so seamless that it can chop human hair into 35 pieces comes from that spirit and tradition is the katana making hiru technology in Disguise today in the 21st century it's almost a topic for another documentary I'm pretty confident if we dug it up and researched we'll find an amazing link between these companies and how they absorbed the katana from back then and took that tradition forward and that I try and capture in the concept of past [Music] [Music] forward on service these bespoke blades are made by binding Diamond powder to other specially selected Metals each one is individually crafted to cut through a specific material and thickness at a certain speed so as you can see just like the katana they also have a very detailed craft oriented process of course using Hightech Machinery to make blades as thin as the ones you just saw but what is truly amazing and cool about Japanese culture which I discovered making this film is how the past is recreated in the present how the katana Spirit and the making of the katana Spirit lives on in the concept of pasted forward and that is something which uniquely defines uh Japan in a way that is very surprising unique and different the next film I was working on was actually exactly the opposite of Technology it was a film on a group of elderly women free divers up north in Fuki Province who completely stay away from technology and yet represent an amazing vision of what Japanese culture can can teach all of us um who who come from elsewhere and this film called SE Whisperers was on the Amma divers made very famous by nhk's amachan series all these you know they have this divers nearly 990 the youngest divers almost 60 and what makes them amazing is that they artisanal fishes they work in balance and in harmony with the ocean they believe in not taking too much if they catch an abalone shell which is small they will release it they have rules where to fish where not to fish and the reason why they shun technology is because technology can make the balance disturbed because then you will over Harvest you will take more and that is what they custodians [Music] of my name is iaki I travel the world as a free diver and underwater [Music] videographer my passion for the sea has brought me back to Japan I have swam with awesome creatures and I hold a word record for the longest dive on a single breath I'm here to swim with the amama female free divers Who harvest Abalone and other seafood while preserving the balance of the Seas I'm so excited but I feel like an alien in my Hightech diving suit I'm puzzled why they stop to pick [Music] leaves everyone seems so laidback and I can't believe that Leo STS her ears with Children's Clay [Music] so from rebuilding Japan to Super Japan which is the new series under which some of these films will be airing soon captured in this film particular the idea of balance actually each of the examples I've given you capture balance in a different way starting with resilience using resilience to overcome tragedy to find Harmony inside yourself to to balance technology with the human touch as we saw in the the next clip and to take the path forward in a unique way and to have harmony with nature as you just saw all of this led to a very interesting thought um A New Concept a new way could we find a new way of defining Japan A New Concept and we came up and I came up with this idea a concept of Auto Artisan Japan exhibits this amazing Mastery of Automation and artisanship all at the same time in a way many other cultures don't and we like this concept of the blending of Two Worlds this amazing balance of the human touch through the idea of artisanship and extreme mechanization and automation through uto that we actually launched a new format called uto Artisan to celebrate this Japanese spirit and in the first clip which I'm last clip I'm going to show you um it's on a car manufacturing giant which uses this blend of the human touch as well as extreme automation to make some of the finest cars in the world under the hood of this sports model lies a distinct feature the boxer engine it shape and positioning set it apart from normal engines sitting lower to the to the ground it gives the car stability and [Music] power this is a skill that takes as much as a decade to master and crucial to the transmission that lies at the heart of the all-wheel drive system so here you go they're using robots and assembly lines of the the most extreme kind with the best available technology at the same time the crafts person is listening it's a team which runs through um much of what I made with other filmmakers in Japan uh this amazing balance and that is what I wanted to share with with you today I guess it just adds up to this equation so resilience plus human touch plus fast forward a beautiful idea of balance has led to us creating this new concept of Auto Artisan in which we just aired our first episode to capture the spirit of cool Japan all I wanted to do was deepen the layer and the debate of what cool Japan is as Japan moves closer to the Tokyo Olympics as the world becomes s more Curious and ready to ReDiscover Japan all over again thank you very much