The other day I went with my wife to eat at our favorite soba noodle restaurant. After a strapping young man who worked at the restaurant delivered our lunch, my wife said, “I’m really happy for the owner of this place, since he has a successor to take over this shop when he dies. That was him just now.” She was talking about 後継ぎ ato-tsugi, meaning an heir or successor who takes over a family business, and it’s quite an important concept here in Japan, at least in our more rural part of the country. One problem is that Japanese have been having fewer and fewer kids, often just one, and this places a strain on those children who may want to do something different with their lives than take over, say, their parents’ rural liquor store (in the case of my wife). Looking at the young man who was following in his father’s footsteps and making soba noodles the proper traditional way, it was hard to avoid feeling happy for the owner.
Having an heir to take over the family business is important.
