Interview with an Unknown Person: A cram school teacher who has been a gamer since elementary school and tells kids, 'If you're going to play games, I want you to do it for the sake of reality, not as an escape.'

I'm the interviewer, right? So I'm not really supposed to give my own opinions/I try not to. But the content of this interview felt like, 'Oh, they're saying exactly what I want to say,' so I'm sorry I ended up talking quite a bit. I'll say it first. Sorry!
This is a gamer-themed episode.
The characteristics of a 'gamer move' are:
・Aiming for the shortest distance to the goal
　・This is both the ability to grasp the rules of a game, and
　・The source of the playfulness that intentionally chooses not to take the shortest path.
　・Because they aim for the shortest distance, they are not bound by existing methods.
That's what I think! In this interview, it feels like more flesh has been added to that.
Yes. Read this interview quickly and enjoy that added depth!
They talk very passionately, especially in the section about the future!!

Joining us this time is Mr. Fujita from Terakoya Inafu!

Present: Kids who can play games can also study well.

qbc: What kind of interview shall we have?

Fujita: I decided on my business name the day after I applied for the interview, and I submitted my notification of opening a sole proprietorship the day before yesterday.

qbc: Oh.

Fujita: I hope this will be an opportunity to share that people who play games are actually smart, that if you think carefully about various things while playing, games are a tool that can improve your grades and help you grow, and that you don't have to stop playing games.

qbc: I see. What do you do for a living right now?

Fujita: I originally went on to graduate school myself, but back then there wasn't really a name for it—I guess you'd call it academic harassment—but maybe I just didn't get along with the associate professor there.
According to my seniors, the seniors who were there before had already graduated. There was a girl who loved the professor and would deal with him, and because she was always at the professor's office, everyone else was able to be quite relaxed.
It seems that person had just graduated and left right around the time I joined.

qbc: I see.

Fujita: They needed someone else to hold the professor back (laughs). I didn't know that, and at the time I earnestly said something like, 'I will work as a cog in the machine,' which seems meaningless now.
And so, I ended up being the one who would get told all sorts of things by the professor. I became depressed and ended up quitting graduate school.
I thought that having academic ability or a degree would protect me to some extent, but I realized at that time that it wasn't the case.

qbc: Yes.

Fujita: In the lab, you go to the university around 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning and do research while attending classes until about 8:00 or 9:00 at night. It was a life where you'd be at graduate school for about 12 hours and then go home. My parents and people around me were saying that if you can't do that, you won't be able to make it as a working adult.
If I had to do such painful things forever,
I decided I would rather do a job that wouldn't be painful even if I did it for 12 hours, or even on my days off.
Since I had worked a part-time job at a cram school when I was an undergraduate, I thought I would try my best at a cram school job again. However, I had the experience of being fired from a part-time job on the first day when I was an undergraduate, and I had gone on to graduate school thinking I would become a researcher, but then I realized that being a researcher was also a no-go.

qbc: Yes, yes.

Fujita: Teaching people, conveying information, and thinking about how to explain things so they are easy to understand—that was something I was good at, or rather, something I didn't find painful even if I thought about it on my days off. It was something I didn't feel stressed by, so I thought I would challenge myself with a cram school job again, and I started working at a cram school once more.
I was about 24 at the time, so I've been working part-time at a cram school for about seven years now.

qbc: Yes.

Fujita: I work as a private tutor, and sometimes students who love games come to me.
I myself, was what you'd call a 'hardcore gamer' in elementary and junior high school, and at that time, I studied so that I wouldn't have my gaming time taken away.
It's easy to communicate with kids who love games, and I feel I've built particularly good relationships of trust with them. Of course, I also use games as examples when explaining things.
I, want them to play more games, and if they are going to play, I want them to do it for the sake of reality, not as an escape.But I couldn't say that at the cram school where I was hired to teach, so I thought I had no choice but to create such a place myself.
In reality, graduate school, research positions, and being a researcher involve human relationships that have nothing to do with the themes you want to work on, and I reached my limit there, so I decided that I had to create my own place, which led me to become independent, or rather, to work as a private tutor on my own.

qbc: I see. What kind of research were you doing at the university?

Fujita: When I was an undergraduate, I was doing research in theoretical chemistry called quantum chemical calculation. In my lab, we used a calculation software called Gaussian, and I would design chemical formulas myself and run theoretical calculations with that software to investigate what kind of physical properties they might have.
Then, by comparing what was created through theoretical calculation with what was actually made in the laboratory, if there was no difference, I could confirm that it had been created correctly.

qbc: Yes.

Fujita: Or, if we were to create something with a chemical formula like this, we would investigate what kind of properties it might have, and if there were benefits, we would decide to actually try making it. My role was mainly that of a support or secondary role, essentially assisting with experiments.
I was doing the theoretical calculation part, and what I was dealing with there was fullerene.
Strictly speaking, I wasn't the one handling fullerene, but since fullerene is made of only one type of carbon atom and has very interesting properties, the seniors in the lab were researching it.

Fujita: In graduate school, I was doing basic research on graphene, a chemical substance that won a Nobel Prize. It's a substance with a lot of promise for the future.
At the time, the largest pure samples that could be made in the world were only about 2 cm. So, the question was how to make them 10 cm or 15 cm. Since it was still a very new discovery, we were also looking into what kind of properties it would have if we made a similar structure out of something else.
We were researching what kind of properties it would have if we made the same shape out of something other than carbon.

qbc: What kind of things did you do to help the professor in the lab?

Fujita: In university research, it's actually mostly students and staff; the professors don't do the experiments themselves.
The professor sets the policy, and the students and staff inside do what the professor tells them to do, like 'make this and get this data.'

qbc: I see.

Fujita: My research theme was actually something I wanted to do with graphene itself, but I left that to other classmates and, as the professor told me, I made the same structure as graphene out of other materials and investigated what would happen. I was told, 'Fujita-kun, I'm counting on you for this,' and I obediently said, 'Understood,' and did it.
We get research themes from companies that pay us to 'investigate this,' but it's not necessarily the theme the student wants to do. Someone has to do it. So I did it. But the punchline is that I tried to become a cog in the machine, but I couldn't even become a cog (laughs).

qbc: What was the reason you wanted to go into a 'cog' position?

Fujita: When I was an undergraduate, I wasn't good at communicating, so I thought I'd become a researcher because researchers can get by without strong communication skills.
If you're going to work in a research position, it's better to have graduated from graduate school than just undergraduate when it comes to getting a job at a company, so I just kind of went to grad school.
My family home is in Fukuoka, and my undergraduate studies were in another prefecture, so I also wanted to return home, which is why I went to graduate school in Fukuoka. I went for selfish reasons, like being able to commute from my parents' house.

qbc: Are you currently working as a sole proprietor while also working a part-time job?

Fujita: I'm a sole proprietor. While I go to the cram school where I work part-time, I also take on individual students and provide guidance the way I want to.
It seems like Study Sapuri has accounts for cram schools, so I'm thinking of doing online individual tutoring using things like that in the future.

qbc: I see.

Fujita: Recently, with things like Apple Pencil, iPad, and screen mirroring, I can show the other person my iPad screen, take notes for them, and explain things. I want to be able to do it from home, but also be able to meet and talk in person on-site.
I want to run a cram school specialized for game lovers, so even if there isn't such a child nearby, I will support them online.

qbc: What was the trigger for wanting to start your own business, or have you had requests from children who actually play games before?

Fujita: Besides my part-time job, I have gone to tutor children of acquaintances introduced by my mother.
As for games, I was learning coaching skills during the time I wasn't in graduate school, and the son of a peer at that time was a gamer.
'My son has been playing FPS games all the time, so I'm worried he'll become a murderer in the future.'
I was consulted with that.
That parent and child didn't talk much, and the parent had even pulled the power cord of the desktop gaming PC to make the child stop playing games, so their relationship was quite bad. The parent had also half-given up. It was a state of, 'It's his life, so his own judgment is fine, but as a parent, I can't just stay silent.'
At that time, I said, 'Please ask your son these kinds of questions,' and 'If you do that, he will talk to you about various things.' By doing that, their relationship improved.

qbc: Yes, yes, yes.

Fujita: It was in another prefecture, but the child said, 'I definitely want Fujita-sensei to teach me once,' so I actually went.
I only taught him for about 2-3 hours, but his test scores went up by about 30 or 40 points, I think. He was extremely good at games, and he was a middle school student who was scouted by a world tournament team for a game called 'Counter-Strike'.

qbc: Amazing.

Fujita: He eventually got along with his mother and apparently went to Singapore as a representative of Japan.
Since he was a child who played a lot of games to begin with, he quickly grasped the knack and applied it, raising his math score by about 30 points.After all, I realized that children who play games grow when you switch them on in a good way. I was able to obtain what I wanted to believe, so there was one thing I wanted to do with this.

qbc: Why do you think kids who play games improve?

Fujita: I was originally a fighting game player, and I was really into the Tekken series. Of course, there were opponents I couldn't beat, but when I was in middle school and high school playing at the arcade, if I lost easily, the money my parents earned would melt away in an instant. Since I went to a prep school, I didn't have a part-time job.
So, it was like if I didn't win, I couldn't protect my money.
At the time, there was a magazine called 'Arcadia' that was like a god for arcades, so I read it constantly to gain knowledge. Just because you understand something doesn't mean you can do it immediately in practice, so you have to practice. I studied through games the whole time.

qbc: Indeed.

Fujita: In terms of tests, it's like when you have a teacher explain something and you feel like you understand it, but you can't do it on the actual exam. Even if you have the knowledge in your head, you have to be able to notice things and do them yourself without hints during the actual exam, and I think that's something you can't do without training. But for me, having done that constantly at the arcade was a huge factor, I think.

qbc: Uh-huh.

Fujita: I wouldn't reach a deviation score of 70 or anything, but I figured if I could get around 60, no one would complain, so I used that as a benchmark to maintain at least a 60 without going to cram school.
Also, regarding games, I would think of strategies, execute them, and think, 'This didn't work for me, so let me try this instead...' Fighting games resolve a round in a minute, after all.

qbc: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Fujita: In games, the answer to what you did comes back within a minute. Like, 'This didn't work,' or 'This worked well.'
Back then, opponents weren't online, so if anything, when I became friends with the other person and said things like 'That was a good match' or 'Thank you,' I could ask them, 'I moved like this at this moment, how was it?' and they would tell me, 'I hated that,' or 'Why don't you try doing this instead?'
I would get answers to what I thought of and practiced on my own, and they would also teach me points for improvement, like 'You should do it more like this.'
That meant that within the one minute of the match, a conversation between me and my opponent was, in a sense, taking place.
Thinking and taking action—I guess you could call it the PDCA cycle. I was doing that at the arcade. If I put about 50% of the energy I used there into studying, I could memorize the necessary vocabulary, and for problems I got wrong, I could think about why I missed them, or what kind of antenna I should have up to notice them if the same problem appeared next time. Or conversely, what the difference is between this and that.
In a four-choice question, option 1 is the correct answer, but I chose 3. So, what kind of pattern would make 3 the correct answer? I used to do that with English tests.

qbc: That's interesting.

Fujita: Fighting games are the same; in this case, landing an uppercut is the correct answer, but in this situation, there's no benefit to throwing an uppercut. You might win if it hits, but this other move is lower risk and will win, right? The correct answer changed depending on the situation, which is what fighting games were.
I was always thinking about how, for studying, this is the correct answer this time, but if the problem changes like this, then this other thing becomes the correct answer. I think I acquired that because I fought against adults at the arcade until I was sick of it. So, I think that's how it can be applied.That's why I believe people who play games seriously are smart.

Past: Middle school gamer, playing against adults.

qbc: What kind of child were you?

Fujita: My first memory is from when I was about three, I think. For some reason, I only remember having scary dreams often. That has nothing to do with who I am now, but that's my very first memory.
When I entered kindergarten, I was good at racing and fast, so I used to chase the girls. Saying things like, 'I'm going to catch you girls.'
I was a mischievous kid. At that time, there was another kid named 'Tetsutaro' who was as fast as me, and I used to chase girls with him.
Also, I loved my kindergarten teacher so much. I don't remember it, but apparently, I made something out of paper clay and gave it to a female teacher named Ms. Nagano at the time.

qbc: Yes, yes.

Fujita: I loved my teacher, and I was a kid who played sports like crazy.
Also, after kindergarten ended, I would spend the whole time in the sandbox building a dam until my parents came to pick me up. Digging tunnels and saying, 'I can see the other side!' I tried running water through it, or making mud dumplings and coating them with dry sand to see that it gets harder. I think I was already doing a lot of thinking back then.

qbc: Were you building the dam with your friends?

Fujita: I remember that chasing everyone was something I did with Tetsutaro-kun.
But when I was building the dam, I only had eyes for myself. I might have been doing it alone. I played alone a lot, but I didn't feel lonely because of that, and I was just silently doing something by myself. Because of that, I thought I would be a researcher.

qbc: When did you start playing games?

Fujita: As for games, after I started elementary school, I played a puzzle game called 'Panel de Pon' that my mother was playing. But I kept dying on easy mode. I was very frustrated and practiced. I was a boy who hated losing.
My mother was apparently a bit of a gamer, so there were times we played together. But by the time I was about 10, unfortunately, my mother was no longer a match for me, so I played games by myself all the time. I became too strong (laughs).

qbc: I see.

Fujita: There weren't really many people at school to play against either. This was back in elementary school, right when the 64 version of 'Smash Bros.' came out. Even then, I didn't really play with my friends.
I also played 'Mario Tennis,' but in 'Mario Tennis 64,' characters get stars when you clear the singles tournament. I guess you'd call them star characters; I was the only one who had all star characters, so I'd borrow my friends' software and get all the star characters for them.
And then, around the sixth grade, I played 'Taiko no Tatsujin' by myself. I couldn't do it at all when I started, so I just practiced intensely on my own.

qbc: When did you become a gamer? When did you start being called a so-called 'hardcore' player? What kind of game was the catalyst for that?

Fujita: The very first one was in June of my second year of junior high, a rhythm game called 'pop'n music' that a friend introduced me to. At first, I laughed my head off because the movements looked so weird.
Then I started saying, 'I want to play too,' and joined in. My friend was much better than me, so I wanted to be able to play as well as he could, and I played every day.
After that, it was 'TEKKEN 5.' It must have been summer, sometime during my second year of junior high, when it started running in the arcades. I started from there, using a card to save my own data.
It was extremely popular, so there were always adults to play against, and I would just jump into the mix.

qbc: Oh, you fought against adults. I see.

Fujita: That's where an older guy started talking to me.From there, I started talking to the older guys at the arcade and the college students, and they taught me things.That's when I finally started moving up in rank. Until then, I had been stuck at the lowest level, the first dan, for hundreds of matches.
Among them, I saw people who had only finished junior high and were working, but were enjoying 'TEKKEN' with two of their fun work buddies. When I talked to that person, I heard him say, 'I started working after junior high because I wanted to earn money right away.' I had always heard people at school and cram school say things like, 'If you go to university, your lifetime earnings will go up, or your job options will increase.' But these people at the arcade looked so happy. I felt that this was definitely one way to live a happy life, so I stopped listening obediently to what the people at school and cram school were saying. Like, they say things like that, but those people over there look happy too.

qbc: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fujita: There were even people who went to law school and were working as clerks at pachinko parlors. I realized there wasn't a rule that you absolutely had to do what you studied at university in the future.
I started to understand, in a way, that you can just go on to study something you're interested in for now, and if it doesn't fit, you can just move on to something else.

qbc: Specifically, how do you end up talking to those people?

Fujita: I think part of it was because I was a kid, but the adults would talk to me.
The first person was a bit of an odd character, but he just started talking to me, saying, 'TEKKEN is fun, isn't it?' There was a 'Number 1' and a 'Number 2.' I became friends with Number 1. Then he introduced me to all sorts of other people.
Among them, there was an older guy who had just graduated from college and was working as a pachinko clerk, and there were people who came to the arcade as a married couple, and their daughter would sometimes play in the game corner.

qbc: I see, I see, that's interesting.

Fujita: For me, about 70% of it was getting to know people because they talked to me. Other than that, when people of similar ranks played against each other, promotion and demotion matches would happen immediately.
We would just keep fighting until one of us went up or down in rank, and after it was over, we'd say something like, 'Thank you very much.'
If I lost to someone, I would go over and talk to them, feeling like, 'Thank you.' The matches were the catalyst.

qbc: So there was a community at the arcade.

Fujita: It was common to be introduced and then connect on Mobage.
Especially when I was in high school, around the time 'TEKKEN 6' came out, a famous Tekken player created a social network.
I joined that social network, which only had Tekken players. I connected with people who had competed in national tournaments using the same character.

qbc: In terms of titles, what was the progression of games like?

Fujita: Throughout junior high and high school, I was playing two games: the rhythm game 'pop'n music' and the fighting game 'TEKKEN'.
From high school on, it was about 70% 'TEKKEN' and 30% 'pop'n music.' I would play the rhythm game if there was no one to play 'TEKKEN' with.

qbc: I see.

Fujita: I started entering tournaments around high school. This was also a good experience for me.
I experienced my hands shaking from the tension of the actual performance, wondering what it was I usually did, and ending up just throwing out the same moves over and over. I learned that this is what happens when I get nervous during a real performance. I thought that this might happen during a real test, so I started being conscious of how much I should trust myself under the tension of a real performance, and how much I shouldn't, during arcade tournaments and matches.
I don't know if that was useful, but when I took the Center Test as a ronin student, I think it worked out really well.

qbc: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fujita: Until I graduated high school, I was a Tekken player, and since there was a big tournament every year, I participated in those.
I became a ronin student, and at that time, I got hooked on the rhythm games 'pop'n music' and 'jubeat.' With the rhythm games back then, if you put in a ton of credits, you could keep unlocking songs, and I played until I unlocked the final song. I don't know if the number was incredibly high, but that's what I did.
That was also around the time when in-store battle modes were created, where three people would line up side-by-side to play. That was that kind of period. I studied a little bit, too.

qbc: I see.

Fujita: When I was a ronin student, about 70% or 80% of my time shifted to 'jubeat,' and I stopped going to the arcade where I always played 'TEKKEN.' So, it was almost like I retired from it. I spent my time playing 'jubeat' intensely. I went to university in Ehime, but since I didn't have any friends there, I played by myself the whole time.
I entered an official tournament and placed around 11th in the regional online tournament.
I thought, if I had made it into the top 8, I could have met the Konami artists at the regional finals, and I could have gotten a T-shirt and an autograph.

qbc: What about after you started working?

Fujita: Not as much as before. But even if I go once, it ends up costing about 200 or 300 yen.

qbc: What do you find interesting about games?

Fujita: For me, the interesting thing about games is that physical ability doesn't matter.No matter who presses the button, the same attack comes out with the same speed and the same damage. I'm small, and I liked soccer, but I hated things like players pulling on uniforms where the referee couldn't see. I wondered, what is sportsmanship? I couldn't bring myself to like things like being overly happy about an opponent's mistake. I didn't really like the people who played sports.
But in fighting games, you don't have that kind of physical stuff or pulling on sleeves. As long as it's on the screen, if everyone presses the same button, the result is the same.

qbc: Interesting.

Fujita: Because the cause of defeat lies in something unrelated to physical ability. It's not that strong people just used their physical gifts; there's a completely different reason for winning, so I would watch replay monitors to see why they were strong.
I would watch over and over, wondering why this person is doing this here. I'd think, 'I see, maybe doing this is also foreshadowing.' I didn't know if it was the answer, but having something make me realize 'maybe' was really interesting.

qbc: Indeed, the replay function is interesting. It's like a post-game analysis in Shogi. I see.

Fujita: It really satisfies that kind of intellectual curiosity. The process of thinking for myself and coming up with answers to questions like 'Why?' or 'What for?' And then checking if the answer I came up with is correct, or actually putting it into practice in a match.The fact that it's easy to get feedback is the reason I got hooked on games.

qbc: I totally understand. That's a meaningful and intense positive gaming experience.

Fujita: With studying, for example, you take a mock exam in June, the next one is in September, and the results come back around July. You don't know what problems you solved, and you don't know why you got the points you did.
Even if you have a really weak area and you decide to practice it, and you dedicate that day's class or a week to it, the next practical application isn't until September.

qbc: Yes, yes, yes.

Fujita: And there's no guarantee that what you practiced will even appear on the test. Of course you'd forget it after a month or two.
Then around November, it comes up again when you've forgotten it, and you think, 'Oh, I got this wrong again!'It's like you can't feel your own growth.Even if you come up with your own countermeasures, you don't get feedback as a result, so while I think studying is tough,
games are good because you get to know the results quickly.That's the reason I got hooked on games.

Future: Creating children who can think and play properly using Smash Bros.

qbc: I'd like to ask about the future. Five or ten years from now, or when you die, how do you want to be or how do you want to be thought of? What kind of image do you have for the future?

Fujita: When I die, I hope there is at least one person who is like my alter ego—someone who thinks the same things I think, feels the same things I feel, and does the same things I do.
I hope I can nurture at least one person who has struggled the same way I have, can do the same things I can, and has experienced the same things, rather than being the only strange person in the world.
Things like, 'Thanks to Mr. Fujita, my way of thinking changed, my grades improved,' or 'I started taking things more seriously.' Even 'I became a gamer' is totally fine. I hope that when I die, there is at least one person who says I changed their life.
If you ask if there's anyone like that now, I think the mother of a child who plays 'Counter-Strike' might be one. My ultimate wish when I die is to create many more people like that.

qbc: I see.

Fujita: I think games in Japan are currently commercial products, and esports as a culture isn't there yet. I feel like the foundation hasn't been built yet, so in five or ten years, something likecreating children who can think and play properly using Smash Bros.I hope I can create a program like that myself.

qbc: Being able to think using Smash Bros. That's amazing. Wonderful.

Fujita: What they call educational apps—honestly, from a gamer's perspective, apps like Shinken Zemi are boring. When they force you to study using those like a game, I think, 'Aren't you underestimating games?'
I want there to be a place like Smash Bros. or Tekken where adults and children can compete on the same level. Ultimately, while I do a lot of online classes and individual tutoring now, in five or ten years, I want to build a cram school that has a physical space, with rooms for studying and rooms for playing games. And a place to explain to mothers, for example, that what they are doing is amazing. To tell the mothers, 'This is what children who are in the VIP match of Smash Bros. are doing.'

qbc: Yes, yes, yes.

Fujita: What I deal with there isn't educational games, but rather things like hiring professional-level outside instructors to teach FPS, or if it's something with one-on-one fighting game elements, I love those, so I play them seriously with the kids.
Things like, 'Actually, I've been moving with this goal in mind the whole time,' or 'Try doing something to stop this.'
If we're talking about Street Fighter, it's like how to win with Sagat. Like, Ryu anticipated my jump with a parry, so I'll bait that (intentionally feinting to make the opponent perform a specific action) and land a full combo. Since the opponent is likely reading what I'm aiming for, I'll do a different action knowing that.
I want to have that kind of interaction with kids through games.

qbc: That's really interesting. By the way, is the peak for a pro gamer around middle school age?

Fujita: I often hear that being younger is better than getting older, though.
I think it depends on the game genre. There are many players in their 30s for Tekken, but for TPS and FPS games like PUBG or Apex, they say it's considered amazing if you're still active after 30.
It seems they can't keep up in terms of reaction speed. So, there's no time left to become a pro gamer after graduating from university. It's understandable that some people quit university to become pro gamers.

qbc: Balancing the peak of a pro gamer with school studies is quite a challenge. There's also the second career after retirement.

Fujita: That's exactly it. For me, I think people who can truly win at games can probably win at studying to some extent as well.
Thinking about such complex things, looking at this, looking at that, watching people, listening to sounds, making judgments, listening for footsteps, and so on. If they're doing something that intense, studying should be a bit easier.

qbc: I think it's easier too.

Fujita: But I think that's why they find studying boring.

qbc: Studying really does lack stimulation. The excitement is minimal.

Fujita: That's exactly it.
When you compare the effort to raise your rating by 100 in a ranked match versus raising your test score by 10, for a child who plays games, raising the rating by 100 is harder.
But even if you raise your rating by 100, no adults around you will understand. If you raise your test score from, say, 40 to 50, adults will clap and be happy. Adults are easy, aren't they?
At the cram school I run individually, I tell the kids, 'Study so that you can convince your parents that since your test scores are going up even while playing games, it's okay for you to play games.'

qbc: Studying to convince those around you, huh.

Fujita: Then, mothers will talk to each other, like, 'So-and-so's child is smart, isn't he?' 'Oh no, my child just plays games at home all the time.' 'What kind of education did you give them?' I want to teach them that the reason they can study is because they were playing games.

qbc: That's a dream world.

Fujita: When I talk about the 'Counter-Strike' kid, it seems the mother didn't even know that her child had such great results in a Japanese tournament that the organizers asked if he would participate as a representative of Japan.
The child also said he didn't tell her because he thought his parents wouldn't understand anyway. From my perspective, I could say, 'Mom! He was invited to be a pro!'
If the parent-child relationship is ruined by playing too many games, the child gives up and stops telling them.

qbc: Interesting. It's starting to sound like advocating for children's rights.

Fujita: If it were me, I would research 'Counter-Strike,' talk to skilled players, and explain various things to the mother. Like, 'He's listening for footsteps, that's why he needs headphones.' Or, 'Actually, he's performing these delicate operations.' Or, 'At this moment, he's thinking about this.' And, 'If you'd like, please ask your son about when it's fun, or ask about the interesting parts of the game.'
By explaining it like that, they eventually got along and were able to go to the world tournament.

qbc: I see.

Fujita: I want to bridge the gap in the perception of games between parents and children.
So, my goal is that in five or ten years, when I build a physical cram school, I want to have a seminar room to explain things to mothers, a study floor, and also a room where they can play games seriously.

qbc: Thank you. I'd like to ask a hypothetical question about the future. If you hadn't encountered games, what do you think would have happened?

Fujita: I think it would be different. Before I got hooked on games, I was a sports-loving boy. I played dodgeball every day during recess.
But then, someone appeared who wouldn't let me join the group. After that, I started drawing pictures. I would draw pictures with girls in the classroom, make money out of paper, and sell them. I suddenly went from being an outdoor person to an indoor person.

qbc: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fujita: It's still true now, but when I was a kid, I really didn't want to be friends with the guys who played sports, so I became an even more introverted boy.
If I didn't have games, I wonder what I would have been doing. I think I would have been doing other indoor activities. Or, perhaps I would have ended up in a research position. Even while feeling depressed, I would have just resignedly said, 'This is all I have, this is the only thing I can do.'

qbc: By the way, is there any scenario where you wouldn't have ended up in rhythm games or fighting games?

Fujita: I probably would have played racing games. I really loved 'F-ZERO'. The one on the GameCube. I actually uploaded about 100 videos to Nico Nico Douga. I used every machine, just to see if anyone else was playing it.

I was making videos like this.

qbc: If 'F-ZERO' had become a title on the level of 'Mario Kart,' your life might have turned out differently.

Fujita: There is a timeline where I might have gotten hooked on a different genre.
Even if it wasn't fighting or rhythm games, it would have been a game I could master on my own. Maybe I would have gotten into speedrunning.

qbc: Ah. That sounds likely. Real-time attack.

Fujita: I love speedrunning, but in a way, it's meticulously calculated. There's practice to execute it, and so on. I think it's close to sports.

qbc: Even now, when I watch the games I played as a kid, speedruns are just interesting.

Fujita: That's true. People are still playing 'Super Mario World' to this day, after all.

qbc: Gamers are great. They can take risks and are hungry for stimulation. Since regular jobs often lack that stimulation, I think it can be tough when you compare the two.

Fujita: I want everyone to play games more and more. I want to recommend games where you get stronger through your own effort, not games where you get stronger through grinding and microtransactions.
Also, I want them to work hard until they reach a level where they can understand why skilled players are so good.
Even if you can't win yourself, if you can reach a level where you can say 'That makes sense' or 'Oh, I see what you mean' regarding what professional players say, then it's fun to watch even if you can't win. That's the same as sports.

qbc: That's nice. Like a way to enjoy esports. Taking someone along, explaining it to them, and having them understand the appeal.

Fujita: Exactly.

qbc: That's great. We might see a lot of people who aim to be pro gamers in their childhood and then become casual players in their 30s. Like amateur baseball.

Fujita: Games won't thrive unless there are casual players, after all.
So, it's about being able to tell why this person is a pro. Moving from 'Why is this person a pro? They're just playing a game' to 'Oh, that's why they're a pro' or 'That's why this person is popular.'

qbc: Because pros are beautiful, right? Ah, that's fun. Finally, is there anything you left unsaid?

Fujita: I've said plenty of what I wanted to say, so I'm good. Thank you.

qbc: Are Japanese game tournaments still restricted by prize money regulations?

Fujita: That's right.

qbc: Is that still the case? That's why you're struggling to grow. But you can go overseas. I hope you can attract attention there.

Fujita: Recently, there's talk of the eSports Association using 'Puyo Puyo' in nursing homes as a way to prevent aging in the elderly.

qbc: 'Puyo Puyo' works for them? That's amazing. Maybe they should release big controllers or something. Or have larger text.

Fujita: That's true. Thank you for your time today.

qbc: Thank you as well.

Afterword

Games are not bound by physical limitations. (And they create communities.)
Games involve theory, practice, and application.
This all sounds like nothing but good things.
If there is a downside to games, it's that they are so fun you might forget reality.
The question is, how do we gamify reality?
Waiting for your feedback!

Editorial Cooperation: Hina Arishima

#UnknownPersonInterview #Interview #SelfIntroduction #Games #Independence #ChildRearing

You can also read past interviews in the magazine!

Call for interview participants!