雙語故事:那天我與日本首富柳井正共進午餐

At exactly 11.30am, Tadashi Yanai marches into the room and sticks out his hand. The richest man in Japan, worth $15.5bn according to Forbes’ latest reckoning, is definitely not the tallest. A slight, wiry man, with alarmingly short grey hair cropped as if for the priesthood, the founder of the Uniqlo clothing chain can’t be much above 5ft 4in tall. Still, there is a toughness, almost a pugilism about him. Though he is 64 – or, perhaps, because he is 64 – he is among the most driven businessmen in Japan.

11:30，柳井正(Tadashi Yanai)準時步入房間，主動與我握手。這位日本首富（福布斯(Forbes)最新公佈其財富高達155億美元）個子不高、身材瘦削而結實，灰白頭髮剪成了寸頭，似乎是爲出家做準備。這位優衣庫(Uniqlo)連鎖店創始人身高不超過5.4英尺。然而他顯得很壯實，酷似拳擊手。儘管他已64歲，仍是當今日本最具創新意識的企業家。

His holding company, Fast Retailing, of which Uniqlo is the most prominent brand, is bent on world domination, or at least on overtaking its three larger competitors, Inditex (which owns Zara), H&M and Gap. Fast Retailing, which operates more than 1,000 stores in 14 countries, has annual global sales above $10bn. Uniqlo alone is opening about one new outlet a week and will break into Germany and Australia next spring with stores in Berlin and Melbourne.

他旗下的控股公司迅銷(Fast Retailing)專心致志在全球市場開疆拓土，抑或說至少一心一意趕超自己的三大強勁競爭對手——擁有Zara的Inditex、H&M以及 Gap。優衣庫是迅銷旗下最知名品牌。迅銷在14個國家開設了1000多家門店，全年銷售額超過100億美元。僅優衣庫每週就會新開一家門店，明年開春就會在德國的柏林與澳大利亞的墨爾本開設新門店。

We are in the private dining room of Azure 45, one of dozens of high-end French restaurants in Tokyo, this most culinary of cities. This one is spectacularly located on the 45th floor of a skyscraper with sweeping views of Tokyo Tower and the city beneath. A cluster of different-sized glass balls dangles above the table, giving the otherwise haute-chic room the air of a 1980s disco. Yanai starts work at 7am and likes to be home by 4pm to spend time with his wife and to practise golf, so the whole company has shunted its schedule forward. Our 11.30am encounter is early even by Japanese standards, where lunch at noon is the norm.

我倆就在Azure 45餐館的私人包間用餐，這是東京幾十家高檔法餐館中的一家，飯菜檔次無與倫比。Azure 45餐館位於麗思卡爾頓高層酒店(Ritz Carlton)第45層，在此可以飽覽東京塔(Tokyo Tower)的丰姿及整個東京城的美景。大小不等的玻璃串珠懸掛於餐桌上方，恍如置身於上世紀80年代的高檔迪斯科舞房。柳井正每天早上7點開始工作，下午4點下班回家陪伴妻子以及練習打高爾夫球，因此全公司只得順勢把日程安排提前。即使以日本人的標準來衡量，我倆約定的11:30會面時間都有些早，日本人約定俗成的午餐時間是中午12點。

“Just by looking at your face I can tell you’re English,” Yanai announces as we take our seats at the long dining table. “There’s an Englishness about you.” He is almost imperceptibly leaning back in his chair and, as he speaks, his mouth moves less than you might expect, as if he were a ventriloquist minus a dummy. His face is stern, though beneath is a hint of amusement. Every so often, he bears his teeth as he erupts into laughter.

“一看臉相，就知道您是英國人，”我倆在長條餐桌前一坐下，柳井正說。“你渾身上下透出英國人的氣質。”他說這話的時候，身子幾乎悄無聲息地後靠椅子，嘴巴幅度很小，十足像個口技演員。他神情嚴肅，儘管隱約顯出逗趣的一面。他放聲大笑時，不時咬自己的牙齒。

What, I ask, is so English about me? “The whole package. The air of the English is down-to-earth,” he says. “They care about details, there’s a tradition but there’s also a counter-culture, the younger generation versus the older generation and so on. But then that’s well blended into a happy balance and crystallised into common sense.”

我問他我身上有啥英國人氣質？“渾身上下，你身上英國人的氣質一目瞭然，”他說，“他們注重細節與傳統，但也崇尚反主流文化，年輕一代與父輩存在代際矛盾等等。但所有一切渾然天成，已經內化成常識。”

It’s not where I would have started the conversation but it’s a fairly typical line of discourse in Japan, where perceived national characteristics remain an important prism through which to view the world. Seeing as we’ve set off down this road, I ask whether the Japanese are similar. One commonly hears Tokyo cab drivers pontificate on the parallels: both Britain and Japan are islands stuck off the edge of a great continental landmass. Yanai focuses on the differences. “I’m afraid Japanese people tend to collective hysteria,” he offers.

這並非本人希望的開場白，但在日本，這是相當典型的談話方式，所謂國民性格依然是觀察世界的重要媒介。看到已步入正題，我於是問他是否日本人也是如此。經常聽到東京“的哥”堂而皇之地發表類似言論：英國和日本一樣，都是偏安廣袤大陸一隅的島國。柳井正則更關心英國與日本之間的差異。“恐怕日本人往往陷入集體歇斯底里症，”他說道。

I can’t let that phrase go by, I say. What does he mean by collective hysteria? “Look at history,” he says, describing how Japan, after 300 years of isolation, burst into the world in the late 19th century, beating first, in 1895, China and then, in 1905, Russia in war. “Japan had this gut feeling. ‘We can do it. We can change the world. We can even walk on water,’ ” he says of the hubris that led to the destructiveness of would-be Asian domination.

對此說法我不能輕易放過，於是問他何謂“集體歇斯底里？“以史爲鑑，”他回答道，並講述日本經歷閉關鎖國300年後，如何突然在19世紀末融入世界，並首先於1895年打敗大清帝國，而後於1905年打敗俄國。“日本人於是有了這樣的直覺：‘我們有能力做到一切，能夠扭轉乾坤，甚至可以說無所不能。’”他指的是日本曾經的狂妄自大，正是這讓日本發動了對整個亞洲的侵略戰爭，給亞洲造成了深重災難。

At least three waiters, all wearing blue suits with light blue ties, are fussing around us. They pour sparkling water – the wine glasses have been whisked away without comment – and begin serving food. In Japan, it’s common to order before you arrive at a restaurant and Yanai’s office must have chosen. The first course is brightly orange Hokkaido sea urchin, served on an off-white sauce of fennel and seaweed cream in a large indented plate, like an inverted white cowboy hat. The sea urchin is delicious on its own but slightly overwhelmed by the creamy sauce.

至少有三位服務員在我們周圍盤桓，他們都身穿藍色西裝，打着淡藍色領帶。他們給我倆倒完蘇打水後就開始上菜（酒杯已被悄然拿走）。在日本，正式用餐按慣例得預訂，柳井正的手下對用餐地點肯定是精挑細選。第一道菜是亮橙色的北海道海膽，它放在鋸齒狀大盤中，底下鋪着白色茴香與海藻醬，活脫一頂倒置白色牛仔帽。海膽味道鮮美，但醬味稍微有些重，蓋過了原味。

As Yanai sets about slurping in the Japanese fashion – the action is said to introduce flavour-enhancing air – I apologise before pulling out my iPhone to snap a photo. Through the lens, I notice again his severe haircut and protruding ears. “It’s like cooking,” he says self-deprecatingly of his appearance. “If the ingredients are bad, then the picture probably won’t come out looking like a handsome-looking guy.”

正當柳井正以日本人的吃法嘖嘖享用起海膽（據說這種吃法能增味不少）時——我趕忙說且慢，然後掏出iPhone抓拍他的吃相。通過鏡頭，我再次注意到他一板一眼的寸頭和突出的雙眼。“這就好比烹調，”他自貶起自己的長相，“如果原料不好，就長不出帥哥模樣來。”

I’d like to pursue the wartime history question, ever-present even as Japanese companies such as Uniqlo become more dependent on Chinese labourers and consumers, but Yanai has dispensed with his first course in a few quick slurps and I feel I should press on. As a chilled mushroom soup arrives, I turn to his childhood. He was born in 1949 in the mining town of Ube in Yamaguchi prefecture, where his parents ran a western clothing store. Yanai compares Ube with the gritty Welsh mining village in John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley, a film about environmental and social despoilment. “Back in those days, Japan was still an occupied country. It was very poor. My parents had a shop on the first floor and we lived on the second floor.” He remembers the taste of chocolate and coffee as “aspirational”.

我希望繼續談論揮之不去的日本侵略的歷史遺留問題。儘管優衣庫等日本公司如今越發仰仗中國員工及消費者，但柳井正三下五去二就已把第一道菜消滅了，我覺得應該趁熱打鐵。蘑菇凍湯端上桌後，我轉而問他的童年時代。柳井正1949年出生于山口縣(Yamaguchi)的煤炭城市宇部(Ube)，他的父母在此經營一家西式服裝店。柳井正把宇部與約翰•福特《青山翠谷》(John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley)中堅忍不拔的威爾士煤礦山村相提並論，這部影片講述了對環境與社會的過度掠奪。“想當初，日本仍是個被美國佔領的國家，國貧民窮，我父母在一樓開了店鋪，全家則住在二樓。”他還清楚記得當時巧克力與咖啡的味道讓他“魂牽夢縈”。

When a mine shut down, he says, his school friends moved on with their families. “In my childhood, I learnt that all industries have a shelf-life. Everything comes to an end.” Did he want to escape? “I knew there was a certain expectation from my father.” As the only son, he would be required to take over the family business. But he also wanted to become a “salaryman”, an employee of a big Japanese company dressed in suit and tie.

他接着說，只要有煤礦倒閉，他的同學就會隨全家遠走他鄉。“我從小就知道企業都有‘大限’，一切終有盡頭。”我問他是否想逃避？“當時我就知道父親對我有所期待。”作爲家中唯一的兒子，終有一天要接掌衣鉢。但他也希望當“工薪階層”——衣冠楚楚地去日本大公司高就。

He studied economics and politics at Tokyo’s prestigious Waseda University, where, he says, he devoted much of his time to mah-jong and pachinko, the latter an addictive game in which glassy eyed punters feed metal balls into noisy machines. He listened to jazz and was, he says, “soaked in American culture”. It was the late 1960s and student protests, over the Vietnam war and Japan’s subservience to the US, brought the university to a standstill for 18 months. Yanai took the opportunity to travel abroad and ended up in the UK. He was surprised to find that no one spoke English, or at least not the American version he knew. “I couldn’t understand a word of Cockney English,” he says. The reminiscence proves cause for another eruption into laughter.

他考上東京久負盛名的早稻田大學(Waseda University)，攻讀經濟學與政治學，他說大學期間，自己把大量時間耗在了打麻將與玩彈球盤上，彈球盤容易上癮，面無表情的賭徒把金屬球塞入嘈雜的機器中。他說，自己當時聆聽爵士樂，“沉醉於美國文化”。正是上世紀60年代末學生因越戰以及日本對美國惟命是從而舉行抗議活動，從而導致早稻田大學停課了18個月。柳井正利用這個機會出國遊歷，最後一站是英國。他驚訝地發現每個人說的都不像英語，抑或說至少沒人用自己理解的美式英語說話。“倫敦英語，我一個詞都聽不懂，”他說。他一想起這段往事，就不由得哈哈大笑。

After graduating in 1971, he worked briefly for a supermarket chain before returning to his father’s shop in Ube. In 1984, he was made managing director of the expanding business and established the first branch of the Unique Clothing Warehouse in the back streets of Hiroshima. Instead of selling the ready-made men’s suits in which his father’s business specialised, the Hiroshima store dealt in affordable casual clothes akin to those then being sold by Giordano of Hong Kong.

1971年大學畢業後，他先在某連鎖超市打了一段時間工，然後回到宇部父親的老店鋪。1984年，他擔任業務繁忙的家族企業社長，並在廣島(Hiroshima)的背街小巷開設了Unique Clothing Warehouse倉儲服裝店（優衣庫原先的名字）首家分店，銷售的並非父親主打的男士現成西服，而是廉價休閒裝，類似於佐丹奴(Giordano)當時在香港的銷售模式。

Uniqlo, a contraction of the original name, started expanding and by the mid-1990s had more than 100 stores. Yanai then opened a Tokyo outlet. Before long, the company was churning out hit products, typified by the $20 fleece jacket that is said to have been purchased by one in four Japanese. It experimented with new materials, to retain heat or to breathe in the sweltering summers, co-operating with Japan’s most cutting-edge manufacturers. The leap from Ube to Tokyo was, he says, far bigger than the one Uniqlo subsequently made from Tokyo to London, New York, Shanghai and Moscow, all cities where it now operates. “The world’s major metropolitan cities are more or less the same,” he says.

優衣庫（公司起初名字的縮寫）開始發展壯大，到上世紀90年代中葉，共開設了100多家門店。柳井正隨後開設了首家東京門店。不久後，它開始量產經典款主打產品——售價20美元的羊毛夾克，據說每四個日本人中就有一位購買過它。它開始與日本技術最先進的廠家合作，試驗冬日保暖、炎熱夏天透氣性好的新型面料。他說，優衣庫後來把門店從東京開到倫敦、紐約、上海、莫斯科等大城市，但與這些相比，當初把門店從宇部開到東京的意義更爲重大。“全球的大都市大同小異，”他說。

Still, there have been false starts. In 2001, Uniqlo opened several stores in London only to shut most of them again after miserable results. Yanai says the launch was undone by sloppy standards. In Japan, though Uniqlo’s products are cheap, customers are treated like kings, with bowing staff and immaculately laid-out stores. That’s not how it was on opening day in London, according to Yanai. “I was so angry at how messy the floor was and how the merchandise was stacked any-old-how,” he says, tucking in to the delicately cooked white fish that has been served. “I was infuriated.”

儘管如此，仍不乏出師不利的例子。2001年，優衣庫在倫敦開設了幾家門店，沒想到多數因經營慘淡而關門了事。柳井正說失敗的原因是門店相關標準的制定差強人意。在日本，儘管優衣庫產品低廉，但消費者仍貴爲上帝，員工必須彬彬有禮，門店必須佈置得乾淨整潔。柳井正說這正恰恰是倫敦門店開張之日糟糕透頂的地方。“我當時很生氣：地板骯髒不堪，貨物胡亂堆放，”他一邊說，一邊津津有味地享用着剛端上來的、精心烹製的白魚。“當時我都快氣炸了。”

Since that false start, the going has been somewhat easier as Uniqlo has sought to glamorise its brand by opening flagship international stores in prime locations such as New York’s Fifth Avenue. Yanai has set a wildly ambitious target of nearly quintupling sales to $50bn by 2020. Isn’t he making a classic mistake of Japanese business, I wonder, prioritising scale over profits? “Scale has no importance on its own,” he shoots back. “But unless you have scale, you may not be able to stay alive or competitive. Unless you have scale, you can be bought by someone else or you may go bankrupt. Remember, I have seen so many industries dying out,” he says with a nod to his Ube roots.

自打那次“出師不利”後，優衣庫在紐約第五大道(Fifth Avenue)等黃金地段開設了國際旗艦店，並開始大肆宣傳品牌，隨後的“攻城略地”就變得一帆風順。柳井正制訂了雄心勃勃的目標：到2020年，年銷售額基本上要翻5番，達到500億美元。我問他是否在重蹈日本企業的典型覆轍——重視規模甚於利潤？“規模大小本身沒啥意義，”他立馬回擊道。“但如若沒有規模，就無法生存下去或是保持競爭力；如若沒有規模，就很容易被吞併或是破產。請記住，本人已親眼目睹很多企業如此敗亡，”他說道，不言而喻指他家的宇部小店鋪。

Some wagyu tenderloin has arrived. Portions are delicate so the parade of food is manageable. The beef comes in a red-wine sauce and is served with little vegetables arranged more like an avant-garde art exhibition than a plate of food.

服務員端來了和牛裏脊，點的菜量恰到好處，因此上的一道道菜剛好能吃完。端上來的牛裏脊泡在紅葡萄酒汁中，並用一些時蔬點綴，與其說是一道菜，倒不如說更像先鋒派藝術展示。

I ask if the clothing industry’s model is sustainable. After all, it relies on no-longer-so-cheap labour in China, where the bulk of Uniqlo clothes are made, and up-and-coming manufacturing centres such as Bangladesh, site of this April’s appalling tragedy in which 1,100 garment workers were crushed to death when a factory collapsed. Might not consumers in the west decide to buy fewer, better-made clothes, manufactured under more humane conditions? “People say that globalisation has negative aspects but I don’t believe globalisation is bad,” he says, a piece of beef suspended on his fork in mid-air. “It’s criticised from a western perspective but, if you put yourself in the shoes of people in the developing world, it provides an unprecedented opportunity.”

我問柳井正製衣業的模式是否能持續下去。畢竟，它如今依賴的是中國不再廉價的勞動力（大多數優衣庫服裝在中國生產），以及孟加拉國等製造業後起之秀的崛起。今年4月，孟加拉國一家服裝廠發生慘劇，1100位工人因廠房倒塌而被壓死。西方消費者會不會因此下定決心減少購買次數，並選擇在更人性化工作環境生產出來的高檔服裝？“大家都說全球化有消極方面，但我認爲全球化並無弊端，”他說，此時叉子上正叉着牛肉。“這是從西方人的角度批評全球化，如果設身處地從發展中國家老百姓的角度考慮問題，那麼就會有無限商機。”

In the case of Bangladesh, it also brought death, I press. Although Uniqlo clothes were not being made in the collapsed Rana Plaza building, Fast Retailing has subsequently responded anyway by joining a European-led initiative to improve factory conditions. “Some European people tend to believe that these labourers are being exploited and deprived of their human rights and that, therefore, what they need is a strong union,” he says, waving away imaginary agitators. “But in my opinion, unless each one of those labourers and all the people in Bangladesh can stand on their own feet they will have no future.”

我不依不饒：孟加拉國的慘劇還造成了大量工人傷亡。儘管倒塌的拉納大廈(Rana Plaza)中，並沒有生產優衣庫服裝的廠家，但不管怎麼說，迅銷公司事後有所行動——加入歐洲人改善工廠生產環境的倡議。“有些歐洲人總是覺得這些工人遭受殘酷剝削，人權遭踐踏，因此他們需要組建強有力的工會，”他說，對於那些想當然的攪局者，他深不以爲然。“但在我看來，除非每個工人以及所有的孟加拉國人能夠自食其力，否則他們就沒啥前途。”

Even at home, Uniqlo is sometimes labelled as a “black company” because of a high, by Japanese standards, staff turnover rate that sees half of all new recruits leave the company within three years. In Japan, too, the brand has become a victim of its own ubiquity. There is a slang term, unibare, meaning to be caught wearing Uniqlo clothes. Part of Yanai’s global push is aimed at reflecting a better international image of the company’s products back into its home market.

即便在日本，優衣庫時常被稱爲“黑工廠”。因爲按照日本人的標準，它的員工流失率過高——不到三年，新招募的全部員工就有一半掛職而去。此外，優衣庫也因在日本無處不在而反受其害。有個俚語叫unibare，意爲被警方抓住的壞人都穿着優衣庫服裝。柳井正全球戰略的一部分目標就是把旗下產品擁有的良好國際聲譽“出口轉內銷”至國內。

In Japan, Yanai is famous for his prodigious wealth, not always a compliment in a country where money can be held in suspicion. His enormous house in central Tokyo has a mini-golfing range in the garden. In a previous interview, Yanai has said he is not interested in money, though he confesses to liking the idea of being Japan’s richest man. How does he square the two? “I would describe myself as a very average man,” he says. “I’m not extraordinary. I don’t think I was cut out to be making all this money. I have long prioritised being fair, doing something good for society.” Surely he has a Van Gogh or two tucked away at home, I goad. In answer he shows me his wrist to reveal a humble Swatch timepiece. “This is the watch I wear every day,” he says. I’ve seen this before, the classic gesture of a billionaire keen to prove that wealth has not erased his down-to-earth origins.

在日本國內，柳井正因其鉅額財富而出名，但這並非總是褒獎，因爲在日本，財富的來路往往存疑。在柳井正東京市中心豪宅的花園裏，修建了一座迷你型高爾夫練習場。我上次採訪他時，他說自己對財富並無興趣，儘管他坦承很享受日本首富的虛名。那麼這兩者該如何自圓其說？“本人自認爲是凡人一個，”他說，“我並無特殊能力，自認爲天生不是個掙大錢的料。早就認爲公平公正以及爲社會做貢獻最重要。”我故意激將他：您家裏肯定收藏有一二幅梵高(Van Gogh)的畫作吧。他的迴應是亮出手腕，證明自己只是戴着一塊瑞士普通計時錶。“這就是我每天戴的表，”他說。我之前也見過這塊表，這是億萬富翁型的慣用伎倆——急於證明自己儘管腰纏萬貫，依然未改樸實本性。

Ice-cream and coffee arrives, the latter served in fine bone china cups. The previous time I met Yanai, I say, more than a year ago, he was incredibly pessimistic about what he regarded as Japan’s myopic business culture, and an economy that he saw as floating on a sea of debt. Everyone harboured the illusion that they were middle class, he scoffed, but when they woke up they would realise they were poor. “All their savings have been used up by politicians and this bureaucrat-led socialist system.”

我們點的冰淇淋與咖啡端了上來，咖啡就盛放在精美的骨瓷杯中。我說：一年前採訪您時，您對日本經濟以及短視的商業文化特別悲觀絕望，認爲日本經濟深陷於債務的汪洋大海難以自拔。他揶揄道，每個日本人都心存幻覺，覺得自己是中產階層，但一覺醒來，卻發現自己一貧如洗。“日本國民的全部儲蓄都被政客以及官僚主導下的社會福利體制揮霍殆盡。”

Since then, Japan under Shinzo Abe, its new prime minister, has embarked on a bold – some say reckless – economic turnround plan that centres on ridding the country of its 15-year-old deflation. There is also talk of more radical reform, by opening up areas such as agriculture and healthcare to greater competition. Since “Abenomics” was launched nine months ago, corporate confidence has crept back up and the stock market has surged, greatly adding to Yanai’s paper wealth. Japan is growing at more than 3 per cent a year, higher than most advanced economies. Is he now more optimistic?

從那以後，新首相安倍晉三(Shinzo Abe)領導下的政府開始實施大膽的經濟復甦計劃（有些人說不計後果），中心議題是讓日本擺脫長達15之久的經濟滯脹。坊間還傳有更激進的改革計劃，即大幅開放農業及醫療等領域，以實現充分競爭。自從9個月前推出“安倍經濟學”(Abenomics)後，日本公司重拾信心，股市也大幅飈升，大大增加了柳井正的賬面財富。日本的年經濟增長率超過3%，遠超多數發達經濟體。他對前景應該更樂觀了吧？

“What Abenomics has achieved so far has been successful,” he concedes. “But that alone will not be enough unless it entails meaningful structural reform.” Japan must liberalise, deregulate and open its markets to foreign competition, he says, citing what he considers the model of Thatcherite reform in Britain. “If Japan remains isolated and protected,” he concludes with a finality, “it will become a second Greece or a third Portugal.”

“到目前爲止，安倍經濟學是成功的，”他坦承。“但僅此一項並不夠，除非進行更切實的結構性改革。”他說，日本必須放寬限制與放松管制，向外國企業開放國內市場，並列舉了英國實施的撒切爾式改革爲證。“如果日本繼續實施孤立政策、保護國內市場，”他一錘定音地總結道，“那麼就會成爲第二個希臘、第三個葡萄牙。”

Yanai stands to go. He makes his farewell and departs. For a man in a hurry he’s given me a generous 90 minutes. I survey the restaurant, full of well-heeled clientele chattering over their French cuisine. I wonder who among them will wake up to realise they are poor and which of them owns a Uniqlo fleece jacket.

柳井正起身與我告別並向外走去。這位工作繁忙的富豪給了我90分鐘採訪時間，算是給足了我面子。我掃視了一下餐館，只見衣冠楚楚的食客人頭攢動，他們一邊享用着法式大餐，一邊眉飛色舞地聊着天。我不知道他們中有誰會幡然醒悟，與柳井正相比，自己只是個窮光蛋；也不知道他們是否人手一件優衣庫羊毛夾克？