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OFFICIAL BLOG: Mr. WORLD WALKER

DEAR MY G-LOVERS

My voice can be heard
on GACKT Blomaga so,
those who want to read it all, check out the Blomaga

※This article is an excerpt from the
“GACKT's Trashy Stories” corner in the Blomaga.

【Delivered thrice a month】
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use in news sites, reproduction on personal blogs or SNS are authorised.

In such cases please indicate【GACKTオフィシャルブログ GACKT.com より転載】(GACKT Official Blog GACKT.com All rights reserved). However, if our company deems your site to be inappropriate, posting will be immediately prohibited.
(c)G-PRO inc.

I arrived in Italy from Dubai.

This time,
I came to Italy’s Rome to hold
the fan club only event 【Yasoukai】.
Last night,
I arrived at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport.

The vibrancy of Dubai’s streets, too
was calmer than its usual image.
It’s probably the effect of terrorism as well.
It’s sad.

Dubai’s international airport was also pretty rattled,
there was an unusual number of security personnel.
It’s an airport with only security staff.
And,
a sharply reduced number of travellers.

Because the passages of the airport were quite rattled too,
I remember a completely strange feeling.
Instead of tourists here and there
its more like businessmen…
There were many people wearing suits.

In Italy, it was the same,
I thought, “has the liveliness completely disappeared?”...
when looking down at the scenery from the skies, I was a little worried.
From the time I touched down in the airport until I arrived in the hotel
the views of the flows in the streets leapt into my eyes.

Though it can be said that it’s at night,
I still didn’t quite understand the city’s energy.
Just like that, I arrived at the hotel,
and started a late meal with the members.

Italy is a strange country.
After coming here,
I felt acutely
『A country should be like this...』

In the city lots of old buildings
and ruins were left as they were
with close contact to modern lifestyles.

Only a number of new useful ones are constructed.
To make a new city
is not as difficult as this is.

A lot of people don’t understand
exactly how difficult it is
to create a city while continuing to protect the old things.

Even in just the scenery that can be seen from the hotel’s terrace,
I can feel an air that is only found in Italy.

The next day,
since I had a little time,
I tried going for a walk in the streets.
I was moved from just the scenery in the car.
By walking, and being able to get a feel of the country
is such a wonderful and blessed thing.

Even though police vehicles have increased
the town was bustling.
I breathed a sigh of relief.

What’s a pity is that
this country’s economic state is still bad,
and the lives of the citizens are getting more and more painful.
Taxes are getting more and more expensive,
soliciting dissatisfaction in the lives of the citizens.

It’s easier to capture a country in the image of one big business but,
in the management of this large enterprise known as a【country】,
it is exceptionally difficult to continuously keep it in a profit-making state.

While there are countries that can turn profits well,
there are also countries are just getting from bad to worse.
Just that,
one thing I can say is,
there is not one country in the world
that can keep doing the same thing
and effortlessly keep the economy running.

And,
it is the disparity between the rich and the poor
that brings about such an economic decline.

With regards to the wealth gap,
there are people who profusely complain about it.
But let’s think about it.

For those who are working,
for those who are producing results,
there is nothing more dangerous
than not creating receiving the value that commensurates to their results.

Last time,
I heard something interesting about SONY.

A long time ago,
when the CD player was popular worldwide,
an engineer for new music media came out from SONY.
An『MD』.
When I first came in touch with an MD
I was excited, thinking it must be some kind of wonderful media.
Like a cassette tape I could do whatever editing I pleased,
I could record with a number of overlays.
Although there was a degradation in sound quality
it’s exceptionally easy handling made it sturdier than a CD.
In other words, it more than satisfies
the desires of the cassette generation in those days.

I had the image
that the MD would get spread around the world.

What happened in reality was different.
The popularity of the MD shot up in Japan at an incredible speed but,
it didn’t really spread in the international market.

One of the reasons was also that
the company refused to release their monopoly rights.
No electronics maker in the world
made any MD players.
Then,
with the advent of the iPod in 2005,
the MD market weakened all at once and disappeared completely.

It wouldn’t be too much to say that
that great sense of discomfort felt at that time,
can still be felt in the present fates of SONY and other Japanese companies.

At the same time,
SONY, which has been at the centre of the world and the representative of Japanese companies,
had started to become overshadowed by the current Samsung, LG,
and has completely lagged behind the forerunner APPLE.

With regards to APPLE,
regardless that it was once such a small company,
it made full use of its aggressive avant-garde approach,
fiercely expanded its market,
and acquired more and more talented technological developers.

At that same time, what was more surprising than anything was that,
the developer of the【MD】
did not receive much remuneration,
except nothing more than a small bonus from the company.

With that,
many talented developers like him
will probably start to reevaluate their own worth,
it will only be natural for them to flow to another company,
and comparing this to a company,
it would be easy for anyone to envision that
if a country does not appreciate their own,
the competent people overflowing with talent
and many excellent companies
will flow out into other countries.

Although Japan too, has finally,
begun making improvements to their corporate tax,
in terms of timing
I can’t help but say that it should have been done quicker.
Many good businesses have
flowed to Singapore and Hong Kong where taxes are cheaper,
and the government has taken measures to halt it but
in the end,
there was no big decisive factor that really stopped the outflow.

And,
finally, in a much delayed form,
although they have started initiatives to combat the corporate tax problem
in terms of personal taxes,
there is still no solution yet.
It’s with the slowness of absolutely poor actions.

With the same meaning, Italy too,
has not been able to successfully advertise
the rich cultural heritage that this country owns.

Compared to the large numbers of tourists to France,
the numbers here are overwhelmingly small.

It does not mean that Italy
is inferior as a tourist country.
If you walk in the city
it wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that everything you see is art.
It’s just that their public image strategy isn’t working well.
It’s really a waste.

For example.
Looking at it internationally,
when you mention Italy
there are car makers like Ferrari and Lamborghini
that can be called artists in their own right.
Besides that, it is also Italy
that is the birthplace of many other brands.

By lining those up together in the airport lobby or passageways,
with just showing the tourists their own country’s goods,
it is easily understandable that they can obtain the advertising effect
that makes people keep exclaiming
『As expected Italy is amazing!!!』

In fact,
in the airports of other countries,
there are many examples of those that have been successful at such an approach.
It can even be said,
that in airports that don’t have any such promotional activities at all,
I end up remembering the loneliness strongly.

Its the same in terms of Japan.
While it can be said that there are many problems that have to be solved,
the best way to increase liveliness is
to make a country that tourists will visit.

What a waste...
It’s really such a waste.

This time, there is the terrorist incident too,
at one point I even thought if I should cancel the fan club event...
such a choice actually grew but
because I’ll be coming to Italy with the fans from Japan,
I received many words like these.

『Thank you very very much
for not cancelling the trip this time!
I’ve been really working hard for this day』

I had a lot of thoughts but,
it is a mission given to me
to make sure that this trip can occur without incident.

Well then,
let’s head off into rehearsals
for the concert on the day after tomorrow.

My name is GACKT.
My motto is 『Mr. WORLD WALKER』

In order to touch your hearts,
I will keep moving forward in any case.
Because I exist for that reason.
I can't stop.

GACKT

My voice can be heard
on GACKT Blomaga so,
those who want to read it all, check out the Blomaga

※This article is an excerpt from the
“GACKT's Trashy Stories” corner in the Blomaga.

【Delivered thrice a month】

With regards to the use of the images from the GACKT Official Blog, they cannot be used for commercial means, adult sites, or prompts linking to other sites,
use in news sites, reproduction on personal blogs or SNS are authorised.
In such cases please indicate【GACKTオフィシャルブログ GACKT.com より転載】(GACKT Official Blog GACKT.com All rights reserved). However, if our company deems your site to be inappropriate, posting will be immediately prohibited.
(c)G-PRO inc.

Source: GACKT Blog

Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team

Translation © GACKT ITALIA

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by SaiKaiAngel