<Begin Segment 27>

SY: And what are you... are you still running?

FK: I am retired. I have been retired for four years and I turned over the reins to my son, this Yakisoba Stir Fry Noodle business.

SY: Your oldest son?

FK: My oldest son and I told him at that time that, "Congratulations, and I had the opportunity to do what I wanted and I had free reign, my mother she really did not object to whatever I did. She questioned a lot of things in her mind I'm sure, but she let me do what I wanted to do. And so I'm going to give you the same opportunity you can do whatever you want, you can enlarge it make a small salad, do whatever you want and that will be fine with me but this is your company from today. But if there's a time when you do need some advice or consultant, consultation from me, we share an office, so you just let me know," and this is four years ago. About the third year I said, he never asked me for any consult or advice and I'm saying, "What the hell is going on here?" Did I teach him so well that he didn't need to know anything? Well, the first couple of years I felt, gosh, this whipper snapper he's not taking advantage and then about the third year I'm thinking well, he's doing a good job. There are a lot of things that I wouldn't have done what he did, but he did it and yeah, he's learning from it and so all's well that ends well.

SY: And what are your other sons doing?

FK: My youngest is with my wife at the Yamasa Kamaboko and he runs that and he also has a side thing that he does. He is in the stock market, he does that until one o'clock, when the market closes he comes into the shop and he helps with that. And my number two son is doing business for number one and number three, the three of them, they're involved in several other businesses, non-food businesses that he's involved with. So he's taking care of the three brothers, they're a very good team. And you know as a parent there's nothing as satisfying and gratifying as having your children get along with each other. I told them that the next generation, don't expect that to happen, your siblings, I mean their children they could get involved with each other but don't expect the cousins to get involved with each other because it's not going to work. There are companies that make it work but they have an iron clad type of understanding with each other. But my three sons, they're not involved with each other in the sense that they don't get in the way of each other. They do things and they're all involved with the yakisoba business, the three boys are involved, the kamaboko business the three are involved, my number two sons business the three of them are all involved but each one has their job and they don't get in each other's way. They consult, they have meetings, but usually after the meeting's just about over they look at big brother and say, "Well, what should we do? What about this?" "Fine," and that's it. I am pleased and I am just overwhelmed that they are getting along so well. And so all the credit comes toward me which I don't believe, it's just the makeup of the individuals and how you treat each other.

SY: And too they each sort of gravitated to the business, the family business.

FK: Yes, my oldest son, he went to law school and he's an attorney. He worked for four years and my youngest son is an architect and he happened to graduate at 1988 when it was a bad recession where there was no construction going on and he being a surfer, I thought is bad, bad combined so I pleaded with him that we need him. And I almost went on my hands and knees and said, "I know you got a profession and everything but we need your help badly." And so he kind of hesitantly said okay and so he's been with us for, what, twenty-two years. And my oldest son he's been with us about nineteen or twenty years. And so the agreement was that within five years if they did not enjoy it, they could leave and go back to their profession. But getting involved in business as an entrepreneur, aside from a professional individual, it's up to you type of thing. Being a professional, whether you're an accountant or an attorney you rely on other people to come to you to give your service. Business on the other side, you're doing something that you're trying to sell and whether it's a service or whatever you're selling.

[Interruption]

SY: She's giving me the... we have to end and I really hate to end but let me just talk... one last question because she's says the tape is running out. But I sort of want... what do you think for your future like for your sons and their kids?

FK: I wouldn't want to wish anything more for them. They're doing very well and all I wish for is my grandchildren to be happy. And I do have some advice for young people, that it is not just my philosophy, but I feel that there's only two types of living individuals (...). And the two types is not women or female or male, it's you will either become a leader or a follower. Now, that doesn't mean a follower is you're below grade or whatever it is. Followers, there's nothing wrong with that because all leaders are not successful but you become either a leader or a follower. Now in this short span that we're allowed to live on this earth, a hundred may seem like a long time to live, but it's a snap of a finger in the age of the universe. It's billions of years, it's a snap and you're gone, so what you got to do is you go through three stages in my opinion. The walking stage... (...) you go to school, you learn, and then you're working stage where you work and then your golden stage where you enjoy. [Interruption] So I would have advice for young people, if you have a dollar in your pocket invest it. Now I know a dollar you can't invest it, but I'm talking about if you accumulate something, save and buy, and the first thing I bought that started my thing was buying a piece of property, it was sixteen thousand dollars for a twenty-seven and a half feet by a hundred feet property on Fifth and Stanford and I had to make a 160 dollars month payment and there were times when I had difficulty making that payment. So you could relate to that today, you can't buy a 16,000 dollar piece of land but you may buy something for a hundred sixty thousand and you're payment would not be a 160 dollars but maybe sixteen thousand or whatever it is. If I didn't invest in something, I would have spent it and that became my foundation and I ended up owning the whole block on Fifth. And that's buying piecemeal, $15,000, $16,000 here, $30,000 here and struggled all through paying it because it was an empty lot, there was income coming in. So I would say buy something with some income coming in. [Laughs]

SY: So the real thing is it's important to enjoy everything that you earned in your later years and that's the payoff.

FK: That's right. And while you're struggling through that stage, networking is the most important.

SY: Networking.

FK: You got to meet people and meet good people and maybe that you met somebody and a few years later you might think of him and then talk to him and might become a joint venture. He might be your partner or you might be his partner and those are networking. That's how I enlarge my thing by Japan, Alabama, all my things I've been very successful in my partnerships and also be fair. Don't ever be fifty-one percent. If you become a fifty-one percent partner, that forty-nine percent, the one with the two percent less than you is going to eat you up later.

[Interruption]

SY: Wonderful, Frank, thank you so much.

FK: You're welcome.

SY: I wish we had another hour.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.