There was an article that “actually, satiated Japanese are undernourished” in the Nikkei the other day. Especially, it is said that protein deficiency stands out in adult males, and more than 60 % of males aged 18~49 and females aged 18~29 is short of dietary fiber. More serious is calcium and iron deficiency, and it is said that Japanese calcium intake is less than half of Americans. As an easy way to know if you are getting enough nutrition, it is recommended that you check how many items out of ten items, namely, “meat, fish, egg, dairy product, soy, green and yellow vegetable, fruit, potato, seaweed and oil” you have eaten in a day. Ideally, you eat 8 items a day, but actually, it seems to be limited to 5~6 items.

■■What I have recently thought and focused on:
■The presidential election of the United States and the future:
The presidential election of the United States has been getting hectic. While the tide is tilting to former President Trump who enhanced his reputation with the attempted assassination on July 13, Mr. Trump was formally nominated as a presidential candidate of the Republican Party at the Republican National Convention held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 15~18. On July 21 when the afterglow of that enthusiasm did not cool down, President Biden announced that he would withdraw from the presidential election campaign and nominate Vice President Kamala Harris as a potential successor. It seems to me that this will be a powerful counterpunch by cornered Mr. Biden. There are reports that his decision was made late, but I think that it was a perfect timing which was not before the Republican National Convention but right after it finished. As a result, Trump camp that narrowed down the candidate of the Democratic Party to Mr. Biden is in a situation that “the ladder was taken off”, and urgently needs to rethink their strategy fundamentally. On top of that, personnel attacks like before will not work, and furthermore troublingly, Ms. Harris has what President Biden lacks, for instance, youth (aged 59), skillful speech, female and so on. By the way, her former position was San Francisco City County District Attorney, and then some people mock the election campaign between Mr. Trump who is pending a number of charges now as “a public prosecutor vs. a criminal”. She is clearly a stronger opponent for Mr. Trump than Mr. Biden. On the other hand, there is also a deep-rooted prejudice against her origin that is black and Asian-American. But what is necessary in the United States now is uniting a divided society, not bickering nor swearing between old people. In order to do that, a healing bright smile not scowling face is necessary. In this regard, Ms. Harris is perfect and it is expected that she will take in not only the supporters of the Democratic Party but also floating votes. As an indication of that, it is said that she raised record-high 81 million dollars in donations within 24 hours after Mr. Biden announced his withdrawal. Ms. Harris has stuck to a good second best (vice president) and suppressed the sense of presence so far, but she will fully demonstrate her abilities from now on.
By the way, key points that will make or break the election campaign are who she will choose as a vice president candidate in the future and how to revise dissatisfaction with the current administration’s policy (economic and diplomatic policy) and whether she can introduce a new approach.
Looking back, Democratic candidate when Mr. Trump fought the presidential election in November 2016 was Hillary Clinton, wife of former President Clinton. I happened to have the opportunity to visit Washington in May 2016. Before my visit, I had thought that the election campaign was heating up because “a female president will come true for the first time in the history of the United States”. But what I heard from a local lady was “she dislikes Trump but dislikes Clinton more”. Incidentally, when Mr. Obama fought the first election campaign in November 2008, it boomed nationwide because “he will be the first black president”. But I did not feel the feat in the 2016 election. Ms. Clinton said that “she could not break the glass ceiling” by declaring defeat, but I thought that the candidate’s qualities were being evaluated after all.
By the way, Ms. Harris is the second female challenger against Mr. Trump. If adding former ambassador to the United Nations Haley who fought Republican Party presidential primaries, she is the third.
What will be the outcome of this time? I would like to watch the election campaign voting on November 6 this year with great anticipation.

■Labor shortage issue and essential workers:
Labor shortage is becoming remarkable in most industries now, and there are a variety of impacts. For instance, more and more inbound customers are coming from overseas, but the number of flights can’t be increased because there is a lack of ground handling staffs at the airport. Other example is that the accommodation restricts acceptance in tourist areas due to shortage of employees. And there is a movement to charge extra for foreigners, too.
The youth population is declining, and the labor force of the elderly and women is also almost at its limit if the social security system is not reformed. The acceptance of foreigners is also increasing but not enough.
I was involved in the trucking industry in the previous job era. The said industry was called as 3K “kitsui(demanding), kitanai(dirty) and kiken(dangerous)” and even 5K adding 2K “few kyujitsu(holidays) and low kyuryo(salary)”. “Death from overwork” due to long working hours is also seen as a problem. This is not a way to expect young people regardless of gender to enter the market. Therefore, improvement of working conditions and labor environment is necessary, and one of them is “upper limit of working hours” being covered in “2024 issue”. On the other hand, dealing with rising costs and compliance, to raise wages to the norm, of course, a source of funds is needed. It is receiving “proper freight”. In the background that the mechanism for passing on this cost to the price does not go smoothly, various problems exist. One of them is common to most industries in Japan, and those are excessive competition constitution where many small and medium-sized enterprises are crowded together and vertical multi-layer (subcontract) structure. In order to improve such present situation, even government level does not need a temporary measure to deal with subsidies, but structural reform, in other words, the policy to improve working conditions and price competitive power through reorganizing and integrating to a certain scale based on the realities of the industry is necessary. Otherwise, productivity improvement is not expected and securing human resources is difficult and furthermore, financial resources for labor-saving by DX and AI and investment to assets are scarce, and as a result, they will disappear from the stage. The number of bankruptcies of the transportation industry doubling compared to the same period last year is indicative of this.
By the way, as a countermeasure against labor shortage, improvement of labor environment is an urgent issue. Therefore, the industrial waste disposal industry will adopt advanced technology in the field called as 4K, adding 1K that is kusai(smelly)to the conventional 3K, and will change to “new 3K” that is kirei(clean), kaiteki(comfortable) and kantan(easy). And the general contractor industry is also aiming to shift to “new 4K” that is high kyuryo(salary), being able to take kyuka(holidays), kibo(hope) can be hold, and kakkoii(cool). In order to improve the working environment and productivity, labor-saving and efficiency through introducing DX and AI robots aggressively is necessary, and at the same time, securing the safety is also necessary.
Finally, what I would like to ask for you including children is that “if you meet various essential workers (people who support lifeline) such as truck drivers, drivers of home delivery service and garbage truck drivers, I would like you to always say ‘thank you’”. I asked for this on various occasions in the previous job era. It is a little thing but this one word makes many workers feel “rewarded” and “encourages” them. We have to remember that our daily life is supported by such people. I would appreciate your cooperation by all means.