Made in Japan, Outsourced Globally

When I first met him, he was a professional blind.

For someone who was born without vision, not being able to see was a normal detail in life. We happened to be on the same boat. It was extremely windy that day, so an emergency stop was made near a bridge made of planks and ropes.

Everyone emptied the boat and crossed the shaking bridge. He and I were the last passengers. Suddenly, he said, "Hold on to me."
"...Who? You?" I paused. Hesitated. "But, you can't see. Can you?"
"I can see," he said brightly. "Just follow me, and you can grab on if you get scared."
He briskly crossed the planks, while a terrified me crouched closely behind.
"Be careful," he warned as he hopped off onto land.
His unseeing eyes were milky white, but they looked right at me as if they knew exactly where I was.

Last year, when I saw him again on the island, he told me:
"I might be able to see..." But there was an uncertainty in his voice.
"Wow. That's great! I thought that the doctors said it was extremely difficult." I exclaimed without fully understanding the implication.
"Some doctor called me the other day and said that the surgery was a success overseas."
"So you're going to have the surgery, right?"
"We'll see."
"Why? You will be able to see."
"I'm. I'm afraid of being able to see."
I wondered why he had to think twice about the possibility of being able to see the soda-blue sea of Okinawa, the drippingly luscious green jungle, or the burning sunset that would immediately evaporate once it touched the cool horizon. He didn't know how beautiful the world was, so I thought he ought to know.

That was the last time I ever saw him as a blind.

The next time I met him, he was no longer blind. It's hard to put a finger on it. He was no longer a blind, but he was crippled. He walked around the in wary and stumbled sheepishly. His eyes were no longer milky white, but had dark brown pupils that wandered aimlessly without focus.
"Hi. It's you again."
"You can see me? Wow. Congratulations!"
"Thank you. But. Is this what being able to 'see' is?"
"Well, I guess you can't expect 20/20."
"Um... That's not quite it..."
"It must be hard to get adjusted to. After all, you are seeing for the very first time in your life."

I couldn't have been more foolish. He had tried to carve his eyes out with a knife immediately after the surgery. Fortunately, his family stopped him in time, but he fell into the ocean and the villagers rumored that it was a suicidal attempt. For a man who did not see for the whole 28 years of his life, suddenly being able to see everything presented a nightmarish struggle.

When he first opened his eyes after surgery, he was taken aback by the irregular moving masses. He could not comprehend that they were people. It was different from what he had touched and known as "people." To him, everything was glaring. He could not believe how much space could be filled with "things." And the color, color, color! He felt suffocated when he opened his eyes.

He used to be a perfect blind. But now he was an imperfect normal being. He is adjusting to a new world, but his life is a testament that human beings must develop in a certain way. And when certain developments are bypassed, the process of relearning is more damaging than leaving things to the course of nature.
.....
Taguchi Randy - Excerpt from For the Girl Whose Consumption is No Longer Pleasure