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Eiji Han Shimizu & the pursuit of happiness
In the hands of Eiji Han Shimizu, creator of a highly acclaimed biography-like graphic novel series, manga presents more than just cute images and characters â it also serves as a force for good
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In the hands of Eiji Han Shimizu, creator of a highly acclaimed biography-like graphic novel series, manga presents more than just cute images and characters ' it also serves as a force for good.
In the past, Shimizu was not the man he is today. He recalled how his life took a drastic twist seven years back, when he was a successful businessman working in the largest media company in Tokyo.
His life seemed perfect ' he had a good job, earned big money and lived a comfortable life.
The moment came when he was queuing behind an old lady who was taking a long time to buy her train ticket from a machine.
'She was struggling because she didn't know how to use the machine. I was behind her and was really mad at her, but I didn't scream at her,' recalled Shimizu.
'Then suddenly ' I still remember the sensation ' I felt like a cold bucket of water had been splashed onto my face. I thought, 'oh my God, I don't like this guy'. I was successful, but I was irritated by an innocent old woman who had a problem. I should've been helping her, not cursing her. Something had to change,' he said.
From then on, his life was no longer the same. He decided to follow his inner calling to find happiness ' not temporary happiness that can be brought by buying things or doing something exciting, but a fulfilling life, contentment and genuine happiness.
His first effort was proposing a manga series project to his company, not just a regular fictional one, but telling tales of real life superheroes ' the stories of the world's greatest heroes like the Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.
'There are so many issues that have to be fixed in the world, like human rights, Tibet's democracy or religious conflict. As a publisher I know how effective Japanese manga is, but I thought it would be a good idea to tell the world about injustice, equality and democracy through manga as media.'
His idea, though meaningful, was viewed as not profitable. But rejection from his company did not stop him finding his way. He decided to leave corporate life and continue his project.
He set up a biographic novel publishing company, Emotional Content, in California but with operations based in Japan, comprising a network of independent manga and anime artists who shared a common goal ' spreading stories on real life superheroes.
'I'm halfway through my life. I was 35 at that point. Did I want to repeat the same thing? I wanted to make something that had a social impact, even though it didn't have a commercial impact,' said the 44-year-old recently when in Bali for the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.
'I grew up learning the values of compassion, friendship and quality in manga, which is rare today. So I thought I wanted to prioritize the social impact,' said Shimizu, who was a manga fan of Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy's creator, when he was growing up.
Meanwhile in Hollywood, thousands of kilometers away from Japan, renowned movie director-producer Tom Shadyac of Bruce Almighty and The Nutty Professor fame was reading an article that listed the happiest countries in the world. He was surprised finding that the US ranked 23th in the list of the world's happiest country.
'He wasn't a happy person either. He was thinking that he lived in Hollywood and was surrounded by the most beautiful, rich and powerful people but he didn't see any happiness. If money, beauty and power don't make you happy, then what can?' Shimizu said.
Shadyac later commissioned his friend, Academy Award-nominated film director Rocco Belic, who later asked Shimizu to join the documentary film project to find out what made people really happy.
Together with Belic, Shimizu then traveled across the world ' meditated in the Himalayas, explored the Kalahari Desert and visited slum areas in Calcutta ' to meet the happiest people on Earth.
They combined the interviews with cutting-edge science by talking with the brightest minds in neuroscience, psychology and anthropology.
'We don't want to make a film just based on the subjective experiences we discovered. We also consulted with the scientists who studied brain activity,' he says.
The result was the film Happy, which became the number one documentary on iTunes in the US, Canada and Australia for several weeks after its release. It has also been used as an educational tool at some of the leading psychology institutes.
And through the project, he believed he had found the secrets behind people's most valued emotion.
'Genuinely happy people are those who are not selfish. They focus on compassion toward others then happiness will reveal itself,' he says.
But Shimizu did not stop at the movie. His manga series has been translated into 14 different languages in 25 countries. In Indonesia, the series is published by Bentang Pustaka.
He revealed that his manga series had been used as an educational tool to learn about human rights and had been well received, including by the Dalai Lama. Tibet's Education Ministry even uses it as reading material in 62 Tibetan schools in India and Nepal.
He also traveled the world to give talks on happiness at companies, universities, business schools and more.
Working with researchers, he set up the workshop of happiness using tools like meditation, journal writing, games, singing and scientifically proven techniques to train and increase happiness levels.
He is working on another project that he hopes could have another great social impact. In this project, he has appointed an animation team in Jakarta to create a 3D animation film on the story of North Korea.
'I realized from the Happy movie that a movie is an amazing tool to spread all over the world. It has an impact and through the manga project I learnt that these animated characters could resonate with people,' said Shimizu, who is South Korean by heritage, despite being born and bred in Yokohama, Japan.
For him, the decision to leave his comfortable corporate life has been the right one.
'I'm glad I took the step. Deep down, something told me I could do a little bit more. So I took the right path. I'm a happier person. Financially, I receive much, much less, but in terms of my well-being, I have something that will outlive me, and that's a good thing.'
Photos by Intan Tanjung
