44. A Happy Life filled with Persistence, Music, and Creativity | Dr. Kazuo Tsubota
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Operative thinking is like a thinking method in medicine. I retired my professor at Keio University as a chairman of Department of Ophthalmology last year, 2021. At that time, I was a doctor.

So I cannot make a mistake of diagnosis. I have to give a right treatment to you. I have to make a very precise surgery. No mistake. Most of the operative thinking is left hand side of your brain. It's a logical thinking. But I need.

Yeah, yeah, linear. Yes, I need some thinking of art, like music or painting. So I decided to learn music and stimulate my right hand side of brain and be innovative. So it's my personal education. 遇见有趣的灵魂,活出真实的自己。

大家好,欢迎来到弹心社,让我们一起弹心,弹琴,弹音乐。 Welcome to Generous Talk, an intercultural conversation on music, health, and lifestyle. Enjoy! Hi everyone, this is Xinyu, and today we got Tim and our guest. This is Dr. Kazuo Tsubota.

So Dr. Thibaut Dut is, well he's many things, but he's most well known for being a world renowned eye surgeon. But on top of that, he's an entrepreneur, he's a father, and he's got so many different things going on. But today, we're here to talk about his most recent venture, which is into musicianship. Because about, was it two or three years ago?

that you started to learn the trumpet. Right. So today we'd like to just talk with Dr. Tabotha about

how becoming a musician has kind of changed his life, you know, because he's already been like, you know, he's already established, you know, a very established person, you know, so most people will be like, well, you know, why would you go for anything else? Haven't you, you know, accomplished everything that you want to accomplish, you know, but I think Dr. Suvota has a very unique,

way of thinking and so he has a I think he has a kind of a no limitation thinking we love that that's a humankind the way that's so

So I prepared a few questions for Dr. Kazotsubota and Xinyu, I don't know if you also have some questions that you want to interject at any point, just let me know. But without further ado, I think we'll go ahead and get started. Take away Tim. Yeah, I want to share something. If I heard something interesting, I want to ask more questions, I will jump in and take it away.

Okay. Oh, and just to let everyone know, if you hear something in the background, we do have a train nearby, but we wanted to be outside for this to enjoy getting good sunlight and feeling goki gen, right? Yeah, and if you're interested in it, I would like to explain why it is so important for your brain.

Let's hear it. So we can go ahead and start off with, so Dr. Tsubota, why did you start? So you call me Dr. Tsubota. You always call me Kazuo or Kazuo-san. So this.

Would you prefer a kazo song? Yeah, kazo song is much better for me. So I'll go kazo song. And also, I think we want to like a little special like let the audience know. So Tim and the kazo are sitting next to each other under the sun while I'm on the other side. So they're both in Japan while I'm on the other side in Shanghai sitting in my studio. Yeah.

So I want to paint the image for the audience here. So is this a real studio? I can see a lot of instruments behind you. I am in my real studio. It might not be exactly how the picture, how the background looks like because they're on the other side. Oh, yeah.

Piano instruments, my bookshelf was all... You have many guitars, yeah. Wonderful, beautiful, beautiful studio. I have many keyboards, yes. But Tim, I want to hear, like, Kazo, why you choose to sit outside? How is it so important for the brain? Yeah, yeah. So you are inside, right? I wish I could be outside, but...

Yeah, our audience might be inside. So I'd like to ask you the first question. Sure. Do you exercise? Yes. Okay, so you understand the importance of exercise, right? Yes. Do you sleep well? Mm-hmm.

Right? So you understand the importance of quality of and also the time of the sleep, right? Do you understand the importance of outdoor time? Maybe not. If you understand the importance of being outside,

you already have set up your studio outside. But you set up your studio inside, that means you don't understand the importance of being outside. This is number one. So it's a big, big lifestyle, the humankind.

uh has learned for the last especially the 20 uh 200 years yes but maybe a long time maybe 10 thousand years you know the human was born

like 200,000 years ago in East Africa as a Homo sapiens. Around that time, we are in the open area. There's no space to live. There's no house, right? Yes. I like to ask challenge you also. In order to see, we are now seeing each other. In order to see

What is necessary? Light. Light is necessary. But how the light is perceived by us, by the eye, right? So eye has photoreceptor, right? Photoreceptor, so receive the photon, the light. You have nine photoreceptors. So how can I call you?

uh, cherub? xinyu? xinyu? yes xinyu, you have also nine photoreceptors but only four are for visual seeing five photoreceptors are for non-visual not for seeing

And out of five non-visual photoreceptors, one is very, very unique. It's activated only by violet light. The other four are activated by blue. In your environment, in your room, there are abundant of blue light, but there's no existence of violet light.

So you miss the violet light indoor. But Tim and I enjoy the power of the violet light outdoor. And we have found, very interesting, it's related to Chinese problem, that in China there's a tremendous increase of myopia. You know myopia? You were wearing a glass of myopia, right? Yes, I did, yes.

Right now, 80% or 90% of the students are suffering from myopia. And we have found that is due to the lack of violet light. Whoa. Interesting, right? No one has talked about it yet. Yes, because it's a very, very top priority.

research. We have just published the historical paper in proceeding of National Academy of Science last year, 2021. So a lot of people don't know. Wow. So, you know,

The take-home message is that if you are inside, your OPN5 non-vision photoreceptor is not working. If you spend time outdoors, your OPN5, very important photoreceptor, is working. And this photoreceptor is maintaining of your eye, but also your brain too.

Eye and brain are the central nervous system and controlled by OPN5. That's my take-home message. Whoa. Okay, I need to find a way to set up my studio. Although I don't even have a balcony here. So I don't know how can I do that. Do you have like, not even like a window that you can open? The window is right here. Window is tricky.

Usually the window glass does not transmit the violet light. So you have to keep your window open. Do you know why? Because in the modern society, people hate the UV, ultraviolet light. It's different. Ultraviolet is below 360 nanometers. So people...

has to avoid just under 360, but somehow industry decided to throw away under 400. So you are throwing away not only the UV, but also violet light together. Wow, then we need to bring this information to the window design industry. Yes, yes, yes. I definitely think so.

So far, I could not convince the big glass manufacturing company yet, but I'll do my best.

Now it's December, it's very cold. I will show you. It's like a miner's 1.5. Can you see this? Yes. It's a heating machine. And here, it's also a heating machine. Oh, another one. Yeah, and also in the foot.

underneath is a heating machine so I have set up the studio in a terrace with a lot of heating machine and also when the rain comes it's okay because it's a big umbrella so even when it's raining you are still doing work outside

Yes, sometimes I feel, do I have enough sunshine in this rainy day? So I'm asking myself and I checked, there's a certain body weight still in the rainy day. I see. So no matter what, it's important to be outside. Right, right. Get as much...

Violet light. Violet light, yes. Violet light as possible. According to the epidemiological study that people, I mean kids, have to spend two hours a day outside to prevent myopia. Two hours. But average time the kids are spending is only 30 minutes. Yeah, it's less and less I see now. So it's interesting...

Yeah, it's interesting. So this is brand new for me, like, because before we were told you need to exercise and things outside, because if you don't, it's because you're not seeing like, things on the long distance far away enough, because you're staring at a screen or like book. That's the reason cause

you know, the near eyesight issue, but now we know it's actually the light. Right. Yes. 20 years ago, you know, the people believe maybe seeing far is beneficial.

So the Chinese government started a very interesting program, you know, keeping their thumb in your front and see here and see far, see near, see far. I was taught to do that too. More than 100 million students are educated like this to prevent myopia. Never worked.

It was a big social experiment. You didn't lose anything, you just lost the time. But there's no harm. So it was a good thing. But now the Chinese government is encouraging spending time outdoors because this is a science. Now we know the very specific cause and effect. Wow, love it.

We need more people to hear this. We never did that in the US though.

but either see you you did it like this it it's it's like yeah to to kind of look near and far kind of the reason behind it was to exercise your muscle right the eye um muscle that control so it's like tense relaxation yeah whoa so that's the logic

Okay, I need to find a way to set up my studio to next the window and also leave the window open. Right, right, right. That is a practical way of doing it. Oh, I will search for the window that doesn't filter out of the violet light and replace it. Wow, thank you. Wow, that's awesome.

Life-changing takeaway. That's his research. And now you're taking your research into a more, I mean, you're going to a more entrepreneurial direction. Kato-san, you just had a party celebrating your achievement of IPO. So that's fantastic. Did you hear? Yes, yes, yes. So Chi, you understand what is IPO?

Yes, I understand. Yeah, I also study entrepreneurship. Okay, so audience understand what is IPO? Because I always, when I talk to the students, a lot of students don't understand IPO. Okay, we can have a brief explanation of what IPO is. Yeah, IPO, the abbreviation of IPO is an initial public offer.

So I started a startup company, Tsubota Laboratory, based on the knowledge I have found at Keio University. So I started the company. It was small before. Then I decided to go to public. First day of going to public is called IPO. So at that time, we can sell our stock online.

portion of a company to the public. So if you like to own our part of the stock, you can buy now because it's on the market. So that's IPO. And when we do IPO, there's a lot of advantage. One is that we can generate money. Second is we can be famous and our company is very stable.

So a lot of people would like to join us. Very brilliant people would like to join us. So that's a good start. So that is IPO. And we went IPO in June this year at the Tokyo Stock Exchange Market. And then even with all of this going on,

he still finds time to practice trumpet like every day, right? Every day. So you have all this going on, IPO, all of this great stuff going on, and then you suddenly decide, I want to do music. So why did you start to play the trumpet? Right. There are two ways of thinking. One is operative thinking. Operative.

The other is innovative thinking. Yes. Okay, so let me explain. Operative thinking is like a thinking method in medicine. I retired my professor at Keio University as a chairman of Department of Ophthalmology last year, 2021. At that time, I was a doctor.

So I cannot make a mistake of diagnosis. I have to give a right treatment to you. I have to make a very precise surgery. No mistake. Yes. Right? This is called operative thinking. I would like to avoid any mistake. And also I teach people.

my young fellow and resident, don't make mistakes. Because if you make, you will kill the patient. You make the eye blind, right? Yes. But do you think that operative thinking can produce some innovation? No. No. Innovation comes from the concept of fail, fast, fail, cheap, right?

You have to make a lot of failure. So that me cause called innovative thinking. Innovative thinking is you can make a mistake. 30 to 70% of the success rate is fine. If you fail to the next step, right? It's totally different way of thinking, but I have been, you know, educated that,

myself and also by the medical society, Kazuo, you have to be very operative, don't make a mistake. So my brain has to be innovative.

Most of the operative thinking is the left-hand side of your brain. It's logical thinking. But I need some thinking of art, like music or painting.

So I decided to learn music and stimulate my right hand side of brain and be innovative. So it's my personal education. Cool. How long have you been playing the trumpet? When I became CEO of Tsubota Labrador, CEO is like a head, chief executive officer, in 2019,

our 2020 I studied trumpet at the same time. And the interesting thing is that Kazo-san has had many trumpet teachers. I think like every you have one main teacher but he's every city that he goes to

he has a, he learned from a different trumpet teacher. So I'm so curious, what have you learned by having all these different teachers? That's my new hobby. Yeah. Yeah. Every time I go abroad, this year I went to four or five cities, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle, Rotterdam.

Every time I go, I find a trumpet teacher. And during my stay, I take lessons. Very interesting because, you know, teacher, each teacher has a, of course, on their way of thinking is totally different.

each other, right? One student, one professor in Seattle told me, "Oh, Kazuo, trumpet, most important thing is sound. You have to have beautiful sounds, otherwise no value." In Rotterdam, totally different. "Oh, Kazuo, trumpet is just a tool. Enjoy whatever you like."

If trumpet make your life happy, that's totally okay. Don't care about the quality of sound. Such an attitude, right? So I'm learning a lot of new idea or variety of idea. So how, I'm curious, so how, first is like how many teachers so far you have learned from?

I have one center professor in Tokyo and I have now learned from four professors and I like to continue to have lessons from them. So some of them, I invited them to Japan and also when I go there next time, I definitely will take a lesson there. Wow. So really exciting. Yeah, exciting. You know, imagine...

Imagine such like you have a lot of professor teachers in the world. Yes. It makes me very happy. I'm like an international musician already.

So living his best life and so he's very excited for the next teacher who will be from New Orleans. Right, right. So I decided to have a trumpet live show at the April 2023 in New Orleans and Timmy will join us. Whoa, so you're gonna go and learn and have a concert.

Yes, that is. And the live show will be at the conference? Yes. I always have my birthday party at the conference called ALBO, Association of Research on Vision and Ophthalmology. It's usually May.

and my birthday is May so for the last 30 years I have my own birthday party every time at the conference at the conference wow how cool is that he's definitely he's a party man he's a party man he's like the most I think he's the most like

fun and interesting doctor I've ever met. So, well now... How does your colleague, you know, see what you're doing, like perceive what you're doing, how they're impacted by it? I'd say at the beginning, maybe 30 years ago, people had some doubts, right?

But every time I do, I say first, like, I'll be the number one researcher in dry eye. When I started the dry eye research, I became the number one researcher in dry eye. I started LASIK surgery in Japan the first time, and I started the LASIK surgery group in Japan, and it was very wonderfully successful.

And also I studied the Japanese society of anti-aging medicine. You know the concept of anti-aging? Yes, of course. You don't have to age. You can be very healthy and very young for a long time. That's a science.

And I started my startup company, Tsubotara. So now people are believing, oh, maybe Kazuo is right. Because he does what he says he's going to do. So you speak it into existence. You say, I'm going to do. Because that's the only way. You have to say that you're going to do it. And then that's the only way you're going to do it. Yeah, my strength is persistency.

Shin-Yu, what is your strength? I think creativity is definitely my strength. My value in life is Gokigen. Gokigen means being happy.

So I like to be happy all the time. All the time. But you see, just if you like to be happy, you cannot be happy. You have to learn a lot of things.

You see, you know, to be happy all the time, 24 hours a day, you have to learn that how, what the knowledge is you need, what kind of friends you need, what kind of family you need, what kind of profession you need, what kind of physical status you need, right? The one thing is called...

strength strength hypothesis so that means if you use your strength you are happy so if you don't use your strengths you are not happy this is one hypothesis definitely feel that way yeah that's also how i discovered mua therapy because i just find when i do music i'm happy if i don't do it oh wonderful yeah

But there's a...

famous psychiatrist, Christopher Peterson, he proposed there are 24 strengths in the human being. There's no music therapy in that, because this is just individual. So, but I think in the music therapy, I think there is a component of your strength.

Yes, it's a mix of my strengths. Helping people, or creativity, or love of beauty. This is part of your strengths. My strength is, like I said, persistency. So once I say, okay, I'll do this, I never give up.

Maybe the time of give up is when I die. I love it. Because me too. I think that's also my strength is persistence. Because people are like, oh, it's too hard. No, I keep going. Keep going. Yeah, wonderful. So I like the audience to encourage, find your strengths. There are several ways.

List up five strengths by yourself. For me, persistence is one, but also creativity is the second. Third is the love of learning. Fourth is curiosity. And fifth is leadership.

So you list it up and ask your friends or neighbors, do you agree with this? Or sometimes your friend says, no, you have a different talent or different strengths. Although there's a program at the internet, strength finding, you just answer to this questionnaire, then you can get the image of your strength.

So once you understand your strengths, please use it. That's my advice. Yeah, if you resonate with curiosity, keep learning new things. I'm learning new things. So you are very close. Yes, yes.

Yes, exactly. Like for music therapy also, you know, I think there are strengths for music. I'm curious to learn what's behind it, the scientific mind. I always said there is a musician self, there is a therapist or psychologist self, and there's a scientist self in me.

So yeah, I felt actually that you two are kind of similar, so I'm excited that you can meet, you know, in this way. Have this deep conversation, yeah.

Yeah, and it was like happiness. It was happiness also. For me, it's so fascinating. In the last four or five years, there are like a booming of research about creativity. And it was like 2013. That was my first time. I kind of observed people around me.

especially people who are doing like volunteering work, like they want to give to other people, like their happiness level and their creativity level are higher compared to people who are not doing volunteer or helping others. And so I did a research on whether there is a correlation and with my research I confirmed that there is a strong correlation with happiness level and creativity level.

And at that time, I didn't have the, you know, the message to like going to find out what's the exact cost effect and how like the nuance, you know, within it. But the research in the last five years figure out yet, if you are happy, in a happy mood, it boosts your creativity. Like they find the cost effect now. So like, oh, yes. Yeah, you're correct. Yeah.

I think happiness is purpose but also happiness can be a cause of your success in your life. So being happy first then being successful. Yeah, yeah. So my strategy, being happy is my strategy. Means and goals. Yeah, yeah. Not one way. Yeah. So an interesting way in which I've seen, you know,

I've seen you combine your strengths in that now, like you'll do in April, the conference, you've been doing these kind of lecture recitals. So he's combining lectures about his research with doing recitals and playing trumpets. He's putting recitals in the middle of his lectures. How cool is that?

Yeah, people think in the conference, you know, conference and attending the conference and having some lecture is important. And people may think the party, the recital is just audition. But I don't think so. I think the party is important. I agree.

equal working is of course important but having a party is equally important yes so I just divide two things in my life one I like to do this one I like to do the other I don't like to do conference, music recital I like to do one category

And basically, I don't do what I don't like to do. What you don't like to do? Something you don't like to do. Just an example, yeah. At this moment, you know, I love the surgery. You see, I love the surgery. And I love seeing patients, right? Mm-hmm.

But last year, I decided to stop surgery, stop seeing patients. So I stopped my life of being a doctor. So I don't say this is what I don't like, but I would say this is what I don't do.

So strategy means, you know, of course, what you do is very important. But also what you don't do is also very important. This is the, you know, very first thing you learn from the business school.

By the way, I went to business school 2017 to 2019 for two years to obtain the MBA. And I learned how to run the company. I finished one this past June, two years degree in innovation entrepreneurship.

Oh you did it! So we are really similar! You guys are really similar! Wonderful! Cause I'm... yeah...

Because I'm curious about how being a musician, playing a band, performing a concert, I think all these are actually transferable business skills. And I think the way it forms our thinking really, it changed not only how we play music, but change kind of goes into other areas of life.

Wonderful. So, Shin Yu, from that point of view, innovative thinking, you know, please consider deeply what is a music therapy, right? Music therapy, what is a target organ in the body? Is that ear? Is that brain?

Definitely not just ear, like brain. It's the brain, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay. So as a, you know, the scientist of light, always I'm thinking, you know, sound is important for your brain. But light is also important for your brain.

So as I told you before that myopia is a central nervous system and violet light increase the blood flow of the eye and prevent myopia. We recently found that violet light stimulate opium 5 and increase the blood flow of the brain. So light is very important. So as an entrepreneur, why not combining

not only the music but also the sound and the light. Then can open the new field targeting brain. From my point of view, the sound or music is important. It's just one arm. Why don't you use a second arm? It's a light. That's what I've been thinking recently too. Oh yeah?

Wonderful, wonderful. I'm more than happy to help you as a light therapist. Ah, yes. That would be awesome. Yeah. I've been thinking that too because a lot of people also are

Some people are more visual than auditory also. So for them, that channel is more accessible. So it's like, why not combining both? And we are whole, right? We are not just like light or sound. This is called the synchronization. You got the idea in Shanghai and I have my own idea in Tokyo. Synchronize. Yes. Yes.

Yeah, TMI had a crazy synchronization last week. Actually, I had a dream about a certain topic, about the intergenerational trauma. And then she sent, while I'm sleeping, she sent me a message about the intergenerational trauma.

So in the morning I listened to her message and it's like she's talking about the dream that I had. Oh, it's a real synchronization. Not only the distance, also the time.

So we're getting we're pretty much getting to like the ending of the interview so to wrap it up I'd like to hone in again on your kind of music side and I want to know if you have any advice for Doctors or anyone? Who is not a musician, but they're thinking about maybe they want to try to learn an instrument. Do you have any advice for them?

Yeah, there are many ways to stimulate your right brain, but I think music definitely helps. So if you did not start your music instrument yet, I strongly advise pick up one. Any instrument is fine and start your own music and make your life happier.

Start your own music and make your life happier. Exactly. Exactly. All right. I do have one question. I do have one more question. Um,

Kazo, you started playing the instrument. What have you noticed yourself, like the impact it has on you? What is your question? What do I learn?

Because you started playing instruments, you want to train your right brain, you want to foster your creativity, innovation, bring to your business. So anything that you observed the change?

As a person, have you changed as a person or even your relationships like with your kids or with your wife? Yeah, definitely with the kids. You know, I have five children and first two are medicine, medical. One is entrepreneur for medical company. The second is the eye doctor. But, you know, the third, fourth and fifth,

Kids are playing music and they love music and I never studied music or musical instruments. So after studying this, we can be close. So from the beginning, I see my kids as friends, so true friends.

So I have a lot of discussion with the first two boys because I have a common interest in medicine. So we are very close friends. But for the younger three kids, now the music is a very nice topic we can talk. So we are very, very close friends.

So especially Miyako is helping me all the time when I have a recital or live show. So that's changed my life.

Yeah, Bianco is his youngest daughter, so she's helping a lot and he's growing his relationship, his relationship is strengthening with his kids, so I think that's wonderful. I think that's a wonderful benefit of music and that's not something people would really think about, you know, that it could benefit your relationships as well, becoming a musician. You get to play together. Yes, yes, yes.

Maybe Timmy will show you the recorded version of the play. Yes, yes, really good. I'm going to say thanks for watching. Alright, so we are at the end of our time. Now I think we're going to open it up for the Q&A, right? Yes, sounds good. Hi, I hope you enjoyed our conversation so far.

If you want to hear Kazo answer the questions from our community members who joined the recording session live, please join our Patreon to hear the full recording. If you want to join our next open recording session and ask our future guests questions live face-to-face, please join our Patreon and support our growth.

If you're in China and don't have access to Patreon, you can find us through WeChat and get a membership pass. Here's a little snapshot of Kazo's inspiring answers. Enjoy! You do only what you like to do. Because if you do what you like to do, you can continue 20 years.

And then even I feel like even in the present moment if you're doing what you like to do even like whatever it is that you can do in this moment and doing and it is something that you like then right there immediately you're changing your environment right because your environment is now becoming the things you like to do. So Xinyu, you are the center of your life

not the environment. Trauma or the sudden change of the policy is not you. Don't worry. Please select the happiest life in the history of human being. 感谢您的收听,我们下一期不见不散。