Famous in Japan

I had a visitor from Japan at my office this week as we continue to wind down a project I have been working on for the past 5 years. We went to dinner the other night and started talking about all of the people we have worked with on the project. One of my good friends in Tokyo has made quite a name for himself. He moved his family to Nagano, Japan a little over a year ago. He commutes to Tokyo every Monday and then heads home on weekends. While in Tokyo, he stays with his parents. This allows his family to have a very comfortable lifestyle in the mountains.

The business press in Japan has found out about his commuting lifestyle and has written articles about him. All the press has made him a bit of a business celebrity. One of the questions he is constantly asked is how he came up with such a unique lifestyle. His response is that there is a manager in the United States that lives in Utah near a ski resort and commutes to San Francisco every week.

I had to laugh when my associate told me this story. My friend from Nagano has always thanked me for showing that technology allows us to live where we want even though it may be far from our place of work. He seems to be doing a good job capitalizing on my example as now there are a lot of companies that admire him and want him to work for them. So if he is famous and credits me for the idea that made him a celebrity, does that mean I am famous too?