Father – ego
My father almost didn’t go to high school. The family was poor, and my grandfather needed my father to start working in the rice field as early as possible. It was my grandmother who persuaded my grandfather that he needed the high school diploma at the very least. Three years later, my father wanted to go to a public university in the prefecture capital city. He’d tell me this story repeatedly as I was growing up, that my grandfather was unable to procure 5,000 yen ($50) for the school entrance fee. My father gave up on education and started working for the local government office. A few years later, my father sent his younger brother to university with the money he had earned. My uncle went to a school in Kanagawa prefecture and got a job at a heavy-machinery manufacturing company. With the arrival of high economic growth in the ’70s and ’80s, my uncle successfully made his way up the corporate ladder. On the other hand, as a government employee, my father’s income was modest. But the lack of capital didn’t make him insecure, because his ego was mostly exhibited in his way of maneuvering politics.