I graduated from a school that offered a qualification for a third-grade maritime officer, and then I got hired by MOL. Rather than a liking of ships, I wanted to do this job because of my interest in the sea. I think it all started from my lifelong love for marine life and aquariums. Also, my mom's parents lived on Sado Island, so I used to take a ferry to visit them several times a year. I remember watching the people working on the ferry and taking an interest in the fact that such jobs exist. But now that I'm a navigation officer, the sea has become my workplace, so to speak. It's very familiar. It's all around me while I work. It's always at my side.

For example, your hours for navigational watch change according to your rank. The crew can't work all the time without rest, so there are usually three teams working on a rotation. We split them into three four-hour shifts in the a.m. and the p.m. You work four hours and then get eight hours off, then this is repeated, meaning working eight hours in a day. We refer to the second officer's duty hours as "zero-four" because they work from midnight to 4 a.m. and then from noon to 4 p.m. When you become a chief officer, it's a "four-eight" shift because you work from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The reason why the chief officer takes these hours is that they're the most dangerous ones. Sunset and sunrise create the worst visibility, so an accident is more likely. That's why you assign a skilled chief officer. The second mate may have tougher hours in terms of the physical burden, but morning and evening entail greater risks than the middle of the night. I can feel the heavy weight of responsibility due to my upcoming assignment as a chief officer.
And if someone can't show up for a navigational watch, then someone else has to fill in. That being said, there is no replacement for the captain who oversees everything happening on the ship. So, we rarely get a day off when on board, only one or two days off a month, depending on the route.

The work changes depending on what kind of cargo is on the ship. When it's an LNG carrier like the ships I used to primarily serve on, I would keep in close communication with the personnel at the receiving terminal to determine how fast to unload the gas. For container ships, a stevedore (a worker who handles ship cargo) would come to the port, so I would make sure the work is proceeding according to plan. And if it's a bulk carrier, it's the navigator's job to perform all the calculations and plan where to load and unload the cargo. The cargo must be unloaded in order while maintaining the ship's balance. If it doesn't happen in order, the ship could break. I'm not exaggerating. The hull could crack or otherwise take damage. Of course, we take the utmost care to make sure such things don't happen.

The entire crew working on a ship, not only the navigators, are specialists. In my eyes, rather than my colleagues, they're all highly experienced superiors, so I have a lot to learn from them. Some remain on active duty even after they become old men, and I want to keep working with the sea as long as I'm healthy. My goal is to become a captain. Firstly, that sounds cool. (Laughs.) I've worked with very different kinds of captains, but I respect them all, from the ones who are calm in an emergency to those who set the mood on the ship with their great composure. I was in charge of ship management at the head office, so I want to become a captain who can work both at sea and on land. I also want to keep working with the team at MOL and ensure proper safety.