This is a day in the life of a Japanese Space Engineer.
This is Takashi, 32 years old with a wife and son
living in Tokyo, and he's just waking up for work.
This is Takashi's wife, Haruka.
She works full-time as an IT consultant, and since both of them work full-time,
Which is becoming more common in Japan these days,
They help each other out with the morning chores.
Like she prepares breakfast, while Takashi takes care of their son.
So the first thing Takashi does every morning,
is to pack his son's bag for Hoikuen.
Which is Japanese for nursery school.
His son is four years old and attends nursery school on the weekdays,
while Takashi and Haruka work.
Oh and that's his son, Kei-kun! His name is Kei,
but the word "Kun" is usually attached to the end of a Japanese boy's name.
Oh, wow, it seems like he has a lot of energy this morning.
In Japan there's an old custom, called Teishu Kanpaku,
Which basically means a husband madly rules the household,
but I guess Takashi's family is not the case.
Gender equality is becoming more acknowledged in Japan,
as younger families tend to help each other out.
Like them!
Oh, he's being the Otōbansan.
At his nursery, only one person is selected each day,
to be responsible for making sure everyone gets food before eating.
He loves the job, so when at home he wants to do it all the time.
Oh, no, I think he's freestyling it now.
Even on a busy weekday morning, they make time to have breakfast together,
as the rest of the day is spent away from eachother.
You always eat bread for breakfast?
While Takashi's wife is helping Kei-kun finish breakfast,
Takashi tidies up the room, and puts away the Japanese futon into the Oshiire
A traditional Japanese closet specifically designed for futon.
Believe it or not, about 47% of the population of Japan
sleep on a futon, meaning half the country sleep on the floor.
Countries like Japan with limited space in the house,
are able to maximize the floor space, by putting away the Japanese-style mattress
in the morning, in order to repurpose the space for the day.
Would you be able to sleep on the floor in your country?
Now it's time to help Kei-kun to change into his daywear.
Oh nice, he has his own style. I like it!
Before Takashi goes to work, it's his job to take Kei-kun to Hoikuen.
Buckle up, Kei-kun!
So Takashi rides an electric Japanese mamachari style bike
to take Kei-kun to nursery school.
It's super common for most families with children in Tokyo.
Since many don't own cars, but still need a way to transport
their kids back and forth, when trains and buses are not an option.
Now he's ready to go to work, taking care of his son before work,
is sometimes a hustle, but he enjoys every minute of it.
Takashi commutes to work by train, just like most everyone else in Tokyo.
For him it's one hour, door-to-door, with one train transfer in between,
which is pretty average in Tokyo.
He uses the commute time, to check his urgent work emails,
and review reports from last night.
Takashi, like many other Japanese, use the commute time to be efficient.
Like reading up on news, or studying a new language on their smartphone.
But of course, there are many others that use the time to catch up on their sleep.
I'm back with another day in the life.
It is super hot outside, but we're doing this anyway.
Takashi's train should be arriving right now. There it is.
Good morning.
What time did you go to sleep last night?
It's super hot today, isn't it?
Oh wow, you can see Tokyo Sky Tree from here, that's pretty dope.
It's almost 10 AM, are you late?
So Takashi works as a Space Engineer at Astroscale, a growing venture company,
with about 80 employees in the Tokyo Headquarters.
They are one of the only companies, who develop satellite technologies
to clean up debris in space,
even partnering with Jaxa, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, for missions.
Takashi normally works at his own desk with monitors
But because of Covid-19, he prefers to sit at the lounge when he comes to the office.
In fact, these days 70 to 80 percent of the Tokyo office,
are working from home on any given day.
Takashi also works from home most days, but there are times like today,
where he needs to work on hardware,
which requires him to be physically in the office.
So, what are you working on right now?
Now he's attending a weekly internal meeting.
Every member updates, what's going on with each project.
Currently they're working on a project, called Elsa D,
short for end-of-life services by astroscale demonstration.
A spacecraft designed to remove failed satellites from orbit.
Kind of like a car removal service in space,
and it's scheduled to launch later this year.
Now they're heading to the cleanroom, to work on the Elsa D satellites.
Before entering the cleanroom, Takashi needs to suit up to minimize
the chances of introducing outside debris and dust,
which could impact the operation of the satellites,
and even alter their testing results.
And as a final precaution, he gets into the air shower,
to remove any remaining debris, or dust on the suits.
So they just went inside of the cleanroom, unfortunately, I can't go inside myself,
but here's some footage of what it would look like inside.
Oh, they're back!
So what did you guys do in there?
So, what's this?
Apparently, they also connect the vacuum pump to it,
to simulate the pressure in space.
Have you ever put food in there?
Finally, he gets a break.
What's the most enjoyable part of working here?
So Takashi has another video conference.
This is probably more than what he would have normally,
but since staff are working remotely, it's the easiest way to communicate these days,
especially when reviewing project documentation together.
So these days, a lot of meetings are done remotely,
which they're doing right now, but it might take some time.
So while they're doing that, let's explore the space.
Pun intended.
This is a scaled model of the Elsa D satellites.
The blue wings are the solar panels, which power the satellite itself,
and the gold sheets, around the center body, works as heat insulation.
The bottom magnet picks up the space debris,
and once picked up, it shuttles it to a lower altitude in the atmosphere,
and burns them up both, and this one came before the Elsa D.
It's job was to observe how much space debris was out there.
Sensors, that are housed inside, catch small space debris,
and then it estimates a total amount of space debris out there.
So I was actually planning to show you guys around this place
But a lot of the places, I actually don't get access to.
For example, right behind me is the MCC, Mission Control Center,
and they won't let me inside, because there's top secret stuff going on there.
But oh, well, let's go find Takashi.
The building across the street is part of their office as well.
I guess that's Tokyo real estate for you!
And now, they have some time to prepare and discuss the technical points
with a big meeting later this afternoon.
Finally, lunchtime!
They regularly eat at restaurants,
but they're in a rush today to make their off-site afternoon meeting,
So they decided to pick up lunch at the supermarket instead.
Whoa!
He got the soba and Negitorodon set.
Great choice!
Now Takashi and his colleague are heading out to meet GITAI, a Space Robotics Company,
to have a technical discussion, about using their technology,
on future space debris removal projects.
Wow! They're taking off their shoes,
before entering the office, this must be a very Japanese Company.
Since it's his colleague's first time meeting,
they exchanged "Meishi", also known as business cards.
Which is still a major part of Japanese business culture.
There are certain manners, on how to give and receive the cards,
which is one of the first things you learn when you work in a Japanese company.
For example, when there are multiple people like today,
you exchange cards one by one in order,
the person with the highest position, to the person with the lowest position.
Oh and it looks like they made a 3D printed model of the arm, that they're working on.
At this point, though it's probably classified information.
So this meeting looks like it's going to take some time.
Let's try to explore this place, since we didn't get to explore Takashi's office.
So just right behind me,
it looks like they have a bunch of different spare parts to build everything.
It's so cool.
So this room is completely empty right now and, to be honest with you,
I don't really know what's behind me, but it looks pretty interesting.
Let me know in the comments, if any of you know what it is or what it does.
Oh, that guy's working on something. Let's ask what he's doing!
Can you show me, what the machine looks like?
Oh wow!
You have a working model, and it's connected to VR goggles.
Ohhh, it's controlling the robot over there.
That's next level stuff. And of course, it can pick stuff up.
Excuse me. Can I ask what you're doing?
Can you show me?
I see. The arm takes those pieces and puts them together like that.
Well, that was unexpected.
But I think it's time to go back to the meeting to see what's going on.
Oh, perfect. Just in time. Looks like they're finishing up.
Wow! that was quite long.
So, are you going back to the office now?
What's in the bag?
That's actually a Kumon bag for Kei-kun,
as he takes Maths and Japanese Kumon classes, after his nursery school.
Kumon schools originated in Japan to help supplement kids' education,
by giving them 30 minute assignments every day.
Nice, he doesn't have a fever, so he can go to the classroom.
Kei-kun usually stays a bit longer, but because of the pandemic,
he only gets his homework checked, and then picks up new ones to minimize his stay there.
Yay, finally home!
What are you going to do now?
While Haruka prepares for dinner, Takashi does a little bit of work.
So Takashi plays Tamiya Mini four-wheel drive race cars with Kei-kun when he has time.
In fact, Takashi used to play with it when he was a kid,
and just like dad, Kei-kun is into cars and machines.
So it's perfect for their father and son time.
It's pretty amazing how he manages his work schedule and family time in Japan
Whoa dinner's ready. That looks pretty good.
And of course dinner wouldn't start without Kei-kun's Otōbansan.
So after dinner and taking their baths, they all spend time,
by taking turns playing their favorite PS4 game together, Dragon Quest Eleven.
So it looks like this is what they do at the end of the day.
They're probably going to finish off at around 10 o'clock,
because that's when Kei-kun goes to sleep.
And then his parents will probably go to sleep around 12 o'clock.
So that's pretty much a day in the life of a Japanese Space Engineer
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