The Professionals

"Packaging manager" is a highly specialized occupation that involves taking responsibility for all packaging processes across a company. Yoshikazu Okazaki plays this role at a major manufacturer of bathroom fittings, where he has been designing packaging for 30 years. Okazaki is an iconoclast - at work, he was initially a problem employee who failed to apply himself. But when he was given a shot at designing packaging, he felt an affinity with the work, which had long been treated as an afterthought. He threw himself into his new job with gusto. 
While many companies outsource their packaging design to cardboard manufacturers, Okazaki handles his company's in-house. The point that he always stresses is that as soon as packaging reaches the customer, it becomes trash. For him, packaging is a form of technology that must be optimized to minimize waste and get products to their destinations safely. Okazaki's packaging designs relentlessly eliminate the unnecessary, using the absolute minimum of material. By improving his designs year by year, he has saved the company at least 1.7 billion yen over a 10-year period. He's become known as a "company treasure".
If Okazaki takes on a job, he'll persevere until he does it better than anyone. That's what makes him a true professional.