The Balance between the Left Brain and the Right Brain to Make a Harmony

――I think you have such a logical way of thinking, Mr. Koyama. I feel that right amount of 'right-brained' approaches are applied accordingly. Are you originally a left-brain thinker but have acquired the creativity of the right brain?

I think you are. You are a left-brain thinker but acquired the right-brain part. However, I do not think there are left-brain dominant children; more of the limbic system rather than a high level of right-brain dominance. So, there is something instinctive rather than being left-brained, and as we grow up, the cerebral cortex, the part responsible for abstract thinking, develops and can be used. Words can then be formed and calculation is can be done. The distinctive differences between the right and the left brains will then show. I feel this is the way it works.

Creating a hit product or launching a new business cannot be done solely by the left brain. You need artistic thinking (right-brain) to create something unprecedented. 

Science fundamentally seeks reproducibility and it always refers to the past whereas there is no point in artistic thinking if what has been done in the past is done for the second time. Art is a way of thinking to always create something new. The vectors actually point to the opposite directions. In this sense, scientific thinking that refers to the past and artistic thinking that creates what has not happened are needed at the same time.

In this sense, for instance in a nuclear accident, I think if people with artistic thinking think about it, they would make an assumption that accidents could happen or they would act differently in such situations. People with scientific backgrounds would not give up on the assumption that "it is impossible to happen."

――Can we say that the canvas of the business model and generation per se is science-oriented?

In terms of "divergence" and "convergence," as the business model canvas is for maintenance, it is a tool for convergence. It is for relating and considering various ideas that come up.

However, the tool itself requires such an artistic sense as it examines the relations of 9 blocks. Namely, it has to look at the harmony. Logical thinking does not look at the harmony, does it?

Simply whether or not it is logical. When a person is shown 9 blocks on one page, they look at whether they are balanced or if there is any inconsistency as a whole.

In this sense, in graphic design, balance can be lost simply by changing the size of a font a little. People can notice there is something different in one block right away like this. That means that this is a design tool that requires such a sense of design.

――I think most Japanese often have such a way of thinking. Even when I hear, I feel that I do it subconsciously, but do you think that people from overseas are more logical and that artistic thinking is not so pervasive?

I do not think it is always the case but it seems that attitudes about diversity in the concept of art is a little different. It could be due to monotheism but I have a hypothesis that there are rules for everything and that 'there is the ultimate rule for design.'

However in the case of Japan, I think there is no ultimate rule and there is a method to make harmony. In terms of flower arrangements, there are styles of angles and lengths, sch as the idea of heaven, earth, and man but it does not necessarily mean that you just need to follow it; but how you can make a harmony by using it - is the focus.