Okamoto Industries’ headquarters are in a disheveled grey building on a Tokyo backstreet. A poster from a long-forgotten public health campaign hangs in the front window. Display cases show-off a selection of shoes, a fake frozen fish and a roll of clingfilm. A bronze bust of the founder looms near an unstaffed reception desk.

冈本株式会社(Okamoto Industries)总部大楼位于东京一条僻静街道，灰色的大楼看上去脏兮兮的。总部前窗玻璃上贴着一张很久以前某场公共健康运动的海报。展示柜里摆了几双鞋子、一条仿真冻鱼和一卷保鲜膜。在无人值守的前台旁，立着创始人的半身铜像。

In short, there is little to suggest Okamoto is the heart of a $1bn company by market capitalisation with world-class materials technology, shares at a 22-year high, a transformational marketing push in the works, and a brand name synonymous throughout Asia with better sex.

总之，上述景象很难让人想到这里是一家市值10亿美元的公司的总部所在地。冈本的股价已创下22年来新高，该公司拥有世界一流的材料技术，且正在进行一场革命性的营销活动，而且在整个亚洲，冈本这个名字已成为“性福生活”的代名词。

But over the past eight weeks, and in defiance of the ructions on global markets, Okamoto has become one of the hottest names for investors.

过去8周，冈本在全球市场动荡中逆市上扬，成为最受投资者追捧的名字之一。

Shares in the Tokyo-based company, Japan’s market-dominant producer of condoms, have broken out of a trading band they occupied for more than a decade and risen by more than 120 per cent. Few companies have benefited so spectacularly, it acknowledges, from having ‘Made in Japan’ stamped on products.

总部位于东京的安全套生产商冈本是日本的安全套市场主导者，公司股价已突破了十多年来的交易区间，上涨超过120%。冈本承认很少有公司能像它这样，从产品上印着的“日本制造”几个字中获得如此惊人的益处。

“It was totally unexpected,” says Yoshiyuki Okamoto, president of the company and son of the industrialist commemorated in bronze. “The best I can say is that we are looking at the situation calmly.”

冈本株式会社社长冈本良幸(Yoshiyuki Okamoto)说：“这完全出乎我们意料。我能说的就是我们正从容面对这一局面。”他是那尊铜像所纪念的那位实业家的儿子。

The Okamoto share price spike has been driven by China: specifically the 2.8m Chinese that have visited Japan so far in 2015 and overtaken South Koreans and Taiwanese as the biggest contingent of inbound tourists. Chinese trust in domestic condom brands is low, and foreign brands, of which Okamoto is among the most famous, are faked on an immense scale. Buying the famous Okamoto 0.03 condoms (named for their thickness in millimetres) in Japan, say the Chinese shoppers who throng Tokyo’s drug stores, guarantees they are getting the real thing.

冈本股价上涨背后的推动力来自中国，尤其是中国游客。截至目前为止，2015年赴日中国游客已达280万人，超过了韩国和台湾，成为日本入境游客最大来源地。中国人对本土避孕套品牌信任度很低，而国外品牌（冈本也是其中知名度极高的一个）假货横行。东京的药妆店里挤满了中国消费者，他们表示在日本买到的冈本003极薄安全套（以0.03毫米的厚度命名）肯定是正品。

Chinese spending in Japan has been so lavish that a new term — bakugai or “buying explosion” — has emerged to describe the way Chinese tour groups des挀攀渀搀 on particular retailers and buy in bulk. Many, says Mr Okamoto, are basing their choices on widely circulated online lists of ideal items to buy in Japan, of which Okamoto condoms are at or near the top.

中国人在日本出手之阔绰已经让日本人创造了一个新名词“爆買い”(bakugai)，意思是“狂热购买”，用于形容中国旅游团涌向特定的零售商大量购买商品。冈本良幸说，许多中国游客选购商品是根据互联网上广泛流传的日本值得购买的商品清单，冈本安全套在所有清单上均居于或接近榜首。

Until July, Okamoto’s stock was lumped in with hundreds of other Japanese companies battling for sustainability in a shrinking domestic market. In the case of condoms, the headwinds seemed especially fierce. The Japanese population is the fastest ageing in the world and, according to some surveys, among the least sexually active.

就在7月时，冈本的股票还与数百家其他日本企业一样，在不断萎缩的国内市场争取生存空间。就安全套产业来说，形势尤为不利。据一些调查显示，日本人口老龄化速度居全球之首，是性生活最不活跃的国家之一。

Okamoto has spent decades making its name by challenging domestic and global rivals with ever thinner condoms. Now, however, it is contemplating whether a technological wall has been reached and whether the costs of seeking condom perfection at the molecular level are simply too high. Plans outlined by the president to follow the lead of Durex and attempt to “capture the senior market for sex” have yet to materialise as a practical strategy for Okamoto. For a decade, drug stores across Japan have been reducing the shelf-space devoted to condoms at a rate of 5 per cent every year.

几十年来，冈本不断推出更薄的安全套，向国内外竞争对手发起挑战，打响了名声。但现在冈本正在思考两个问题：安全套厚度是否已达到技术极限？追求让安全套在分子水平上达到完美的成本是否太高？冈本社长效仿杜蕾斯(Durex)、试图“占领性用品高级市场”的计划纲要，尚未落实为切实可行的策略。过去十年，日本全国各地药店的安全套货架空间以每年5%的速度在减少。

Effecting any kind of turnround will be tough. Through its single-minded pursuit of technical improvement Okamoto has at various times held the world record for producing the world’s thinnest condom. But social conservatism and strict television broadcasting rules in Japan mean it cannot be remote氀礀 suggestive about any benefits that thinness might confer on the user.

寻找任何形式的转机都将是困难的。通过一门心思追求技术突破，冈本的产品多次创下世界最薄安全套纪录。但由于日本社会风气保守，且电视播放规则严格，意味着冈本无法以哪怕最隐晦的方式宣传“薄”可能会让用户感受到的任何好处。

“Marketing has always been very difficult here. The Japanese people are simply not used to sexy campaigns for condoms,” says Mr Okamoto. “That is something we may be able to change as we start to use social media and it could be something that makes a big difference to this market. Online sales are another area that we expect to expand because people are not embarrassed buying over the internet.”

冈本良幸说：“在日本做营销一向很困难，日本人不习惯性感的安全套广告宣传。随着我们开始使用社交媒体，或许可以在这方面做出改变，这可能会为安全套市场带来巨大不同。网上销售是我们希望扩大的另一领域，因为人们在互联网上购买安全套时不会感到尴尬。”

Most see the sales effect of such campaigns as some way off; meanwhile, it seems as though Mr Okamoto almost cannot believe his luck in Chinese visitors putting his brand on their shopping lists.

大多数人认为，这类广告宣传的效果暂时还不会体现到销售业绩上。与此同时，冈本良幸似乎不太敢相信自己会有如此好运——他的品牌居然被中国游客放到了购物清单里。

Until now, China has brought him a string of headaches. As well as the huge, brand-damaging fakes market, Okamoto has been engaged for more than a decade in a legal dispute with a Chinese company that registered the Okamoto name in China before the Japanese company could do so: “It’s just a continuous battle. A constant game of cat-and-mouse that has been going on for 10 years and we just cannot seem to win. Other companies in this situation eventually just gave up and agreed to buy the Chinese brand or make the company an affiliate. We have absolutely no plans to do that.”

直到不久以前，中国带给他的一直是一连串麻烦。中国庞大的假货市场对冈本品牌造成了伤害。除此以外，冈本与一家中国公司已经打了十多年的官司。冈本的商标在中国被这家公司抢注。“这是一场没完没了的诉讼战，是一场已经持续了10年的猫捉老鼠的固定游戏，而我们根本看不到取胜的希望。其他公司遇到这种事最终只能认栽，同意购买那个同名中国品牌，或同意该公司变成子公司。我们绝不打算这么做。”

China has also produced a high-profile challenge to Okamoto’s supremacy as a producer of condoms of “record-breaking thinness”. Last year, it faced a legal challenge from Guang稀栀漀甀 Daming United Rubber Products in a battle over the right to make that claim on packets of condoms sold in China.

中国还高调地对冈本作为“世界最薄”安全套生产商的霸主地位发起挑战。去年冈本被广州大明联合橡胶制品有限公司起诉，后者称冈本无权在中国销售的安全套包装上印制“世界最薄”字样。

“The argument started over whose condom was thinner and they said they needed compensation from us. Do you know how much compensation they wanted? One yuan. It’s such a primitive type of battle you can’t even laugh about it. It was just a way of promoting their name. Eventually the matter was dropped,” says Mr Okamoto.

冈本良幸说：“这场争论的开端是谁的安全套更薄，他们说我们需要赔偿他们。你知道他们想要多少赔偿吗？1元。这种竞争手段之原始，让人甚至无法付之一笑。这不过是他们炒作自己品牌的一种方式。整件事最终不了了之。”

On the strategic front too, China presents Mr Okamoto with challenges. Whatever his ambitions for a revival within Japan, it is clear that growth will come from Asia generally and China in particular. Some 15 years ago, Okamoto bought a Thai condom maker to use as a hub for regional sales. It has now completed a factory in China’s Guangdong province that will start producing Okamoto branded condoms next year.

在战略方面，中国也让冈本良幸面临挑战。无论冈本良幸对在日本国内复兴寄予了多大厚望，显而易见的是，冈本的增长将主要来自亚洲，特别是中国。大约15年前，冈本收购了一家泰国安全套制造商，用作区域销售中心。冈本在中国广东省设立的工厂也已建成，明年就将开始生产冈本牌安全套。

The intention, says Mr Okamoto, is to meet the rising demand from the Chinese market with a high quality product that is competitive on price because it is produced in China. The big, unknowable problem, he says, is whether the “Made in China” stamp on condoms leaving the factory will kill their appeal.

冈本良幸说，此举是为了以高质量、价格上又有竞争力（因为在中国生产）的产品满足中国市场不断增长的需求。他说，有一个不可知的大问题，就是这间工厂所产安全套上“中国制造”的字样是否会抹杀它们的吸引力。

“I am quite worried about that,” says Mr Okamoto. “But I’m also not sure how long this Chinese tourism spending boom is going to last.”

冈本良幸说：“我很担心这一点。但我也不知道这股中国游客消费热潮还能持续多久。”

Succession: A question of continuity

继承：事关企业存续的问题

In common with hundreds of other second-generation leaders across Japan, Yoshiyuki Okamoto is agonising over whether his successor should come from the founding family.

与全日本其他几百名家族企业的第二代领导人一样，冈本良幸也在为继承者问题发愁，不知道是否该从家族中挑选继承人。

The problem is not new, but has become infinitely more complicated since July when Japan adopted its new corporate governance code, a set of guidelines introduced as part of the “third arrow” of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan to revitalise the economy.

这一问题并不新鲜，但从今年7月起变得愈发复杂。日本在7月通过了新的公司治理法，出台了一组指导方针，这是日本首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)振兴经济的“第三支箭”计划的一部分。

The code imposes huge financial and other pressures on companies such as Okamoto, says its president. In particular, companies that want to install the third or fourth generation at the top will have to fight harder to convince investors in an environment where shareholder activism is no longer a dirty term.

冈本良幸表示，该法对冈本这类公司造成了巨大的财务压力和其他压力。特别是那些想要安排第三代或第四代家族成员担当掌门人的企业，现在股东维权主义已不再背负污名，这些企业将不得不更加努力地去说服投资者接受这种安排。

“We have to make a choice between the best way of ensuring continuity [of the business] or family succession,” he says. “Of course, continuity must be the priority.”

冈本良幸说：“我们必须作出选择，是选择确保（企业）存续的最好方式，还是选择家族继承。当然，摆在第一位的肯定是企业的存续。”

Mr Okamoto’s son and daughter do not work for the company but sitting alongside him as he makes these comments is Masaru Okamoto, his nephew and a former lawyer who recently became manager of Okamoto’s business administration department.

冈本良幸的子女不在冈本公司工作，不过在他发表上述评论时，坐在他身边的是他的侄子Masaru Okamoto。Masaru Okamoto原先是一名律师，最近刚成为冈本经营管理部门的经理。