You Killed an Electrician in Your Previous Life?

In 2014, we moved, and we had to equip our new home with household appliances. Soon most of these appliances started to break down. In the beginning, I joked with my wife, “This happened because you killed an electrician in your previous life.” We laughed, but the appliances kept breaking down one after another. Eventually, we found the situation creepy, and my wife started to get mad when I repeated my joke.

When an electrician come to our house to fix our appliances, I said, “We’re sorry—we killed an electrician in a previous life, so all our appliances broke down.”

The electrician replied, “That’s not true. These days appliances are poorly made. Most Japanese companies make their appliances in foreign countries, and maintaining quality standards in foreign countries is difficult.”

During the 2008 financial crisis, many electricians lost their jobs because Japanese appliance companies looked for cheap labor abroad. I don’t believe foreign electricians are responsible for the poor quality of appliances. To develop good electricians, companies must invest time and resources, as many Japanese companies previously did.

Our appliance problems were not the result of killing an electrician in a previous life. Instead, it is the result of the curse of companies firing well-trained Japanese electricians and then being too stingy to train foreign electricians.

Picture by Hanaboo