People don’t like overgraded or undergraded problems. Some people often criticize climbers and they try to kick them out. Usually such people don’t know how complicated the grading process is. I just want you to know that the grades which are put right after the first ascent are just suggestions or proposals at that moment. More precise grades will be and should be fixed after at least a few climbers repeat the problems and through deep discussions.

I’d like to ask people to remember that we, professional climbers are always serious about grading and put grades with a sincere attitude. No climbers want to lose trust through overgrading. However, we should not be too modest. This is always a dilemma.

Regarding social media, I think less anonymity through media such as Facebook and Instagram are good tools and have a good influence on the climbing industries. Years ago, someone put an article about me without my permission which was quoted from my blog written in Japanese, but its translation was not correct. Then it caused argument and criticism which was totally meaningless. Most critical people are anonymous. I won't say the exact name but it’s like 8a something. I was able to refute them, but I thought it was not worth doing it. It didn’t feel good though.

Nowadays, climbers are able to express our own climbing activities by ourselves in many ways if we have creativity and ability to self-produce. So I think it’s a good thing overall.

When it comes to self-producing and creativity you have put a number of films out over the past decade that focus on showing your projecting process. Why did you feel it was important to capture and show your process of failure and learning?

The reason I show my struggles, failures, falls or practicing sequences is that I want people to know the process of how the hard problems are established. If you see films which show only successful climbing, you’ll never know the backgrounds of the problems. I think backgrounds are more important. As an audience, I’d like to see those kind of scenes of other climbers. That kind of stuff is much more impressive to me.

How do you prepare mentally for those kind of projects? Do you use any mental training techniques to help you manage the frustrations that can build?

I don’t know I can say it is mental training but my motivations mostly come from a deep attachment to the line which I discovered and the pure desire to climb it. Of course, I don’t encounter such great lines every time.

On the other hand, I also have an obligation or obsession to constantly establish hard problems. After all, I always have a strong will to complete the problems whenever I work on projects, even if it takes long time. Regarding the frustration, I feel strong frustration when I work on a certain project for long time, commuting to the same place every time, practicing the same sequence every time, and sometimes not being able to try it because of the weather conditions.

If my projects are in Japan, it’s OK. I have enough time to work on and can take it easier. But when on an overseas trip, I feel nervous because time is limited. To control and maintain high motivation, I would suggest to have many projects all the time. By doing so, you can have higher motivation to the current project and also you don’t suffer from ‘project loss’ after you complete the project. But the best way is sleep well!! No other way than sleep.

You're now in your 40s and still climbing at a world class level. How has your approach to training changed over the years?

Yes, I'm already in my 40s. I think there are no climbers who climb as hard as me at the same age in Japan. Why? I assume the largest reason is not a physical matter but other factors. When we're young, we find climbing and start climbing because it is very fun. Then we get addicted to it and obsessed with it. Our brains are filled with climbing. However, as we get old, we see another world outside of climbing and come to get involved in normal society. When people see themselves objectively, they are not able to be obsessed only with climbing anymore like they used to be. Usually many people get married, have a family and get a steady job. They have to spend more time, money and energy not on climbing.

This is what getting old is and it's inevitable.

For me, I still climb in the highest level by avoiding these things which other people usually experience. This is because I want to concentrate on climbing. If I were a talented climber, I would have had both of them. However, I'm not a dexterity person and not a talented person. People might say that I'm silly, that I gain only a climbing career at the expense of many things. But there was no other way and I'm pretty satisfied with my life so far. And I think I'll do it this way in the future.

Let's talk about my climbing.

For these years, I spend most of my time in the fields during high seasons. I go to the field almost every day to develop a new area or to work on projects. During low seasons, I focus on training in my gym. Usually 5 days a week. What I pay attention to is watching young top climbers and having a session with them. Also I think it's important to try hard problems which I have struggled with before. So I don't change hold settings very often in my gym. Recently many gyms have changed to hold setting frequently but I don't think it's a good trend. Most important thing is to keep having projects to work on. I have a lot of projects in Japan. So I don't have time to get old.