While all workers in Japan feel pressure to perform at the top of their game, that's probably more true for professional athletes than anyone else.
It's thanks to their ceaseless pursuit of improvement that the rest of us can enjoy those miraculous moments in sports history -- like the fence-banging catches by the Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and that last-minute goal Masashi Oguro scored for Japan in a World Cup qualifying match last month. What is conspicuously lacking from all the excitement, however, is the talk of what happens when athletes fall out of the competition. Yet it's an inseparable part of an athlete's career; no one can stay in the games forever.
Athletes dedicate their whole lives to honing a craft, and when it comes time to retire, many realize they're not just making a career change -- they're walking away from a whole way of life.