Because there are so many business we do across the boundaries. So, I think this is the only way a Japanese service company can really, truly become the global organization.

First of all, I believe that the results of science should be fully given to the community. Fully. Absolutely. And all types of competition such as who did it first and “I cannot tell him because he will copy me” and so on – these are not arguments. Society financed this science, if not directly, then the education and the way I got there, so society should get back what I found. It is not my finding. In this, I am not very popular, I must say.

Well, I don’t agree with Sartre. I like others.

Science for me is a language of peace and the only one I know which is absolutely international. I can talk to a UK scientist or any scientist worldwide about my research and they understand exactly what I am talking about. We may even find an area of mutual interest to collaborate on and together we can make an even greater impact on the world around us.

Chipping rust off a crane.

"I'd rather keep quiet and have people think I am stupid than open it and prove I am." I was selling cars to pay my way through university. The company car buyer said that to me.

Losing one of my children.

I paid $84,000 in 1988 for a Porsche 928S.

I have never been happier than I am now. As for when I was happiest in my work, playing King Arthur in Spamalot in the West End.

I spent years trying to work out the secret of acting. I read all the books by the great teachers and got nowhere. They were so busy making it sound complex. I just couldn’t figure it out. Then one day my acting coach in LA told me to ‘think before you act’. It was so simple – when you are acting don’t just speak the words, but concentrate and think about what you are going to say all the time. It worked for me.