A young man who once cut through the wind in a racing car at 200km/h left his corporate job at 35. He jumped into the world of cockroach extermination—a job everyone dislikes—and at 65, he leads Japan's #1 pest control company, managing over 2,300 stores with a 99.5% complete extermination rate.
Clean Life, which provides cockroach extermination services for restaurants, released the true-story business manga 'From 200km/h World to Japan's #1 in Cockroach Extermination' (published by Trend Publishing) on Amazon on Tuesday, May 26, 2026. The Kindle free download campaign held immediately after launch from May 26 to May 30 reached #1 in 36 categories.
This work is the story of a business owner who transformed cockroach extermination, often viewed as a '3K' job (demanding, dirty, dangerous), into a proud profession. Behind the 99.5% complete extermination rate are: 1. Unwavering commitment to complete removal, 2. Betrayal by colleagues during rapid growth, 3. The radical organizational reform of abolishing commission-based pay, and 4. The birth of the industry's first 'full refund guarantee.' It is a dense 20-minute human business story easy to read for busy professionals.
Set in Iki, Nagasaki Prefecture, the story follows the former aspiring racing driver and his path to overturning industry norms. It is a robust business human drama based on 99% real-life events of CEO So Ono, with dramatic artistic elements added.
Comment from So Ono, CEO of Clean Life: 'Customers tell me, "Cockroach extermination is a cool and proud job." If you don't view your own profession as proud and cool, you can't provide high-quality work. I produced this manga with the primary goal of branding the profession of "cockroach extermination."'
FACT BOX
- Source: PR TIMES
- Category: New Product