It was 13 years ago that the iPod digital music player took the world by storm. The eye-catching shiny metal case of this iconic device catapulted metal polisher Kazuo Kobayashi, who applied the mirror finish to the device, to fame in the manufacturing world. You would never guess from the look of his small factory, surrounded by rice fields in rural Niigata Prefecture, that he is booked solid with orders from all around Japan for polishing medical devices and other precision components.