What Japan needs to do
By EDAN CORKILL and TOMOKO OTAKE
Staff writers
With its economy spluttering, large parts of its
northeastern region still devastated by the effects of the mammoth Great
East Japan Earthquake of 2011 — and releases of radioactive materials
that followed — its population shrinking and aging at unprecedented
rates and its citizens despairing of dysfunctional politics, Japan's
entry into a new Year of the Snake appears unlikely to yield much of the
steady progress that these years traditionally herald.
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| ILLUSTRATION BY IAN DODDS |
Indeed, the country's myriad problems — including
fundamental divisions over such crucial issues as energy, defense and
trade policies — can appear so deep-seated as to make it difficult to
know even how to begin to set things right.
In an effort to cast some light into this darkness, The Japan Times has
enlisted a range of especially talented individuals to respond to a
simple question: What are the three most important things that Japan
must do in 2013?
Comprising business people, artists,
academics and politicians, our 10 respondents offer a stimulating and
diverse array of suggestions to help this country reset its course for
the better before 2014's Year of the Horse gallops in with all its
supposed symbolism of nobility, class, speed and perseverance ...
Yoshiharu Fukuhara
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| Yoshiharu Fukuhara |
A grandson of Arinobu Fukuhara, who
founded today's Shiseido Co. Ltd. as Shiseido Pharmacy in 1872,
Yoshiharu Fukuhara devoted his career to the family firm, leading it for
more than a decade through 2001 and overseeing its rise to become one
of the world's largest cosmetics companies. Long active as an advocate
for cultural policy reform, he has been Director of the Tokyo
Metropolitan Museum of Photography since 2000.
Once again this year, Japan — particularly in
the fields of politics and the economy — will probably remain more or
less at a standstill. But we can't just complain and hold our heads low;
we must think deeply about the kind of country we want to leave for the
next generation and act positively to create that. To do that, we
should:
1) Develop the ability to see the unseeable: We
can't just rush to embrace whatever simplistic buzzwords politicians and
the media throw at us. We must voice our responses to them clearly —
yes or no — and, in addition, we must develop the ability to see the
truth that lies hidden behind the data we are shown. The key lies in
improving education, in a broad sense.
2) Value diversity: In the name of
specialization, modern life has tended to divide human beings into
narrow categories. But the fact is that there is no such thing as an
economics person, a cultural person or a consumer; each person not only
works, but makes, consumes and plays. We have to think about the world
as we would about individuals — with myriad components.
3) Reappraise the world along the often
undervalued axis of culture: Culture is something that is born from
humans' desire to live a better life. If each and every one of us
creates his or her own idea of richness, and expresses that to the world
in their own way, then it will contribute to Japan's strength as a
nation, and we will be able to create a country that has a clear role —
and a clear value in and to the world. Yoshiharu Fukuhara《文化打造極致創意》
Noriko Hama
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| Noriko Hama |
An economics professor at Doshisha University Graduate School of Business in Kyoto, Noriko Hama is also a Japan Times columnist.
I believe that the three things Japan should do in 2013 are raise wages, raise interest rates — and cut the crap.
The deflationary spiral refuses to budge because
people's wages do not go up. People whose earnings are stagnating are
justifiably cautious about spending. To the extent that people remain
cautious about spending, domestic demand in Japan will never reach
levels satisfactory enough to make the economy go round in an acceptable
way.
The same goes for interest rates. A zero rate
of interest may be a blessing to borrowers, but it is anathema to
people who depend on income from their assets for a living. Retired
senior citizens who looked forward to a leisurely life on the strength
of such income have had their hopes shattered. You cannot bully people
into spending their money when they have much less of it at their
disposal than they had assumed would be the case.
The crap that needs cutting is the notion that growth is the cure-all and rising prices would resolve all our problems.
Growth is, of course, nice when you can get
it. But if you are a fully grown being it is only logical to assume that
you will not be doing that much growing anymore. Indeed, if wages and
interest rates are allowed to go up and people's spending levels also go
up accordingly, that may result in a reasonable rate of overall
economic growth after all. It will be nothing spectacular, but it
doesn't need to be in a mature economy such as ours.
As for prices, the worst possible situation is
one in which prices go up but wages do not. That could indeed be the
straw that breaks the camel's back — even the back of such a very large
camel as the Japanese economy.
Yusuke Iseya
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| Yusuke Iseya ©KAZUMI KURIGAMI |
Yusuke Iseya is a popular actor, with film
credits that include "Sukiyaki Western Django" (2007) and "Thirteen
Assassins" (2010). He also founded, and currently directs, the Rebirth
Project, a grassroots project for recycling.
1) Have an appreciation of the long-term
changes affecting mankind and the environment. The first step would be
for people who are alive today to reappraise their way of life. That is
essential for sustainable life on this planet.
2) Understand and actually formulate and act on
proposals to implement a new kind of Internet-enabled democracy —
so-called Crowd Government, or Gov 2.0.
Whether at the level of nation states or
individuals, problems can be understood and shared through their
presentation on the Internet. Through online discourse, people are able
to become conscious of problems as being their own, and thus be more
inclined to actually find solutions. That process itself will lead to
their own personal maturing. Too often, Japanese people view the future
as something that someone else will determine. However, it is something
one must create oneself.
3) Understand "education" for what it really is:
the way to make the future. The thoughts and actions of adults, and way
that those are passed on to children — this is the process by which the
future is made.
Toyo Ito
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| Toyo Ito |
Toyo Ito is one of Japan's best-known
contemporary architects. His buildings include the Sendai Mediatheque in
Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture (2001), the Italian luxury footwear retailer
TOD's Omotesando Building in Tokyo (2004) and the 55,000- capacity,
multipurpose National Stadium in Kaohsiung, southwestern Taiwan (2009).
1) Reconstruction planning that is genuinely
suited to local conditions: At present, reconstruction efforts in areas
of the Tohoku region affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and
tsunami of 2011 are being led by the central bureaucracy, and they are
being applied across the board without regard to local conditions. A new
approach should be adopted immediately — one that takes into account
the unique history and culture of that region and that is led by the
residents themselves. If we don't move now on this, the towns there will
come to resemble the kind of bland urban sprawl that currently
surrounds Japan's large cities. This should not be seen as an
opportunity to "modernize" the area. In Japan's rush to "modernize"
after the war, that part of the country was left behind, and for this
very reason it now has the potential to become a model for the kind of
society and environment that should come next.
2) Shift to a kind of lifestyle that is open to
nature: There is much in the lifestyle of those people from the
northeast — their relationship with nature, the importance they place on
social communication — that those in Japan's lonely cities can learn
from. In the cities, people are severed entirely from the natural
environment; their homogenous, artificial surroundings make them lose
their innate animal sensibilities. By restoring the kind of lifestyle
that Japanese people used to have — a lifestyle that was open to nature —
the nation's people and towns could become greatly enlivened.
3) Create a uniquely Japanese model of an
energy-efficient society: The kind of lifestyle suggested above will
also make possible the development of a uniquely Japanese
energy-efficient society. The Western model of closing a building off
from the natural environment and trying to improve thermal insulation is
ultimately incompatible with the traditional Japanese relationship with
nature. Now is the time to reconsider the modernization carried out in
the 20th century — when we simply imported Western culture wholesale —
and instead create a lifestyle model that adopts instead of denies
Japan's traditional culture. Toyo Ito 建築家伊東豊雄
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