The Strength and Weakness of Japan; Truth Unveils at the Time of Crises

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The quake and tsunami caused unimaginable disaster or devastation; and on top of that the damage done to the Fukushima nuclear power plant is adding to the already enough troubles.  At the time of such unexpected crises, whether in a nation or an organization, its true value – its strengths and weaknesses - will be uncovered.  Because information is open in this web age, there is no way that you can hide anything from the world.
 
So, what are your thoughts?

During the first week ot two, Japanese television and newspapers repeatedly reported the horrible status of the tsunami hit areas, cities and towns.  Were it not for the web, it was almost impossible even to imagine what was actually going on at the sites.  To put it flatly, the coverage by the Japanese media seemed to be no different from the ‘The Official Government Briefings’ in Japan during the wartime (which has later become synonymous with ‘unreliable information source’).  At the beginning, all coverage were the same in any newspapers or multiple television channels.  Comments by the so-called ‘experts’ clearly reflected directions from backstage.  The official statements by the government were announced through Mr. Edano, Vice Cabinet Minister, at the press meeting. Although I feel he has devoted his utmost efforts, because of the highly technical nature of the matter as well as the difficulty which the government seem to have in reaching to consensus, I find many of his comments difficult to comprehend. We must also understand that the press briefings by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) are also being closely watched not only by the Japanese but also by the world.

The media coverage of Japan is no good either.  Basically they are all the same.  Of course, the ‘Press Club System’ which is an antique is one problem (a kind of cronies club), but I find many questions that the reporters raise to be out of place, which is a waste of people’s limited time.  I seriously think that the television crew should shoot the image of the people who raise questions, too.
 
The whole world is also watching how the Japanese government is handling this crisis.  It is broadly known that Japanese as a language is not logical, however, given that premise, the world still thinks that the content of the press briefs by the official government is not giving or disclosing data or real substances.

Internationally, the handling of the nuclear power damages naturally has been a major point of concern, but we are disappointing them with incomprehensible explanations, unclear reports of what are happening.  I even fear that now the credibility of Japan as a nation is facing the risk of meltdown.

Where is the ‘political leadership’ of Japan?  Has it disappeared or has it never existed?

What are the weakness and strength of Japan?  My analysis is that the local and front people working on the site are strong and have demonsrated their each own best efforts in hugely difficult circumstances, but the leaders, although they may be smart, are not capable of responding to crisis because, for one thing, they do not have on site experience of disasters.

As you know from my past postings, I follow The Economist, and more recently (after the quake) the New York Times and other global media for detailed information.  Variety of views are introduced there, but as a whole, I think people are impressed with the quick actions taken by common Japanese people, firemen, the Self Defense Forces of Japan, NGOs, or the founders of companies.  However, they are questioning and monitoring the risk management ability of the Japanese government, TEPCO, or NISA ? the executives of Japanese organizations.
1.http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/VOA-Reporters-Reflection-on-Japanese-Tragedy-119013669.html
2. http://www.economist.com/node/18441143?story_id=18441143
3.http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/03/post-earthquake_nuclear_crisis&fsrc=nwl　

It is our responsibility to create together a new Japan after spending in vain the ‘lost two decades’.  I trust that this is the best way to honor our loved ones whose lives were so tragically taken away by this great disaster.

 

‘Japan Exposed Naked’, Cambridge Gazette, a Recent Letter from Harvard

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I have introduced to you a few times in my column postings Jun Kurihara (Ref.1), a senior fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School.  Kurihara-san is an erudite person, who understands (and probably speaks) multiple language, reads books, materials, data – in short all information sources-, so extensively that I am very impressed with the width and depth of his knowledge.
 
He sends his friends regularly a monthly report called The Cambridge Gazette (in Japanese). It is always my pleasure to read the Gazettes because they reflect his high sensitivity and intellect. It is also my great pleasure to see him at every opportunity he could spare for during his return to Japan.

Everyone, in spite of their own sorrow, is doing their best after this East Japan Earthquake and the dreadful tsunami.   However, here and there, I see many problems due to human factors in terms of the nuclear plant breakdown.  I assume that many of you sense this – that something is wrong – even though you may not clearly see the background that lies behind.  ‘Web’ of internet, in this context, proved to be an amazingly powerful tool for gathering information or views, to compare and choose from.

Kurihara-san has an ability to sense the changes (or little changes) that took place in Japan during this decade or so because he has been studying and working outside Japan for many years as an independent individual.  And precisely for this reason, his views as expressed in the recent Cambridge Gazette are rather critical and harsh about the state of affairs in Japan.

The latest Cambridge Gazette (in Japanese) which I received yesterday introduces straight forward evaluations visibly clear from overseas on how the Japanese authorities handled this nuclear breakdown, their thoughts on the risk management, how they think about Japanese intellectuals or Japanese ‘leaders’ who has more responsibility in the society.  I very much agree with Kurihara-san in many aspects.

I ask each of you to think seriously about what you can or must do now.

 

Health Summit -2

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We held Health Summit (in Japanese) on Saturday February 26th、the day after Global Health Forum 2011. It was an event that was also held in the years 2008 and 2010.

The program for this year was slightly different from the past because it also introduced a collaborative work with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Unfortunately we had less participation of the members of the Diet than last year because many of the legislators of the Democratic Party of Japan (DJP, the ruling party) and other parties were back at their home constituencies for the nationwide local election.

Please refer to the HGPI website (in Japanese) for program and main speakers of this Summit.

A full report is in preparation, so I will let you know once it is available.

Now is the time to change the naming of ‘Medical Policy’ to ‘Health Policy’.

Collaboration with CSIS and Congressional Briefing: A New Process

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Our HGPI (Health and Global Policy Institute) have been hosting Health Summit every February and for this year it was held on February 26th.

We launched this year a collaboration project on Health Policy with CSIS （Center for Strategic and International Studies）, a well known Think Tank based in Washington DC.  This collaboration has been our hope and issue since last year.

The background of this collaboration is that Dr Brian Biles of CSIS participated in our Health Summit last year, and HGPI co-hosted an international conference last June in London under the title of ‘Transition from G8 to G20: Health and Development’ with CSIS and Chatham House (an established British Think Tank).

We had a preliminary meeting at the Congressman Hall room on February 25th with influential Japanese legislators and the CSIS team Stephen Morrison , Brian Biles.  Also participating in the meeting were the specialists of the project – Professor Gerard Anderson of Johns Hopkins University and Professor Ikegami of Keio University for ‘hospital payments’, Professor John Hamelka of Harvard (he has a wonderful blog site) and Professor Akiyama (in Japanese) of the University of Tokyo for IT and health record and patient safety.

A number of legislators with good knowledge of healthcare policy shared their valuable time with us; Mr. Otsuji (in Japanese)(LDP, former Minister of Health and Welfare), Dr. Sakaguchi (in Japanese)(New Komeito, former Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare), Mr. Seko (in Japanese) (LDP), Mr. Kan Suzuki (in Japanese)(DPJ, Senior Vice Minister of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan), Dr. Adachi (in Japanese)(DPJ, former Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Labour and Welfare), Dr. Umemura (in japanese)(DPJ), and Mr. Konishi (in Japanese)(DPJ).  I thank them all for their participation and good, productive discussion.

We also invited several people from business and mass media.  Dr. David Bowen of the Gates Foundation happened to be in Tokyo, so we asked him to come as well.  Dr. Bowen worked for many years as the policy staff for Senator Edward Kennedy so he has a good knowledge of how healthcare policies work or how legislators develop and manage the process of legislation.

I think that this is the very first case that policymaking process like this took place in Japan.  It is the first time that an independent think tank of Japan and the United States collaborated in policymaking, and in its process, set up a Congressional Briefing session with nonpartisan legislators at the Japanese congress auditorium.  Next meeting of this CSIS-HGPI project will be held in Washington DC on July 14th, at the timing where a large framework is worked out.

I hope that this event will eventually become one of the new steps of legislation process in Japan

Ten questions on Japanese from ‘a strange foreigner’

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I have a scholar friend who travels around the world, studies and analyzes ‘innovation’ and its patterns in many countries of the world.  He knows Japan well through his study and work over 30 years and is a friend of Japan. 

We met in Davos and he sent me an email with ’List of 10 Questions’ on ‘Japanese behavior patters’. He thinks I am a ‘strange Japanese’.  I feel honored by his comment.

The list is shown below and I wonder what would be your thoughts and answers?

QUESTIONS / ISSUES
——————————
(1)  “Why is it that most Japanese go to conferences and always stay and sit together in a corner and talk to each other, without including any foreigner into their conversation?
… there are no other country citizens behaving that way !!!
 
(2)  “Why is it that the Japanese participants never dare to raise a question or give some comments in a workshop or at the Q&A session in a conference”?
… other Asians from China, Singapore, Taiwan, India, etc. are very different in this regard !!!
 
(3)  “Why is it that many of my Japanese colleagues and friends have to take a vacation when participating in a conference or think-tank overseas”?
… the Western people consider this to be part of the business activities !!!
 
(4)  “Why is it that most Japanese go to international conferences without a specific objective and measurable results in mind”?
… Most other country participants have very clear targets to meet a certain number of suppliers, customers, etc., in order to end up with specific new business proposals !!!
 
(5)  “Why do most Japanese companies not like to see their employees writing and publishing industry articles or even books with other colleagues in their professional domain, even if they do it in their spare time over the weekend and the evenings”?
… in the Western world we consider this to benefit the company and the employee, as it demonstrates domain expertise vis-a-vis potential customers and peers in the industry !!!
 
(6) “Why do Japanese speakers in international events and conferences only present or ask in Japanese (there are always a few exceptions to the rule)”?
… it is common practice the government officials may speak their own language at an event in their own country, but most of the time, Japanese also do so in international conferences overseas !!!
 
(7)  “Why do all the conference participants or students keep their hands down and lower their heads when the professor or speaker asks a question that everybody is able to answer”?
… there are always a number of Europeans who have good answers or questions, while many Americans will raise their hands even before the question ends, whether or not they have a full or only a partial answer !!!
 
(8)  “Why is it that most Japanese executives only see the differences, risks and threats but never look at the  similarities or opportunities?”
… it always leaves a strong sense of pessimism and no optimism, hence, how can you advance personally or as a nation with such an attitude !!!
 
(9)  “Why is it that most Japanese people and senior executives are scared to call for serious changes in their organizations or even in the nation”?
… without constant changes, you cannot adapt to the ever rapidly changing world around us, hence, you are left behind !!!
 
(10)  “Why is it that Japan and its citizens will only be able to change or are willing to change when the country will either hit the wall, or will experience a total market crash, or is about to disintegrate completely”?
… a common answer by some of the highest ranked corporate officers, association or some government leaders, whom I spoke to during the “Japan Night” in Davos !!!
 

From Davos -4

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Today is the last day of this year’s Davos meeting.  Throughout the meeting I have been exposed to many thought provoking things/issues.

One of them is the power shift taking place in the internet age, as observed in the drastic political change in Tunisia and Egypt.  The effects of WikiLeaks is similar in nature to these shifts.

On the other hand, the world economy’s prospect is still unclear.  Mr. David Cameron delivered a wonderful speech as the leader of his nation.  Mr. Cameron and his administration are rapidly carrying out many bold policies in this difficult time.  I think their task is very difficult.  People will criticize them in many ways, naturally, but in today’s circumstances, true leadership is being sought more than ever before.
 
President Obama also delivered his State of the Union address in Washington DC.  A poll right after the speech showed that 55% of the people supported Obama.  This is a good rate.  There is no one policy that will satisfy all people.  It’s best to learn from history, see the trends, equip oneself with intelligence and courage to do what has to be done so that we may adapt to the change taking place in this totally new global world.  Leaders are expected to do all this and set clear priorities, to talk to people of the nation and of the world so that they can understand what to do ? a leaders’ ability to do all this is being tested.  Such is the world we are in today.

The panel of ‘WHAT IF: there is reunification on the Korean Peninsula? ’was also very thought provoking.

The last session of this year’s Davos meeting, ‘Inspired for a Lifetime’, is on-line in video and summary, too.
 
Overall, the Japanese media, I regret to say, seemed as if they did not exist at all.  The list of media coverage is uploaded on the front page of the Davos meeting, and even the Huffington Post is in the list! The Japanese media were not listed once.  Isn’t there any Japanese journalist or journalism that would speak/write not only to Japan but to the world?  Are we not the nation of the 3rd largest economy?  I did see several (but not many…) Japanese reporters in Davos. It  seemed to me however, that even there Japanese reporters were sometimes trapped in ‘traditions’ such as the ‘kisha-club (reporter’s club)’ which is so powerful back at home.  However, I saw some good signs in the phenomenon of participants being active in twitter.  I like it.

This year, luckily, I had the privilege of traveling with Ms. Junko Kawaguchi, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs to and from Zurich-Davos.  Thank you!

I will be back at home on the 31st.  I wonder how politics, the economy and everything else in Japan will look to my eyes after having been exposed to so much here?

From Davos -3

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What’s happening in Davos is reported on its web site   (for videos, see here).  Take a look and enjoy!

Today, the Prime Minister Kan will deliver a speech at 11am.  I imagine staff are busy in preparation.

I started the day with the ‘IdeasLab’ of Harvard University. The speakers were Dr David Ellwood of the Kennedy School, Dr Mohsen Mostafavi of the Graduate School of Design, two Deans　(the Business School Dean, Dr Nohria was unable to make it), Dr David Bloom, GAC’s Ageing Council Chair, and it was hosted by Annie Koh of Singapore Management University.  The theme was ‘Breaking Education’s Boundaries’.  It was a very exciting session.  I enjoyed making comments, too.

The speech of the PM Kan started at 11:30.  However, much of the audience left the venue before the speech since the panel before was ‘The Global Economic Outlook’ hosted by Martin Wolf  of the Financial Times. But who can complain?

I thought that the prime minister’s speech was quite good. Starting with the recent disturbance of Egypt, he spoke well, and the way he handled the Q&As was also good.  You can view this On-line (both in English and Japanese ). Now, the question is, when, how, and to what extent can the Kan administration carry out their plans as described in the speech.  It’s time that the strategies and decisions of the government be tested.

On the other hand, I see quite a few problems on how PM Kan’s speech was reported in Japanese media.  I urge you to read and compare how the newspapers reported it.  Today, unlike the old days, you are able to see and listen directly to the original speech.  This is the power of the internet.  How do you evaluate the speech of Mr. Kan or the quality of the reports by the Japanese media?

Immediately after the speech, a lunch meeting was held with Mr. Kan, and hosted by Mr. Carlos Ghosn.  I think Mr. Ghosn managed the Q&A’s well, too.

After lunch, there was a panel titled ‘Re-inventing Japan’ (everybody knows that there have been many panels with similar titles and yet nothing has changed…).  The Prime Minister opened the event with his message, followed by Minister Kaieda, Dr. Sadako Ogata, Mr. Kojima, Chairman of the Mitsubishi Corporation, Mr. Charles Lake of Aflac.  The host was Mr. Kristof, former head of the NY Times Japan office.  Since Mr. Kristof was well aware of the problems in Japanese media (such as the one about ‘Kisha club’, the reporters’ club), it seemed there was incompatibility amongst some of the comments in the beginning.  Of course we know Mr. Kristof is not responsible for this…..

I enjoyed participating in several sessions, listening to many new ideas, meeting wonderful people, having lively conversation, and making new friends in new fields.  You never know what happens in the future.  I saw many interesting new developments in the fields such as Design, Arts and technology, the Scientific frontier, etc. in the effort to address global issues.

The evening soiree, ‘Inclusive India!’, presented a show full of actions. The venue was packed with people, so I left rather early.

At any rate, in this Davos meeting, I noticed gaps existing between the roles played by government and industry in their handling of international finance and other issues.  Things appear to be calming down at this moment, but in reality, there is a high possibility that some big change could actually occur within several years’ time.  The notion of this was not spoken openly, but at a level of very private conversation.  I had this sort of conversation with a very famous economic journalist who told me there was a concern that EU may be like Japan, like it was for these 20 years.

Today, there exists a number of situations that could trigger crisis on global scale.  Tunisia and Egypt may be just the beginnings.

 

From Davos -2

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The 2nd day in Davos was another beautiful day.  I attended the Japan breakfast meeting of GAC (Global Agenda Council).  About 20 people were there including the YGL (Young Global Leaders), and since all were Japanese, our discussion was naturally in Japanese. I was the chairman of this breakfast session, and so seeing that some people were new to the Davos meeting, I first talked in English and pointed out that this Council was the only council in which the participants all spoke Japanese (the majority were Japanese and the rest were American who live in Japan).  Perhaps I surprised them.  But afterwards, I was told how they liked my comments because it served as an ice breaker.  Of course, the main topic at this session was the visit of the Prime Minister on the 29th.

In the afternoon, after several sessions, I went to hear the speeches given by President Yudhoyono of Indonesia and President Sarkozy of France.  Recently, Indonesia is experiencing an 8% economic growth under a democratically elected administration.  The current president and his administration are promoting the decentralization of the government, appointing talents in drastic style.  The ASEAN host of this year, President Yudhoyono delivered a wonderful speech.    Great speeches by great leaders always moves our heart.

I participate in the Governors meeting of big chemical industries annually as a guest and this year it was held in the afternoon.  The discussion is always good here, and it was again stimulating with participants like Mr. Kobayashi of Mitsubishi Chemicals, Mr. Ohyagi of Teijin.  I had the honor of making comments on Shale Oil, ‘Global to Local’ and such.  I learned a lot from talking with the top executives of these industries.
 
In the evening, I browsed through the Japan Night, Korea Night, and Indonesia Night.  The Indonesia Night had the best venue, but to my disappointment, there were not many people present, since it was after 10pm. Japan Night had the largest number of participants.  This was good.

However, I understand that the news of the  S&P reducing Japan’s ratings from AA to AA- caused some stir in Japan.  I commented on this topic a year ago in my blog.  Japanese media did not cover the news much when the S&P declined last time, but I wonder how they will behave this time.  I noticed a short comment by the PM being reported…

I went to bed feeling it difficult to fall asleep.

From Davos -1

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On the morning of the 25th I departed Narita for Zurich via Frankfurt, arriving at Davos late at night.

On the 26th, I participated in the early morning sessions. The IdeasLab is always interesting and thought-provocative, so I participated in the session of ‘Design for the New Reality’.  Here, Dr. Yoko Ishikura, Dr. Kohei Nishiyama (he was the discussion leader of the ‘Product Design’ panel), and Professor Toshiko Mori of Harvard University (at ‘Scarcity-driven design’) were the participants from Japan.  As for myself, I joined the discussion with Adam Bly because it seemed interesting and I have had discussions with him on ‘Innovation’ for several years at GAC. Dr. Bly is apparently developing quite an interesting new domain.  It is both stimulating and enjoyable to join in a panel based on presentations with higher perspectives.

Please visit Dr. Ishikura’s blog also.

I participated in several sessions, as well as the closing event of the day, the GAC dinner.  The majority of the people had participated in recent Dubai meeting so we had good conversation.  Lawrence Summers and Amy Chua were the two super special guests.  Please refer to Wikipedia for their backgrounds.  I assume you all know Mr. Lawrence Summers.  He is currently a professor at Yale University.  Ms. Amy Chua published a book early this year that has become a trendy, if not controversial topic.  These two guests made our discussion so interesting.  It was a privilege to be able to exchange a few words personally with Ms. Chua after the dinner.
 
The title of her book is: ‘Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother’.  She writes about raising her two daughters as a Chinese mother. Her opinions and actions triggered quite a discussion among her readers.

Ms. Chua writes about the rules that children are ‘not supposed to, not allowed to’ do.
? attend a sleepover
? have a playdate
? be in a school play
? complain about not being in a school play
? watch TV or play computer games
? choose their own extracurricular activities
? get any grade less than an A
? not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
? play any instrument other than the piano or violin
? not play the piano or violin
There are more important rules.  I haven’t read the book yet, but she said, ‘In a sense, it’s like a Jewish mother of 20 years ago’.  She is quite a personality.

No wonder people have a lot to say about her rules.

?

Are Japanese Youth Insular Minded? Are Adults Not, Then?

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I notice various discussions going on in media recently about the insular mindset of Japanese youth.

Are they sure?  I said ‘no’ in my posting of January 12.  And I found an article (in Japanese) that shares my view.

As I wrote on January 12,  parents of our youth existed in a certain social climate.  The same can be said of the generation before.  Rarely did they go abroad at their own risk, by their own decision (especially men).

During the period of economic growth, 1960-90 and even afterwards, most of the international studies were based on support by or command from companies or government offices.  Typically, they came back to Japan in several years.  They went overseas not by their own will.  Therefore, it was basically a ‘business trip’, regardless of the length of their stay.

Mr. Kurihara of the Harvard Kennedy School expresses the same opinion and observation in his latest Cambridge Gazette (Since this edition of the Cambridge Gazette is rather long, it might be a good idea to start reading from the editor’s postscript. ) There are so many people who are concerned.

Adults don’t reflect on their own behavior even though they have tons of words to say about our youth.  I have an impression that youth instinctively doubt what adults say.  The same observation is expressed in the writings by Mr. Jiro Shirasu.

It is our responsibility as adults to encourage and support youth.