Japan's Open Future: An Agenda for Global Citizenship

331 Pages·2009·0.873 MB·English

by  John Haffner, Tomas Casas i Klett, Jean-Pierre Lehmann

Japan’s Open Future

Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2009
by ANTHEM PRESS
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Copyright © John Haffner, Tomas Casas i Klett and Jean-Pierre Lehmann 2009
The moral right of the authors has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Haffner, John.
Japan’s open future: an agenda for global citizenship/by John Haffner,
Tomas Casas Klett, and Jean-Pierre Lehmann.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-84331-311-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-84331-311-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Japan—Economic conditions—
1989- 2. Japan—Commerce. 3. National characteristics, Japanese. 4. Globalization—
Japan. I. Klett, Tomas Casas. II. Lehmann, Jean-Pierre, 1945- III. Title.
HC462.95.H34 2009
330.951—dc22
2008039152
ISBN-13: 978 1 84331 311 3 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1 84331 311 1 (Hbk)
ISBN-13: 978 1 84331 326 7 (Ebk)
ISBN-10: 1 84331 326 X (Ebk)
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
To our Japanese friends, and our friends in Japan.
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Some Notes on Style xv
Introduction 1
I. Facing History: Getting Past the Nation-state 17
II. Global Communication: A Matter of Heart 55
III. Escaping Mercantilism: From Free-Rider to Driver 85
IV. Embracing Business Risk: Entrepreneurs
and Kaisha Reborn 113
V. Open Politics: Unleashing Civil Society 145
VI. Geopolitics: A Global Citizen 183
Conclusion 237
Notes 245
Bibliography 275
Index 301
Acknowledgements
This book was written in Tokyo, Lausanne, Barcelona, La
Vezauzière, St Hilaire-le-Vouhis (Vendée, France), Hong
Kong, Shanghai, Chiang Mai, Toronto, Montreal, Beijing and
New Haven, with the kind assistance and support of many people,
and the authors would like to express our gratitude. In 2002 and 2003
Jean-Pierre Lehmann wrote a series of columns in the Japan Times,
“Japan in the Global Era,” which set in motion a series of
conversations among the authors that ultimately led to this book. We
should start therefore by thanking MATAEBARA Yutaka, the Japan
Timeseditor-in-chief, who made that series possible. Also during this
time, the Tokyo office of McKinsey & Company provided a
stimulating environment for John Haffner to confront and reflect on
important features of modern Japanese business and cultural life: he
would especially like to thank Todd Guild, UDA Sakon and Joe
Watson (among many others) for interesting discussions and for
enabling his development within the firm.
Once research for the book began, a number of people very
generously agreed to meetings or interviews—in person, over the
telephone, or via e-mail—while still others provided very helpful inputs
to the argument. Some people would prefer to remain anonymous; in
honoring their confidence, we nevertheless remember them and
appreciate their contribution.
On the theme of Japanese history, Peter Matthews of the National
Museum of Ethnology in Japan had much to say. Jeremy Epstein, a
former colleague in summer studies at the University of Regensburg,
had helpful and well-informed comparative comments on Japanese
and German historical attitudes, and Rudyard Griffiths of the
x Acknowledgements
Dominion Institute was a helpful interlocutor on issues of citizenship,
cultural diversity and remembrance. Jeanne Shimazaki of the Tokyo
Montesorri School and Martin Schulz of the Fujitsu Research Institute
contributed greatly to our understanding of two ends of the Japanese
educational spectrum—primary schools and think tanks, respectively.
In the realm of communication, Bernardo Carducci of the Shyness
Research Institute of Indiana University Southeast had many great
insights into the cognitive and behavioral dynamics of shyness,
while EBIHARA Takashi and Jonathan Borock provided detailed
information on Team Japan, a university debating organization, as a
model for improving communication skills. ARAI Sayuri, at the time
a graduate student at the University of New Mexico, offered candid,
thoughtful ideas about communication patterns in Japan.
In the business context, SAKUTA Touko of Asahi Glass had frank
comments on women in the Japanese workplace, while CHOW Chia-
Wei (Carol), MBA student at Cornell’s Johnson School, helpfully
shared the experience of being both a woman and a foreigner in a
Japanese company. Dr. James Shin had some very useful ideas on the
overall Japanese business context, and David C. Fender recounted the
odysseys of businesspeople from an earlier era in Japan. FURUUCHI
Kazuaki of the Accounting Standards Board of Japan kindly shared
comments on international accounting convergence and Japan,
following the kind intermediary assistance of Fiona Davitt of
the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in the United
Kingdom and YAMADA Tatsumi, liaison for the IASB in Japan.
A number of other people kindly provided helpful economic inputs
and background papers, including Daniel Bogler of the Financial
Times, Ali El-Agraa, Professor of International Economics at Fukuoka
University, Richard Katz of the Far Eastern Economic Review and Eric
Noel of Oxford Analytica.
In the realm of politics, NAKAMURA Toshihiro, formerly of the
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, had a
helpful perspective on the question of whether the bureaucracy is
growing weaker and civil society is growing stronger in Japan.
TAKAHASHI Kyoto, a director of the Forum for Citizen’s Television &
Media, kindly provided some material on the organization and its
mandate. Saul Takahashi, former Refugee Coordinator for Amnesty
Japan, responded with great passion and expert knowledge on the
critical subject of refugees in Japan. John Campbell at the University of
Michigan and KUROKAWA Kiyoshi at Tokai University both had
excellent informative comments on Japanese healthcare (thanks also to
KUROKAWA-san’s assistant, SUZUKI Megumi) and Colleen Flood of
Acknowledgements xi
the University of Toronto Law School provided some international
context on healthcare accountability issues. Daniel Aldrich, at the time
a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of
Social Science at the University of Tokyo, generously shared his research
on nuclear power plant siting in Japan. And last but not least, three
friends—SUZUKI Kanehiro, HONMA Chiharu and KAWAHARA
Taka—had insightful comments on various aspects of Japanese civil
society. Taka-san especially deserves praise for his valiant efforts to
contact OE Kenzaburo on our behalf.
Several people engaged us in wide-ranging discussions across
disciplinary boundaries, including our friends David Groth and Maria
de la Fuente. Another person who offered very rich and provocative
comments on a wide range of subjects was Liga Pang, an
internationally recognized ikebanaartist and a teacher of teachers at the
prestigious Sogetsu School in Tokyo. Annie McKee of the Teleos
Leadership Institute, and Peter Salovey, an emotional intelligence
expert at Yale, kindly enabled us to test and refine ideas, over phone
and e-mail, about how emotional intelligence might relate to
challenges in Japanese education, work and social life. Finally,
OGAWA Masaharu, while a Fulbright Scholar and an MBA candidate
at the Johnson School, Cornell University, freely and generously
discussed aspects of modern Japan with the confidence that any
differences of opinion, far from threatening friendships, presuppose
them. Masaharu and his wife Risa also provided very kind hospitality
during a visit by John Haffner to their apartment in Ithaca, New York.
The IMD community in Lausanne provided ideas, inputs and
support at an early stage of the project; thanks especially to Peter
Lorange, David Aikman, Alex Price, Martha Maznevski, HOKAMURA
Madoka and Dominique Turpin for helpful discussions on business,
organizational and cultural issues. A number of people at the Evian
Group also provided ideas and shared their experience: Michael
Garrett, Chairman of the Evian Group, formerly Executive Vice
President of Nestlé SA for Asia, Africa and Oceania and former
President of Nestlé Japan; the late and much-missed co-founder of the
Evian Group and former senior MITI official, SEIKI Katsuo; the
former MITI Vice-Minister for International Affairs, HATAKEYAMA
Noboru; the President of JETRO, TSUKAMOTO Hiroshi; Professors
HAMA Noriko and KAJI Sahoko; and senior Foreign Ministry
official SUZUKI Yoichi are especially to be thanked. The Evian
Group also provided workspace to John Haffner during a visit to
Lausanne; in this regard, thanks especially to Inez Colyn, Anne
Miserez, and ZHANG Li; also thanks to Neha Mehrotra for her help
xii Acknowledgements
during this phase. Toward the end of the project, Suzanne Rosselet
was a tremendous resource in helping us with data from IMD’s
World Competitiveness Center.
Another community environment proved helpful later on: the
August 2005 Tokyo conference of the Harvard Project for Asian and
International Relations, and especially the “trust” workshop at that
conference. The conference featured many excellent speakers—
especially ARIMA Tatsuo, Ed Baker, Theodore Bestor, David Brunner,
Richard Cooper, Christina Davis, FUJIWARA Kiichi, Andrew Gordon,
Russell Hardin, KONOE Sara, Roderick MacFarquhar, MATSUURA,
Masahiro, OGAWA Naohiro, Susan Pharr, Richard Samuelson and
YAMAGISHI Toshio. Their research and comments refined our
understanding of a number of important issues.
Once our draft manuscript was ready, we received further
invaluable assistance. Readers Andrea Gede-Lange, Weiguo He, Jeet
Heer, Janos Libor, Ian Mason and Avery Plaw all provided very helpful
comments on the argument. Avery in particular offered extremely
detailed, incisive comments that surely required a lot of time and effort
on his part. FUJI Hana provided a helpful review of the text for
Japanese names, word usage and spelling; we did not leave her a lot of
time, however, and made a few changes subsequent to her review, so
of course any remaining errors are our sole responsibility. Hana-san
also had some helpful perspectives on the Japanese workplace. We also
benefited enormously from the wonderful comments of a very
thoughtful Japanese reader who would prefer to remain anonymous,
comments addressed both to the substance and the tone of our
argument. We have tried to strike a balance between candor and
friendly encouragement, between frank discussion and intercultural
sensitivity, and this reader greatly helped us to improve that balance.
At Yale University in 2008, thanks to James Kondo, a colleague of
John Haffner’s in the World Fellows program (and a former McKinsey
Japan colleague) for several quite helpful discussions, thanks to
Professor Paul Kennedy for his kind assistance on a matter, and
especially, thanks to Esteban Tapetillo and Samantha Diamond of Yale
College for their good humored and first-rate research assistance.
Many thanks to Tej Sood, Alex Beecroft and the publishing team
at Anthem Press for the opportunity they have given us to publish
with a nimble, responsive and fast-moving publishing house, and for
their good humor, patience and practical suggestions through the
publishing process, including their identification of two excellent
peer reviewers who served as helpful critics and commentators on
our argument. We would like to thank especially the person we
Acknowledgements xiii
know as Reviewer 1, whose erudition and specific suggestions were
invaluable in helping us to make very significant improvements to
the manuscript.
Finally, thanks to our editors at various stages. Andy Lamey had
the hardest task, and did a brilliant job of editing an early version of
this narrative. Dan Westell committed a skilled “drive-by” edit on a
more mature version under tight time constraints, and John Hookey,
an editor obtained by Anthem, deftly brought us to the finish line in
collaboration with Anthem’s internal staff.
This book was not written on behalf of any institutions; the
arguments expressed herein are solely those of the authors. And
more precisely, even among the three of us, we do not always see eye
to eye on the content of every line, but we have sought to achieve
consensus with respect to our overall argument and to identify
the most salient points in support of that argument. None of the
people or institutions mentioned in the text necessarily agrees with
any part of our argument, or the thesis of the book as a whole. Any
errors or omissions remain our sole responsibility.