Chapter 202
2024 New Year GreetingsHappy new year! Early in the new year, the year began with a hectic one due to the Noto Peninsula earthquake and airplane crash. I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to those who lost their lives and to the many people affected by the disaster. Now, common sense would suggest that we should talk about the good economic situation, but we have been talking about such naive things, and given the current dire situation, we should have a discussion that takes into account the reality of the country that Japan is in. There is a vague expectation that the economy will improve this year due to the U.S. presidential election, but the days when the world economy could only be talked about in the U.S. are over, and now China and even India will have a major influence in the future. It seems that it will be like this. With the rapid economic development of China and India, we have entered an era in which quantity is more important than quality. The populations of China and India are both over 1.32 billion (UNFPA 2023), which is nearly four times (combined eight times) the third-place United States' population of 340 million. In terms of GDP (IMF2023), Japan is barely third, but China's is about four times Japan's, and India's is about 80% of Japan's. Since Japan is a "Declining developing country," its influence will further weaken in the future. Japan ranks 31st in GDP per capita ranking (IMF2023), which is hard to believe, but below the Bahamas. The Bahamas is a small country about the size of Fukushima prefecture, and its main industry is tourism. You can understand how the Japanese people have become poor after 30 years of decline. I think one of the reasons for this is the old-fashioned political and administrative system. Instead of creating new things, the system has become so rigid that it is preoccupied with inward-looking concerns such as turf wars, securing employment, and corruption, and it does not seem to be conscious of shame or public opinion. The same issues of politics and money, and the many bizarre political schemes that make you wonder who proposed them, how they were discussed, and how they came to fruition. I have previously touched on the patent system, court system, and medical device certification system, but when I compare them to rational systems overseas, I find that they are illogical and meaningless. What should we do to solve these problems? Career bureaucrats, which were once a dream job, are now unpopular. The fraudulent receipt of coronavirus subsidies is still fresh in our minds, but the root cause of such fraud is that the system is exhausted. Forcing politicians and executive officers to live like hermits is far from a fundamental solution. We must improve their workplaces so that young, energetic, and especially talented young people can feel motivated and have a sense of accomplishment. Just like in hopeful venture companies, the first step is to change the pay system based on seniority to one that is based on job ability and results. We have to ask senior colleagues who have served us until now to retire generously and with a generous retirement allowance. We will also open the door to the outside world and allow motivated people to carry out reforms to their heart's content at the core of government. We also need to be careful about the think tanks that appear as a matter of course when trying to transform. In many cases, retired bureaucrats are already sitting behind their backs, so they compile reports to suit their own convenience. To prevent this from happening, it is important for amateurs to take the time and effort to find solutions by investigating questions that seem naive and things that are unclear. Similar trials and errors have been repeated in political and administrative systems overseas, so I don't think it will be difficult if they refer to them. I think it would be great if everyone could work together to make this year the first year of transformation in the political and administrative systems.
January 4, 2024
Proposals for the first year of Japanese transformation
