Tales from the Dark Side

Divining the causes of Japan's economic nightmare

Charles Oliver from the March 2002 issue

(Page 2 of 2)

Wa, the culture of harmony, built the system, and is also the reason that the Japanese put up with the system. The first lesson Japanese school children learn, according to Kerr, is to move in unison. Literally. He writes that in Japanese kindergartens playtime is strictly regulated. The children do the same exercises, run in the same direction. Spontaneity is frowned upon.

The second lesson taught by Japanese schools is that it is a crime to be different. Kids routinely ostracize and haze those who are too bright or too dumb, too fat or too thin, too short or too tall. The hazings have even sometimes resulted in death. But it's all accepted, often encouraged, by authorities.

In terms of instruction, schools concentrate on rote memorization. This process produces literate, obedient people. But it doesn't produce a lot of creative, independent people, Kerr says. Japanese students "have not been taught analytical thinking, the ability to ask unusual or creative questions, a sense of brotherhood with the rest of mankind or curiosity about and love for the natural environment," he writes. These traits actually served Japan well, for a time. The nation set its mind on one goal -- becoming an industrial powerhouse. The banking system funneled money to the great manufacturing concerns. The school system turned out millions of hard-working, obedient workers. But once this train was set in motion, it became impossible to stop or even to alter its course.

Institutions that should help correct Japan's problems don't seem to have much effect. Japan has a nominally free press, but the government and businesses restrict information by providing it only to members of tightly controlled press clubs. Reporters or media outlets that offend bureaucrats or top business officials run the risk of losing their access to any information.

Meanwhile, opposition politicians have little power to sway things. This is due partly to the fact that the Liberal Democratic Party has controlled the government for so long. Opposition parties just don't have much power to oppose change. Also aiding the seemingly unstoppable momentum of Japanese policies is the fact that elected politicians of any party have little influence over the bureaucrats. Politicians come and go, but the bureaucracies remain. And of course, Wa continues to be a strong cultural impediment toward speaking out or advocating big change.

Those are lessons worth remembering as the United States lays in for a long "war on terror." All around us are calls for unity and bipartisanship and strengthening the hand of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Defense Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, and other government agencies. The Japanese system doesn't crush all individualists, of course. But those who survive the system often emigrate to other countries, where their open minds are more appreciated. Those individualists who stay find themselves marginalized.

"In spite of the pressure for conformity, there is a generation of adventurous young Japanese who are well aware of what will be needed to compete in the big wide world. The question is whether there will be enough of them to make a difference," Kerr writes.

Kerr's book went to press before Junichiro Koizumi became prime minister in April 2001. Koizumi promised sweeping reforms to jumpstart the economy. He took direct aim at the troubled banking system, promising to force banks to write off bad debt at last. It was the sort of plan that Western economists had long urged. Koizumi's popularity ratings were very high, and there was a great deal of hope that he could finally make the changes that Japan needs.

But Koizumi's popularity, it seems, was more predicated on his hairstyle, his clothes, and his general status as a maverick than on his specific proposals. He has had to battle members of his own party as well as the massive Japanese bureaucracy. Koizumi's reforms are stalled, perhaps already dead. Kerr is probably not surprised.

So what happens to Japan? It's still the world's second-largest economy. It still has a hard-working labor force. It could continue to muddle along for a long time. But the longer it goes without real economic growth, the less relevant Japan becomes and the less wealthy it becomes. In the 1930s, Argentina was one of the world's wealthiest nations. Decades of bad government policies reduced the country to Third World status. Perhaps a similar fate awaits a Japan already bedeviled by its demons. r