The following is an excerpt from an article by Professor Se Teruhisa of Kyushu University, which appeared in the monthly magazine WiLL on the 26th.
It is a must-read for not only Japanese citizens but people worldwide.
This paper covers most of what I needed to write.
It is one of the best papers written in recent years.
It is a must-read for those who work in politics, the media, academia, or business.
The emphasis in black, except for the headline, is mine.
How can you say "Japan is a fun country" with a face like that?
You can't live a comfortable life without a prosperous economy - let alone have dreams.
The preceding paragraph has been omitted.
The "lost 30 years" that are not recognized
Sakaiya's understanding of the times is quite strange.
He has no understanding of the "lost 30 years".
Japan was a "heaven" where people could live in peace and equality until about 30 years ago, around the mid-1990s.
Let me give you some figures.
In 1994, the average household income was 6.64 million yen, but by 2022, it had fallen significantly to 5.24 million yen.
Real wages also peaked in 1996 and by 2020 had fallen by about 16%. 2019
On the other hand, consumer prices rose significantly (if 2020 is set at 100, 1993 is 96.0, and 2023 is 105.6).
The national burden rate also increased from 35.2% in 1996 to 45.1% in 2024.
The proportion of people working in non-regular jobs also increased significantly, from 20.3% of all workers in 1994 to 37.1% in 2023.
The proportion of young men, that is, men in their prime marriageable age (25 to 34 years old), working in non-regular jobs also increased significantly, from 3.8% (1989) to 14.6% (2019).
There is also a significant difference in salary between regular and non-regular employees. According to a survey by the National Tax Agency in 2023, a salaried worker who has worked for an entire year is 5.3 million yen for a regular employee and 2.02 million yen for a non-regular employee.
The cause of the declining birthrate is not a loss of motivation among young people, as Sakaiya suggests, but a worsening employment environment.
In fact, according to the 2013 White Paper on Health, Labor and Welfare, by the age of 34, around 60% (59.3%) of men in regular employment are married, but among men in non-regular employment, the proportion of married men is less than 30% (28.5%). The number of children's cafés, which provide free or low-cost meals to children who cannot eat sufficient meals at home for economic reasons, etc., has also increased significantly in recent years in various parts of Japan.
According to a survey by the NPO Musubie, there are 10,866 children's cafés across Japan, more than the number of public junior high schools (9,265).
The number of children who cannot eat properly at home is increasing dramatically.
Why has security and equality been lost?
Prime Minister Ishiba stated that he "sympathizes" with Sakaiya's argument (in his policy speech) and set the goal of "a fun Japan," which is extremely dangerous.
This is because only wrong policies will result from an incorrect understanding.
Suppose we want to create a country where people genuinely feel happy and fulfilled.
In that case, we need to first look at the undesirable situation described above and understand the causes of this situation.
Post-war Japan, or the "second Japan" that aimed to create the "prosperous Japan" that Sakaiya refers to, should be divided into two periods: up to the mid-1990s and after.
Until the mid-1990s, the main goal of Japan's economic policy was to stabilize and improve the lives of ordinary citizens, however imperfectly.
During this period, the government tried to supervise and regulate the market to some extent to distribute the fruits of economic growth as widely as possible to people from all walks of life and all classes.
Politics also aimed to create a welfare state so that as many people as possible would not be left behind by growth.
In other words, it was an era in which the economy was based on Keynesianism, and politics was based on 'coordinating-type politics.'
This approach to the economy and politics was not unique to Japan but was also common to the politics of the advanced Western countries of the time.
Japan was very successful in this approach to the economy and politics. It created a prosperous and equal society known as 'Japan as Number One', in which all 100 million people are middle class.
Until the mid-1990s, Sakaiya's argument that post-war Japan was a "heaven on earth" was not too far off the mark.
Unfortunately, however, things changed after the second half of the 1990s.
Under the global trend of neoliberalism (small government), the nature of Japan's economic policy changed dramatically.
Neoliberalism is based on the pillars of deregulation, trade liberalization, and austerity.
With the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, the trend toward economic globalization based on neoliberalism became the world's mainstream.
Japan also promoted so-called structural reform to avoid being left behind in this trend.
It destroyed the stability of the lives of ordinary people.
The neoliberal globalization route is advantageous for some investors and companies but creates a disadvantageous world for ordinary people in each country.
If the international capital movement is liberalized for the sake of globalization, the influence of global investors and corporations will become stronger.
They can pressure governments by saying things like, "Carry out reforms that make it easier to hire irregular workers and immigrants so that you can lower labor costs. Otherwise, we will move our production bases out of this country."
"Unless you carry out tax reforms that lower corporate tax rates, we will no longer invest in your country."
On the other hand, the voices of ordinary people in each country became less likely to reach the political arena, and their lives became more unstable.
In fact, since the 1990s, many countries worldwide have repeatedly carried out structural reforms to create environments that make it easier for global businesspeople and investors to make money.
Japan has also been pushing ahead with structural reforms since the mid-1990s.
Specifically, Japan has reduced its corporate tax rate (while raising the consumption tax rate as a countermeasure), lifted restrictions on temporary staffing, carried out reforms to corporate governance that put more emphasis on shareholders, privatized infrastructure businesses such as electricity, gas, and water, expanded the acceptance of foreign workers, and lifted the ban on casinos.
As a result, Japan has become a society where it is easier for global investors and businesses to make money.
Still, the daily lives of ordinary people have deteriorated and become unstable.
The reasons for losing dreams and motivation
It is probably more accurate to see Sakaiya's "3-Y-less society" of "no greed, no dreams, no motivation" as having arisen because the lives of ordinary people have deteriorated and become unstable.
Sakaiya's argument is almost identical to the structural reform proponents of around 30 years ago.
"We need to change the low-risk, low-return, uniformed traditional Japanese society and make it a high-risk, high-return society where those who work hard are rewarded.
If that happens, even with a slight disparity, everyone will work hard, and the society will be revitalized."
However, this was a big mistake.
In his 2004 book "Kibō Kakusa Shakai" (Chikuma Shobo), sociologist Yamada Masahiro had already pointed out the following.
Due to the structural reform policy since the second half of the 1990s, Japan's society has gradually become more divided, and there are many cases where people work hard but are not necessarily rewarded for their efforts.
As a result, more and more people have decided to stop trying if their efforts are not rewarded.
In other words, Sakaiya's theory of a "society without 3Ys" is entirely incorrect.
People do not lose desire or motivation because their wishes are fulfilled and comfortable.
People no longer want anything and lack motivation or energy for life because they can no longer see any hope or a path to achieving it.
The third generation of a family that sells its house and writes in a Chinese style
Since the second half of the 1990s, it would be better to call Japan "the third generation of Japan" rather than "Japan for the third time."
In Rakugo, Senryū, and historical dramas, a character is often called "wakadanna."
He has a good upbringing and a certain level of education, but he lacks the ability to earn a living and ends up spending his parents' inheritance.
In recent years, the way the Japanese economy has been run has been something that the "third-generation young master" tends to do.
There is a renga by Ekisu that makes fun of the young master, "The third generation who writes in Chinese characters like a house for sale."
The first generation started the business with great effort, and the second generation steadily expanded it.
Still, the third-generation young master is addicted to his hobbies and doesn't work hard.
He scrapes by selling off the property that the previous generation built.
Eventually, he even puts the family home up for sale, but thanks to the wealth he has grown up with, the young master has a certain amount of education.
For this reason, he writes the sign "house for sale" in a stylish Chinese-style font. This haiku describes this situation.
Japan's recent economic policies are similar to those of this young master.
They try to keep the economy going by selling off the social infrastructure and public facilities (or the rights to operate them) that our predecessors built, such as electricity, water, postal services, railways, and airport buildings, and by attracting investment from foreign capital, etc., while being influenced by the cool-sounding imported ideas of "liberalization," "deregulation ≈ globalization," "multicultural coexistence," etc.
The government's recent policy of focusing on tourism and inbound tourism is also a young master-like idea in that it is also trying to make a living off the legacy of our ancestors.
For example, the government is promoting a policy of opening up and making public historical and cultural facilities such as the State Guest House in Kyoto and Akasaka, the Imperial Palace, the San-no-maru Shozokan Museum, and national parks throughout Japan to attract foreign tourists.
It is similar to how the young masters of fallen merchant and samurai families opened their houses and estates to the public to earn a living.
The young masters were kindhearted and easy-going, so they were often preyed upon by yakuza-like bad friends in period dramas.
The bad friends would approach them in the following way
"Hey, young master, you've run out of things to sell, haven't you? Well, how about this? Your estate is in a good location, so let's open a gambling den and make some money together."
It is unclear whether or not he was approached this way by American or Chinese operators.
Still, today, our country is also trying to open casinos in various places under the name "integrated resorts" (IR) (Sakaiya and the Japan Restoration Association he supported are particularly enthusiastic about this).
For 30 years, Japan has been a foolish country run by "third-generation young masters."
In fact, the number of politicians who have inherited their positions has increased since then.
In addition, the leaders of various fields were mainly born after the war.
The result of the "reforms" carried out by the carefree third-generation leaders of Japan, who have forgotten the hardships of life and the harshness of the international community, may have been the "lost 30 years".
The rest is omitted.
