In an essay published in the Sankei Shimbun, Nobuyuki Kaji, professor emeritus at Osaka University, sharply criticizes the Japanese tendency to hang dependently on the government during the coronavirus crisis. While people ordinarily speak of “independence” and “individualism,” in a crisis they demand only aid, support, and budgets from the government. Instead of relying on deficit-financed supplementary budgets, Japan needs constructive proposals that will not leave future generations with a bitter legacy.

May 11, 2020
This is nothing other than the mentality, deep in the Japanese heart, of hanging dependently on the government.
Where has the “independence and individualism” that people ordinarily proclaim disappeared to?
The following is from an essay by Nobuyuki Kaji, professor emeritus at Osaka University, published in today’s Sankei Shimbun under the title “Is It Right to Hang Dependently on the Government?”
It has been more than a month since the order was issued to refrain from nonessential and nonurgent outings.
Golden Week has also passed.
I, an old man who obeys dutifully, have spent my days shut up at home.
In proportion to that, day and night I have seen and heard many arguments, opinions, and impressions on television, in newspapers, magazines, and elsewhere, and I have sensed three points in common among them.
The first point is this: complaints, dissatisfaction, endless grumbling, and the single target of attack is the Shinzo Abe administration.
When human beings feel dissatisfied, they always try to relieve it by creating a target of attack with which others will also sympathize.
This is a typical example.
The second point.
Then, if one asks whether they are showing a way to resolve that dissatisfaction, there is only one thing.
In other words, what they want, above all, is aid, support, and budgets.
That is to say, it is simply “money.”
But speaking from common sense, when money is needed, should one not use one’s own savings?
Of course, this presupposes that one has lived a life unrelated to luxury and waste.
Yet the mass media are pathetic.
They are making a great fuss, saying that customers have decreased in what might be called pleasure-related occupations.
Without questioning such problems, day after day they simply shout for government aid.
They have no shame.
This is nothing other than the mentality, deep in the Japanese heart, of hanging dependently on the government.
Where has the “independence and individualism” that people ordinarily proclaim disappeared to?
The government, for its part, has decided to issue aid money.
A supplementary budget of approximately 26 trillion yen, no less.
Where is there room for such an enormous amount of money?
The third point.
As the source of funds for that supplementary budget, it was openly stated to be “deficit-covering government bonds.”
As an old-fashioned man like myself, a timid former civil servant, and a former teacher who does not tolerate evil, I do not have the nerve to draw up a budget after clearly writing the word “deficit,” that is, by saying that the revenue will come from debt.
However, the mass media do not criticize deficit-covering government bonds.
They merely mutter, as if it were someone else’s problem, that the deficit will increase and things will become serious.
Is that acceptable?
At this point, we should gather the wisdom of many and make constructive proposals so as not to leave a bitter legacy for Japan’s future.
Those in the mass media who speak publicly must not end with emotional negation.
In this age of equality between men and women, it may be difficult to say, but I will dare to say it: “A man, when speaking in public, should present constructive and original opinions.”
Therefore, in this column dated April 5, I proposed an original method for creating the trillions of yen in budgetary funds that the government must prepare from now on in response to the coronavirus crisis.
Of course, that proposal is not a deficit budget.
Therefore, after the coronavirus problem, it will become the strongest and safest method for eliminating the present deficit-covering government bonds.
In response to this new proposal of mine, the people around the prime minister will probably object by piling up this or that petty reasoning, saying, “What does an amateur know?”
However, in a crisis, if one wishes to achieve a great accomplishment, there is no need to lend an ear to the petty reasoning and noise of those around one.
It may be somewhat forceful, but I sincerely advise the prime minister to make a bold and powerful decision, without relying on a foolish council of the masses.
As it says in the Zhao section of Strategies of the Warring States, “Those who achieve great accomplishments do not consult the crowd.”
(Nobuyuki Kaji)