2010-8-19

Which of the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management camp and the Ozawa camp has a grand design to recover from the “lost 20 years” and bring prosperity to the country?
Which has the ability to carry it out?…
We are trying to overcome twenty years of prolonged stagnation… a situation tragic for both the world and the Japanese people, just as The Wall Street Journal said. Surely anyone can see that a makeshift, superficial proposal drawn up by bureaucrats will not do.

If they cannot see that, it is tantamount to proclaiming to the world that Japan alone does not understand.

We should choose the prime minister through a contest of ideas: who can, with a selfless spirit and the full extent of their intellect, draw up a grand design superior to my proposal, and how great an expansion of domestic demand can they bring about?

Then, even if the prime minister changes, we need only declare to the world: “Japan will recover from the lost 20 years and pursue an immense expansion of domestic demand. The winner’s proposal for that grand design was the better one.”
It would not be the result of all the uproar and fault-finding by the media so far.

For we need only declare to the world: “For another 170 years, Japan will continue to achieve the completion of true freedom and the highest intelligence—the completion of democracy.”

We need only declare: “Standing tall alongside and complementing the United States, as effectively the world’s second economic superpower, Japan will also pursue the path of becoming a financial power, something it has lacked until now, and will continue to fulfill its role in the world.”

These twenty years have been such a tragedy that the egotism of the snot-nosed youngsters at the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, the egotism of bureaucrats, etc., and various desires for power have nothing to do with it!

Can you put an end to the truly unforgivable, ugly egotism behind your failure to understand—because you were, even then, among the wealthy elite—or can you not?… That is surely the only issue.