On March 15, 2011, the Tokyo Stock Exchange plunged and soared like a roller coaster in the wake of unprecedented disaster. The author criticizes leaders who refused to close the market, failed to take responsibility, and sees it as the consequence of a nation without true commanders like Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, or Ieyasu.

On March 15, 2011, facing the chaotic stock market after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the author raises serious questions about the government’s response. The post reexamines the true meaning of the phrase, “People are a wall, people are a castle,” and criticizes the decision to keep the market open during a major disaster. The author expresses anger at a society that prioritizes the logic of capitalism over the lives of its citizens and laments the absence of a “general” to protect the nation.

“People are a stone wall, people are a castle”—is this not precisely what those words mean?

But is it truly right to believe, as if it were a fixed rule, that the market must always remain open?
2011/3/15

When I looked at the extra edition reporting on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, I saw a collapse like nothing before.
Soon after the TSE began arbitrage restrictions, it swung the other way—soaring upward.
A true roller coaster.

Trader’s live voice — Buying spreads across a wide range of stocks in the afternoon
An American securities trader said: “In the morning session, it was pure panic selling. In the afternoon, however, buying spread across a wide range of stocks. When Nikkei futures plunged in the morning, with the Fukushima nuclear situation, the trading room was extremely tense. But after falling so far, foreign investors in particular began to see bargains.”

(Provided by Morningstar, Inc.)

On weekends, or during holidays in various countries, even when markets are closed, the global economy does not collapse.

So, even in the face of one of the greatest disasters in centuries, must Japan’s markets remain open or else the world economy will stop?

Unless the confusion already evident on March 11 were allowed to unfold in reality, would the world economy not move?
Was it truly necessary to repeat, within the span of three hours, plunges and surges like a roller coaster?

For example, when the Tokyo market closes for a week during Golden Week, does the world economy grind to a halt?

After losing more than ten thousand diligent, kind, innocent citizens, and suffering devastating damage to the land itself, is confronting capitalism stark naked, as if none of this mattered, what we should call intelligence?

And now, though it was already obvious on March 11, the nation exposes itself, stark naked, to further damage to its wealth, standing in the world of “profit only for oneself.”
I cannot think that this is what a nation ought to do.

Only today, after the economy was brought to the brink of collapse, did they finally impose arbitrage restrictions.
I cannot call such people elites. I cannot call them intelligent.

From the “vulgarity” wrought by ○○ to this day, this country has been swept by an incomprehensible, irresponsible regime.
I can only think this is the consequence of a nation without true leaders who take responsibility—without Nobunaga, without Hideyoshi, without Ieyasu.

It is only the commander, the great general, who can protect his nation.
Until the Edo period, Japan had over 300 domains—each with its own commander, its own warriors.