Starting from Professor Hiroshi Furuta’s striking conclusion that “socialist economics is a fake and has no economic foundation,” the author turns his sharp intuition toward the troubling structure of the figure-skating world.
Through reflections on Shizuka Arakawa, Mao Asada, and Rika Kihira, this essay questions the true nature of athletic governance in Japan, along with the forces of interest, vanity, and the responsibility to nurture the next generation.

2019-04-06
“Socialist economics is a fake, and it has no economic foundation on the other side.
Therefore, a theory of socialist economics will never be born.”
That was my conclusion.

A chapter I posted on 2019-04-01 under the title, “While reading an article I discovered last night… I found myself thinking of the following eye-opening passage by Professor Hiroshi Furuta,” has entered goo’s top 50 in search counts.
While reading an article I discovered last night… I found myself thinking of the following eye-opening passage by Professor Hiroshi Furuta.
The preceding part is omitted.
…Then, in 2009, Herta Müller, a German writer born in Romania, depicted the Romanian economic and social reality under the Ceaușescu regime in The Fox Was Ever the Hunter, and won the Nobel Prize.
When I read the Japanese translation, an intuition arrived like lightning.
From there began a backward calculation toward the knowledge that had filled the entire field.
“Socialist economics is a fake, and it has no economic foundation on the other side.
Therefore, a theory of socialist economics will never be born.”
That was my conclusion.
The latter part is omitted.

I have no personal acquaintance whatsoever with Shizuka Arakawa, but I did have a sense of her as a fellow person from Miyagi Prefecture.
On the final day of the recent World Figure Skating Championships, after the men’s free skate had ended, I was watching, I believe on Fuji Television, a segment in which Honda and Arakawa interviewed Yuzuru Hanyu.
Arakawa’s expression at that time was truly strange….
I even told a friend, “Arakawa must surely have read my blog…. That must be why she was making that face.”
After that, I began to wonder whether it might have been Shizuka Arakawa who had instructed the skater to learn from the coach whom I had harshly criticized….
That unbelievable coach who, at the point just before entering the most difficult move, the triple axel….
Relentlessly.
Kept demanding a forced smile the whole time….

Then, in the article I discovered last night….
Now I feel as though everything has melted into clarity, but to begin with, right before one of the most important competitions, the World Figure Skating Championships….
Kihira was sent to some provincial competition in Europe….
Then after returning home, with only one day in between, she was made to do high-altitude training in the United States….
And the content of that training, moreover, was the kind of training that would undermine Kihira’s concentration on her triple axel and cause her to fail….
It would not be an exaggeration at all to say that it was training intended to keep Kihira from winning the gold medal.

I wondered whether that coach might perhaps have been….
The very man who had coached Arakawa, and when I searched, that was indeed the case.
And so I was astonished at how uncannily accurate my intuition had been.
Arakawa earned 2 billion yen from the skating show she began at the same time as her retirement, bought two luxurious houses worth more than 100 million yen each, and now sits as vice president of the Japan Skating Federation….
That surprised me a little.
Because if one removes the feeling that she is from my home prefecture….
Then from my own sense of sports, born with the athletic ability to run 100 meters in the ten-second range….
Arakawa was by no means the greatest athlete in the world at all.
It is an indisputable fact that she won the gold medal in Turin because the American and Russian skaters who were ranked second and third in the world at the time failed one after another under the pressure….
It is also an indisputable fact that the overwhelmingly number one skater in the world at that time was Mao Asada.

Furthermore, while reading the article I discovered last night….
An intuition arrived like lightning.
What began from there as a backward calculation toward the knowledge that had filled the field was this….
Around the time of the Vancouver Olympics, compared with the way Shizuka Arakawa lavishly praised Kim Yuna and rated her highly….
Her commentary on Mao Asada was clearly harsh and cold, and it would not be an exaggeration to say so.
Mao Asada was the one truly worthy of the gold medal….
She was the absolute queen whom the whole world believed so….
And yet, as I said above….
Through South Korea’s intrigue, so adept at propaganda toward international society….
Despite becoming the first woman in Olympic history to land three triple axels, she ended up with the silver medal….
The whole world remembered Mao Asada’s tears of frustration at that time….
That is why, all the more, the entire world was moved by Mao Asada’s free skate at the Sochi Olympics….
In other words, Mao Asada….
In reality, you were the best in the world….
Through incomprehensible circumstances, you ultimately could not win the gold medal at the Olympics….
But you were the best in the world….

But as a result, and it is truly a chilling story….
There is this strange reality that Arakawa alone is the only Japanese woman to have won an Olympic gold medal….
And she serves as vice president of the skating federation….
The other day, I was surprised to see former Democratic Party politician Akihisa Nagashima at the awards ceremony….
And if one searches this man now, one finds things such as Vice President of the Japan Skating Federation.
Association of Parliamentarians for Exchanges Related to the Korean Tongsinsa.
And so on….
It leaves one speechless.

Until now, knowing nothing of this, I had viewed Arakawa positively as someone from the same prefecture….
But now I must state this to her clearly.
Arakawa….
What you absolutely must do as vice president of the skating federation by the time of the Beijing Olympics is this….
The eternal history of Japan….
The beauty of Japan, a country where, since ancient times, women have been cherished more than anywhere else in the world….
A land that brought forth Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shōnagon as if they were its own children….
A rare talent sent by God in order to advance The Turntable of Civilization and bring true peace, freedom, and the joy of living to the world….
One who was born in order to do figure skating….
One whose perfect performances, beauty, and excellence have captivated the entire world….
A true prodigy….
Rika Kihira must be carefully nurtured….
And allowed, as is only natural, to win the gold medal at the Olympics….
What must be done is to prepare a perfect schedule for that purpose….
And under no circumstances….
For the sake of the intentions or profits of a sports management company such as USM, which you effectively run….
Must you ever work Rika Kihira to exhaustion….
You must engrave that absolute truth upon your heart.

By no means….
In order to satisfy the vanity of saying that I alone, among Japanese women, won Olympic gold….
Or in order to preserve the value of your vanity….
Must you ever engage in vile schemes.
If you were to do such a thing….
You would fall into hell….
And you must remember that you would only suffer the greatest torment from King Enma.
The era of your Ina Bauer is already long over….
And the world does not exist for your sake at all.

Rika Kihira, and the youngest of the Honda siblings….
In a nation where The Turntable of Civilization is turning, as is only fitting….
There has now begun an age overflowing with young talent….
Talents who can lightly execute the highest-difficulty techniques….
Who possess splendid physiques and athletic ability, as though born to do figure skating….
And who are, moreover, truly beautiful….
You must understand that this is no longer an age in which you should stand out….
You have already received honors beyond measure….
What remains for you now is to become a true unseen supporter….
And for the sake of the younger generation….
To prepare the finest training environment for them….
That is what you ought to do….
That is your repayment to the skating world.
Under no circumstances should you exploit the finest talents in the world….
For the profit-making or schemes of your company.
Simply, with all devotion, serve those who come after you….
Prepare the best possible training environment for the younger generation….
And never forget that this is what it means to act as a true person of Tōhoku.