Published on August 4, 2019. This essay introduces an article by Kaji Nobuyuki in the monthly magazine WiLL, reconsidering Japan’s education system and labor policy through criticism of expanded foreign labor intake, the reality of high school and university advancement, the need for technical schools, and a proposal for a national defense tax.

2019-08-04
For example, in the case of the Osaka Prefecture high school entrance examination, for top schools such as Kitano High School and Tennoji High School, one must score 97 or 98 points out of 100 in order to pass.
On the other hand, there are quite a few high schools where one can pass with 7 or 8 points out of 100 on the same entrance examination.
This is a chapter published on 2019/1/3.
The following is the continuation of the previous chapter, and since the original author, director, actors, and everyone involved in the production of the film “Akunin” surely do not live in the world of art for nothing, they should instantly realize that there is no answer better than the following essay as to why the evil they depicted—and also the man who recently drove into people in Harajuku—comes into being.
Because you are in the world of art, and precisely because of that, the main point should be that you want to correct Japan and the world.
If you are thinking that such things have nothing to do with you, and that all you care about is making your name known, becoming famous, and thereby making money, then my proposal in this essay will be nothing more than a sermon to a horse.
The following is from an essay by Kaji Nobuyuki published in last month’s issue of the monthly magazine WiLL.
Mr. Kaji is a great senior who graduated from Kyoto University and became professor emeritus at Osaka University.
It is, in fact, no exaggeration to say that this essay is one of the finest essays of recent years.
Emphasis in the text is mine.
This old man is a superfluous person, a useless person, in this world.
In these decrepit old days, I am a rogue who continues to trouble this world.
Precisely for that reason, if, conversely, I first perform the proper ritual of asking pardon, then a raid under heaven’s permission should be allowed.
This old man is, from the beginning, a conservative traditionalist.
I support the Liberal Democratic Party administration.
However, what is not good, I will call not good.
The foremost among the things that are not good these days is the legalization of expanded acceptance of foreign workers in Japan.
According to what the media reports, this is a response to strong demands from the business world.
However, although those businesspeople say there is a shortage of workers, they are fundamentally mistaken.
I would first like to state that.
What, in the first place, are workers under the expanded quota?
The core of them consists of manual laborers and service employees.
Looking at this, one can roughly see what is meant.
At present, there are in fact mountains of candidates in Japan for manual labor and service work.
They are right there, but people fail to see them.
Let me say it boldly.
The majority of those who, originally, could have entered manual labor, service work, and the like and lived happy lives have, astonishingly, advanced to high school or university and become unhappy.
Look at the real academic level of high schools and universities.
For example, in the case of the Osaka Prefecture high school entrance examination, for top schools such as Kitano High School and Tennoji High School, one must score 97 or 98 points out of 100 in order to pass.
On the other hand, there are quite a few high schools where one can pass with 7 or 8 points out of 100 on the same entrance examination.
In other words, originally, there are many people who, after receiving compulsory education, would not go on to high school, but instead enter real-world work such as manual labor, firmly acquire skills, and be able to make a living for life.
Despite that, they advance to high school.
And tragedy awaits them.
Japanese, mathematics, social studies, science, English—the contents are incomprehensible to them.
For that reason, even if they try to find employment after graduating from high school, they are of no use.
With no other choice, astonishingly, they advance to university.
If it is a university short of students, they can enter with a free pass.
Then, after four years spent almost idly, those with neither skill nor knowledge take jobs as clerical workers, and from there an unhappy life begins.
Why is that?
The answer is clear.
What awaits an incompetent clerical worker is dismissal someday.
And some percentage of them will become shut-ins.
What is producing the reserve army of people who walk such unhappy lives is the majority of present-day high schools and universities.
If that is so, then for junior high school graduates who originally have no need to advance to high school or university, should not the Ministry of Education create a new form of technical school where various skills can be learned in one year, which may even be attached to a high school, have them acquire manual labor skills, and send them out into the world, thereby eliminating the need to bring foreign workers into Japan?
Why do neither the Ministry of Education nor Keidanren make such autonomous efforts?
Tackle this problem with a hundred-year plan.
Even if people agree with this proposal of mine, it will likely take time to realize it.
Therefore, as an immediate issue, I have a new proposal.
For newly entering foreigners and foreigners already residing in Japan, since Japan bears responsibility for their safety, how about collecting from them 200,000 yen per year as a “national defense tax,” separate from income tax and other taxation?
If there are, hypothetically, two million people, that would be 400 billion yen.
Use this tax money for thorough surveillance.
There is an existing precedent for such a national defense tax.
Switzerland imposes this national defense tax on long-term stays by foreigners.
I have heard that it is about 300,000 yen in Japanese currency per person.
Of course, undesirable foreigners who do not pay this national defense tax should be immediately deported on that basis.
That would become “national defense” in another sense.
In this way, foreign workers must be strictly managed.
During that time, what is needed is an educational-system reform such as the one described above—not a reform based on formal academic credentials, but an educational-system reform based on the essential abilities of human beings.
That is the “hundred-year plan” most necessary for politicians.
The ancients said: Without compass and square, one cannot form squares and circles.