Published on November 30, 2019.
This article introduces Kusaka Kimindo’s “Hints for Prosperity,” published in the monthly magazine WiLL, under the title “Prime Minister Abe’s Victory Without Formal Strategy.”
Through Lee Teng-hui’s urban planning in Taipei, Taiwan’s economic development, the spread of Japanese cars, China’s land nationalization and construction boom, and the approaching limits of Xi Jinping’s system, it argues that China’s great economic development was originally due in large part to Japan’s influence and assistance.
It also considers whether Taiwan will align with Beijing or Washington, Japan’s role, and Japan’s international responsibility in the era of Prime Minister Abe and President Trump.

November 30, 2019
Originally, the great development of the Chinese economy was thanks to Japan, and if China fails to be grateful for that and attributes everything to the achievements of the Chinese Communist Party, its future is already visible.
The following is from “Hints for Prosperity,” a serialized column by Kusaka Kimindo, published in the monthly magazine WiLL released on the 26th, under the title “Prime Minister Abe’s Victory Without Formal Strategy.”
When Lee Teng-hui was mayor, he created parks every one hundred meters as part of Taipei’s urban planning.
There, large green trees grew thickly, and there were street stalls where soup or rice in soup was prepared before one’s eyes and served.
Because of that, women in Taipei were freed from having to prepare breakfast, went to work, and worked more than men, so I thought that Taiwan’s economy would eventually develop greatly.
It was truly work-style reform.
However, Taiwanese people said that this was something Japanese people had taught them through their own example, and that once the Japanese had withdrawn, who knew what would happen afterward.
I thought Taiwanese people would return to being Chinese and rejoice in constructing huge buildings.
But thinking that this would be rude, I pointed to the fact that Taipei’s sky was filled with exhaust gas from American-made automobiles and said, “Getting rid of this should come first.”
I said that prohibiting the import of Japanese compact cars, which were ahead of the Muskie Act’s exhaust-gas regulations, was like strangling themselves with their own hands, but people who were happy riding American cars did not seem to understand.
However, they understood relatively quickly, and before long Japanese cars were everywhere.
Because good money quickly drove out bad money, seeing that made me feel that “the world will eventually become Japanized.”
In the same way, I thought that Xi Jinping would also reach an impasse quickly.
Because he says things that are enormously grandiose, I felt that this would eventually destroy itself.
I think it is important for those in power to acquire the caution of applying brakes to their own thoughts by themselves, but there are very few such people.
Most of them try to gather still more power and build a tower soaring into the clouds.
The People’s Republic of China, which succeeded in its postwar revolution, is also a good example, as it enacted a new constitution and declared the nationalization of land.
That can be done if one merely writes it on paper, but it had no imagination about what would happen afterward.
In Greek mythology, there is a story of a man who asked the gods to make everything he touched turn into gold, and although that wish was granted, even his own daughter turned into a golden statue, no, a gold image, and he hurriedly begged for the gift to be removed.
Looking at today’s construction boom in China that began with the nationalization of land, one feels that this was indeed the case.
Whether land has utility depends on how that land is used, but for that, one needs funds, technology, and a future outlook regarding the market.
China does not have those things.
What can be done by the omnipotence of power has no permanence.
Most Japanese people understand that, but some do not, and when Japanese people who do not understand and Chinese people who do not understand join together and act out of greed, it ends in a great failure.
Even if Communist Party cadres became new landlords through the nationalization of land, if the development plans were nonsense, no profit would be produced.
Mountains of unprofitable development were created, and in the end, China’s economic growth rate kept falling.
In the past, if they gave the order to “maintain eight,” reports of 8 percent growth would be lined up, but now the reports themselves are only falling.
It will probably soon fall below 5 percent.
And so, regarding the combination of Prime Minister Abe and President Trump, it now appears that Japan is becoming the main actor.
Looking also at the problems of the EU and refugees, Europe has dropped out, and it seems that Japan alone has the power to lead the world.
Originally, the great development of the Chinese economy was thanks to Japan, and if China fails to be grateful for that and attributes everything to the achievements of the Chinese Communist Party, its future is already visible.
In the end, it comes down to wanting to take Taiwan whole, and so Taiwan has awakened and is now faced with whether to align with Beijing or with Washington.
Japan, too, is not allowed to be a mere bystander.
Then, what will happen?
I think Taiwan will align with Washington rather than Beijing, but when one thinks about how Beijing will act at that time, and then what Japan will do, the discussion still returns to Japan.
Yet Japan seems to be leaving all foreign affairs to Prime Minister Abe alone.
But if so, Japan will become a dictatorship.
Prime Minister Abe may begin to say that he can no longer look after such a country.
Or President Trump may also begin to say so.
If that happens, whether one should call it rival warlords contending for power or something Balkan-like I do not know, but because the birth of such disorder in Asia is not what Japan desires, Japan must say what it desires before other countries do.
As a result, Japan will come to lead the world.
Great expectations are being placed on Japan, and perhaps a victory without formal strategy will come.
Prime Minister Abe is already carrying that out.