August 21, 2010.
Many listed companies and outstanding businesses that originated in Osaka still maintain their headquarters in Osaka today.
What demeaned Osaka more than necessary was the “Tokyo orientation” of the mass media concentrated in Tokyo and the entertainers and comedians who gathered around it.
Osaka is not a city sustained by Yoshimoto, but a city supported by major corporate groups led by Hankyu, the intellectual strength centered on Osaka University, and the distinguished history of Osaka City Hall.
It is merely the misunderstanding of the Tokyo media that has distorted the truth about Osaka.
From the perspective of August 21, 2010, this chapter criticizes the way the mass media concentrated in Tokyo excessively diminishes Osaka.
In reality, many outstanding companies maintain their headquarters in Osaka, and it argues that the tendency to regard success in Tokyo as the only measure of value distorts the true character of regional communities.
It reassesses the “true character” of Osaka and asserts its inherent strength, founded on history and genuine ability rather than a facile culture of television personalities.
In Reality…
August 21, 2010
There are many companies founded in Osaka and listed on the First Section that still maintain their headquarters in Osaka.
There are also many outstanding companies headquartered in Osaka that have deliberately chosen not to become publicly listed.
I believe that what demeaned Osaka more than necessary was the combined effect and result of the mass media—particularly television—being concentrated in Tokyo to an excessive and unnecessary degree, together with the provincial mentality of the television personalities and comedians who flocked there and believed that going to Tokyo and earning money in Tokyo were prerequisites for success.
Six or seven years earlier, when the Nikkei newspaper ran a series titled “Contemporary Kansai People,” a female singer popular among young people wrote, “What is good about Osaka is that it does not change.”
Unable to remain silent, I once sent her a piece of my writing and offered this admonition:
“Ms. ○○, Osaka has changed greatly now… One in every twenty people receives public assistance, and the mayor is talking about building a soccer stadium in Umeda…”
This is by no means a criticism of her.
Those who regard Tokyo as the place for advancement and who come to live in Tokyo should all realize that there is no truth in their speaking about Osaka.
They should realize that doing so only leads Osaka astray.
What you should be discussing are the problems of Tokyo, where you now live.
Look into the number of companies listed on the First Section that still have their headquarters in Osaka.
You will be astonished.
Kansai is not a place sustained by Yoshimoto comedians.
It is, of course, a city sustained by these outstanding groups of companies that represent Japan—large corporate groups led by Hankyu, broad-minded and possessing tremendous underlying strength—the assemblage of some of Japan’s finest intellects, led by Osaka University, Osaka City Hall, which was once among the most outstanding municipal governments in Japan—excellent students from the Faculty of Economics at Osaka University used to seek employment first at Sumitomo Bank and second at Osaka City Hall—and the broad-minded and refined community of Semba.
It is simply that the mass media—particularly television—and those living in Tokyo, as well as people throughout Japan with the appallingly low level of understanding of thirteen-year-olds, for whom television is the source of all knowledge, do not understand this.