2010-9-2
For the past 20 years, I had thought that Peter Tasker, whom I mentioned earlier, had a mind very close to my own…
Below, I reproduce the text of the first opinion advertisement I placed throughout Osaka Prefecture 16 years ago, reluctantly using newspaper inserts.
…
[The Japanese Mass Media]
Ephemeral things, day after day… So-and-so got married. So-and-so scattered beans.
So-and-so went somewhere. Etc.… Television endlessly broadcasts these things on every channel, from morning throughout the afternoon.
You yourselves are the bubble, not us.
Does it not horrify you to imagine the young men and women of this country growing up without reading books, with television as their primary source of intellectual engagement?
You can only ever speak as though something were stuck between your back teeth… That is why you cannot reach any depth.
Your critical spirit is dead at its core.
You now say that low growth is fine.
Then what kind of era is an era of low growth…
“An era of low growth is also an era in which making money becomes extremely difficult…
For wealthy people who already have money, it is not an especially difficult era in which to preserve it.
Low growth is by no means bad for the rich, but it does great damage to the middle class.
Furthermore, it becomes an extremely harsh era for entrepreneurs starting new businesses.”
(Has Japan’s Era Ended? Peter Tasker)
Would such an era be a good era?
…
Now, things have turned out exactly as he and I predicted.
As I began writing this text… as readers have already noticed… there is something else I have come to realize even more clearly.
That “Japan’s lost 20 years” are the clear fault of those who now occupy the elite strata.
That is why I do not wish to align myself with the public opinion they have created today, and I will not.
Because even up until 60 years ago, 18 years ago, and now… all of it is public opinion they have created.
From the standpoint of true intelligence, these have been 20 years as idiotic as a cartoon.
And now.
Because, as I have already written, I am convinced that the culpability of the mass media is the deepest of all, exemplified by Atsushi Yamada… who is now on the editorial staff of AERA and, without the slightest shame, writes major articles from the opening pages… repeating what has gone before…
That is why I do not trust those who seem mindful of how the mass media will view them.
However, once the event is over, everyone must turn out in full force, working desperately to make up for these 20 years, without looking aside or wasting words…
Because there is no longer any room anywhere for such indulgence…
Everyone, as a true professional, listen to the opinions of capable people, but sweep away incompetent bureaucrats who merely follow precedent, and save the country. That is all I wish for.