The World Is Finally Beginning to Realize That This Is What “Goodness” Means.
2012/12/31
On page 5 of the December 29, 2012 edition of the Nikkei Shimbun, there was a feature on the Bank of Japan centered on an interview with Governor Shirakawa.
Omitted (most of the introduction omitted).
The additions to the text are mine.
The BOJ has been criticized for ending quantitative easing in 2006, resulting in “premature tightening” and contributing to chronic deflation.
It has also been pointed out that the BOJ’s failure to join the coordinated interest-rate cuts by the world’s central banks immediately after the Lehman crisis in the autumn of 2008 contributed to the subsequent sharp appreciation of the yen.
The BOJ bears considerable responsibility for more than a decade of deflation.
Nevertheless, the only way to resolve the situation is for the government and the BOJ to work closely together and mobilize every available policy.
(Takeshi Kawanami, Economics Department)
Those who subscribe to and read newspapers and watch television news programs will undoubtedly agree with my observation that the editorial leadership of Japan’s mass media induced the BOJ to adopt this stance.
As I wrote yesterday, there is an issue concerning Korean residents in Japan.
The question is whether, having suffered discrimination as children, they then rebelled against society through force as adults, formed antisocial groups, and continued to perpetrate “evil” as a segment of Japanese society.
A similar process can be seen among those associated with “Dowa,” who unite in the same way.
In reality, however, Japanese society offers far greater equality of opportunity than other countries, and these people occupy central positions in every sector and stratum of society.
That people who have experienced poverty and misfortune have often achieved success is a fact demonstrated by history, both ancient and modern.
I proudly say that I am the only person in Japan who has pointed out that the “pseudo” moralism of the Japanese media’s editorial leadership caused the BOJ to persist in its mistaken stance.
Yet precisely because I keep saying this, the day when Japan’s mass media will address the issue grows increasingly distant.
Nevertheless, the truth will surely reach the ends of the earth.
Until that day, I will continue to perform good deeds as a twenty-first-century Kukai.
I also suspect that those who encouraged the aforementioned “acquiescence” to moralism were the people mentioned at the beginning of this article, who occupy central positions in various sectors and strata of society.
At their center was a business magnate who, on various occasions, mobilized numerous politicians and secured the government subsidies he wanted for his company’s new development projects; academics and others were also involved.
As a result, I am convinced that certain people played a decisive role in weakening Japan and severely undermining its industrial competitiveness.
Even so, the observations of the reporter who wrote this article were correct.
But for the mass media, they came far too late.
You have little room to defend yourselves.
Your “sick” moralism brought Japan profound economic stagnation, produced the first prolonged deflation in the history of industrialized nations, and increased “evil.”
Countless Japanese citizens have confronted the “evil” created by your “incomprehensible” moralism and suffered enormously.
The storm of layoffs and restructuring is another form of “evil.”
While the Japanese people suffered greatly, certain robber barons accumulated “evil” wealth so vast that they could never spend it all in their lifetimes.
There can be no robber barons in Japan’s major corporations that have continued to employ hundreds of thousands of people.
I call that “goodness.”
The world is finally beginning to realize that this is what “goodness” means.