That is the thought of the Ministry of Finance, of the current bureaucrats…
And it’s the thinking of the bureaucrats who created these last 20 years…
Is the key figure in this argument truly the ace of the Ministry of Finance?
Hasn’t the real ace long since quit?

This essay critiques the media’s false sense of achievement in Japan’s first regime change and identifies the true cause of two lost decades: reliance on failed bureaucrats and shallow elites. It argues that Japan needs sweeping transformation, starting with bureaucratic and BOJ white papers to identify true talent, rejecting cosmetic fixes like consumption tax hikes. Only bold leadership can restore prosperity and redefine Japan’s role in the world.

On August 21, 2010, the author strongly advocates for the necessity of “making a big change.” He argues that Japan’s stagnation over the past 20 years was not caused by politicians, as the media claims, but by the decline of the bureaucracy itself after top-tier officials left for the private sector during the bubble era. The piece contends that breaking the current stalemate requires a leader with the “capacity” to accurately assess the bureaucratic system and implement fundamental reforms. It urges leaders to confront the nation’s true challenges rather than wasting time on superficial policies or personal hobbies.

2010/08/21

Don’t the media think they are the ones who brought about the change—that for the first time in 60 years after the war, a change of government was achieved through an election?

Needless to say, the media had nothing to do with this, and in fact, it was the opposite.

This change in government was, as I mentioned before, “Wasn’t the LDP’s downfall because the kind of person with the qualities and qualifications to be a prime minister was weeded out 18 years ago?”

The 18 years since then are what we call now, and it should be obvious what that has meant… To put it simply, it’s the destruction of the social foundation that was Japan’s strength… Was the lifetime employment system really unnecessary? Public servants still have the lifetime employment system… Just based on that, the private sector had no need to destroy its own lifetime employment system… It can’t be correct that the logic is “YES” for the private sector and “NO” for public servants… If the market fundamentalism of the 20th century said “NO” to the lifetime employment system, then it must be applied equally to public servants and changed to so-called meritocracy. Otherwise, such logic is completely strange, half-baked, and for someone’s benefit.

The exhaustion of local regions… the shuttered shopping streets across Japan… 11.6 million people with an annual income of less than 2 million yen… Young people, even at age 30, cannot find a regular job or get married… leading inevitably to a declining birthrate and aging population… the pension system is on the verge of collapse.

The truth is that the LDP, which had lost the capacity to be prime minister 18 years ago, self-destructed. If you replace the country with a private company, the prime minister chosen by the ruling party is the president, and the actual employees are the various ministries and agencies. The beginning of management is to select who is excellent among the employees. One could say that the person who can do this best and without mistakes becomes the president.

After governing the company from within, a president presents and executes a grand design to break through the company’s current situation or to develop it further. That’s what a president does.

Now, who in the Democratic Party can change these last 20 years in one fell swoop? They should only be competing on that. The public’s sentiments on “politics and money” and so on… I think I can definitively say it’s the exact same thing as the great chorus of self-righteousness from 18 years ago.

With what face can the media, which has been dancing with LDP politics for 60 years, say that money was not always a part of it? Who can talk about “politics and money” while pretending their own hands are completely clean?

After such foolishness and such a catastrophe—where 4 million citizens died and combatants (who were made into combatants by the media’s constant煽り, with a single conscription notice, or students who were forced to crash planes and torpedoes)—you, who were not only unable to complete what was gained over 60 years but have come to this point with the mental age of 13, the height of foolishness, with what authority can any of you speak like a righteous judge?

Even with the problem of the Umeda North Yard, until I wrote this much, not a single person mentioned it. How can any of you, who are so nonchalant about inflicting a loss of nearly 1 trillion yen on the people, act as judges with any kind of qualification?

I wrote “The Turntable of Civilization” and thought I should first send it to Prime Minister Kan. I was surprised when I looked at his official website… Because it was full of incomprehensible nonsense about physics… I thought, “Oh, come on…” It goes without saying that you’re not a first-class physicist… If you were the best in that field, someone who must master physics, you would have become a physicist silently.

You shouldn’t be talking about such things. The sycophants around you might say, “Because you’re a science person…” I’m sorry, but there are at least 50 people among my classmates alone who were clearly more talented than you in the sciences.

What you should be doing is political science… You should be working to make the country prosperous as prime minister.

The problem is not that at all. We are now facing a national crisis, and the ones who don’t think so are the very people who created the last 20 years of this country, yet they feel no financial anxiety. They are the ones in a state of ugly egoism, led by the media, who have been in the elite class for 20 years. They must be spread across all sectors.

Even a person who originally lacked the qualifications to be prime minister can save the country. It requires a truly selfless heart and an understanding of the causes and effects of these last 20 years. If the top talents are still left in the bureaucracy, you should get them to come up with ideas that are even better than my proposals.

You must discern who is most suitable for that task. Or, who plans to continue governing in the same way as before, by following the directives of the bureaucrats who created the last 20 years?

First, you should create a white paper on the bureaucracy and a white paper on the Bank of Japan, and start by finding out if the top talents are still there. If they’re not, you must figure out what to do. You must put Japan back on track… You must declare to Japan and the world that it will prosper and fulfill its role in the world. I will absolutely reject the same kind of absurd chorus of righteousness from 18 years ago. The question is, who can get us back on the path to prosperity? There are no other problems, and there is no time left.

Things must change in a big way for everything to change.

In 20 years, the lost growth amounts to 500 trillion yen, and the deficit-financing bonds issued amount to 450 trillion yen. After inflicting such a loss on the country, half-measures will not save Japan.

We must change things in a big way… Just as the LDP’s politics can never return to what they were before, since you achieved a change of government through an election for the first time in 60 years (even if it was the result of the LDP’s inevitable self-destruction for the reasons I’ve described), you must change things in a big way. A consumption tax increase will only lead the country further down the path of decline… That is the thought of the Ministry of Finance, of the current bureaucrats… And it’s the thinking of the bureaucrats who created these last 20 years… Is the key figure in this argument truly the ace of the Ministry of Finance? Hasn’t the real ace long since quit?

Instead of talking about incomprehensible things like physics, you should start by looking squarely at the bureaucrats and investigating whether a person who was expected to be the head of the Budget Bureau since joining the ministry is really still in the Ministry of Finance. If the aces are all still in the ministries, you should make them humbly acknowledge the policy failures of these last 20 years and have them use their full abilities to devise a strategy to make the country prosper… The aces must know that this is no time to be talking about ministerial interests… This time, with a truly selfless heart, they must find the only path to serving the people, saving the country, and making it flourish.

That is the task now imposed on the person who becomes prime minister. Only a person who can do that should become one. It’s different from before.