Japan’s decision to abandon the TRON operating system for education marked a historic turning point. By surrendering software sovereignty, Japan’s world-leading electronics makers were reduced to hardware assemblers, with long-term consequences for national competitiveness.

2016-03-18

When the Japanese government decided to install personal computers equipped with TRON— a world-class invention by Ken Sakamura—in elementary and junior high schools across Japan, persistent objections were raised insisting that Bill Gates’s Windows should be used instead, arguing that software should not be duplicated and that two systems were unnecessary.

It is a historical fact that the Japanese government ultimately reversed its decision.

The suffering of Japan’s nine world-renowned electronics manufacturers was not caused solely by the loss of competitiveness due to the prolonged super-strong yen—driven by the yen-appreciation advocacy long promoted by newspapers such as the Asahi Shimbun.

The primary cause also lay in the fact that control over software—the heart of the personal computer—was seized by the United States, reducing what had been the world’s finest group of electronics manufacturers to mere producers of computer casings.

This is because manufacturing boxes alone inevitably plunges companies into deflationary competition, where they cannot possibly compete with products from countries where labor and electricity costs are far lower.

Moreover, South Korea is a country in which the state controls foreign exchange.

While it is entirely natural that Masayoshi Son, an ethnic Korean resident in Japan, acts in ways that benefit his homeland, the question remains: why has the Asahi Shimbun consistently aligned itself with such positions, engaging in discourse tantamount to national betrayal and inflicting immense damage upon Japan?

Is it not more accurate to conclude that spies from China and South Korea have become deeply embedded within their ranks?

The other day, a company executive—both a person of integrity and well versed in current affairs—remarked in conversation, “There is something about the Asahi Shimbun that makes one believe it is being manipulated by countries like China and South Korea.”
I now firmly believe that to be true.