Japanese government published a new growth strategy named “JAPAN is BACK” in 5th June, 2013.
The response of global market seemed to be bored. Stock prices in Japan decreased, for the contents of the strategy were not amazing.
Mr. Haruaki Deguchi, the president of the Lifenet insurance company, analyzed the commit statement of the strategy to post an article in Diamond Online, a popular business news site in Japan.
Diamond Online: We should not rely on the growth strategy of the government. (in Japanese)
I was impressed by the article written by Mr. Deguchi.
At first, he admired the statement for describing about several concrete goals.
Indeed, the statement includes a lot of numbers which Japan should reach, like below;
About industry growing:
10% increase of facility investments in 3 years
20% reduction of persons who were unemployed during 6 months in 5 years
73% of the employment rate of women in 2020
10 universities will be included in the top 100 of the best universities of the world in 10 years
The best of the world at innovation skill ranking in 10 years
The best of the world at disclosure of official data in 2015
The 3rd of in developed countries at business surrounding in the World Bank
Tokyo is the 3rd in the world at the power of the cities ranking
Over 10% of rate at opening rate of business
1.4m companies in the black in 2020
About building a market strategy, the statement refers to a healthy life expectancy, clean energy, infrastructure and local community.
Moreover, it also mentions trading, export, broadcasting, and investments.
It is brave and reliable commitment isn’t it?
However, Mr. Deguchi criticized the commit statement. What do you think about what he wrote?
He pointed out a critical problem of the statement. It is the lack of solution against the declining birthrate. He also suggested that the statement had a weakness about problems in older people.
He claimed that the biggest problem of Japan was the reduction of population. He found that the statement did not cover the problem almost at all.
His suggestion is quite simple. But I could not do the same thing at a glance of this statement.
We often criticize an opinion or statement of others easily. Pointing some mistakes out is not so difficult. On the other hand, detecting a crucial point of view which is not described is more important.
Of course, as a seller of insurance, Mr. Deguchi may be quite familiar with the issue of population. Nonetheless I am deeply moved by his keen insight.
It is true that polulation problem is important issue for Japan, but it is also quite difficult problem to solve... If you "open" the door for immigrants once, it is impossible to "close" it again. Most of Europian countries are suffuring from it now.
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Yeah, it is point of no return. Actually, Mr. Deguchi refers to inviting foreign students and tourists, so called partial immigrants, as one of preferable tactics. I agree with him even if it is not an absolute solution.
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