Japan in Print, 1987

FROM POLITICS TO LIFES1YLES: JAPAN IN PRINT, 1987 Edited by Frank Baldwin East Asia Program Cornell University Ithaca, New York 14853 The CornellEast Asia Series is published by the Cornell UniversityEast Asia Program (distinct fromCornell University Press). We publish affordably priced books on a variety of scholarly topics relating to East Asia as a service to the academic community and the general public. Standing orders, which provide for automatic notification and invoicing of each title in the series upon publication, are accepted. Ifafter review by internaland external readersa manuscript is accepted for publication, it is published on the basis of camera-ready copy provided by the volume author. Each author is thus responsible for any necessarycopy-editing and for manuscript fo1·111atting. Address submission inquiries to CEAS Editorial Board, East Asia Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-7601. , Number 47 in the CornellEast Asia Series Online edition copyright© 2007, print edition copyright© 1988 Frank Baldwin. All rights reserved ISSN 1050-2955 (formerly 8756-5293) ISBN-13 978-0-939657-47-6 / ISBN-10 0-939657-47-3 CAUTION: Except for brief quotations in a review, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form without permission in writing from theauthor. Please address inquiries to Frank Baldwin in care of the East Asia Program, CornellUniversity, 140 Uris Hall, Ithaca, NY1485 3-7601 .. PREFACE When The Asia Foundation established the Translation Service Center in Tokyo ten years ago, its mission was to provide informed Japanese opinion on contemporary issues to the U.S. public. Although today Americans are far more aware of the importance of the bilateral relationship with Japan, most news stories continue to focus on points of friction, principally in trade. Thoughtful Japanese views on most subjects are available only through a few of the largest newspapers or publications distributed to a limited audience io1mediately concerned with U.S.-Japan relations. The Translation Service Center each week makes available to over 250 newspapers throughout the United States three or more articles representative of Japanese thinking on a wide range of political and social topics as well as economic issues. Our objective remains unchanged: to present an undoctored picture of what opinion leaders in Japan are saying to each other. This is not an easy task. In the first instance, articles must be in a format that will appeal to U.S. editors and be of interest to American readers. The high-quality product to which we aspire is made possible through the dedication of skilled translators and a team of Japanese and American editors who strive to represent the author's intent faithfully while adjusting style to bridge the c�ltural divide. Tsutomu Kano, Dr. Frank Baldwin, Robert Ricketts and Suzanne Trumbull•' are past masters of this art. Readership of TSC articles continues to expand. We hope that by "• highlighting points of common interest as well as probiem areas, and by showing that there is no such thing as a monolithic Japanese approach, we can defuse some of the emotionalism in U.S. media treatment of Japan. The work of the Translation Service Center is made possible throughe. support from institutions that share these objectives. We are espe cially grateful to the Japan-United States Friendship Coonnission for a generous annual grant and to the Japan Foundation, which distributes • • • 1.1.1. the Center's articles to additional publications and academic insti tutions throughout the world. We also wish to acknowledge grants from IBM Japan, the Burlington Northern Foundation, General Motors Overseas Corporation, AT&T/Ricoh, Borg-Warner Foundation and Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A. Articles in this collection were translated by Herbert E. Brauer, Torkil Christensen, Julie Koma, Frank Moorhead, Wayne Root, Mark Schilling, Peter Schuetz, Samuel W. Spiteri, Malcolm Sullivan, Lynn Wakabayashi and William Wetherall. Above all, we are indebted to the Japanese authors and the publi cations in which the pieces first appeared for permission to translate and distribute their work. This is the third anthology of Center articles to be published in the Cornell University East Asia Paper series. Those in this volume all appeared in 1987. Collectively we believe they provide a fair picture of what is on the contemporary Japanese mind. Albert L. Seligmann Japan Representative The Asia Foundation Director Translation Service Center iv . .. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION••• • • • • • • • • 1 National Security •• • • • • • • 5 U.S.-Japan Relations. • • • • • • 16 • • • • Industry and Business •• 45 . Education •••••••• • • • • 68 Lifestyles and Attitudes ••••• 85 .... Common Problems • • • • • • • • • · 129 V . .- ' .. ' . , ' . • • INTRODUCTIOtJ The Translation Service Center distributed 174 articles in 1987, of which 52 are included in this volume. They have been arranged in six subject categories: national security, U.S.t-Japan relations, industry and business, education, lifestyles and attitudes, and con,rnon problems. Within each section, the pieces are in chronological order. All Japanese names follow the U.S. newspaper style of placing the surname last. * * * * * In January 1987, the Japanese government adopted new defense spending criteria to replace the ceiling of l percent of gross national product, which was scrapped in late 1986. Liberal Democratic Party (LOP) leaders indicated the arms budget would remain around 1 percent till 1991. The public seemed to accept higher military spending as unavoidable because of U.S. Congressional complaints about Japan's "free ride" on security and the threat of protectionist legislation. Liberals warned that Japan, despite repeated assurances to the contrary, was well on its way to becoming a major military power. Mikio Sumiya deplored the move, attributing the ''rightward drift'' to ''public silence and apathy.t" Kazuo Yasuhara calculated Japan's defense expendi tures by the NATO formula and found that Japan was No. 3 in military spending. Hideki Tomizawa called for a Japanese Marshall Plan to recycle trade surpluses and enable Japan to make a nonmilitary contri bution to world stability. He urged that a multibillion dollar fund be established in Tokyo to help the developing nations, and several econo mists and politicians made similar proposals. Japan-U.tS. relations hit a postwar low in 1987, according to Tadahiro Mitsuhashi. As Tokyo's trade surplus with washington swelled to $59 billion, American patience shortened. In April, President Ronald Reagan imposed sanctions on Japan's electronic industry for allegedly • dumping semiconductors. Japanese were already worried that the appreciating yen, which eventually rose 23.8 percent -- from Yl60.10 to 122.00 -- against the dollar in 1987, would trigger deindustri�lization 2 and unemployment when Japanese products were priced out of overseas markets. The other shoe fell in June when Toshiba Machine Co.t's illegal sale of propeller-milling machinery to the Soviet Union was revealed. Congress vowed retaliation and the scene of representatives smashing a Toshiba radiocassette, replayed in the Japanese media, touched off a wave of anger and fear. Many commentators warned that Japan was vulnerable because 40 per cent of its exports go to the U.tS. market, but it must avoid becoming a scapegoat for Washington's trade and fiscal failures. America-bashing became acceptable as Osamu Shimomura' s '' It's All America's Fault'' dissected the follies of Reaganomics. Columnists called on the govern ment to resist unfair pressure and criticized the Nakasone adminis tration's unwillingness to stand up and talk back. Writers like Tadahiro Mitsuhashi and Daizo Kusayanagi vented their anger with wit and irony. Others were blunt: Japan should stop cringing every time a U.tS. politician sounds off and learn to play hardball. Diligence was blamed for Japan's trade surplus and "stimulating domestic demand'' was touted as the solution. Japanese still work long hours, usually a six-day week, and the country is 20 years behind the West in shortening the work week, according to Hirofumi Fukumoto. A sense of being overworked makes many Japanese scoff at the idea that they are rich. Attitudes toward work are changing among the younger generation, who derive less satisfaction from a job than their elders and want more leisure time. Physicist Shoji Tanaka, whose research team at the University of Tokyo confirmed the Nobel Prize-winning discovery by two Swiss scien tists of a ceramic material superconductive at temperatures higher than believed possible, urged Japan and the United States to "take the lead in international cooperation to develop applied (superconductive) technology." He warned that no country or corporation should control materials that will ''revolutionize nearly all forms of electricity use.'' However, Japanese scientists were excluded from a July conference in Washington on superconductivity, and the two nations are in a race for superiority in this dynamic field. Noboru Makino suggested 3 bilateral competition be avoided by a division of labor, with the United States concentrating on military applications and Japan on consumer applications. That such a proposal could be seriously made indicates the enormous assumption gap that sometimes befuddles dialogue across the Pacific. Making Tokyo livable again by decentralizing the capital was an old idea that resurfaced in 1987 as a solution to soaring land prices. The scheme

Load more