Finding Japan's Political Future in a MacDonald's
Night has fallen as the slow train pulled into its final destination in Nagano. Even though it is a prefectural capital and host of the 1998 Winter Olympics, amid the unending heavy rain, its bleak darkness could not have been less welcoming. Watching people rush past to avoid the downpours, I chewed on a burger in the MacDonald's in front of the main train station.
"But I ask, what really is good about the democratic system?" I suddenly heard a young but confident voice amid the noisy banters in the fast food joint. The determined (and highly uncharacteristic and out-of-place) conversation continued, "before Pearl Harbor, America was anti-war in its entirety, so the presidential candidates, knowing that war was about to happen, still played the pro-peace card!"
No doubt, I was thoroughly surprised. Nowhere in Japan have I ever heard such confident and bold talks of politics, and nowhere in the world have I heard such talks in a fast food joint. In a population generally indifferent to all things political, finding such voices is a rarity of rarities, especially in a MacDonald's in front of a rural prefectural capital.
I turned around to check out the source of the voice, and was in for a bigger surprise. Two high school students, still their conservative school uniforms, were chatting away fierily, in languages of sophistication and maturity I do not even find from my managers at Rakuten. The level of discussion and details were just abnormally high, and the level of logic displayed truly impressive.
I had to approach them. Initially a bit ambivalent, they quickly opened up and went back to their confident selves after I offered them my business cards and told them a bit about my background. Their self-introductions were just as ambitious as mine: hoping to be at the best universities for sure, they plan to start up their own companies during their collegiate years.
Their questions and opinions were also equally pointed. Knowledgeable about every topic of international relations, their talkativeness led to a two-hour-long conversation that jumped in content from Yale's secret societies, American politics, North Korean succession issues, China's GDP, and visits to the UN office in Geneva. While impressed with my background, they did not at all find themselves at a loss for any any particular issue of discussion. Sharp in their responses, they forced me to think deeply and analytically about my long-held views before countering their comments.
For these bright guys to start up businesses would certainly be wonderful, but I cannot help but think how necessary it is for Japan to inspire more of these smart youngsters to reform her politically. It is certainly true that her dysfunctional political system (just as the high schoolers questioned) would cause anyone to lose confidence, but if only the mediocre enters politics, how can it be LESS dysfunctional over time?
Japan already has her elites in business. The best of the best starts successful companies like Rakuten (hats off to the Boss) or runs industrial conglomerates and trading giants. Yet, by any international standard, her political clout on the global stage is not even close to being proportional with her economic power. In comparison, even an impoverished North Korea can fire up global mass media and diplomatic experts with every move, whether it be real or simply speculative.
Good businesses with great products can certainly change the world, but it is politics that revolutionizes the globe. Ambitious business leaders can gain respect of the global pubic for the time-being, but it is always the famous (or the infamous) political leaders that remain forever in the history books of human civilization. I, sitting in that MacDonald's listening to the enthusiastic political views of the two young men, can only wonder (with great pleasure) what it would be like for them to take their views and settle it out at the National Diet in Tokyo...
"But I ask, what really is good about the democratic system?" I suddenly heard a young but confident voice amid the noisy banters in the fast food joint. The determined (and highly uncharacteristic and out-of-place) conversation continued, "before Pearl Harbor, America was anti-war in its entirety, so the presidential candidates, knowing that war was about to happen, still played the pro-peace card!"
No doubt, I was thoroughly surprised. Nowhere in Japan have I ever heard such confident and bold talks of politics, and nowhere in the world have I heard such talks in a fast food joint. In a population generally indifferent to all things political, finding such voices is a rarity of rarities, especially in a MacDonald's in front of a rural prefectural capital.
I turned around to check out the source of the voice, and was in for a bigger surprise. Two high school students, still their conservative school uniforms, were chatting away fierily, in languages of sophistication and maturity I do not even find from my managers at Rakuten. The level of discussion and details were just abnormally high, and the level of logic displayed truly impressive.
I had to approach them. Initially a bit ambivalent, they quickly opened up and went back to their confident selves after I offered them my business cards and told them a bit about my background. Their self-introductions were just as ambitious as mine: hoping to be at the best universities for sure, they plan to start up their own companies during their collegiate years.
Their questions and opinions were also equally pointed. Knowledgeable about every topic of international relations, their talkativeness led to a two-hour-long conversation that jumped in content from Yale's secret societies, American politics, North Korean succession issues, China's GDP, and visits to the UN office in Geneva. While impressed with my background, they did not at all find themselves at a loss for any any particular issue of discussion. Sharp in their responses, they forced me to think deeply and analytically about my long-held views before countering their comments.
For these bright guys to start up businesses would certainly be wonderful, but I cannot help but think how necessary it is for Japan to inspire more of these smart youngsters to reform her politically. It is certainly true that her dysfunctional political system (just as the high schoolers questioned) would cause anyone to lose confidence, but if only the mediocre enters politics, how can it be LESS dysfunctional over time?
Japan already has her elites in business. The best of the best starts successful companies like Rakuten (hats off to the Boss) or runs industrial conglomerates and trading giants. Yet, by any international standard, her political clout on the global stage is not even close to being proportional with her economic power. In comparison, even an impoverished North Korea can fire up global mass media and diplomatic experts with every move, whether it be real or simply speculative.
Good businesses with great products can certainly change the world, but it is politics that revolutionizes the globe. Ambitious business leaders can gain respect of the global pubic for the time-being, but it is always the famous (or the infamous) political leaders that remain forever in the history books of human civilization. I, sitting in that MacDonald's listening to the enthusiastic political views of the two young men, can only wonder (with great pleasure) what it would be like for them to take their views and settle it out at the National Diet in Tokyo...
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