(Sent to Fukuzawa, ISSHO, HIBA and Friends Wed, 11 Mar 1998)

I'm sorry to keep bombarding your email boxes, but I've got another speech to the Japanese government (in Sapporo, not Tokyo, where mistakes won't really matter) on March 23, 1998. For two hours. I thought I was going to be able to reprise my speech to the National Personnel Agency (Jinjiin) about how to serve non-Japanese better (see text in English here, or in Japanese here). But no. This time they want something that the MOF (Ookurashou) can digest--meaning that my pan-ministerial advice becomes somewhat moot.

Which is why I'm coming back to you all for some more advice. I am not an economist (I always got Cs in my college intro Econ courses) and can make few suggestions about monetary policy etc.. If I were talking to MITI, sure, I could spout until the whales come home about how to change Japan's predatory import/export policy (as if they would listen). But I'm out of my element this time.

So far, here's what I've come up with so far to say. Divisible into two parts.

PART ONE: MATTERS PERTAINING TO NON-JAPANESE

1) TAKING CARE OF HOW YOU SAY THINGS

(Sorry to those jaded on this topic, but I am going to bring this chestnut up yet again, because somebody has to, and I am in a position where it might matter if I did.)

Instead of Gaijin and Gaikokujin, I think words like "Nihon kokuseki de wa nai hito" (Non-Japanese National), "Nihonjin de wa nai kata" (Non-Japanese), "Ta kokumin"/"Ta kokujin" (Othernational), "Non-Nihonjin" ("non" in katakana) should be used in speeches and in formal documents. Under current perceptions, even if a "gaijin" were to naturalize, s/he would still not stop being a "gaijin". It is still a qualification for people to have blood ties in order to be seen as a Nihonjin, which makes it become discrimination by race. I would like the bureaucracy, regardless of fiefdom, to tell the public that "a citizen is a citizen by qualification" (kokumin wa kokuseki), not by "face", "blood", or "outward appearance" (gaiken), and foster in the public the concept of "Japaneseness equals Japanese citizenship" at a government level.

NB to the naysayers: The reason why I coin words like "TA kokujin"--as opposed to "GAI kokujin"--is because here there is no sense of "inside" or "out", being or not being part of a group. "Ta" (��) is benign and just show s otherness. Not difference (as "ijin" (�ِl) does) or outsider status. Eve n if these words are Japanese concepts, long-held under an "island-society spirit" (shimaguni konjou), and are difficult to deal with successfully, I don't think that just because a situation has long been a certain way that it need continue to be so. If attempts at change are always impossible, then improvements of any sort likewise become impossible. We have to start somewhere, and since the government is specifically entrusted with the job of trying to improve society, words and concepts like these are a problem which need to be addressed--since they promote the view of people like us being different, and embody the very concept of our non-assimilation.

2) CLEARLY ACKNOWLEDGING ON PAPER THAT NONJAPANESE ALSO HAVE THE QUALIFICATION TO WORK AS BUREAUCRATS.

The government should hire, and promote to administrative posts, qualified nonJapanese the same as Japanese.[This not only applies to the Korean and Chinese minority, which has had trouble in most areas being promoted beyond entry-level positions, but also to the rank-and-file nonJapanese who work for the government in, say, the university system.] If you want us to stay here, pay taxes, and make contributions to Japanese society the same way as everyone else, you have to give us the same job security and hope for the future. If not, we're going to leave, which is wasteful of enormous potential and tax money. So, Ministry of Finance, what have you done for us lately? What's your record on hiring? Make it public.

Yes, these are topics I dealt with in my last speech. Unfortunately, other juicy items (juuminhyou, dual citizenship, ninkisei) are not specifically within the realm of the Ministry of Finance, so I had to omit them. Therein lies the rub. The above will hardly fill the space of two hours. So let's move on to more general matters.

PART TWO: BUREAUCRATIC REFORM

Reality check. I acknowledge that asking the bureaucrats to limit their own power is an exercise in irony and futility. Still, here is what I think needs to be said to help root out Japan's systematic corruption:

1) IMPROVE OVERSIGHT CAPABILITIES TO THWART "KAN-KAN" AND "KAN-MIN SETTAI" (businessmen and bureaucrats greasing each others' wheels with tax money)

Establish a whistleblower agency independent of the bureaucracy which has free access to all bureaucratic records (same as UN inspectors in Iraq should have) for sudden searches, sting operations, etc. Report all contributions and receipts of over 2000 yen (the US prohibits politicial contributions of over twenty dollars. Not a typo) to the public, with all figures, names, who met whom, etc. available in annual government publications for each ministry.

Essential if you want to keep the bureaucracy honest, and really not all that difficult to carry out. Hell, the government puts out hundreds if not thousands of books a year--this would just be a jolly fat one. Just difficult to enforce because of "the honor system" involved.

2) BRING TO AN END THE AMAKUDARI SYSTEM (where high bureaucrats retire into sinecures or high private-sector positions with active links to the towers of power in their old jobs).

Retired bureaucrats should remain retired, not rehired as consultants or whatnot, because the temptation for wielding ministerial power on behalf of the company or the bureaucracy is too great. Raise the retirement age if necessary, but make bureaucrats unemployable after their service to the country. Hell, they get juicy enough pensions as it is and can financially slide into retirement far easier than the average Taro.

Pretty tough to enforce this, I know, because the bureaucracy WANTS the Amakudari Syatem--it's their way of maintaining their own job security as well as monitoring/administrating the private sector more closely. Advice on how to plug the holes or sell it better?

3) TOUGHEN THE PENALTIES FOR MISCREANT BUREAUCRATS.

Make it clear that indicted, convicted, or dishonorably-discharged bureaucrats will lose their pensions. That itself is a credible threat. Any other suggestions for penalties?

And that's all the ideas that come to mind right now. It makes for a pretty slim volume, and there's nothing new here that will make any pencils drop. You financial "Big Bang" specialists out there--any new policy ideas you would like to see passed on, or think Hashimoto is being slapdash about in his current drives? You businesspeople--anything that Ookurashou does that cramps your style? You human-rights types, anything you think the managers of the financial sector can help us with?

I would appreciate any and all comments (if possible, please also provide original Japanese for technical terms). The speech is on March 23, so there's time. If people aren't in the mood for a public discussion, then please email me privately.

Much obliged, everyone. Thanks.

Dave Aldwinckle
Sapporo

This is where I started getting feedback. To see where it would take me, click here to go on to the next essay in the series: