Japan's 21st Century Vision.

(From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI))

Byline: Itoh Motoshige

Enhancing "People Power" In our report, we used the expression "people power." While the idea of "people power" might mean enhancing the capabilities of people as human capital (to express the concept in a slightly more conventional way), the reason we used the expression here is not that we see human resources simply as an economic resource, but that we recognize the lifestyle of each citizen and wish to project the aim of a society in which each individual can find his or her own respective place.

Enhancing the quality of personnel could mean increasing opportunities for education and acquiring skills, but, from the perspective of "people power," we must not simply stop at this level but consider the lifestyle of each individual.

The driving force of Japan's economic growth in the postwar period was generally supported by Japanese employment practices typified by lifetime employment and age-based remuneration. Today, however, these approaches are changing significantly. Various problems have been identified, such as the need to secure a place in society for casual part-time workers and young people who are "Not in Education, Employment, or Training" (NEET), for women whose opportunities have been circumscribed in the past, and for senior citizens whose numbers will vastly increase in the future. The core problems with the Japanese system are now breaking out all over the place in more specific forms. Up to a short time ago, detractors joked that, under the old system: "Children only study and working age adults only work; then they retire and have nothing to do."

In our report, we discussed these specific individual problems. Here, I will not go into those issues except to say in general that, if we can solve them and provide employment or education opportunities in which each citizen can make more flexible choices, Japan's people power would certainly be enhanced.

To add yet another point, that Japan's population will share a plethora of knowledge - a set of phenomena covered loosely by the term "literacy" - can also lead to the vitalization of the country's whole economy. Specifically speaking, typical examples of literacy include economic or financial literacy, legal literacy and IT literacy. For example, for Japan to break away from a bureaucratic, discretionary-type system and strengthen its rule-based mechanisms, it will certainly require greater legal literacy among its citizens. The effective utilization of Japan's private financial assets, said to total \1,400 trillion, will be ...