Monday, December 05, 2005
Notes on the business day in Tokyo
I had a very busy day today. I met with various of our business partners in Japan, surgeons at two Tokyo hospitals, and finished with a semi-official trade association function at which I handed out roughly half a million business cards and busted the stones of a couple of United States embassy FSOs over various non-tariff trade barriers.
Two moments stood out.
The first surgeon I met with -- a big guy at a very prestigious hospital -- decided to hit me with a pop quiz. After exchanging cards, he asked me what brought me to Japan. I replied that I had various business, and that I was interested in learning more about the Japanese market for our products. Then he drilled me:
Surgeon: "What is the population of Japan?"
Me (sounding more confident than I was): "130 million."
Nod of approval, which was only fair since my answer was close enough for government work.
Surgeon: "What is the name of our Prime Minister?"
Me (desperately hoping this was the last question): "Koizumi."
The test was over, and thereafter we had a very interesting conversation about the treatment of traumatic brain injury in Japan. I will say, though, that it was quite clear that had I blown either of those two softballs I would have been expected to kill myself. The moral: If you are able to retrieve random geopolitical factoids and do so at the dropping of a hat, don't let anybody tell you that it is a worthless skill.
I also got a glimpse of resurgent Japanese nationalism over lunch with a very successful Japanese businessman. My host casually dropped one fairly strong opinion after another on a range of topics, including the trials of various Japanese officials for war crimes after World War II ("really quite unfair") to China's reaction after Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honors Japanese war dead ("the Chinese and Koreans do not appreciate that this shrine is part of our tradition"). He said that Chinese and Korean complaints over Koizumi's visit were hypocritical, insofar as both those governments had also done very bad things. I was not willing to agree to this moral equivalence since I believe it to be disloyal to history. However, I quite uncharacteristically kept my mouth shut, which was perhaps a disservice to the great masses of East Asia but quite consistent with my business interests.
I did ask my host whether he thought Japan would remilitarize during the next generation or so, and he said "absolutely -- we must grow up as a country." He also believed that China was expansionist, and agreed that it was important for both the United States and Japan to build close ties to India. He believes it inevitable that the United States and China will collide in the next twenty years. I did not ask him whether he thought Japan would be in the fight.
Japan has always had its share of 'wingers -- else, Koizumi would not have bothered to visit Yasukuni, which came at no small cost in terms of Japan's relations with other Asian countries. The question, though, is whether they are growing in power as Japan finally recovers the confidence it lost when its bubble economy collapsed in 1989. That Koizumi quite openly caters to them suggests that they are.
[UPDATE: My host was also broadly concerned that Japan was recognized in the world only for its economic achievements, and that it punched way below its weight in other areas, including the diplomatic. I had missed, though, that the Prime Minister of Iraq was in town for the specific purpose of asking Japan to extend the small deployment of its soldiers. It is interesting that Prime Minister Koizumi did not avoid posing with Prime Minister Jaafari. Indeed, in the photograph he looks as though he appreciates the attention. And if this picture is not evidence of a new Japan, what would be?]
Finally, at the reception this evening that was an ice sculpture with fresh roses frozen in. This being Japan, I assumed that I would not look too strange taking its picture:
Two moments stood out.
The first surgeon I met with -- a big guy at a very prestigious hospital -- decided to hit me with a pop quiz. After exchanging cards, he asked me what brought me to Japan. I replied that I had various business, and that I was interested in learning more about the Japanese market for our products. Then he drilled me:
Surgeon: "What is the population of Japan?"
Me (sounding more confident than I was): "130 million."
Nod of approval, which was only fair since my answer was close enough for government work.
Surgeon: "What is the name of our Prime Minister?"
Me (desperately hoping this was the last question): "Koizumi."
The test was over, and thereafter we had a very interesting conversation about the treatment of traumatic brain injury in Japan. I will say, though, that it was quite clear that had I blown either of those two softballs I would have been expected to kill myself. The moral: If you are able to retrieve random geopolitical factoids and do so at the dropping of a hat, don't let anybody tell you that it is a worthless skill.
I also got a glimpse of resurgent Japanese nationalism over lunch with a very successful Japanese businessman. My host casually dropped one fairly strong opinion after another on a range of topics, including the trials of various Japanese officials for war crimes after World War II ("really quite unfair") to China's reaction after Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honors Japanese war dead ("the Chinese and Koreans do not appreciate that this shrine is part of our tradition"). He said that Chinese and Korean complaints over Koizumi's visit were hypocritical, insofar as both those governments had also done very bad things. I was not willing to agree to this moral equivalence since I believe it to be disloyal to history. However, I quite uncharacteristically kept my mouth shut, which was perhaps a disservice to the great masses of East Asia but quite consistent with my business interests.
I did ask my host whether he thought Japan would remilitarize during the next generation or so, and he said "absolutely -- we must grow up as a country." He also believed that China was expansionist, and agreed that it was important for both the United States and Japan to build close ties to India. He believes it inevitable that the United States and China will collide in the next twenty years. I did not ask him whether he thought Japan would be in the fight.
Japan has always had its share of 'wingers -- else, Koizumi would not have bothered to visit Yasukuni, which came at no small cost in terms of Japan's relations with other Asian countries. The question, though, is whether they are growing in power as Japan finally recovers the confidence it lost when its bubble economy collapsed in 1989. That Koizumi quite openly caters to them suggests that they are.
[UPDATE: My host was also broadly concerned that Japan was recognized in the world only for its economic achievements, and that it punched way below its weight in other areas, including the diplomatic. I had missed, though, that the Prime Minister of Iraq was in town for the specific purpose of asking Japan to extend the small deployment of its soldiers. It is interesting that Prime Minister Koizumi did not avoid posing with Prime Minister Jaafari. Indeed, in the photograph he looks as though he appreciates the attention. And if this picture is not evidence of a new Japan, what would be?]Finally, at the reception this evening that was an ice sculpture with fresh roses frozen in. This being Japan, I assumed that I would not look too strange taking its picture:
1 Comments:
By 
Charlottesvillain, at
Mon Dec 05, 03:32:00 PM:
Very interesting and helpful information for me in advance of my own trip to Tokyo in early March. I would definitely have failed the pop quiz and am glad I did not face that situation myself. When I opened a conference in Tokyo last year, I explained that it was my first trip to Tokyo and that I was pleased to see it so well rebuilt after its destruction at the hands of Godzilla 30 years ago. I think that told them all they wanted to know about me.
