One in ten people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition, while one in three people have excessive nutritional intake or are obese. To overcome this polarized situation, the experience of modern Japan is being presented and shared with the world as “nutrition policy.” This article considers Japan’s new international contributions from the perspective of nutritional science.   Nakamura Teiji, President, the Japan Dietetic Association   In the mid-18th century, since humans suffer harm and sometimes even lose their lives from starvation and unbalanced diets, European scientists thought that there must surely be special ingredients in food that determine life and health. Nutritional science is the scientific development of these ideas. Scientists discovered the components of food that are the energy source of life and compose the human body, and which are related to metabolism, and named these nutrients. Meanwhile, foods containing these ... ... [Read more]

Manga enjoys international recognition as a Japanese popular cultural form. The Japan International Manga Award was launched 15 years ago to promote cultural diplomacy through manga. Manga artist Satonaka Machiko is a prominent figure in the world of manga and has been involved in the Award since its inception. Here, she speaks about the significance of the Award and her vision for its future.   Satonaka Machiko, manga artist Interview by Nakamura Kiichiro, editor-in-chief, Gaiko (Diplomacy)   –– FY2021 marked the fifteenth anniversary of the International Manga Award, established in 2007 and renamed the Japan International Manga Award in 2016. Satonaka has been a member of the Selection Committee of the Award since its inception and has served as Chairperson since 2009.   Satonaka Machiko: The Award originated in a statement in 2006 by then Foreign Minister Aso Taro expressing a desire to create an ... ... [Read more]

Kishida Fumio, Prime Minister of Japan   We need to upgrade capitalism now My proposal for a “new form of capitalism” has received considerable feedback, including some requests that I clarify its aims. In response to these comments, in this article I will discuss the grand design of my proposal for this new form of capitalism. We live in a capitalist society. Capitalism—a creation of the human race—has continually evolved by repeatedly rebalancing efficient resource allocation through the market mechanism and external diseconomies, such as pollution, a result of market failure. For a long time, capitalism has also been the driving force of growth in the world economy. The expansion of welfare state initiatives in the second half of the twentieth century and the subsequent neoliberalist policies are all part of this process of correcting capitalism and the evolution of capitalism. According to neoliberalism, ... ... [Read more]

Kawai Kaori, Nonfiction writer   Nakane Chie Born in 1926, Nakane Chie was a social anthropologist. She was highly acclaimed for her analysis of Japanese society through her experience of fieldwork around the world. She continued her research after she became the first woman appointed to a professorship at the University of Tokyo in 1970. Nakane died of old age on October 12, 2021. She was 94. Her publications include Mikai no kao bunmei no kao (The uncivilized, the civilized; Winner of the Mainichi Publishing Culture Award), Tate shakai no ningen kankei (Personal relations in a vertical society). Photo: Japan Academy/Creative Commons     About ten years ago, an old lady in her 80s carrying a Boston bag arrived unannounced at a temple stood among the buildings in the Tokyo metropolitan area. She said that she wanted to buy a burial place at the ... ... [Read more]

Toishiba Shiho, Research Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science What were ancient Japanese tombs like? All sorts of funerals have been held in Japan since ancient times, so the traditional Japanese funeral is difficult to define. One great king built a huge “kofun” burial mound. Another emperor wanted his ashes to be scattered. Before dying, Shinran (1173–1263), founder of the Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism, said his remains should be thrown into the Kamo River in Kyoto for the fish to eat. But contrary to his dying wish, his remains are still respectfully enshrined in the Otani Mausoleum. It is thought that aerial sepulture (wind burial) was the norm for the graves and funerals of common people, at least until around the 12th Century. Very few examples of cemeteries for ordinary people have been excavated from Nara and Heian period (8th–12th centuries) ... ... [Read more]

(Discuss Japan note: The text in square brackets was added by the author for this reprint.)   Takenaka Harukata, Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies   “Some have pointed out that neoliberal policies have had the harmful effect of creating a deep rift between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots.’” During his policy speech to the lower and upper houses on October 8, Prime Minister Kishida Fumio expressed a negative view of neoliberal policies. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito secured a majority of seats in the October 31 Lower House election and intend to continue their administration. This article takes as its premise that Prime Minister Kishida will continue in his post following the leadership election. In it, I discuss future challenges for the Prime Minister. Due to restrictions on space, I will focus on the policy areas of COVID-19 measures ... ... [Read more]

Miyagawa Tsutomu, Faculty Fellow, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI)   Under the Kishida administration, debate has been ignited on the topic of “new capitalism.” Grasping the current situation of “capital” in Japan as the starting point for the debate is the minimum work that is necessary. Capital stocks in the Japanese private sector have barely increased since the beginning of the 21st century. The amount of capital stocks in 2000, which was 692 trillion yen, grew to 736 trillion yen in 2019, representing an increase of only around 40 trillion yen. The stagnant growth is a stark contrast to the increase of around 60 trillion yen recorded just over the five years of the second half of the 1990s. According to the growth accounting approach, which breaks down the economic growth rate into (i) labor force, (ii) capital, and (iii) other ... ... [Read more]

Hayakawa Kazunobu, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO)   Key points Exports to the United States and imports from China are both increasing Good opportunity to transfer production and attract investment from China Risk of trade friction proliferating within the ASEAN region The Biden administration, which inherited the trade friction between the United States and China, is strengthening US export control measures day by day. The view from the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) includes President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines stating that the country will not take sides, while Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says that Asian countries do not wish to choose between the United States and China. On the one hand, the geographical proximity to China suggests that the ASEAN probably gains the most economic advantage from trade friction between the United States and ... ... [Read more]

Ohtake Fumio, Specially Appointed Professor at the Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research (CiDER), Osaka University   How should the healthcare system be set up? How should the vaccination rate be increased still further? And how should a strategy to exit the pandemic be formed? Some thoughts from a leading expert in behavioral economics and member of the New Coronavirus Infectious Diseases Control Subcommittee. (Discuss Japan note: This article was written in October 2021 and first appeared in the December 2021 edition of Voice. It is republished on the Discuss Japan website with the permission of the writer and publisher.) Allocating specific roles to experts and non-experts is key Although it seems there has been a lull in COVID-19 infections since September 2021, some think that a sixth wave will come this winter, so we cannot lay down our guard. At present (October ... ... [Read more]

Japan should maintain the high standards of the CPTPP, and engage in negotiations with China and Taiwan in order to reach the destination of the FTAAP in the midst of a “fight” between China and Taiwan. Japan should also make the best effort to establish autonomous enforcement mechanisms for the agreement premised on US absence   Kawase Tsuyoshi, Professor, Sophia University   In September 2021, Taiwan and China successively submitted applications to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP or TPP11). The TPP framework was originally intended to contain China and to pave the way for the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) led by the United States, but the character of the framework changed significantly when it was revived as the CPTPP with Chinese official application for accession in 2021 after the US withdrawal in 2017. In Japan, ... ... [Read more]

Kariya Takehiko, Professor, Oxford University   Key points Despite higher levels of education, labor productivity is not rising. The closed nature of the human capital market is also affecting non-regular employees. We must increase diversity of human resources, not rest on our laurels here in Japan. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries temporarily closed their borders, putting a brake on the free movement of human resources. Bearing in mind the small number of infected people, by refusing entry to foreign students for an extended period, Japan’s response is like its historic “national isolation.” Amid competition for human resources in the global arena, will post-COVID-19 Japan be able to make its human resources more skilled and diverse? The famous French thinker Michel Foucault made a fascinating point in a lecture in his later years. It was that the market, which had long been a place ... ... [Read more]

Kosaka Haruka, music journalist   　 Every five years the International Chopin Piano Competition is held in Warsaw, Poland, the country of Chopin’s birth. After being postponed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 18th competition was held in October 2021. Results from the qualifying committee based on documents and video recordings were announced at the beginning of March 2020. But the postponement was decided after that, giving competitors an extra year to prepare. This helped make for an extremely high level, and the pianists of richly individual character competed with Chopin interpretations of great depth. The competition was won by Bruce Xiaoyu Liu, a Canadian of Chinese heritage. Two Japanese competitors were awarded prizes. In particular, Sorita Kyohei was the first Japanese person to tie for the second prize in 51 years since Uchida Mitsuko in 1970, and received a lot ... ... [Read more]

Hirayama Yosuke, Professor, Kobe University   The popularization of home ownership characterizes the social changes in postwar Japan. The homeowner society was formed when the middle class expanded and more people lived in their own homes as a consequence of spectacular economic growth. Many people enjoyed stable employment and income, and moved from rented housing into their own housing. Aiming to form a society based on promoting home ownership, the government, which formulates and implements housing policies, focused on driving the expansion of the owner-occupied housing sector. It was thought that facilitating home ownership would not only improve housing conditions, but also stimulate economic growth and encourage social integration.  The spread of home ownership into wider segments of society is a phenomenon that became viable under the specific socioeconomic conditions characteristic of the latter half of the twentieth century: population growth and a youthful ... ... [Read more]

Sakaiya Shiro, Professor, Faculty of Law and Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, University of Tokyo Going beyond “constitutional revision vs constitution protection” When categorizing the two sides of Japanese ideas about the Constitution, the long-lived postwar standard has been kaikenha (constitutional revisionists) or gokenha (constitutional protectors). This categorization almost perfectly corresponds to the ideological right wing and left wing or what was termed “conservatives” and “progressives” in the terminology of postwar politics.[1] It goes without saying that this opposition is about the legitimacy of the “imposed constitution” that was enacted under the strong influence of the Allied Occupation [1945-52] GHQ (General Headquarters of the Allied Forces) and how to appraise its contents (especially Article 9). However, I suspect the constitution views of the Japanese today have a fundamental aspect that needs to be addressed before we talk about the merits and demerits of ... ... [Read more]

Nozawa Chie, Professor, School of Political Science and Economics, Meiji University   For many years, the dream of owning a plot of land and a home has characterized the Japanese. Nonetheless, we are now faced with a strange situation where the issue of land with unknown owners and the issue of vacant houses is becoming increasingly serious. The underlying factors for these two issues are identical. Not long ago, the norm was for land and houses to be passed from the older to the younger generation. However, in the context of the population outflow from rural to urban areas and the nuclearization of families, land and houses in hometowns are no longer valuable assets. In addition to deficiencies in the real property registration system, there are cases where people who have left their hometowns do not even realize that they have inheritance rights. This ... ... [Read more]

Takeuchi Sumiko, Member of the Board of Directors, Senior Fellow, International Environment and Economy Institute   The “decarbonization” trend is accelerating around the world. It has been reported that countries will discuss global warming countermeasures based on the Paris Agreement adopted in 2015 at the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (COP 26), planned to be held in the UK in November 2021, with new Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and the leaders of other countries expected to be in attendance (as of the end of October of 2021). The host country UK is fairly actively calling on countries to participate, but no Chinese and Russian leaders are planning to participate.   Former Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide announced “carbon-neutrality” and a “decarbonized society” by 2050 in 2020. Further, in April 2021, he stated that Japan would ... ... [Read more]

Fukao Kyoji (Faculty Fellow, RIETI) and Makino Tatsuji (Hitotsubashi University)   In order to achieve the Kishida administration’s policy goal of raising wages, it is necessary to understand why real wages in Japan have been stagnating for the last two decades. This article therefore examines the reasons for the prolonged stagnation of wages in Japan using long-term data from the JIP Database of the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) and Hitotsubashi University, and considers measures that should be taken. The labor productivity of a country as a whole is measured by how much real gross domestic product (GDP) is produced per hour worked. In Japan, real GDP per hour worked in 2018 was 4,416 yen (in 2018 prices). Of this, 2,580 yen accrued to workers in the form of wages, employers’ social security contributions, etc., so that the labor share of ... ... [Read more]