North Kanto Notes: April 2014

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Compartmentalization: What President Obama accomplished on his Asia trip

"Compartmentalization" is my working view of President Obama's main accomplishment on his Asia trip. The only visible action in Japan was his statement that the US is bound by treaty to defend Japan's administration of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. He still gave China one avenue to pursue, the International Court of Justice.

The effect of his statement will be to reduce the chances of a nasty surprise over the possession of these islands. A side effect is to essentially sideline Japan so that the US can pursue engagement with China with less attention to Japan's views. The US has concluded that Japan will not become a constructive partner with respect to China, so it will settle for Japan on the sidelines.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Regional Revitalization from the Ground Up

In his history of Tochigi Prefecture¹, Masami Omachi describes concerns that Fumitsugu Okada, Tochigi Governor between 1911 and 1914, had about plans for two new rail lines. One railway, the Moka Line, would connect the pottery industry around Mashiko to a trunk railway at Shimodate in Ibaraki Prefecture. The other railway, the Ashio Line, would connect the Ashio copper mine to a trunk railway at Kiryu in Gumma Prefecture. Governor Okada worried that, because these two railways would connect to other prefectures, they would detract economically and administratively from Tochigi.

The notion that new 'sidedoor' rail connections for moving local products to markets would be viewed as a threat to local economy and government floated unmoored in my mind until a seminar on attracting industry for regional revitalization.

This seminar, "Attracting Industry and Regional Revitalization: Changing Cannot to Can," was put on by the Ken-Oh-Do corridor development association² and featured two speakers. Both speakers can be considered authoritative representatives of current thinking in Japan.

Yasumasa Takano is Director of the Industrial Location Department at the Japan Industrial Location Center (JILC). According to its website, JILC is an independent public agency working in regional and industrial planning and implementation under the auspices of the Ministry of Economic Trade and Industry (METI). A bureaucrat, Mr. Takano presented a bureaucrat's view of industrial location trends and forces in Japan - a PowerPoint presentation with handouts loaded with facts, figures and charts, but without the slides.

From Mr. Takano's presentation, I concluded that JILC and its bureaucratic split with JETRO are two of the greatest impediments for FDI. Extremely parochial.

Toshiaki Kimura's position is Evangelist for Regional Vitality in the Cabinet Secretariat. From 1984 until joining the Cabinet Secretariat in 2006, Mr. Kimura worked in the economic development sections of Otaru City, Hokkaido. A celebrity with a blog, Twitter account and Facebook page, Mr. Kimura used a whiteboard and black marker for his presentation. This fluid motivational talk was filled with local stories, starting with one from his hometown of Nishiokoppe, a village in Hokkaido that is home to 1200 people and 30,000 deer.

Notes and References:

¹Masami Omachi, Tochigi Ken no Hyakunen (One Hundred Years of Tochigi Prefecture), Yamakawa Shuppan, 1986, pp. 113-114, http://amzn.to/twgSkD
²Ibaraki-ken Kenodo Ensen Chiiki Sangyo Koryu Kasseika Kyogikai (茨城県圏央道沿線地域産業・交流活性化協議会), literally translated as "Association for Revitalization of Regional Industry and Exchange Along the Ken-O-Do Expressway in Ibaraki Prefecture," was established in 2007 as an association of cities and towns along the expressway. The Ken-O-Do Expressway is an outer ring around Tokyo that will connect Narita International Airport through a band of industrial exurbs. Website: http://www.ken-o-do-ibaraki.com/site_gaiyo/index.html (accessed 2012 March 4)

Singing in the park

Overheard in the park and sung by elementary students walking home from school: When I get to be a first grader, when I get to be a first grader, my friend will commit suicide. 一年生になったら、一年生になったら友達が自殺するかな。

This is a based on a very widely sung preschool song: When I get to be a first grader, when I get to be a first grader, I will make 100 friends.一年生になったら一年生になったらともだち100人ができるかな。