A Japanese politician candidly explains his country’s woes: Taro Kono
Continuing the conversation of my post yesterday about the World Economic Forum meeting underway that is exploring the idea of this being an Asian century, I want to pluck out and highight some comments by Taro Kono, a Japanese parliamentarian. They were especially notable.
In his opening remarks, Kono smiled wryly and acknowledged:
We are actually choosing the third prime minister in one year today in Japan.
When host Steve Clemons noted that this brings the number to about six prime ministers in five years, Tono nodded and responded:
We’ve got to stop that to remain a certain power in Asia.
Kono then went on to talk about the political divide that has developed between Japan and the US on some major policies. He said that the US needs to do three things. One is to take care of the deficit, he noted (again with that wry smile as he added that Japan needs to mind its own deficit as well). Two, Kono said, the US needs to show it has common values with Japan.
And, three…
“They have to keep the door open to immigrants…”
As soon as the Q&A session opened, the very first question came from a Russian expert. He opined that he found it a bit rich (paraphrasing) for someone from Japan to lecture others on open immigration policy, considering that Japan “is one of the most closed countries in terms of immigration policies.” A fair amount of friendly laughter greeted this apt query.
Kono, ever with the wry smile, responded so:
“I don’t see any other alternative for Japan’s future but to open up the country to the immigration. As you say, Japan is the most closed country so far but we’re losing population fast. The society is aging. We cannot sustain our pension system or social security. So we have to open up.
What is the core value of Japan? Japan is a country where people speak the Japanese language, and Japan is a country which has the emperor, and those two are the core values for Japan, and anything else has to change in the 21st century. So we are going to be opening up. Not only to the immigrants but our economy as well.
I can’t remember ever hearing a politician make such a sweeping admission about the state of his country — Japan is a country where people speak the Japanese language, and Japan is a country which has the emperor and those two are the core values for Japan, and anything else has to change in the 21st century.
