Motivation
One day in september 2000 an acquainted rotarian asked me if I was interested to join a group study exchange program to Japan. His question made me enthusiastic immediately. After a four years working career in the Dutch business area it was very attractive to me to study a different society together with other young professionals. Hereby the Japanese society is very special because for European people Japan is the far away country of the rising sun. I knew just a few things about Japan like "Japan is very crowded and has a high tech industry and old traditions, people are working very hard while the economy is bubbling for over more than 10 years now".
The study program would be a great opportunity to me to discover this "mysterious" country by myself. Staying in hostfamilies I would get in touch with the daily Japanese way of life and get to know the Japanese culture. With the vocational program I was hoping to learn about the bubble economy and, as a consequence, the reorganization of the Japanese cabinet.
Program
In the end of march 2001 we flew via Seoul, South Korea to Osaka. Our first meeting with Japan was a warm welcome from the GSE-committee of Rotary district 2660. There was no doubt of being in Japan because we exchanged our namecards in the first place and our hosts were taken a lot of photographs of us. The first days, and every other weekend, we were accommodated in the friendly New Otani hotel. The GSE-committee took very good care of us, so very soon we were ready to start the program. The program was the first example of the organizational talent of Japanese people. The GSE Committee made a full and various program and considerated the impact of our impressions.
Host families
During my stay in Osaka area I felt very much at home with my different host families. It was very special to deal with the regular Japanese households. I think Japanese families have a rather more traditional way of life than Dutch families. In Holland it is quite normal nowadays that the wife and husband are taking care of the household together and that the woman as well as the man both have a (parttime) job. Japanese families have still a more stricted allocation of household tasks. The wife is taking care of the household on her own, while the man is responsible for the income. I have to admitt that I was attracted to this Japanese way of life. This is not because of I am lazy, but because of the great hospitality and the art of cooking of Japanese women. I like to mention that there are some differences between the houses in Japan and the Netherlands. Because of the very spare free building areas in Japan, the houses are smaller than in Holland. Japanese people in comparison to Holland have also rather small gardens around the house. On the other hand most Japanese houses have onetraditional Japanese room. This room is used for official occacions. There are tatami mats on the floor, you have to sit on the floor at a low table and there is a very beautiful altar to pray. Each house has also a great deep bath to wash yourself. In Holland most of the times we just take a shower, but after showering Japanese people take a hot bath to relax. This is a habit I am definitely going to take over whenever I am going to move. Every hostfamily took me out to various occasions. Althought I felt a little bit ashamed of my singing performances, more than once we had a great time at a Karaoke bar. We went on a cherry blossom tour. I joined a real Hanami party on the Temple area of one host and joined the monks of this temple to practice Calligraphy, We drove over the Okashi ohashi and took a bath in a nearby hot spring. We went out for dinner several times and once we had dinner meal in some small mobile restaurants in downtown Osaka. During these activities we had very nice conversations about different subjects like family life, sports, cooking and society. Hereby I noticed that it was sometimes not so easy to discuss political subjects as social security or our Dutch delicate legislation concerning drugs, euthanasia and gay marriage, which were actual subjects in the Netherlands during our trip. Alltogether each family took very good care of me.
Experiences
Also in the official program we did have a lot of different experiences. We visited several nice musea with themes like modern art, ethnology or hydraulic engineering. We went walking in beautiful gardens and we visited some amusement parks, which was a lot of fun and also a nice alternate with the more serious company visits and Rotary meetings. It is impossible to describe all expericiences, but in this paragraph I like to mention the following.
Sumo
Our first Saturday in Japan we went to a National Sumo wrestling tournament.
These tournaments are very popular in Japan and are broadcasted on National
television. There are no seats in the stadium as we are used to in Europe. We
were sitting on pillows with four people together in a kind of 1.5 square meter
picnickplace. Sumo wrestling is a sport for all kind of people. The stadium
was filled with men as well as women and with young as well as elderly people.
I was surprised that the Sumo wrestlers are not just very fat men. Actually
they are athletic sportsmen with impressive postures. We were just as supportive
as the Japanese crowd. In the end of the day the little pillows flew through
the stadiumhall.
Tea ceremony
We were lucky to join several tea ceremonies during our stay. A tea ceremony
is a traditional Japanese meditative kind of ritual. The teamaking process is
a ritual with a lot precise proceedings. The tea is made by blending natural
tealeave powder with a bamboo blender. The tea has a natural green color and
a bitter taste. Before drinking the tea you have to rotate your cup two times
to the right. You drink your tea in three and a half pull and then you rotate
your cup back two times to the left.Tea ceremonies are held for meditation but
also for business meetings to spend a relaxing time with customers.
Religion
There are three leading religions in Japan. These are Buddhism, Shintoism and
Christianity. During our stay we visited different Buddist temples and Shinto
shrines. Especially the Buddist Todajiji temple in Nara was quite impressive.
This temple has an enormous Budda statute inside and the building itself is
the biggest wooden building in the world. One week I was hosted by a Buddist
priest. He and his monks learned me about the six leading sekts of Buddhism.
They belong to the so called Shin gon sekt themselves and this sekt proclaims
among other things that desires are human and don't have to be ignored. In our
world, religion is a main source of war. You could see it in former Yougoslavia
or you can see it in the Middle east. You cannot see it in Japan. Japanese people
can combine the different religions in their lifes and are proud of that. Namely
Shintoism is very popular at birth ceremonies. Modern marriages are oftently
celebrated in Christian style, while Buddhism has a main influence in funeral
ceremonies.
Hiroshima
One of the most impressive trips was our visit to Hiroshima. Everybody in the
world knows about the Atomic bomb on august 6th 1945, but for young people like
us, who are living in the opposite side of the world, Hiroshima always has been
a far away city. Visiting this city exhorted mixed emotions. On the one hand
I was glad to be there, but on the other I could feel the disaster that has
happened. The memorial museum was very instructive. There was a detailed summary
of Japanese warhistory and there were many impressive images of the effect of
the nucleair bomb. The effect was a totally destroyed city and 140,000 victims
on that day. I hope we people learned about this war, so that such drama will
not happen ever again.
Economy
During our trip I visited many companies in the regular program as well as in
the vocational program. In these programs I learned about the high ambition
and discipline level of the Japanese business. The receive at Panasonic, Sanyo
and NTT-West showed me that especially in the consumer electronics and telecom
industries the research and development departments are operating at toplevel.
When Europe is just ready for the Wireless Application Protocol, Japanese people
are "carrying" colorscreen mobile phones with an I-mode internet connection
and also in Japan the integration of different household appliances with computer
operating systems is in a nearby stadium. The production process of consumer
electronics gave me insight into the business discipline. The electronics companies
have well planned production lines in very clean factories where classical music
is taking care of the preciseness of the employees.
Lost decade
Despite ambition and discipline the Japanese economy is bubbling now for more
than ten years. The vocational program at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitshubishi, Angel
securities and Nomura securities gave me insight into several causes and effects
about the current economic situation. Before I pursue these matters I want to
mention that in a conjunctural phenomenon like the economy you cannot easily
distinguish the causes from the effects because they have mutual influences.
Protectionism
Japan has a very long history of being an autarchic and independent island.
Maybe that is a major reason for the protective manners of the country. In the
present-day globalized market I think protectionism is one of the most important
causes for ecomic recession. Japan is a participant of the World Trade Organization,
but for several reasons I think that it is still difficult for foreign companies
to operate in Japanese business. In the first place the Japanese government
pursues an import restrictive policy with certain import-embargo's and tarif
barrieres. With this policy Japan protects his own internal market. European
government organizations for example are obliged to public tender. This means
that when a government organization wants to purchase a large amount of products
or start a extensive project international companies can offer these assigments.
Another form of protectionism in Japan is the internal legislation of supply
chain. In certain industries suppliers are not allowed to choose their own purchase
and sale channels. They have to deal with other retailers or wholesalers. One
example is a big French retailer who got in trouble in Japan last year, when
the company wanted to import their own merchandise and sell it directly on the
market. In Japan you have to deal with a structure of authorized import-organizations
and wholesalers. Other market participants, like the French retailer, are interferred
by this in their business policies.
Regulation
Another major cause of the decline is the government regulation of the market
forces. Various regulation systems and practices that were reasonable in the
past have become impediments and are imposing heavy burdens and high costs.
Next to medical care and social security, mainly the legislation of the labour
market is a high cost structure. Despite of the technical possibilities for
automated and efficient production processes, many companies are holding back
the implementation of such advanced systems because of the formal and cultural
rules in the labour market. Lifetime employement and promotion based on ancienity
are still very usual matters in Japan. So companies are making high costs for
technical development and efficiency, but the personnel costs will not fall
because there is a low turn of employees and dismissal is no regular subject.
Branche seperation
The last cause of recession I want to mention is the quite strict branche seperation
in Japan. In the different branches of industry there is a strong cooperation
and dependency between producers, banks and also government. The different National
banking organization are fixing their financial products and services on fixed
branches of industries. This construction leads to lack of competition between
the commercial banks and a mutual dependency between producers and banks. The
producing companies will get high debt levels and banks will become insolvable
because of their inprofitable loans. Finally the government is paying the price.
Namely in the current situation the national government is a guarantor for the
outstanding loans from banks.
High prices and low profits
The major effect of the economic situation is the high price level in Japan.
High prices lead to a low spending level of consumers as well as business organizations.
For foreign investors it is also very difficult to settle down in such climate
. Next a low spending level has a deep influence on the return on investments.
The production capacity will become too large and in comparison with other fixed
costs the personnel costs will become too high. Falling profits and return on
investments have a bad influence on the value of property and production means.
Individual people and professional businesses no longer have room for capital
investments, through which the value of these long term assets will go down.
This is what also happened in Japan. The value of private houses went down half
way in ten years and also groundprices in downtown Osaka went down from US $
175,000 per squaremeter in the early nineties to about US $ 80,000 nowadays.
Second biggest economy
In spite of the long term economic problems, Japan is the second biggest economy
in the world and is definitely a very rich country. In 2000 the Gross Domestic
Product amounted to US $ 4.2 trillion and the national trade balance was US
$ 100 billion positive. The major exportproduct of Japan is ofcourse the car.
Other major exportproducts are consumer electronics and photograph appliances.
The total export profit amouted to US $ 470 billion in 2000. By a lack of natural
resources Japan is importing eighty percent of its fossil fuels. Next are semi-manufactured
articles as mobile phone displays and food major importproducts of Japan. The
richness of Japan for instant can be seen in the business areas of Osaka. We
visited several companies like the Inceneration plant and the Conventioncenter
(Grand Cube) which are lokated in very exciting building.
Future forecast
During our stay in Japan the Liberal Democratic Party chose mister Junichiro
Koizumi as the new prime minister of Japan. Koizumi is a right wing liberal
politician who has strong intentions to give new impulses to the restructuring
of the economy. He wants to deregulate government influences in case of labour
so that the natural turn of employees will be stimulated. Reduction of working
hours will be introduced to low down the unemployement rate. Deregulation of
the legislation of trade is another policy that will be executed. This will
stimulate the market forces and will bring stronger national and international
competition. To stimulate the consumer spending level, the current cabinet is
also intending to lower the income tax. In comparison with The Netherlands,
the current income tax rate in Japan is with 20% already very low. The average
income tax rate in The Netherlands is about 40%. Next to the government also
the commercial businesses are restructuring their policies. Japanese companies
were used to produce a wide scale of different products. Because of this, Japanese
companies are complex organizations with high fixed costs and expensive productions
means. During the present globalizion the Japanese multinationals are going
back to core their business. They are expanding their supply chain, which is
good for cost prices and competition. Companies are also trying to reduce their
production capacities.
The economic recession in modern and hardworking Japan has already been of far too long duration. Japan has always been a leading player in the international business and I am convinced that the present measures of the Japanese cabinet and commercial business will bear fruits in the near future so that the economy will flourish again.
Sportscenters for disabled
My last vocational day I spent at two sportscenters for disabled. I was surprised
about the presence of that kind of accommodations for disabled. I have a disability
myself and used to be an active sportsman, but I never practised sports in a
sportscenter especially for disabled. In Holland we try to integrate disabled
people in regular society as far as possible. Disabled people can have regular
jobs and therefore workingplaces will be adapted if necessary. Dutch sportscenters
are also adapted for disabled people. I learned that this is the same in Japan
nowadays. The idea of sportscenters for disabled dates back to the early seventies,
when disabled people were less integrated. In those days many disabled people
didn't practise sports or go out a lot at all. I am glad that things have changed
and that also in Japan disabled people have possibilities to function in regular
society nowadays. In one of the sportcenters I met some Japanese competitors
of the 1988 Paralympic swimming tournament in Seoul. This was a big surprise.
I was also a competitor in this tournament, so we exchanged our experiences,
looked at some photographs about Seoul and talked about the developing of sport
for disabled.
Conclusion
Writing this report I realise that the experiences become more explicit during time. I have had a great time during my stay in Osaka area. There were instructive meetings, various activities and a lot of fun. I wanted to discover this "mysterious" country by myself and I think I did. What I thought to know about Japan turned out to be true. Japan is very crowded, people are working very hard and Japanese people are exchanging namecards at the beginning of a meeting. But there is more. In cultural aspect as well as in economic aspect, Japan is a very rich country. Japan sees change to cherish old traditions and create a modern society at the same time. Sumo wrestling, kimono's and tea ceremonies are going hand in hand with mobile phones, car-navigationsystems and advanced productions methods. Japanese people are very polite and maybe a bit shy, but they are also warm, have a very curious mind and are very interested in foreign affairs and countries.
It was very special to me to join this study exchange. I want to thank the GSE Committee of Rotary district 2660 for the great program they offered. I want to thank every person and every company that participated in the program. I want to thank my hostfamilies for the warm welcome and great hospitality and I want to thank our teamleader Henk Veenbergen and the other team members for the great time I spent with them.
Marco Elout.
