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| by: Ken Banks http://bit.ly/h1ZrUE |
Mr. Jason Ball - Project Manager IT Infrastructure, Consulting at GoodPeople Japan
And from:
Mr. Andrew Brown - Senior Partner at Brown and Takezawa
Washington D.C. Metro Area Government Relations
this week more fuel was added by the auspices of:
Mr. Tamas Gecse - B.Sc. ITIL / ISMS / JPLT1
Experienced ITIL/ISMS/Project Management Professional, Japan Management Consulting
Here is the last part of this blog but please do not feel discouraged to rekindle the fire because I have plenty of mash-mellows in stock to enjoy with anyone who wishes to join and sit by the fire!
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Tamas Gecse
Good reporting. The situation is grim, and is getting grimmer by the day.
The Japanese government must stop firefighting and provide incentives to corporations to retain their operation in Japan. It is the same issue what the US faces with the undervalued Chinese currency.
Cesar Macher
That is not happening Tamas (firefighting to protect their "amakudari" interests is what they do)... since Junichiro Koizumi's failed economic reforms there has been systematic dumping of young graduates into to the temporary agencies lanes. These days, as reported on the article, 4 out 10 graduate seeking the job market are guided into a low wages future on a ever growing aging society. Manufacturing continues on exodus mode.
Tamas Gecse
You are absolutely right Cesar. The japanese people were not represented by a japanese government since the end of world war 2. The japanese government was simply a beneficial segment of society of the hard work japanese people for many decades. The Koizumi government's reforms were not aiming at to improve the life of the hardworking, tax-paying japanese people, but to improve the chances of a continued LDP rule. Koizumi has eventually made the japanese salary-man redundant. He has ensured, that Japan will never be Japan again. I am sadened, that his son is now also in the government (corruption at its best)! Father and son politics reminds me of North-Korea! The damage is done and Japan never will be the same again. Thank you Koizumi family and thank you all time japanese government.
Cesar Macher
Greetings Tamas, I have made an entry on my blog about the matter; here is the link: http://bit.ly/hOv0V3 . I feature a commentary by Andrew Brown from Washington DC that signals to the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel; he is very insightful and worth reading! I'd be glad if you post your opinion on my blog.
Have a good day. - Cesar
Tamas Gecse
Hi Cesar! I have read the blog. Indeed very insightful and full of bright thoughts. Yet sadly, I need to disagree with Andrew.
"While I agree that the transition away from life time employment and early hiring is going to be both painful and protracted I believe that the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel is getting closer."
I think we are transitioning away from employment itself and not the form of it. (Life-time or non life-time). I think jobs and wealth are migrating to new geographic locations, and they were never ment to stay in one place. With the advent of globalization we have made wealth and job opportunities mobile, and you hear quite often even from politicians that some jobs will never come back. Yes, we are in a tunnel, yes there is light on the end of it, if you are willing to be mobile yourself, and follow the tunnel which ever country it might take you.
This is a one way process, and as manufacturing and export is one of the greatest pillars supporting the Japanese society, without it I cannot imagine today's Japan.
What do you think?
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| Michele Ahin http://bit.ly/hSCzNS |
Thanks for asking where I stand Tamas. I am about to cut the discussion right in the middle between where you and Andrew stand. I hope that by doing that I will not be left standing under the sword of Damocles ready to split me in half for being conciliatory!
What we are observing in Japan these days is the accelerated crumbling of the most powerful manufacturing economy left in the “first world” – (I don’t think I’m too off the mark.)
The manufacturing exodus is so fast and new fledgling service economy replacing the old is so weak that it is not reabsorbing the workforce of thousands who could not catch their planes to follow, as you mentioned, their old jobs to wherever is they went.
Structural unemployment is the fancy word coined by economists that affect thousands of unemployable workers who lack the skills, education, experience, plus a few esoteric Japanese reasons based on age or gender that defines it. Realistically most will not make it back to the workforce meaningfully.
I wish I knew where we are heading for it seems that the manufacturing exodus is damaging the county more that it can take it. The value that justifies mere advantages gained by corporations investing in cheap labor elsewhere cannot longer be understood or measured in terms of return on investment or the bottom line. The world needs to move away from monetary gains as only measure of success… British politicians and intellectuals are talking a lot about “happiness” these days, a serious topic… money will soon be old fashioned!
Returning to our discussion, structural unemployment amalgamates the “structurally unemployable” masses created by the manufacturing vacuum. But what about the 4 out of 10 college graduates who are the ones best honed to succeed in the brave new world of services? Where do we place them, how do we define them? Sardonically, of course, these 40% will effectively end up in the service economy all right; that is, servicing as waitresses, part time office staffers, at gas stations or counters of 100 yen shops full of goods made in sweatshops throughout Asia!
As an optimist I will borrow Mr. Brown’s perspective now and hope that he is right in saying that the new service economy will eventually pick up the slack and produce jobs for everyone who was left behind in the wash. On top of that, I also wish that there will be enough resources left to provide dignified social services for the “structurally handicapped jobless-survivors” of today, who by then would have been aggregated to the aging group category… thank goodness that we are not discussing that today!
Furthermore I will have to rely on faith, (and read my thoughts on that) so that the subsequent governments will selflessly work to embrace policies that increase innovation and the knowledge base required to continue making world class products, and not the Galapagos sort that go no where else, plus the advanced services that will lead Japan to continuous prosperity.
Tamas Gecse
Cesar, I enjoy reading your post. They are much more insightful, deep-thinking, and enjoyable than most news magazines. You and David (Andrew) B. are some of the few who still know how to write this way.
Me, I always need to visualize what I am thinking about. As to Japan, I picture a bathtub, in which the water is getting quite old, and many hands pulling its plug. This hands are politicians and profit quizzing corporations. I do not blame them, all of us would do the same in their place. But I don't think that it can end in a rosey situation.
Jobless aging Japan will need to end in a huge and lasting social change, which will not happen in the usual quiet manner, but with a big bang. On the End there will be simply no where left to retreat for the Japanese salaryman or unemployed carreer-starter just a social upheaval.
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