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Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
A COUNCIL FOR RECOVERY
Reform Japan starts getting serious, but it's a long haul
Outspoken A talk with the premier's adviser-in-chief
FOR ADVICE ON HOW TO REVIVE JAPAN'S bed-ridden economy, Obuchi Keizo knew whom to turn to. Formed soon after he became PM, his 10-member Economic Strategy Council spells success. Many Japanese found its line-up of business and academic figures impressive and refreshing. Its head, Asahi Breweries chair Higuchi Hirotaro, 72, is known for innovative management and credited with tripling his company's sales in six years.
Other panelists boast sterling records. Toyota president Okuda Hiroshi reformed the carmaker, giving it some of its best years ever. Suzuki Toshifumi, president of Ito-Yokado, made the supermarket group virtually the lone winner in Japan's retailing slump. Mori Building is also doing better than other real-estate developers; its president Mori Minoru, from the founding family, is also on the panel. So is one of the country's most successful female entrepreneurs: Terada Chiyono, founder of moving firm Art Corp. Rounding out the business bosses is West Japan Railway chairman Ide Masataka.
The panel's No. 2 is Nakatani Iwao, a professor of Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo and a popular media commentator known for outspoken views on economics and international politics. Two panelists are from the University of Tokyo: Takeuchi Sawako, the second woman, teaches engineering, and Ito Motoshige, economics. The fourth professor on the panel is policy management academic Takenaka Heizo of Keio University, also in the capital.
Being under the PM has buttressed the panel's clout and candor. On Oct. 14 it urged the speedy enactment of a banking law to channel tens of trillions of yen to ailing lenders. The body also pushed for "far more than 10 trillion yen" (over $80 billion) in real spending to stimulate the economy. In about a week, long-term policy suggestions are due - "a menu to help Japan get out of the minus growth in fiscal 1999." They will help shape a two-year economic revitalization scheme the government is to finalize by mid-December. Will the panel's ideas save Japan? That they are actually shaping policy is a good sign.
- By Murakami Mutsuko/Tokyo
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