Governors Column （November / 2009）

Japan comprises only 1/400, a mere 0.28%, of all the land area in the world.  At the same time, in the last ten years 20.8% of the world's earthquakes measuring magnitude 6 or higher have occurred in Japan.  Even when this country is met by natural disasters, we have always responded calmly, helping one another, and recovering with extraordinary speed.  It makes me happy to consider that we are such a hardy and resilient people.

However, recently there have been some numbers that I have found worrisome: national index numbers which have deteriorated in recent years.  These are the numbers which rank Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries.  The per-person nominal GDP of Japan ranked 12th in 2004, 15th in 2005, 18th in 2006, and was 19th by 2007. The relative poverty rate, which shows the economic disparity within the country, was 12% in 1985, putting Japan in 7th place.  In 2005, Japan rose to 4th place with 14.9%; there are only three other countries with higher relative poverty rates than Japan.

Again, in the indicators from 2005, the total cost of social welfare benefits was approximately 18.6% of the GDP, ranking 19th; the total cost of unemployment benefits compared to the GDP was 0.34%, ranking 22nd; and with 19.4 of 100,000 people taking their lives, Japan has the third highest suicide rate in the world.

But the numbers are not always dismal.  In 2007 Japan ranked first in the number of researchers in comparison to population and, including the private sector, second in research and development expenditures.  We are also second in the world for the number of patent applications.  This is why we are able to produce goods and parts of the highest standard in the world.  And Japan, long knowing the value of living with nature, should be able to use its advanced technological capabilities to lead a world that demands coexistence with the natural environment.

Public debate has begun again about how the wealth generated by the country should be reallocated to the people of Japan.  I believe that the key to the power of resilience, which restore these weakened national index indicators, is a stimulus policy that will bring out the power of the nation's people.  This is believing in the Japanese power of resilience.