Uniqlo founder Tadashi Yanai, chairman of Fast Retailing, said, “Open your eyes. “Japan, which has been dormant for 30 years, is not a developed country at all,” he said decisively.
In an interview with the American weekly magazine Time reported on the 13th, Chairman Yanai bitterly said that now is the time to tell the truth and denied the rosy economic outlook spreading in Japan.
He pointed out three factors that endanger the Japanese economy. These are: △unhealthy obsession with the manufacturing industry, △workers accustomed to inefficiently oversized companies, △budgets operated with enormous debt rather than collections, etc.
In fact, in December last year, the Japanese government approved the 2023 general accounting budget worth $858 billion (about 1,119 trillion won) despite the expected tax revenue being only $493 billion (about 643.7 trillion won). At this time, new government bonds issued amounted to $250 billion (approximately 326 trillion won).
Japan’s public debt is already the world’s highest at 264% of gross domestic product (GDP). When nominal wages in the United States soared 145% from 1990 to 2019, Japan only rose by 4%, and in terms of productivity, it ranks last among the seven major countries (G7).
Chairman Yanai emphasized that workers working in positions equivalent to those in Japan in Beijing and Shanghai are “receiving two to three times more compensation” than in Japan and that “there is a need to normalize the Japanese economy.”
Last March, he raised the wages of 8,400 Fast Retailing employees in Japan by up to 40%. Nevertheless, “it is still at a low level.” “It should be much higher,” he said.
There is no hesitation in criticizing the government. They go so far as to say out loud, “The government and officials don’t know anything.” He argued that the government should take proactive measures such as raising interest rates, cutting support allowances, and changing major regulations to prevent Japan’s 125 million people from falling into disaster.
Chairman Yanai expressed a sense of crisis, saying, “There is no future for the Japanese people if we do not expand into the world and become more proactive.”
He then criticized Japan’s sense of reality, saying, “There is a need to accept the reality that Japan is lagging behind other Asian countries.” She also presented an analysis saying, “Japanese companies are managed as if they are looking in the rear-view mirror.”
Japan’s investment rate in startup companies is only 0.08% of GDP, lagging behind the United States’ 0.64% and Israel’s 2.61%. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced last year that he would increase the number of startups in Japan tenfold by 2027.
Lastly, Chairman Yanai said that Japan’s unique business culture must be improved. This points out that opinions on the project are collected quietly and that communication, such as prior negotiations, takes place behind closed doors.
According to a business consulting firm in Tokyo, Chairman Yanai, who belongs to the “dictator” type, said, “The biggest drawback of Japan is the lack of individuality. “People must stand up for themselves,” he warned.
Time said, “Chairman Yanai’s remarks like this cannot be criticized as arrogance,” and pointed out that his self-made success was achieved through struggle, overcoming, mistakes, and suffering from self-doubt that he could not shake off. The title that appeared with Chairman Yanai on the cover that day was “The Rebel.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.