ANSWER The Economist

In our study group (ESG), we have read the Economist for a year. We share ideas and opinions by discussing various topics they have proposed to us. Especially after the disaster in 3.11, they often focus on Japan and its issues. We appreciate their consideration. 
What can we respond to them? Our “ANSWER” project aims to make responses to their articles. This is our responsibility as the ones who live in this front-running country. Join us and send them our ANSWERS.


RULES

1. WRITE responses to picked up articles and SEND them to the editor via e-mail to letters@economist.com
2. The WINNER is the first one whose letter is placed on.


※The Economist has “Letters” section (Letters to the Editor) that introduce responses from readers both in papers and online. 

#2-19 Putin’s Russia [Dec 10th, 2011]

Putin’s Russia [Dec 10th, 2011]

ESG Review 19 season2 last

Saint-Marc Café in Kanda. Dec 18th, 2011 10:00-12:00

Ogawa, Iino, Kurasawa and Sugahara

http://www.economist.com/printedition/2011-12-10

[Business][Macau’s gambling industry] A window on China

[Business][Biotech patents] Taking it personally

*[Conflict in the Middle East] Nuclear Iran, anxious Israel

(1)  What does an offshore gambling mecca reveal about business in China?

(2)  What do you think of personalized medicine? Do you accept? What will the effect to the industry?

(3)  Do you agree or disagree with patents on ways of diagnosis?

(4)  What is the nuclear weapon for the world’s peace? Why is it the “ultimate weapon”? 

This was the last discussion of 2011.  

#2-18 Africa rising

ESG Review18 Africa Rising

11th Dec, 2011 10:00-12:00 Saint-Marc Café in Kanda

Ogawa, Iino, Ido, Sugahara, Kurasawa and Mizutani

[Leaders] Africa Rising

[Business][Business education] Field of dreams

[Finance & Economics][Bank funding] The dash for cash

Afghanistan and the West

We gathered at Kanda for the first time. Kanda is for me very convenient location because it’s near from my room. And it is also good for us that Kanda on Sunday is quiet because few people come to this place on weekend so we can use enough space in the café. We continued to speak all in English this week. At first we worried that we couldn’t discuss substantial contents in case we don’t use mother tongue but we came to think that we couldn’t tell anything to the people outside Japan if we don’t use English. This is a practice to tell someone what we are thinking now.   

I picked up "The dash for cash". 

Bank funding

The dash for cash

Europe’s troubled banks are running out of money

Why I picked up the article:

Banking system is linked between countries and regions. I’d like to know their current situation to prepare for the worst possible case.

Summary:

European banks are facing with an investor strike so they are putting a halt to new loans and selling and pawning all they can. Unless the investor strike lifts soon, Europe risks a credit crunch. At worst, there may even be bank runs and failures (so we need a more action).

(1) Bank bond markets that provide the longer term and stable funding have frozen up almost completely for European banks.

・ Shifts from unsecured to secured bonds (which are backed by assets)

・ Bond sales €17 billion (2011) ⇔　€120 billion(2010)

Links between banks and governments

・ Now governments are leaning on banks to keep buying their bonds (which is different from 2008)

(2) Short term interbank markets or money markets are also drying up.

・ American money-market funds, which were a bog source of dollars in European banking system reduced loans 40% over the past six months.

・ Banks are reluctant to lend to one another except for the shortest possible time, usually overnight.

A ”nightmare scenario”

・ the trickle of deposit leaking from banks in peripheral countries turns into a full-flood bank run.

(3) A need for more action by central banks

・ New measures to ease a shortage of dollars in banking system.

・ Longer term loans by ECB (over one year)

・ Government guarantee for bank debt

#2-17 Is this really the end? [Dec 4th, 2011]

ESG Review17

December 4th, 2011 10:00-12:00 Ochanomizu New Yorker’s Cafe

Ogawa, Shimada, Iino, Sugahara, Tomozawa, Mizutani and Takase

[Science and technology][Science in Japan] Where rats and robots play

[Climate change] Good news at last?

[Britain][The economy] Autumn leaves falling

[South Asia’s water] Unquenchable Thirst

This week we gather at Ochanomizu for the first time. I chose the place is because it is near from Hongo campus where I went to after the group. 2 new comers joined this week. Mizutani is a colleague of Iino working for an energy industry. He is good at English because he studied for a year in Canada. Takase is a guy who found our group on facebook and approached to join us. He is an enthusiastic person working in IT venture and has bright ideas. Sugahara-san prepared her discussion paper for the first time. She is a professional translator so I asked her to advice us from her professional point of view.

We discussed almost all topics in English for the first time as a trial. Unexpectedly, we could manage our discussions without any troubles or difficulties. We decided to continue this attempt on the next week. Following topics we discussed:

[Science in Japan] 
The Economist says that Japan is a country with one of the most rigit hierarchies in the world. Do you agree with this view?

[Climate change] 
(1) What do you think of this article? Do you think it is trust worthy? (2) If so, how this evidence contributes to the international politics over climate change? Can rich countries justify their regulation towards emerging countries? (3) Also how these evidence influence firm’s behavior?

[The Britain’s economy] 
What are the similarities and differences between situations in Japan and Britain? Japan’s fiscal condition seems worse than Britain. What kind of policy should Japanese government apply?

[South Asia’s water] 
Let’s discuss how to cope with the shortage of water in the world. Is the water terminal survival for us?

After the discussion, we went to eat lunch at Ochanomizu. I frequently came here in my high school days to join a clam school. One of the friends of the clam school is now in America studying in university. She is a hard worker and enthusiastic about her study. Ochanomizu is a place where we got to know how to cultivate ourselves to brighten our life by study.

#2-16 The magic of disaporas [19th Nov, 2011]

The magic of disaporas [19th Nov, 2011]

November 27th 2011 10:00-12:00

Ueno Renoir

Iino, Ogawa, Kurasawa, Yamagata, Ido, Murakami, Sugahara and Tomozawa

Articles we discussed

[Leaders][The Euro crisis] The German problem

[Leaders][Free trade in the Pacific] A small reason to be cheerful

[Asia][America in the Asia-Pacific] We’re back

[Asia][China’s economy] Fearful symmetry

[F&E][Japan’s economy] Whose lost decade?

In contrast to a week before, eight people gathered this week in Ueno. Several Renoir café is located in Ueno. We used the one near from Ueno Park. For the first time, Murakami prepared his handouts and made his presentation about China’s economy. Some members presented in English but most of our discussion was in Japanese.

The first article Ido picked up was about the important role of German to settle the Euro crisis. Many of German’s economic establishments think that big rescue is not good for the dull southern governments such as Greece so if Mrs Merkel wants to save euro by buying bonds or other ways, she must challenge them in her country. Ido questioned us about German’s merit to rescue other countries. As the article mentioned, German certainly enjoyed Euro economy. They got advantages from euro exchange rate and got profits by expanding their trade. We also discussed German’s responsibility and the similarity between Euro crisis and Southern America’s crisis decades ago.

TPP was a hot topic this week so Ogawa and Kurasawa picked up articles related to America and the Pacific. We discussed much about protectionism and free trade policy. We mostly agreed the decision of Japan to join TPP discussion but some concerned of influences to medical industry, agriculture and livestock industry. Ogawa also pointed out based on the article that we have to understand TPP not only as an economical issue but also security issue. America admits China’s “peaceful rise” of their economy but America is also considering power balance between the Pacific. The region is the world’s most economically vibrant region, which proved to be the source of the greatest threats to security over coming decades. China is at the heart of things.

Our next discussion focused on China’s worsening economy. Murakami pointed out China’s dilemmas. Because of the Euro crisis deepen, china’s economic tightening is over and its easing has begun. (EU accounts for a fifth of China’s economy) However, they fear housing bubble burst because of the tightening. We understand the world is connected each other and China’s economy is also challenging situation.

The last article Yamagata chosen describes positive aspect of Japan’s economy. He picked up it because he wanted to make it clear what is a solution for Japanese fiscal problem by seeing positive side. The article mentions that Japan is suffering from “Structural pessimism”. And it focuses the strong points that Japan has. Yamagata commented that he agrees to the idea that it is better to compare Japan with US and Europe than China. But he also said that he disagrees to the too positive observation of the article.

Even on Sunday morning, this Renoir café was crowded with people. This might be because the place the café is located is convenient for most of the people who have something to do in Ueno. A party of eight people was larger than expected so we have to consider if more people come to join the study group.

#2-15 That’s all, falks [12th Nov, 2011]

That’s all, falks [12th Nov, 2011]

Shibuya ON THE CORNER – NO.8 BEAR POND 20th Nov, 2011 10:00-12:00
Ogawa, Yamagata and Shimada

What we discussed:

[Briefing][South Korea’s economy] What do you do when you reach the top

[Special report: Europe and its currency][The causes] A very short history of the crisis

This week we gathered at Shibuya after a long time. A friend of mine introduced me the café last week so we decided to use it right away. BGM was a little bit loud but it was comfortable to sit and talk in this space. Some of our members couldn’t join us so we were only three but we started our discussion as usual.

The first article Ogawa picked up was “What do you do when you reach the top” from Briefing. This article is about South Korea’s economy and as the title implies, it says that South Korea needs new tactics and innovation because it has already reach the top of the world economy like EU and Japan. The reason Ogawa chose the article to was that he wanted to focus on difference between Korean and Japan’s current situation and to discuss what we Japanese have learned from mistakes in the lost two decades that Korea didn’t have experienced. The situation of Korea looks similar to Japan in 80’ and 90’. As Korea, we also need innovation and new tactics to make it realized. But we had already 2o years after we reached to the top like Korea confronts now. Is Japan changed to be a front-runner? If we already changed our economy from a follower to a front-runner, we might get some new experiences and learning that Korea doesn’t have. We discussed mainly on problems and hardships of Korea’s economy. We can easily find faults with a neighbor but its difficult to find ourselves’. 

The second article was from special report on Europe and its currency. From several articles, Shimada picked up “A very short history of the crisis”. He chose it to comprehend euro zone crisis and to discuss the solution for it. The article mainly criticizes Germany attitude towards the crisis and insists that Germany should contribute and take a responsibility mentioning low interest rates and profitable trade that they have enjoyed for a decade. The economist thinks the only solution for the problem rests on German’s shoulder. Shimada pointed out another interesting discussion point: If the low interesting rate is one of the main factor for the euro crisis, is Japan also fell into the same crisis in near future? We followed the current situation of Japan’s debt and concluded we need to continue following the topic.

Our discussion sometimes goes into a demonstration of each person’s knowledge. This doesn’t favorable style. I want to make our discussion, so to speak, a battle of values, ethics and morals. What we encounter is the problem we couldn’t find the right solution easily. There is no right answer for such a kind of problem. All we need is to choose our way to step forward. To make a decision, we follow our own compasses such as sense of values, morals and ethics. This is our aim in our discussion.

#2-14 The missing middle [Nov 5th, 2011]

The missing middle [Nov 5th, 2011]

Yoyogi Renoir Nov 13th, 2011

Ono, Ogawa, Tomozawa, Tsuji and Sugahara

Articles we discussed:

[Leaders][A euro referendum] Greece’s woes

[Asia][Banyan] Echoes of dreamland

[Business] Land of the wasted talent

5 people gathered this week including 2 guests as observers. Tsuji is a friend of Ono and he met Ogawa once before graduate. He is working at a governmental financial organization. Sugahara joined us for the second time and she met Ono for the first time. We discussed 3 articles, which is the fewest among our recent discussions. We could discuss and share our thought using enough time.

The first article we followed was “Greece’s woes” from Leaders. Ono picked up the article because he was interested in a word “Political capital” introduced in this article. This word is new for me. It means the power that popularity confers on a politician. We had two discussion points. The first is evaluation of “comprehensive package” to save the euro, arranged on October. The second is political capital of our government to realize reconstruction of the economy. We also mentioned a possibility of a tax increase and a national debt failure.

The second article we discussed is “Echoes of dreamland” from Banyan. “Five Power Defense Arrangement”(FPDA) consist of 5 countries, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Britain. This arrangement concluded in 1971 during a cold war and still work as a multilateral security agreement with an operational dimension. Ogawa picked up the article to see not only economic agreement such as TPP but also security agreements around Asia.

Last article Tomozawa picked up was “Land of wasted talent” from business. The topic of the article is a demographic catastrophe and Japanese firms. As we already know, Japan’s population of 127m is predicted to fall to 90m by 2050. As recently as 1990, working age Japanese outnumbered children and the elderly by seven to three. By 2050 the ration will be one to one, which cause labor shortage. We mainly discussed based on a opinion of Ms. Sugawara. She introduced us the realities and difficulties of raising children and she mentioned that the discussion of the article was like “an armchair theory”. It was interesting discussion because usually we discussed among the same generation but today didn’t.

It was a second time we use Renoir in Yoyogi. This place is not crowded so we can easily get seats for members. Tomozawa and Ogawa changed their presentation in English. It always impressed us that Ono prepares advanced argument based on his macro economic knowledge. I think I should prepare for the discussion much more.

#2-13 Europe's rescue plan [Oct 29th, 2011]

Europe's rescue plan [Oct 29th, 2011]

Sendagaya Good Morning Café Nov 6th, 2011

Ogawa, Yamagata, Tomozawa, Miyabe, Murakami and Sugahara

Articles we discussed:

[Japan’s free-trade dilemma] Yes, it should

[Briefing] [Hedge fund in Asia] The crocodiles are coming

[Finance &Economics][Student loans in America] Nope, just debt

This week we gathered at Sendagaya, Good morning café. We had a guest this week. Sugahara-san is a lady who is a translator of National Geographic magazine. She found our group on the Internet and tried to make contact with us. We appreciate for her effort. Murakami joined us for the second time. We already know each other but I met him for the first time in this study group. 6 people gathered and we discussed mainly TPP, funding for students and briefly hedge funds.

The first article was about student loans in America. The article reckons that student loans in America could possibly be the next credit bubble. Ogawa chose it to know why they think it is and wanted to discuss who should pay the cost of education. Education benefits students themselves principally but also benefits the society as well. Parents are responsible for their children education when they are small. But whether parents are responsible for children’s college education or not is debatable. Our debate quoted the case of the university of Tokyo, which offers tuition free system for students from low-income households.

Secondly we moved to a topic of TPP. The Economist had not taken the topic in previous issues but this time the prime minister of Japan, Mr. Noda decided to join the discussion of TPP so they focused on the topic. Tomozawa made his paper summarizing approval argues and disapproval argues. The interesting point of our discussion was an exit strategy Japan might have. Investments for international project always have a withdrawal clause for the case the project turns out to be unprofitable. If we reckon TPP is not profitable to join, could Japan make a decision to withdrawal from the treaty? Does Japan have an exit strategy? Japan should have a kind of withdrawal clauses or principles that we can make negative deceptions.

Lastly we picked up the article about Hedge funds in Asia. Hedge funs see Asia as a new centre for their business. But they will have to work hard to make it so. We followed up the way of making profits by hedge funds. They hedge risks of a downturn trend. We also discussed social values of them.  Considering a market as a whole, we need them to keep liquidity of the market. But some argues that they are like evils that make no values to our society. We need more discussions about it.

This café located by the side of Tokyo gymnasium. So sometime we hit an athletic competition held in the gym. The café is crowded every time we use it. The day was also.

#2-11 Nowhere to hide [Oct 15th, 2011]

Nowhere to hide [Oct 15th, 2011]

Oct 23rd 2011 10:00-12:00 Ichigaya Renoir My space

Ono, Ogawa, Tomozawa, Saito, Kurasawa, Sotani, Miyabe and Yamazaki

Articles we discussed

[Leaders][Solar Power] Thou orb aloft full-dazzling

[Asia] Branding Japan as “cool” No limits, no laws

[International][Tax havens] Trouble Island

[Finance and Economics][Economic Focus] Realism rewarded

[Science and technology] Transporter of delight

We reserved a meeting room at Renoir for the first time. Members of the group increases so we are anxious about securing seats and comfortable environment for discussion. Renoir have meeting rooms around Tokyo so last week Ono, Ogawa and Yamagata decided to use a meeting room in Ichigaya for the study group. We had new comers this week. Miyabe, who is a friend of Tomozawa, working in a consulting firm and Yamazaki, who is a colleague of Ogawa came to join.

 We started from a solar power article Saito chose to discuss. The article insists two things. One is that solar power is now taking off and the other is that solar subsidies are wasteful. Tomozawa specialized in solar power inhis graduate school and Sotani is now struggling with renewable energy on her job so they leaded the discussion with various new ideas and information.

Second article we picked up was about “Cool Japan”. They introduce a striking picture of girls who are walking on Takeshita Street wearing strange colorful fashion, attached with words ”where Toyota failed...” I think this article is ironical because even though the headline “beautiful people join hands with bureaucrats” has a positive meaning, they don’t think the girls looks beautiful. The article introduce Japan’s“The Cool Japan Promotion Strategy Programme” promoted by METI. The whole context is favorable but as the title “No limits, no laws” suggests, they are doubtful of the strategy of bureaucrats who usually make regulations and rules.

Let’s follow remaining articles. Ogawa chose the third article about tax haven. “Haven” is different from “heaven”. But both meanings can be understood when we consider tax haven so we often take haven to heaven by mistake. Firstly we got ideas of the havens in shape. Then we made a brief debate about whether we should accept existence of tax havens or not. What would you say if you are “No” to tax havens? Debate was experimental but it was fan.

Ono picked up a column about two Novel Prize winners latest studies. He made a lecture of the winning and answered our question why they got prizes. He used a white board for the lecture. It was also new for us.

During his lecture the time was up because we had two hours reservation of the room but we still had one article from science and technology section. Kurasawa picked up “Transporter of delights”, which is about the genetics of happiness. She chose the article because we had discussed Brazilian optimistic attitude based on the article of Brazil economy. We moved to have a lunch and during the lunch we continued to discuss the topic. Most of us have curiosities and eager to learn new things.  

#2-10 The magician [Oct 8th, 2011]

The magician [Oct 8th, 2011]

Oct 16th 2011 10:00-12:00 Osaki Saint Marc Cafe

Ogawa, Ono, Iino, Tomozawa, Yamagata, Shimada, Saito, Kurasawa, Oshida and Nakamuea

Articles we discussed:

[Leaders] The magician

[Leaders][Echoes of 2008] Here we go again

[Leaders][Hope in Myanmar] A Burmese spring

[US][Free trade and the yuan] One step forward, one back

[Asia][Radiation in Japan] Hot spots and blind spots

[Finance and Economics] [Shorting China] Panda bears

[Science and technology] [Stem cells] The nuclear option

    This week we gathered at Osaki because Ogawa and Iino joined another The Economist readers group held in Osaki. It holds meetings from 8 a.m. on every Sunday. Goto-san introduced the group to us so we woke up a little early and joined them for the first time. The discussion was held only in English and the members were diverse. I will write about the experience on a next opportunity but it was so impressive and simulative experience for us and we got several ideas to improve our study group. In the earlier group, I met Oshida-san, who works at a governmental financial organization. We know each other because he held a study group a year ago and I joined it. Oshida-san came to join our group either as an observer. Nakamura-san, he was another observer, came to join us for the first time.

    We followed 7 articles this week. 7 articles are too much to discuss only in 2 hours. We should rethink how to manage our discussion when we have so many articles. The cover of this week was a photo of Steve Jobs, who died at the age of 56, presenting his new products at a conference. The impressive cover title was “The magician” from which we start our discussion. Tomozawa picked up it and made a brief presentation in English. He presented us his two discussion points: Where the strength of Jobs? (Why he was born in US?) And who are the next Jobs? (How about the future of Apple?) He had an anxious feeling of the current situation of Japan. Innovative people seem to be born in US not in Japan but why? We discussed the difference of Jobs and US from others and we shared several reasons. But I thought this reasoning was a trivial because a lot of possible reasons we can think of but none of them were certain. The only thing we could agree is that he was the magician and attracts the people in all over the world.

    Three articles on world economy were chosen this week. Ono picked up the first article, “Echoes of 2008”, which we already discussed the same kind of topics last several weeks. We followed up the current situation and discussed whether ECB lend to EFSF or not and what would be the problems they face when they decide to do it. Yamagata chose “One step forward, one back” from US section, which focused on a free trade principle and a trade relationship between US and China. His points at issue were the importance of economic partnership comparing to monetary policy and protectionism in US. He also pointed out a fact that The Economist didn’t take up discussions of TPP. Third article “Shorting China” was from Shimada. He said he would like to discuss the influence of fiscal crisis in developed economies on emerging economies including China. He pointed out a short selling on China is accelerated on the current situation.

    Other three members chose more diverse issues. Kurasawa picked up the case of Iidate, which is located 45km north from Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant. The article introduces that contaminated soil and trees in Iidate affects them for a long time. Kurasawa asked us what we do think of pulling up the standard of safe exposure. Ogawa picked up the article of Myanmar. Myanmar is changing their politics dramatically for the first time in decades. Ogawa insisted that even if the country had a potential of business and economical development, we should be in mind of their attitude toward human rights. Iino chose “stem cells” from Science and technology section. He is working at Bio department in his ministry so he is interested in the topic. We got to know the difference between cloning, ES cells and iPS cells from his explanation.

    At first we were going to gather Renoir in Osaki but we couldn’t find it so we changed café to Saint Marc Café. 10 people gathered and most of them had their articles so it is difficult to discuss all of these articles in a short period of time. At previous group, we discovered several ideas to manage meetings in which over 10 people join. We have to make improvements in our group introducing their ideas.

Big society, not big government

中長期的に私達が取り組むべきissuesを取り上げるのはどうだろうか？

私たちの集まりを次のステップへと進めていくには、どんなことをしたら良いだろうか？　英国の政治家の話が参考になった。マーガレット・サッチャーは「小さな政府」構想を実現するため、自身が政権を担うずっと前より「小さな政府」に関する勉強会を続けていたそうだ。それが、彼女が首相として政策を矢継ぎ早に実現していくときに大変役に立っている。何事も大きなことを実現するためには、それなりの準備と時間がかかることを肝に銘じておくべきだ。今回は、一つのアイデアを提示したい。

（１）中長期的に私達が取り組むべきissuesを取り上げるのはどうだろうか？

理由

１）The Economistが取り上げる話題は単発的ではなく、時間をかけていくつかの話題を追っている姿勢が感じられるため、各々の記事を関連させて読み進めるべきである。

２）私達の勉強会でも、過去に取り上げたことのある話題が何度もディスカッション・トピックとして登場しており、一度整理してみたい。

３）今私達が取り組むべきは、世相を捕まえ世間の流行を追うことではなく、世界経済を低迷させ社会の安定を揺るがす構造的課題、中長期的に時間をかけて取り組むべき課題と向き合うことである。

４）私達が取り組むべき課題は、同世代に共通しており、産業横断的であり、かつ官民を問わない。勉強会の参加者は、高いモチベーションを持った２０代を中心に、産業や官民を問わず集まっており、勉強会の趣旨からしてもこうした課題を取り上げるのにふさわしい場である。

（２）いかなるissueを取り上げるべきか？

「財政再建」＝「人口減少社会の克服」

「経済成長」＝「新産業、リーディング・カンパニーの育成」

「財政再建と経済成長の両立」→「大きな社会（the Big Society）の実現」

ソブリン・リスクが世界を震撼させている。財政の健全化は、今や先進国共通の課題となった。欧州はギリシャのデフォルト危機をはじめとする国家債務問題が共通通貨ユーロの行く末を暗くしている。米国債も同じくデフォルト寸前まで陥り格下げとなった。日本は世界第１位の国家債務残高を抱え、ますます進む高齢化と社会保障費の増大、動かない政治とリーダーシップの不在が先行きを不透明にしている。

抜本的なリストラクチャリングをもってしなければ、ソブリン・リスクはいつまでたっても私たちの生活を脅かし続ける。その目標や方策は各国によってそれぞれ異なるが、単なる数合わせの議論に終始するのではなく、より本質的な議論をすることが求められている。グローバル化が進展し、国家を超えた主体がテロリストとして人々の生活を脅かし、一方でグローバル企業が地球規模での事業展開を加速させ人々の生活を豊かにする中で、国家の位置づけが改めて問い直されている。私たちは国家にいかなる役割を期待し、また期待しないのかを議論することこそ財政健全化の第一歩である。

財政再建という課題を背負った先進国が、同様に頭を悩ませているのが経済成長の実現である。人口が頭打ちとなり社会が成熟期を迎える中、いかにして新産業を育成し、次世代を牽引するリーディング・カンパニーを輩出するか。社会の新陳代謝を促して活気をもたらし、人々が健康で文化的な生活を送ることができるよう雇用を生むことが経済成長の主眼であろう。経済成長を実現し、明日の社会を形作っていくのは私たちの世代の責務である。

英国で2010年政権の座に就いたキャメロン首相率いる保守党の「大きな社会」構想は、上記の課題と向き合い、次の社会を見つめる上で参考になるだろう。

http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2010/03/~/media/Files/Downloadable Files/Building-a-Big-Society.ashx

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/building-big-society

#2-9 Asia’s new model company [Oct 1st 2011]

Asia’s new model company [Oct 1st 2011]

Oct 9th 2011 10:00-12:00 Yebisu ANTICO CAFFE AL AVIS

Ogawa, Ono, Iino, Tomozawa, Yamagata, Shimada and Kurasawa

Articles we discussed:

[Leaders] [The world economy] Be afraid

[Leaders] [Vladimir Putin] The once and future president

[Economics & Finance][Economic Focus] Tinker, tailor

[International] [The changing adult business] At a XXX-roads

[Europe] [Charlemagne] Keep the fire burning

[Economics & Finance] [Tobin taxes and audit reforms] The blizzard from Brussel

We had a various kind of articles this week from Russia’s politics to an adult business. Two of us picked up the same article about Russia. Ono prepared his discussion paper based on his argument about growing industries and the role of government so his paper was favorably received. Yamagata made his discussion paper about EURO crisis handwritten. Iino bravely chose an article about adult business and he made a presentation in a loud voice in a refined Italian café. Shimada chose a column of EU. Impressive discussion we had this week.

Firstly we focused on the return of Vladimir Putin. As we all know, Mr. Putin is the leader of Russia even though he had resigned president once in 2008. Now he will win the election again. He told his United Russia party conference on September 24th that he would run for the presidency next march. We discussed mainly about the future of this “managed democratic” country. How will Russia change? What should Japan do? Kurasawa focused on their favor of dictatorship and controls on freedom of speech. She doesn’t think a dictator state can prosper for a long time and at some point they have to change their political system. There was a cold war in her mind when she mad her opinion. Tomosawa more focused on economic point of views. He was interested in the origin of power of Russia as a resourceful country, which he think is dictatorship.

Ono made his opinion based on the article from economic focus. He insists that not a public sector but a private sector pick growing industries and a public sector should more focus on deregulation than pick-the-winner policy. What matters is not whether governments can pick winners –they cannot- but whether they have the good sense to let losers fall by wayside. Fiscal reform and growing strategy both are the most important subjects we manage to do with. We should keep continue the discussion.

The article Iino picked up looks like he chose to make a joke but it was serious topic about adult business and IT. He was interested in it because an adult business is deeply rooted in human desire so it is one of the large industries so he wanted to know the circumstances. The article introduced us about “.xxx” domain. We mainly discussed influences of the domain on adult industry. The interesting point was that new types of technologies are also introduced and make developments in the industry.

Finally we follow the current situation of EURO crisis based on two articles; “The world economy: Be afraid” and “Keep the fire burning”. Many kinds of metaphors are used for the crisis. On these articles, these are a fire and a black hole. The economist always criticizes the absence of leadership among European leaders. What matters the most is to take a strong leadership to put out a fire by making consensus among people and countries.

We gathered at Yebisu for the first time. This town was refined and felt good when we sat on a table at a open café. We ate lunch in Udon restaurant near from the station. We talked about “Goucon” -parties with men and women. We concluded that to be friend with the opposite sex, activities such as golf, hiking and cycling are better than holding a drinking party.

#2-8 Hunting the rich [Sep 24th 2011]

Hunting the rich [Sep 24th 2011]

Oct 2nd 2011 10:00-12:00 Yoyogi Renoir

Ono, Ogawa, Tomozawa, Saito, Nagao, Yamagata, Shimada and

Articles we discussed:

[Leaders] Hunting the rich

[Leaders] Catching up is so very hard to do

[Special report] The game of catch up

[The Americas] [Protectionism in Brazil] A self-made siege

[Economics & Finance][Buttonwood] Pensions, Ponzis and Pyramids

[Leaders][Israel, Palestine and the United Nations] Yes to Palestinian statehood

    Almost a year has passed since I met Ono and Fujisaki in a restaurant in Marunouchi and decided to start reading the newspaper. The first discussion on October was held in Yoyogi, which is famous for Yoyogi cramming school. All the members of this week were male and most of them were strangers each other. Macro economical issues were the main topic of the discussion especially about catching up emerging economies. One article about Palestinian statehood Ogawa picked up raised a different type of discussion on this week.

    The article Ono picked up was “hunting the rich”. It mainly focuses on the hunt for more tax from the wealthy in developed countries. From this week, we changed the style of discussion according to Mr.Goto’s advice. So Ono first presented reasons for picking up the article and showed us his suggestion. He emphasized that it is a basic policy to make economic growth and fiscal reconstruction compatible with each other. He objected to the abolition of taxation on naphtha and the enlargement of base of taxation. We picked up “Buffett rule”: ensuring that no house hold making more than $1m a year pays a lower average tax rate than “middle-class ” families do. We cannot avoid discussing tax reconstruction when we really want to make fiscal reconstruction so we should more focus on this topic in the following discussions.

    “Catching up is very hard to do” and “The game of catch up” are both about the problems of emerging economies. Yamagata said the reason of choosing this article that was to summarize the problems of emerging countries. He also picked up “Middle-income country trap” (tricky middle-income stage of development). Saito asked us an influential map in 2031. Why these articles are interesting is that these are focusing on weakness of emerging economies. We tend to focus on strangeness of these because it is attractive. But there are two sides on things so the balance is important. Tomozawa picked up a related article from Americas section. “A self-made siege“ is focusing on protectionism in Brazil. Brazil is popular as an object country of investment. Investment trusts for Brazil become so popular these days and the currency came to be strong. As investments for the country come to be hot, the government becomes cautious against a bubble. We also looked at rankings of trading and investment.

    Shimada picked up an interesting column, ”Pentions, Ponzis, and Pyramids ” from Bottomwood. This article looks upon Social Security as a Ponzi scheme or as a Pyramid scheme. Shimada asked us where this analogy was correct or not, especially in Japan’s case. He also focuses investment policies of pension-fund in western countries. The article criticizes that these funds invests not in emerging markets but only in their countries’ markets. Social Security system is related to tax issues as we saw at the first article. We should continue to discuss with it either.

    Lastly we followed today’s Israel and Palestine issue. Ogawa picked up the article to make clear the situation. We know there is an international issue on the region but we don’t know so much about who involves and how the problem is complicated. Following the core of international relationship we could understand foreign affairs better than before.

    This week we gathered at Renoir in Yoyogi. I don’t like the café so much because of smoke and old-fashioned interior but it is convenient to stay for a while to discuss or to study. Moreover they have meeting rooms with whiteboards in several café around Tokyo. We are thinking to use them next time.       

#2-7 How to save the euro [Sep 17th 2011]

#2-7 How to save the euro [Sep 17th 2011]
Sep 25th 2011 10:00-12:00 Marunouchi Renoir
Iino, Yamagata, Shimada, Saito,

Articles discussed this week
[Leaders] How to save the euro
[Leaders][American health care in limbo] Justice delayed
[Briefing][The cost of breaking up] After the fall
[Economics & Finance] [Economic focus] Prices or jobs

   I have joined this study group from the start without absent but I was absent for the first time on this week. Iino was the host of this week and Yamagata came back to Tokyo so he joined us again. Saito invited his friend as a guest, who is a bio chemical major. It is impressive for me that this study group continues to be held without Ono and me because one of the aims we discussed in April was systematization. We have tried to prepare the process of decision of dates, places and articles we discuss aiming at every member being a host of discussion. We made a website to show the process of our discussion and a facebook group to make a communication among members and a google spreadsheet to gather participation and articles we discuss. There is much room for improvement of management of our group so we are going to revision the spreadsheet to keep the record of our discussions.

#2-6 The quest for jobs [Sep 10th 2011]

#2-6 The quest for jobs [Sep 10th 2011]

Sep 18, 2011 10:00-12:00 Gaienmae Dean & Deluca Aoyama

Members: Ogawa, Ono, Tomozawa, Kurasawa, Saito and Goto

Article we discussed:

[Leaders] The quest for jobs

[Special report] The great mismatch

[Leaders] The new special relationship

[Middle East and Africa][Israel and Turkey] Can it get worse?

    A special guest came to join this week. Mr. Goto, who is elder than us, found our website weeks before and contacted us to join our group. He already read the newspaper for several years so he knew much about its style and opinion. He has joined another economist readers’ group held in Gotanda several times so he advised us about the management of our group comparing characteristics of the two groups. His advice was so helpful so we are going to improve our discussion based on his advice.

    We have a fewer articles this week so we could discuss each topic taking much time. But sometimes our discussion got lost because each of us spoke what we wanted. We should be aware what we are discussing now and a facilitator should control the discussion to find the way to our conclusion.

    The first topic we discussed about was joblessness of the West. The Economist on this week had a special report about the topic. Our discussion was based on two articles, one from Leaders and another from special report. “The quest for job” from Leaders makes several proposals that politicians should do for reducing high unemployment levels of the West. The immediately priority should be supporting demand. To strike a bargain with the bond market in medium term and to stimulate the economy in various ways in short term are what they are expected. The Economist also insists demand side policies are also important. It suggests that labor market policies themselves can make huge difference because the new technology and globalization change demand for skills. A focal point of our discussion was an evaluation of Obama’s “Green New Deal” as a demand stimulus policy.

    The next article, “The great mismatch” explains about high unemployment rate focusing on a key word, “a natural rate of unemployment”. The rate stays on a high level compared to a decade ago because of globalization and the new technology. Saito made his discussion paper for the first time and he putted several referendums on his paper. It was helpful for the discussion. We had better follow his example.

    As an impressive cover picture of a tiger and a bulldog facing each other shows, the second topic we discussed was about emerging-market firms and Britain. Around 4 centuries ago, British capital went to the East but now capital is flowing the other direction. Britain is attractive for firms in emerging countries for four reasons; relatively open economy, expertise, brand and easy access to the city of London. We mainly discussed the case of Japan. Japan is relatively closed economy for immigrant workers and foreign capital. But attractiveness of Japan is similar to Britain especially expertise and brand. An interesting episode Kurasawa showed us is that “Made in Japan” is valuable in cosmetics industry because it guarantees qualities of products. For such reason, they gather materials from over the world and produce cosmetics in Japan. This episode is a unique hint for the future industry of Japan.

    Lastly Tomozawa picked up Israel and Turkey issues. He said he paid attention to Turkey because of its geopolitical importance. We didn’t know relations between Israel and Turkey have worsened or even didn’t imagine there have been relations between the two countries. So his choice was impressive for us. W discussed mainly the geopolitical and economical position of Turkey. Turkey is located in the Middle East of Asia but also on the edge of Europe being close to Russia. Securities of this region do not only related to this region but also effect over the world broadly. The existence of NATO get the relations more complicated. 

    At the end of the discussion, we shared ideas to improve our discussion. First, we should read a lot. The quality of output comes from the quantity of input. Second, put discussion topic first. We already read the articles before gathering, so we should more focus on a discussion itself than summarizing it. Thirdly, we had better state why do we pick up the articles. This was a hot sunny day and there was a festival in Gaienmae. From the next day the climate changed to dramatically cool. So the day was the last day of this summer.

#2-5 Ten years on [Sep 3rd 2011]

#2-5 Ten years on [Sep 3rd 2011]

Sep 11th, 2011 Shinjuku Paul Bassett

Members: Iino, Ono, Ogawa, Ido and Kurasawa

Articles we discussed:

[Leaders][Infrastructure project] The great train robbery

[Business][Doing business in Brazil] Rio or Sao Paulo?

[Business][Schumpeter] Angst for educated

[Britain][Food prices and mergers] Hard to swallow

    Ten years have passed since the tragic terrorist attack hit NY and six months since the disastrous earthquake hit the north east of Japan. We gathered in Shinjuku on this memorable day. Kurasawa, who is a friend of Iino came to join us for the first time. She is working for a cosmetic company and lives in Gotenba in which her company’s factory is located. She comes back to Tokyo every weekend so she can join us. We discussed on four articles and talked on our jobs. I am going to review our discussion briefly.

    The first article picked up by Iino was “The great train robbery” from Leaders section. This article focused mainly on Britain’s high-speed train project, which connects London and northern Britain in a few hours. This newspaper’s opinion is presented clearly on its topic sentence; ”High-speed rail lines rarely pay their way. Britain’s government should ditch its plan to build one.” They opposed to the project. We mainly discussed whether it is only the case of Britain or also applicable to any cases we have heard over the world. This topic was sensitive and interesting for us Japanese because Japan puts up infrastructure exportation as a growth strategy and a high-speed railway is one of the most valuable strategic assets.

    Secondly, we focused on Brazil. The article “Rio or Sao Paulo?” showed us that Rio de janeiro became to be attractive for business for the first time in decades comparing with a well known business city, Sao Paulo. I have been to Sao Paulo and met several Japanese Brazilian managers. They all have a positive outlook on their country so I remember I was impressed from their attitudes. Such brightness we mainly discussed about. It looks similar to the atmosphere of Japan in 1960’s. Ono said it comes from economic growth. This was simple and persuasive answer but we have to keep in mind that brightness cast shadow at the same time. We should look at not only bright side but also dark side of the country.

    Third article was close to us because we all are university graduates and working on “white color“ jobs for several years. The number of people who are educated is growing especially in developing countries. They compete with Europe’s or American educated people who are working at medical, legal and finance companies. The educated also suffer from IT development. Professional tasks easily can be replaced by software especially data processing tasks. This kind of topic is picked up several times on this newspaper. Our discussion made us to reconsider the values of our jobs.

    The last article picked up by Ido is about food prices and mergers in Britain. She is working at Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries so she is interested on this issue. This topic is related to the issue of competition and fairness in a market. Mergers make a monopoly and intervene fair competition among players. This article considers the reason of food price inflation in Britain. The main two possible causes are an oligopoly and imported inflation. We discussed right and wrong an oligopoly market and price controllers of the market.

    After the discussion we ate lunch at the restaurant on the top of the nearest building. The view from there was splendid and the place was comfortable to eat together. We talked about our daily life and work. What we enjoyed most was the talk of love affairs. 

#2-4 Going, going... [Aug 27th 2011]

#2-4 Going, going... [Aug 27th 2011]

4th Sep, 2011 Marunouchi DEAN DELICA

 Members:

Ono, Ogawa, Iino, Nagao, Tahara, Tomozawa, Sotani, Kanno, Shimada and Saito. 

10 people gathered this week.

Articles we discussed:

[Leaders][Immigration] Let them come

[Briefing][Libya] The birth of free Libya

[Asia][Politics in Japan] Sixth time lucky?

[Middle East and Africa] www.africa.slow

[International] Moving out, on and back

[Finance & Economics][Alternative indicators] Behind the bald figures

[Finance & Economics][Economic focus] Changing target

     We gathered at Marunouchi on this week for the first time. Marunouchi is the most refined business district in Tokyo on weekdays and also fashionable place especially on weekend. People gather there to eat fine meals, go shopping, enjoy arts and do exercises. We had two new comers on this week’s study group. Kanno who is working for a foreign-affiliated financial firm, found our study group by net surfing. He searched a group of reading the economist and checked over 20 websites and finally reached our website. Saito is a friend of Ogawa and Shimada. We joined a student organization named AIESEC during our college life. He is good at English because he went to do an internship in India for a year.

    We picked up and discussed 7 articles on 6 topics. Follow up our discussion briefly. First, we discussed two articles about a new trend of immigration. In the economic crisis like we are suffering right now, emigration declines because economic decline takes their jobs. The opinion of the article is clear on its title, “Let them come”. They insist that even economic crisis continues to burden their nation’s employment, immigrants bring skills, energies, ideas and willingness to work that boost productivity and encourage innovation. Especially because immigration becomes temporary and there is global competition from the East for them, the article insist that the West should be more welcoming to migrants. We first brought international students’ case we experienced in our life one by one. But that’s not a serious case because they don’t take many jobs from local people but bring merits much more. So we shifted to discuss the matter of workers.

     The next topic politics in Japan was written before Noda was elected as a prime minister. What were interesting on this article were phrases for introducing candidates of the election. Mr. Maehara was called a train spotter. Mr. Kaieda was a cabinet minister who burst into tears in parliament. Mr. Noda was somebody who exonerates war criminals. We enjoyed such ironical ideas.


     Then, we changed a topic and discussed the issue of African poor Internet access reading the example of Sierra Leone. Our discussion tends to incline to Japan’s case because we are Japanese but I think we should focus on foreign issues much more. To focus on foreign issues and discuss is hard to do because we should imagine things that have nothing to do with us.

     Lastly, we picked up two articles from Finance & Economics section. “Behind the bald figures” is a humorous article aiming to find another BicMac index. Many unreliable but innovative ideas that indicate economic outlook are presented on the article. “Changing target” is a more serious article focusing on the policy of a central bank. They set inflation target on their monetary policy. The article presents the idea of changing the target to nominal GDP and verifies it. They conclude the idea is questionable but such a challenging idea is interesting to know.

     The café we gathered this week opens at 10 am so some of us waited outside in a few minutes. Inside the café was comfortable and relaxing. We ate lunch together in Marubill near from the café. Most of us are strangers each other so we introduced ourselves during lunch. My aim is to manage this study group properly and attract enthusiastic people to make a positive impact on a society.