Asia Policy Events, Monday October 27, 2025

GOING GLOBAL: JAPANESE ENTREPRENEURS BREAKING NEW GROUND. 10/27, 6:00-8:00pm (JST), 5:00-7:00am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Asia Society Japan. Speakers: Shun Matsuzaka, Asia 21 Class of 2024 Fellow; Co-Founder, TOY EIGHT; Shozo Kamiya, Founder and CEO, I'mbesideyou Inc.

CARIBBEAN BUILDUP: A RENEWED FOCUS ON COUNTERNARCOTICS AND HEMISPHERIC SECURITY? 10/27, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Americas Program, CSIS. Speakers: Ryan C. Berg, Director, Americas Program, CSIS; Juan Cruz, Senior Adviser (Non-resident), Americas Program and Director, Argentina-U.S. Strategic Forum, CSIS; Mark F. Cancian, Senior Adviser, Defense and Security Department, CSIS.

CHINA–ASEAN AT A CROSSROADS: NAVIGATING REGIONAL FUTURES IN AN ERA OF GREAT POWER COMPETITION. 10/27, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Asia Society Policy Institute. Speakers: Gita Wirjawan, Former Minister of Trade, Indonesia, Visiting Scholar, Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford; Bert Hofman, Non-Resident Honorary Senior Fellow, Center for China Analysis (CCA), Asia Society Policy Institute; Brian Wong, Non-Resident Honorary Fellow, CCA HKU-100 Assistant Professor in Philosophy, University of Hong Kong (HKU); Kevin Zongzhe Li, Affiliated Researcher, CCA.

BARGAINING WITH BEIJING: THE POLITICS OF CHINESE INVESTMENT IN AMERICA. 10/27, 11:30am-12:30pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Johns Hopkins. Speakers: Jeremy Lee Wallace, Political Scientist, A. Doak Barnett Professor of China Studies, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; Kate Logan, Director, China Climate Hub and Climate Diplomacy, Asia Society Policy Institute; Ted Fertik, Vice President, Manufacturing and Industrial Policy, Bluegreen Alliance.

JAPAN’S CORPORATE GOVERNANCE TRANSFORMED? FINANCIALIZATION AND CORPORATE PERFORMANCE IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE. 10/27, Noon-1:00pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Weatherhead, Program on US-Japan Relations, Harvard University. Speaker: Hideaki Miyajima, Professor, Faculty of Commerce; Executive Vice President, Waseda University; Moderator: Christina Davis, Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics, Department of Government; Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University.

JAPAN’S POLITICAL UPHEAVAL AND ITS IMPACT ON FOREIGN POLICY. 10/27, Noon-2:00pm (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Georgetown University. Speakers: Takashi Imai, Washington Bureau Chief, Yomiuri Shimbun; Ken Moriyasu, Washington Correspondent, Nikkei Asia; Sheila A. Smith, John E. Merow Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

THE IRANIAN NUCLEAR ROLLERCOASTER. 10/27, 1:30-3:00pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Harvard University. Speaker: Ariel E. Levite, Senior Fellow, Nuclear Policy and Technology and International Affairs, Carnegie.

UNPACKING RECENT SANCTIONS ON RUSSIAN OIL. 10/27, 3:00-4:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University. Speakers: Richard Nephew, Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University SIPA; Daniel Sternoff,  Senior Fellow, Head of Corporate Partnership Strategy, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University SIPA; Tatiana Mitrova, Global Fellow, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University SIPA.

SLOW TECH DRAGON: BALANCED ASSESSMENT OF CHINA'S ECONOMIC TRAJECTORY. 10/27, 5:00-7:00pm (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Weatherhead East Asian Institute; Jerome A. Chazen Institute for Global Business; China and the World Program, Columbia University. Speaker: Scott Kennedy, Senior Adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics, CSIS; Moderator: Thomas J. Christensen, James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations; Director, China and the World Program, Columbia University.

BOOK TALK: BREAKNECK: CHINA'S QUEST TO ENGINEER THE FUTURE. 10/27, 4:00-5:30pm (PDT), 7:00pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Hoover History Lab. Speaker: author, Dan Wang, research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. PURCHASE BOOK: https://amzn.to/3Jw3SbM 

Japan's Hostage Justice

 Abashiri Prison Museum

FORMER NISSAN CHAIRMAN ILLUSTRATES JAPAN’S NIGHTMARE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

By Jeff Kingston, Director of Asian studies at Temple University Japan, APP member and author of Japan (Polity History) and Contemporary Japan: History, Politics, and Social Change since the 1980s.

First appeared in the The Daily Caller, June 4, 2019

As G20 world leaders gather in Japan, they might spare a moment contemplating the fate of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn. His arrest has sent a chill through the international business community because his ongoing ‘prosecution’ by a steady drip of orchestrated media leaks smacks of bias. The prosecutors with the connivance of Nissan executives are trying the case in the court of public opinion, vilifying Ghosn and sending a strong message that he is guilty and stands little chance of being exonerated.

Too much face has been invested in taking him down to let some lawyer get him off. But how much face has been lost in the charade of his perp walk in handcuffs with the media fortuitously on hand as he was led off his private jet when he arrived in Japan? And then the farce of granting bail, re-arrest and now more severe bail conditions that prevent Ghosn from any contact with his wife?

This case illustrates how the Japan, Inc. of cozy insider networks is circling the wagons to prevent a merger with Renault, Nissan’s partner and majority stakeholder. Destroying Ghosn is the collateral damage of protectionism Japanese style.

Many foreign executives are heading for the exits, and now a summons from Tokyo to overseas managers gives them a sense of what life must have been like for KGB operatives during the Cold War when Moscow called them back for consultations. Just ask Ghosn’s close advisor Greg Kelly who was lured back to Tokyo under false pretenses and then arrested.

Ghosn may indeed be guilty but surely its time the prosecution proves its case in court because the longer this spectacle drags on the more damage is done to Japan’s reputation. It’s very hard to generate public sympathy for white collar suspects, but the Japanese prosecutors have managed to do so.

Some argue that Japan is showing its peers how to go after the big shots who almost always seem to skate free, but why this particular man at this particular time? It’s not as if there hasn’t been a cascade of Japanese corporate scandals in recent years, but none of these Japanese executives have been subject to hostage justice. We are told that they didn’t enrich themselves like Ghosn is alleged to have done, but clearly they were fudging data and covering up misconduct not because they were selfless corporate samurai, but were keen to protect their jobs, promotions and perks.

Japan’s system of hostage justice looks more like the rule by law than the rule of law, meaning laws are used as weapons against targeted people and not applied equally to everyone. Hostage justice boils down to the accused remaining in custody without defense counsel during questioning until they incriminate themselves by signing a confession. Many defendants buckle to the pressure and confess knowing their rights and freedom are hostage to the whim of prosecutors.

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations has long lobbied against hostage justice (hitojichi-shiho) because it is a hotbed of prosecutorial abuses. The JFBA criticizes the reliance on confessions and points out that many of them are coerced, leading to numerous miscarriages of justice. In April over one thousand lawyers and scholars submitted a petition to the Justice Ministry demanding an end to this antediluvian system. The petition doesn’t mince words, asserting, “The long-term detention in the Carlos Ghosn case has triggered surprise and criticism overseas, leading to doubts about Japan’s integrity as a democratic nation that guarantees human rights.”

The murky bribery case of Hiromasa Ezoe, the former chairman of Recruit, is instructive. Ezoe kept a diary while in detention in 1989 that became the basis for his 2010 book “Where is the Justice?” It is a nightmarish tale about life inside the maws of Japan’s judicial system. Badgered repeatedly during 113 days of detention, he claims prosecutors threatened they would arrest his friends and colleagues if he did not confess and so he did.

In 2003, Ezoe was given a suspended three-year prison term, a light sentence he regarded as vindication. In his view, he was punished for breaching society’s moral code rather than illegal actions. Back in 1989, the NYT reported that he might spend an incredible 15 years in court. As it turned out, that was only slightly off the mark.

In Japan the accused can be held for 23 days, renewable almost indefinitely as judges normally give prosecutors the benefit of the doubt. As Ghosn knows very well, judicial authorities resort to piecemeal charges so they can re-arrest suspects and thereby prolong detention without a lawyer sitting in on questioning. Ghosn spent 108 days in detention before being granted bail the first time.

According to the lawyers’ petition, “The ‘hostage justice’ system uses detention beyond its original purpose of securing suspects’ appearance in court and violates the human rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Japan, including physical freedom, the right to remain silent, and the right to a fair trial. The practice to refuse the release of those who deny their crimes can violate the prohibition of torture, as it uses sufferings caused by prolonged detention and interrogation to force confession.”

In recent years several convictions have been overturned because the prosecution invented, misinterpreted or ignored exonerating evidence, rendering the much-touted 99 percent conviction rate more of an embarrassment than bragging point.

The video that was released after Ghosn was rearrested makes clear that he attributes his legal problems to a palace coup orchestrated by executives who opposed the merger plan he backed. Some of those executives have cut deals with prosecutors in exchange for dishing the dirt on Ghosn.

Maybe it’s not a one-sided stitch up job, but until Ghosn gets to present his side of the case in court the judiciary will remain indicted by many Japanese advocates of the rule of law, human rights and fair trials alongside the international business community.

Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule February 23-March 1, 2015

Monday, February 23, 2015


AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
08:12 Depart from private residence
08:26 Arrive at office
08:52 Depart from office
08:54 Arrive at Diet
08:55 Enter Lower House 1st Committee Members’ Room
08:58 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
08:59 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
09:01 Lower House Budget Committee opens

PM
12:04 Lower House Budget Committee recess. Leave room
12:06 Depart from Diet
12:08 Arrive at office
12:52 Depart from office
12:54 Arrive at Diet
12:56 Enter Lower House 1st Committee Members’ Room
12:57 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mr. Aso
12:59 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
01:00 Lower House Budget Committee reopens
05:00 Lower House Budget Committee adjourns
05:01 Leave room
05:03 Depart from Diet
05:04 Arrive at office
05:10 Meet with Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Nishikawa Koya, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide
05:25 End meeting with Mr. Nishikawa and Mr. Suga
05:35 Meet with former Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Hayashi Yoshimasa
05:50 End meeting with Mr. Hayashi
05:51 Interview open to all media: When asked “What is your reaction to State Minister Nishikawa’s resignation?” Mr. Abe answers “Since the responsibility of appointing the post is my own, I wish to humbly apologize to the people of Japan. Under the leadership of the new Minister Mr. Hayashi, the aim is to double the income of rural areas and we’ll work hard to achieve this goal.”
05:54 Interview ends
06:00 Depart from office
06:08 Arrive at Imperial Palace. Secret report to the Emperor. State Minister attestation ceremony for Mr. Hayashi
06:46 Depart from Imperial Palace
06:52 Arrive at office
07:02 Give Mr. Hayashi a letter of assignment as the new Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Commemorative photo session
07:04 Photo session ends
07:10 Depart from office
07:12 Arrive at official residence. Dinner meeting with LDP Vice-President Komura Masahiko, LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu, Chairman of LDP General Council Nikai Toshihiro, and Chairperson of LDP Policy Research Council Inada Tomomi
08:51 Everyone leaves

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
08:22 Depart from official residence
08:23 Arrive at office
08:28 Cabinet Meeting begins
08:38 Cabinet Meeting ends
09:47 Depart from office
09:56 Arrive at hotel Grand Hyatt Tokyo in Roppongi, Tokyo. Attend CLSA Japan Forum 2015 in banquet hall Coriander. Deliver speech [Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia]
10:10 Depart from hotel
10:19 Arrive at office
11:19 Speak with LDP Upper House member Yamamoto Ichita
11:29 Finish speaking with Mr. Yamamoto
11:30 Meet with Minister of Defense Nakatani Gen, Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Operational Policy Miyama Nobuaki, Chief of Staff for Joint Staff Council Kawano Katsutoshi, and Chief of Staff of Ground Self-Defense Force Iwata Kiyofumi
11:59 End meeting with Mr. Nakatani, Mr. Miyama, Mr. Kawano, and Mr. Iwata

PM
12:16 Depart from office
12:17 Arrive at Diet
12:19 Enter LDP Secretary-General’s Conference Room. Endorse candidates for Shizuoka City and Hiroshima City mayoral elections. Commemorative photo session
12:22 Leave room
12:24 Depart from Diet
12:25 Arrive at office
03:31 Meet with incoming Justice of Supreme Court Otani Naoto and outgoing Justice Shiraki Yu
03:50 End meeting with Mr. Otani and Mr. Shiraki
03:52 Depart from office
03:54 Arrive at Diet
03:55 Enter Lower House Plenary Meeting Hall
03:56 Speak with LDP Executive Acting Secretary-General Hosoda Hiroyuki
03:58 Finish speaking with Mr. Hosoda
03:59 Speak with Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Shimomura Hakubun
04:00 Finish speaking with Mr. Shimomura
04:02 Lower House Plenary Session opens
04:11 Lower House Plenary Session adjourns
04:13 Depart from Diet
04:15 Arrive at office
04:20 Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru and National Police Agency (NPA)’s Director-General of Security Bureau Takahashi Kiyotaka enter
04:30 Mr. Takahashi leaves. Director of Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center Shimohira Koji joins
04:36 Mr. Shimohira leaves
04:50 Mr. Kitamura leaves
05:00 Receive courtesy call from Board Chairman of the Shimonoseki Fuku Federation Matsumura Hisashi and Mayor of Shimonoseki City (Yamaguchi Prefecture) Nakao Tomiaki, and colleagues
05:11 Finish speaking with Mr. Matsumura and Mr. Nakao
05:12 Speak with Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Takaichi Sanae
05:24 Finish speaking with Ms. Takaichi
06:18 Receive courtesy call from Chairman of the State Great Hural of the Mongolian Parliament Zandaakhuu Enkhbold
06:36 Courtesy call ends
06:37 Depart from office
06:38 Arrive at official residence

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
07:48 Depart from official residence
07:49 Arrive at office
07:50 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
08:13 End meeting with Mr. Kato
08:52 Depart from office
08:53 Arrive at Diet
08:55 Enter Lower House 1st Committee Members’ Room
09:00 Lower House Budget Committee opens

PM
12:02 Lower House Budget Committee recess
12:03 Leave room
12:05 Depart from Diet
12:06 Arrive at office
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Lower House 1st Committee Members’ Room
01:00 Lower House Budget Committee reopens
02:00 Leave seat during Lower House Budget Committee proceedings
02:03 Depart from Diet
02:05 Arrive at office
02:33 Meet with President of American think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Richard Haas
02:52 End meeting with Mr. Haas
03:00 Interview with Mainichi Shimbun
03:33 Interview ends
04:09 Meet with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu
04:43 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki
05:30 Attend the first meeting of the Advisory Panel on the History of the 20th Century and on Japan’s Role and the World Order in the 21st Century
06:24 Meeting ends
06:27 Depart from office
06:28 Arrive at official residence. Dinner meeting with relevant State Ministers. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide and others also attend
08:01 Depart from official residence
08:18 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Thursday, February 26, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence (no morning visitors)
09:32 Depart from private residence
09:48 Arrive at office
10:22 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
10:42 End meeting with Mr. Kato
10:43 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
11:18 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
11:47 Receive courtesy call from Miura Peninsula Dairy Farmers Cooperative Union
11:57 Courtesy call ends

PM
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Lower House Plenary Meeting Hall
01:00 Speak with Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Shimomura Hakubun
01:01 Finish speaking with Mr. Shimomura
01:02 Lower House Plenary Session opens
02:41 Leave seat during Lower House Plenary Session proceedings
02:42 Depart from Diet
02:44 Arrive at office
04:43 Film video message regarding the Great East Japan Earthquake
05:04 Finish filming
05:05 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka and Director-General of Economic Affairs Bureau Saiki Naoko
05:29 End meeting with Mr. Saiki and Ms. Saiki
05:31 Attend National Security Council (NSC) Meeting. Chairperson of National Public Safety Commission Yamatani Eriko also attends
06:15 NSC Meeting ends
06:22 Meet with Japanese ambassador in Brazil Umeda Kunio and other attendees to Meeting of Ambassadors to South and Central America
06:42 End meeting with Mr. Umeda and others
06:44 Arrive at official residence. Dinner meeting with Chairman of Upper House Budget Committee Kishi Koichi and other ruling party Directors of Upper House Budget Committee. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige also attend
07:54 Everyone leaves

American POWs of Japan remind Abe and the US Congress of what is important

Statement for the Record

to the

Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee and House Veterans' Affairs Committee Joint Hearing

 To Receive Legislative Presentations of 

Veterans Service Organizations

 By

 Ms. Jan Thompson

 President, American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society

[Daughter of PhM2 Robert E. Thompson USN, USS Canopus, 

Corregidor, Bilibid & Mukden, POW# 2011]

18 March 2015

American Prisoners of War of Japan

Honoring the Memory of World War II 

Veterans of the Pacific

Chairmen Isakson and Miller, Ranking Members Blumenthal and Brown, Members of the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees, thank you for allowing us to present the unique concerns of veterans of World War II’s Pacific Theater to Congress. The American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society (ADBC-MS) represents surviving POWs of Japan, their families, and descendants. Our goal is to preserve their history and communicate the enduring spirit of the American POW experience in the Pacific to future generations.

We applaud the efforts of all the veterans’ service organizations to fight for adequate medical care and disability benefits. Moreover, the incidence and intensity of post-traumatic stress for American POWs of Japan is believed to be the greatest of any World War II veteran and possibly of any American war. These veterans had to survive the sordid POW camps, unimaginable and capricious torture, “hell ships” to Japan or its colonies, and years of brutal imprisonment and slave labor.  Upon returning from the Pacific War, they found a government reluctant to recognize and treat the mental and physical effects that were consequences of the deprivations suffered while POWs of Japan.

At the time, PTSD was not yet a medical category and VA doctors limited the POWs’ access to disability benefits by dismissing the after-effects of years of abuse, disease, and malnutrition. That should not happen to any veteran, and thus, we strongly support the legislative goals of our fellow veterans service organizations to ensure medical and mental health care, as well as to expedite disability claims, to provide rehabilitation, and to establish job-training programs for all American veterans. The American POWs of Japan and their families know intimately the difficulty of re-incorporation into civil society with little support.

Our task today, however, is to address another issue of respect and acceptance of returning service men and women. This is to ensure that they are not forgotten. For the American POWs of Japan this means that their unique history and the lessons of their experience with Imperial Japan is preserved. This is an urgent task. In the United States this history is being forgotten, and in Japan it is being revised.

Remembrance, Reconciliation, and Preservation

The ADBC-MS was dismayed in 2012 when none of the 70^th anniversaries of historic battles during the beginning of World War II were officially recognized.  Astonishingly, December 7, 1941, “a date that will live in infamy,” has not been recognized with a Congressional resolution for many years. This year, the 70^th Anniversaries of the daring “Great Raid” that liberated Cabanatuan POW camp in the Philippines and of the Battle for Manila that freed thousands of American civilian internees and POWs were not acknowledged.

We hope that future Congresses will remember the events that started American involvement in World War II with resolutions memorializing the simultaneous attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines Islands. And we hope that future Congresses will honor those POWs who were massacred by Imperial Japanese forces as American forces advanced to liberate territories once lost. These include the 98 Americans on Wake Island who were bound and machine-gunned to death on October 7, 1943 and the 139 on Palawan Island who were drenched in gasoline and set afire.

The former POWs of Japan leave many legacies and lessons. Among the most important is how they coped with the postwar traumas of inhumane imprisonment. They fought two battles. One was for recognition of their “battle fatigue” and the other for justice and remembrance. The former is now championed by all veterans’ service organizations. We ask Congress for support and to help our veterans in their unique quest for justice and remembrance.

In an interview published 23 January 2014 in The Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s second largest newspaper, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy said:

I want to take a moment to talk about history and reconciliation. This fall, there was an event that previously might have been thought unimaginable. A group of Americans who suffered as Japanese prisoners of war during the Second World War returned here at the invitation of the Japanese government. Participating took enormous amounts of courage for all those involved….It is not easy, but citizens in all countries should encourage and support leaders who reach across history to build a peaceful future. It took courage on the part of the participants to come back to Japan and learn how Japan has changed.

As background to the Ambassador’s words, in 2009 the Government of Japan, through its then-Ambassador to the U.S. Ichiro FUJISAKI, and again in 2010 through its then-Foreign Minister Katsuya OKADA, officially apologized to the American POWs of Japan. These Cabinet-approved apologies first established as a Cabinet Decision on February 6, 2009 were unprecedented. Never before had a Japanese Government apologized for a specific war crime nor had it done so directly to the victims. The Japanese Government further initiated the “Japan/POW Friendship Program” of trips for American former POWs to visit Japan and return to the places of their imprisonment and slave labor. Thus far, there have been five trips, one each in the fall of 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The benefits of this long-awaited act of contrition have been immeasurable for former POWs and their families.  The Program, as Ambassador Kennedy has pointed out, is a great success, but we are concerned about its future. We are concerned that Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo ABE, may revise Japan’s war apologies and end the POW/Japan Friendship Program. We are concerned that Japan has limited each trip to only seven former POWs. We currently have 26 men, all over 90-years old, eager to participate and waiting to hear when or if there will be another journey to Japan. Because of their advanced ages, many of these veterans may miss the opportunity.

We recall that in 1995 the Japanese government established the Peace, Friendship, and Exchange Initiative that included a multi-million dollar program of reconciliation and exchange with former POWs from all allied nations except the United States. From 1995 to 2009, the Japanese Government invited 904 ex-POWs from the United Kingdom, 507 from the Netherlands and 59 from Australia. The budgets allocated for those trips totaled over $16 million. To date, only 31 American former POWs have been invited and the yearly budgets have ranged only from $130,000 to $230,000. One cannot help but get the impression that some in Japan count on time and advancing years to limit the costs and impact of the program.  We view this as shortsighted. 

Success should encourage more action

The success of this visitation program should encourage Japan to do more. The Program should not end with the ability of the nonagenarian POWs to visit Japan or with their deaths. A POW’s captivity has multi-generational effects on families. The wives, children, and siblings of those who died suffered irreparable loss. The families of those who survived suffered from the long-term physical and mental health problems caused by the ex-POW's years of cruel captivity.  Widows, brothers, sisters, children, and other descendants have all been profoundly affected by the POW experience of their relative and they too should be eligible for future programs.

We ask Congress to encourage the Government of Japan to preserve, expand, and enhance its reconciliation program toward its American former prisoners. We want to see the trips to Japan continued and extended to include descendants and researchers. We want the visitation program drawn into a permanent program of research, documentation, reconciliation, and a people-to-people exchange that is not subject to the Japanese government’s yearly budget review. We want Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to publicize the program and its achievements. 

We want this program to include funds to create visual reminders of history through museums and monuments.  We want national memorials to the POWs who slaved and died on Japanese soil and territories as well as aboard the “hell ships.” We want to see a Japanese government-funded memorial at the Port of Moji where most of the hell ships docked and unloaded their sick and dying “cargo.”

We also want the many companies that brutally used POWs as slave labor and who now profit in the American market, to join with their government by acknowledging their use of forced labor and by offering their own acts of reconciliation. Over 60 Japanese companies, such as Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Hitachi, Toshiba, Kawasaki, Nippon Steel, Nippon Express, Nippon Sharyo, Ube Industries, Showa Denko, Aso Group, and Yawata Steel maintained war production by cruel exploitation of American and Allied POWs.

Prime Minister Shinzo ABE and his address to Congress

Prime Minister Shinzo ABE, who we understand may soon address a joint meeting of Congress, has a unique opportunity to acknowledge Japan’s historical responsibilities. His past statements rejecting the verdicts of Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal that serves as the foundation of the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan trouble us. We want Congress to only extend the invitation to Prime Minister Abe to speak at the podium of Roosevelt and Churchill if they are assured that he will acknowledge that Japan’s defeat released the country from the venom of fascism and the inhuman goals of a criminal regime.

By doing so, the Japanese prime minister’s speech to Congress can be a historic one of reconciliation of which the first step is acknowledgement. Tied to this, we feel, should be that he extends and enhances the POW visitation program as we have outlined. He can engender trust with his American allies by honoring their country’s veterans. Here he can signal to Japan’s other wartime victims that meaningful reconciliation, as Ambassador Kennedy pointed out, is possible. The POW/Japan Friendship Program is one that confronts the past while preserving the dignities of both Americans and Japanese.

It is our hope in addressing this hearing that we can encourage Congress to work with the Obama Administration and the State Department to persuade Japan to hold to its promises and responsibilities. Japan needs to be encouraged to do more.  And it is our hope that members of Congress will encourage the many Japanese corporations that operate in their districts to acknowledge the history of the American POWs who slaved for them.

The American POWs of Japan and their families have paid a high price for the freedoms we cherish. What they ask in return for their sacrifices and service is for their government, even after 70 years, is to keep its moral obligation to them. They do not want their history ignored or exploited. They do not ask for further compensation. What they want most is to have their government stand by them to ensure they will be remembered, that our allies respect them, and their American history preserved.

Thank you for this opportunity to address your committees.

Ms. Jan ThompsonPresident
American Defenders of Bataan & Corregidor Memorial Society

[Ms. Thompson is a documentary filmmaker. Her recent work is Never the Same: the POW Experience]

Louis Zamperini Unbroken

On July 3rd, Louis Zamperini died. He had faced death many times as a young man. And defied the "odds" many more. As a POW of Japan he was beaten, starved, experimented upon, and dehumanized. It was with God's grace that he survived to be 97. You can sign the guest book HERE.

The video documentary is an excellent snapshot of Zamperini's life as portrayed in the still, after four years, best-seller Unbroken.

It is hoped that the movie will inspire the many, still-existing Japanese corporations that used and abused the POWs they requested from Imperial Japan's Army Ministry to finally acknowledge how they treated POWs and to offer an apology. Zamperini, like all POW slave laborers, was tormented by Japanese corporate employees as much as by Japanese soldiers.

In Japan, after a brutal interrogation at the infamous Naval Interrogation Center in Ofuna in Kamakura, Zamperini was sent to Tokyo Base Camp # 1 Omori. There he was a slave laborer for Nippon Express. In March 1945, Zamperini was sent north to Niigata to Tokyo-04-Branch Camp where he was a slave laborer for ShinEtsu Chemical and Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Corp. Naoetsu (NSSC, formerly Nippon Stainless). Although Bird was a military POW guard, his job was to ensure discipline among the POW laborers for the company and it is possible that he was paid by the company and not the government as many were. 

To date, no Japanese company has formally, officially acknowledged or offered an apology for their use and abuse of Allied POW slave labor. Two current Abe Cabinet members, ASO Taro (Finance) and HAYASHI Yoshimasa (Agriculture) have direct family ties and stock holdings in companies that used POW slave labor. 

At both the Omori and Naeotsu POW slave labor camps, Zamperini was singled out for special torture by Mutsuhiro Watanabe, know as "The Bird." In explicably, he followed Zamperini to Naeotsu. Although, both Japanese guards and POWs acknowledged that Watanabe as a cruel psychopath, no superior ever tried to stop him. As Watanabe observes, he was not given any military orders on how to treat the POWs. Yet, as you see below, Zamperini found it possible to forgive him. Watanabe refused to meet with Zamperini and felt it only natural to beat and kick POWs. In the interview above, Watanabe brushes off his cruelty as simply the judgement of Westerners.

Rewalking the Path to Chinese Political Reform through Foreign Investment

A version of this essay first appeared in Asia Policy Point's  Asia Policy Calendar, November 3, 2013. The authors are Research Interns at APP, Mr. Michael Sutherland (Nebraska Wesleyan University) and Ms. Jessie Ding (Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania).

There are many expectations for China’s Third Plenum Meeting of its 18th Party Congress. During the November 9-12 meeting, President Xi Jinping is expected announce new, “liberal” economic reforms to accelerate the country’s internationalization. These financial and structural adjustments are unlikely to be matched on the political side. Nevertheless, as China engages in this “Opening Up 2.0,” its success can be used by the international community to exact more accountability from the Chinese government on human rights and political liberties.

Economists agree that the Chinese growth model needs to be reworked if it is going to remain sustainable. Brookings economist David Dollar notes: “On the demand side there needs to be a shift from investment to consumption…. Opening up to foreign investment and foreign trade is an important part of that agenda.” Xi’s reforms are expected to include a loosening of state controls and regulations to encourage foreign direct investment. As part of this opening to foreign investment, the United States and China have begun discussing the possibility of a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT). China may also seek membership in the TPP, further opening itself to negotiations with the United States.

Chinese direct investment in the United States has expanded tremendously over the past five years, from $879 million in 2008 to $12.2 billion in 2013. On October 31st, President Barak Obama issued a statement that his administration is committed to bringing more foreign investment to the United States. Given how much the Chinese already invest in the United States and the amount of capital they have to spare, it seems likely that each of economy will become more intertwined.

In contrast, the Xi government has tried to restrain civil society and liberties. Over this summer, the government  began enforcing what is known as the “Seven Speak-Nots” (七不讲）. This policy prohibits the media, intellectuals, and university professors from discussing certain subjects in public. These include freedom of the press, civil society, and past mistakes of the Chinese Communist Party. In October Xia Yeliang, a professor at Peking University, was dismissed for discussing the internet as a tool for political reform. Mr. Xia reportedly has ties with the New Citizens’ Movement, a group of activists and academics in China who organize public meetings to call for political reforms.

Guo Feixiong, a leader of the New Citizens’ Movement, was was detained in Guangzhou on August 8th and formally arrested on October 17th. At an October 29^th House Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations hearing “Guo Feixiong and Freedom of Expression in China,” Mr. Guo’s wife and daughter testified alongside prominent Chinese civil rights activists Reverend Bob Fu and Chen Guangcheng. Each urged the Obama administration to appeal publicly to the Chinese government to release Guo Feixiong.

Both Reverend Fu and Mr. Chen suggested further measures that the Obama administration should press while negotiating with the Chinese government. Mr. Chen urged the United States government to commit to making the annual Human Rights Dialogue with the PRC an event that is on par with and connected to the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue (SED). Top officials from each government attend the SED, including the U.S. Secretaries of State and Treasury. However, the Human Rights Dialogue is conducted behind closed doors and involves mostly lower-level officials, allowing China to dismiss the event as insignificant. Reverend Fu felt that the HR Dialogue should be broadcast live, in order for the public to hold Chinese officials accountable for what they say.

China’s new focus on foreign investment possibly provides a political environment similar to when the country was trying to gain its Most-Favored-Nation trade status. China’s willingness to abide by international norms was a major factor in its success. The international laws and regulations needed to expand investment, therefore, should also come with conditions. The bilateral investment treaties can include stipulations regarding human rights and corporate social responsibilities.

The results of the Third Plenum may provide an indirect opportunity to influence political reform in China. Societal responsibilities and accountability are now at the core of today's global financial transactions. China's leadership wants something from the international community—market access and respect—that should not be given lightly. Human rights can and should again be tied to investment agreements and market access.

Monday in Washington September 30, 2013

INFRASTRUCTURE 2.0: INVESTING IN THE TECHNOLOGY OF TOMORROW. 9/30, 8:00 am -Noon, Washington, DC. Sponsors: AEI; Third Way; The Atlantic. Speakers: Coral Davenport, Energy and Environment Correspondent, National Journal; Dan Utech, Deputy Director for Energy and Climate Change, Domestic Policy Council, The White House; Eric Rohlfing, Deputy Director for Technology, ARPA-E; Janet Kavinoky, Executive Director, Transportation and Infrastructure, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Jim Hunter, Utilities Director, IBEW; John Delaney, D- MD, United States Congressman; Lisa Wood, Executive Director, IEE; Ralph Cavanagh, Senior Attorney and Co-Director, Energy & Transportation Program, NRDC; Rick Boucher, Head of Government Strategies Group, Sidley Austin, LLP; Ron DeFeo, Chairman & CEO, Terex Corporation; Ronald Brownstein, Editorial Director, National Journal; Spencer Abraham, Former Secretary of Energy, U. S. Department of Energy; Steve Clemons, Editor-in-Chief, AtlanticLIVE, and Washington Editor-at-Large, The Atlantic.

THE US AND JAPANESE ECONOMIES, THE CURRENT STATE OF THE GLOBAL AUTO INDUSTRY AND THE CHALLENGES TOYOTA HAS CONFRONTED AND OVERCOME IN RECENT YEARS. 9/30, 7:50-9:15am. Sponsor: The Economic Club. Speaker: Takeshi Uchiyamada, Chairman of the Board, Toyota Motor Corporation.

J STREET NATIONAL CONFERENCES. 9/30, 9:00am-10:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: J Street. Speakers: Meir Javedanfar, Professor of Contemporary Iranian Politics, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya; Ken Pollack, Senior Fellow, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings; Koby Huberman, CEO, Strategic Landscapes Ltd.; MK Meir Sheetrit, Hatnuah Party; David Eichenbaum, Political Consultant, Struble Eichenbaum Communications; Danny Seidemann, Founder and Director, Terrestrial Jerusalem; Noam Sheizaf, Journalist, +972 Magazine; Rabbi Amy Small; MK Ruth Calderon, Yesh Atid Party; Robi Damelin, Director of International Relations, The Parents Circle; MK Merav Michaeli, Labor Party; Yael Patir, Director of Israel Programs, J Street; Kate Press, J Street; Jessica Rosenblum, J Street; Bernard Avishai, Professor of Business and Politics, Hebrew University and Dartmouth College; Oded Eran, Senior Researcher, Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv; Nader Khateeb, Palestinian Director, EcoPeace / Friends of the Earth Middle East; MK Zehava Galon, Chairwoman, Meretz Party; Tim Kaine, United States Senator, Virginia; Joe Biden, Vice President of the US; Danielle Leshaw, Rabbi and Director, Hillel at Ohio University; Leonard Saxe, Klutznick Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies and Social Policy, Brandeis University; Alex Sinclair, Director of Programs in Israel Education, Jewish Theological Seminary; Harpo Jaeger, Student, Brown University; Bashar Azzeh, Chief Executive Officer, Jerusalem Business Forum; Bassam Aramin, Director of International Relations, The Parents Circle; Riman Barakat, Co-CEO, Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information; MK Tzachi Hanegbi, Likud Party; Aaron David Miller, Vice President, New Initiatives, Wilson Center; Tamara Cofman Wittes, Director, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings; Jim Gerstein, Founding Partner, Gerstein | Bocian | Agne Strategies; Jan Schakowsky, United States Congresswoman, IL-09; Sarah Wildman, Visiting Scholar, International Reporting Project, SAIS; Gerry Connolly, US Congressman, VA-11; Tammy Duckworth, Congresswoman, IL-08; Jared Polis, Congressman, CO-02; Peter Welch, Congressman, VT-AL; Bridget Todd, New Organizing Institute; Alana Alpert, Co-Director, Project Hayei Sarah; Bassam Aramin, Director of International Relations, The Parents Circle; Robi Damelin, Director of International Relations, The Parents Circle; Donna Edwards, Congresswoman, MD-04; Les Gelb, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations; Nancy R. Bagley, President, Arca Foundation, Editor-in-Chief, Washington Life Magazine; Morton H. Halperin, Senior Advisor, Open Society Foundations.

REFORM UNDER ROUHANI: ASSESSING POSITIVE CHANGE IN IRAN. 9/30, 9:00-10:30am. Sponsors: Stimson Center; Heinrich Boll Foundation North America. Speakers: Ramin Asgard, Former US Diplomat, Former Director, State Department's Iran office in Dubai; Arash Ghafouri, 2013 Presidential Election Candidates’ Consultant.

EXPANDING THE US-INDIA DEFENSE PARTNERSHIP. 9/30, 10:00-11:00am. Sponsor: Center for American Progress (CAP). Speakers: Ashton Carter, Deputy Secretary of Defense; Neera Tanden, President, Center for American Progress.

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S CLIMATE ACTION PLAN IN THE NEAR TERM: EXPECTATIONS, CONCERNS, AND OPPORTUNITIES. 9/30, Noon-1:15pm Sponsor: Environmental Law Institute (ELI). Speakers: Elliot Diringer, Executive Vice President, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions; Jennifer A. Smokelin, Counsel, Reed Smith LLP; Dan Utech, Deputy Director, Energy and Climate Change, White House Domestic Policy Council.

PUTIN VS CIVIL SOCIETY. 9/30, Noon-2:00pm, Lunch. Sponsors: National Endowment for Democracy (NED); George Washington University (GWU). Speakers: Leon Aron, AEI; Miriam Lanskoy, NED; Robert Orttung, GWU.

THE US AND THE BALTICS: ENERGY, RUSSIA AND NATO. 9/30, Noon-2:20pm. Sponsor: Women’s Foreign Policy Group. Speaker: H.E. Deborah A. McCarthy, Ambassador of the United States to Lithuania.


IMPLOSION: THE END OF RUSSIA AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR AMERICA. 9/30, Noon-1:00pm. Sponsor: Heritage. Speakers: Author Ilan Berman; John Edward Hilboldt, Director, Lectures & Seminars, Heritage.

THE CHINA-RUSSIA REVERSAL. 9/30, Noon-1:00pm. Sponsor: Kennan Institute, Wilson Center. Speaker: Harley D. Balzer, Former Title VIII-Supported Research Scholar, Kennan Institute, Associate Professor of Government and International Affairs, Georgetown University.

ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF EMERGENCY RISK COMMUNICATION: EVIDENCE FROM THE FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR DISASTER. 9/30, 12:30-2:00pm. Sponsor: Center for Global Development (CGD). Speakers: Hiroaki Matsuura, Departmental Lecturer, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, University of Oxford; Victoria Fan, Research Fellow, CGD.

THE US-RUSSIA RELATIONSHIP: TRANSCENDING MUTUAL DETERRENCE. 9/30, 2:00-3:30pm. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: Gary Samore, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, Arms Control Initiative; William Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

FILM DIPLOMACY: A WIN-WIN FOR US-CHINA RELATIONS (THE IRONMAN 3 STORY). 9/30, 2:00-3:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: US-Asia Institute. Speaker: Chris Fenton, President, DMG Entertainment Motion Picture Group & General Manager, DMG North America.

A CONVERSATION WITH CATHERINE ASHTON. 9/30, 3:00-4:00pm. Sponsor: Global Europe Center, Wilson Center. Speakers: Catherine Ashton, High Representative, European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; Jane Harman, President and CEO, Wilson Center.

ANTI-CORRUPTION FAILURES AND SUCCESSFUL REFORMS: A FRESH ASSESSMENT. 9/30, 3:30-5:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Hills Program on Governance, CSIS. Speakers: Michael Johnston, Professor of Political Science, Colgate University; Ronald Goldstock, NY Commissioner, Waterfront Commission of NY Harbor; Nancy Boswell, Director, US & International Anti-Corruption Law Program, AU Washington College of Law.

Corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming a topic of discourse in Washington. This week alone there were two public programs on the subject. The US government has taken an interest in the issue through the US State Department and the US Peace Institute.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: RISK TO AMERICAN BUSINESS. 6/7, 11:00am-Noon, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Heritage Foundation. Speakers: Andrew Markley, chairman and professor in the Department of Business at Grove City College; and James Kelly III, director of international affairs at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.

UNCOMMON ALLIANCES: REAL PARTNERSHIPS - REAL EXPERIENCES - REAL IMPACTS, ABOUT PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS. 6/4, 8:00am-5:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsors: US State Department and Institute for Corporate Responsibility at George Washington University's (GWU) School of Business. Keynote Speakers: State Department Special Representative for Global Partnerships Kris Balderston; White House Office of Public Engagement Director Jon Carson; Conor French, president and COO of INDEGO Africa.

At George Washington University in Washington, DC, professors are researching and analyzing the elements of CSR. 

• Institute for Corporate Responsibility, George Washington University School of Busines
• Institute for International Economic Policy, George Washington University, Elliott School for International Affairs hosted in September 2011 conference on Getting Rights Right: How Companies are Implementing the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

They are responding to increasing public pressure for responsible corporate governance and efforts by the UN and other international organizations to ensure that global corporations have cal responsibilities.

• UN Global Compact
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Business & Human Rights 
• Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises (UN)  
• ISO 26000 Social Responsibility 
• Caux Round Table
• Keidanren Charter of Corporate Social Responsibility 

Last month, the METI-associated Institute for International Studies and Training (IIST) in Japan published a think piece on CSR by Tsugio Ide, Professor, Graduate School of Business, Nihon University in its IIST World Forum (5/31/12). They have kindly given us permission to reprint it here.

Corporate Social Responsibility in a 

Post-Industrial Capitalist Society

The global economic crisis triggered by the US subprime mortgage problem is in the process of tentative reversal thanks to cooperation among the international community, but a currency crisis has emerged in Europe along the way, with the preservation of the prevailing currency and financial systems and an economic philosophy prioritizing profit and growth giving rise to new causes of uncertainty in terms of the sustainable development of the global economy. The socioeconomic problems being experienced in Japan and abroad today call for a paradigm shift in the market economy system that regulated the 20th century and the socioeconomic framework which Japan has developed after the war.

Innovation in the emergence of modern capitalism

Here I want to look back on the significance of the market economy, which brought about the modern age, as well as the innovative nature of this.

(1) The emergence of the bourgeoisie in modern Europe caused Adam Smith to claim that self-interest was giving rise to new morals such as industriousness, frugality and prudence, so that self-interest could consequently be linked to public interest. Max Weber saw the ideological elements and the ethical climate which promoted the advance of capitalism from the inside as being the Protestant Ethic, the Spirit of Capitalism and a behaviour system that integrated labor, thrift, fidelity and justice.

(2) In Japan too, Baigan Ishida, who lived in the modern Edo period under feudal rule, argued that a merchant’s profit was the same as a samurai’s reward, and that when one knew the Way of the merchant, one would abandon personal desire and practise frugality out of a sense of integrity. His City and Country Dialogues therefore found social significance in the economic behaviour of merchants. The man devoted to the development of Japan’s economy and industry in the Meiji period, Eichi Shibusawa, also believed that the Analects of Confucius were a practical lesson for all humanity, and consequently advocated harmony between good ethics and business (The Analects and the Abacus).

(3) These examples suggest that a harmony was perceived between economic activities and ethics in both the East and West—an accord between personal benefit and social benefit. This management philosophy changed nature in the course of the actual operation of capital and the capitalist society movement, but the core of market economy is a social system that requires people to be moral and economy and ethics to be kept together. Without this core, it seems unlikely that a globalized society characterized by deepening interdependence would find universal support.

(4) Turning the argument around, the companies/corporate bodies which are the main agents in economic activities today manifest a person/thing duality (University of Tokyo Professor Emeritus Katsuhito Iwai). In other words, when a company (a legal thing) is recognized as a corporate entity (a legal person), it is expected to have the same thoughtfulness and ethics as a person. Natsume Soseki noted in his work Watashi no Kojin-shugi (My Individualism) that the elite who have social influence must work to cultivate their own individuality, respect the individuality of others, use their power and observe the concomitant obligations, and shoulder the responsibilities accompanying the use of their financial power. It could be argued that these same responsibilities need to be viewed as a precondition for corporations (legal persons) as public instruments, as well as for the market economy system.

Standards of behavior required in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR)

The process of the socialist socioeconomy ideology crumbling and falling, China shifting to a market economy system and the Cold War drawing to a close caused neoliberalism and market fundamentalism to thrive. At the same time, however, a pervasive emphasis on profit and efficiency and a succession of corporate scandals gave rise to a new drive at home and abroad for corporate social responsibility. In other words:

(1) The call for companies not just to observe minimum compliance with laws and regulations but also to take on social responsibility in their relations with various stakeholders beyond their customers, employees and stockholders became more marked.
(2) CSR is becoming a key factor in corporate evaluations and performance as a result of trends such as the advance of a digital society, the appearance of global environmental problems, the emergence of global trading, social injustice and increasing interest in corporate governance. Companies are the subject of growing expectations on the part of customers, employees and other constituent actors, as well as investors and lenders, suppliers, rivals, local communities, NPOs and various other stakeholder, and CSR awareness and initiatives are influencing the overall social assessment of organizations, organizational cohesion among employees and constituent actors, the ability to attract customers, and investors and financers, government and the mass media.

This climate has generated a marked drive in corporate groups as well as the United Nations and other public institutions beyond the bounds of sovereign states to set CSR behavior standards and encourage efforts in this regard. This new reality—a market economy value shift—can be seen in the following two cases in Japan and offshore as examples.

Nippon Keidanren Charter of Corporate Behavior

Keidanren responded to the business scandals arising out of the bubble economy and its over-emphasis on profit by drawing up 10 principles for a Charter of Corporate Behavior subtitled “For Gaining Public Trust and Rapport” as well as a set of concrete implementation guidelines (first published in 1991, and subsequently revised several times). If this charter becomes an established compass for Japanese corporate management, the mood of stagnancy currently enveloping the Japanese socio-economy should open out into a much broader prospect for the future. The kind of corporate scandals experienced by Daio Paper, Olympus and capital management company AIJ Investment Advisors would disappear, while communicating those principles offshore would also obtain international support. I fervently hope that by taking as a basic strategy this Corporate Charter which it has devised itself, Keidanren will lead the way into a paradigm shift.

Caux Round Table Principles for Business

At the Caux Round Table in 1994, Japanese, US and European businesspeople proposed that the 21st century market economy should pursue ethical capitalism based on their belief that the world business community should play an important role in improving economic and social conditions. The Principles for Business responded to a sense of crisis over the way in which neoliberalism and Chicago School market fundamentalism (business management that prioritizes market share, stockholders and the pursuit of profit) have flourished, making a strong appeal for the need to counterbalance market economy with CSR beyond the constraining force of law and the market. The seven principles, which are rooted in the two basic ethical ideals of kyosei (living and working together for the common good) and human dignity, have been a highly significant motivating factor behind multilateral debate, including the UN Global Compact, the EU Commission CSR Communication, and the ISO26000 guiding standard on the social responsibility of

Trends in academia

Professor Michael Porter from the Harvard Business School has described corporate social responsibility as solving social problems through business (integrating social problems and business activities, realizing shared value), while fellow professor Lynn Sharp Paine has characterized the new reality in which corporate ethics has begun to have a major place in corporate activities as a ‘value shift’. In his book The Most Important Companies in Japan, Professor Koji Sakamoto from Hosei University posits the order of priority for CSR as (1) looking after employees and their families; (2) looking after suppliers and subcontractors; (3) making customers happy; (4) making local communities happy; and (5) making naturally-emerging shareholders happy. Providing actual examples of small and medium enterprises practising this philosophy, his work has attracted much sympathy.

Need for an historical consciousness in forming a new paradigm

In our modern society, characterized by a belief in science and technology as the ultimate panacea, mass production and mass consumption, the need for an historical consciousness is becoming even more important in terms of understanding and recognizing the relativity of human beings, our interdependence, and the whole as well as the parts. Japanese education from the Meiji era through to the present day has focused on training technocrats to contribute to modernization, industry-building and post-war reconstruction, resulting in historical consciousness being forgotten. In academia, history, philosophy and other such subjects have been banished to the corners of literature departments, with an overall trend toward dismissing the liberal arts. For example, in law education, the philosophy of law, the sociology of law and the history of judicial systems—all of which foster an historical consciousness—are not core subjects. Economics began with an historical consciousness, but modern economics, which reduces people to ‘homo economicus’ (Amartya Sen  called them ‘rational fools’), has descended into a discipline totally lacking in historical consciousness. On top of this, the fragmentation of disciplines has brought about an emphasis on the need for interdisciplinary concepts and methods, but most of this has in fact just been fanfare, creating a partial equilibrium that lacks an overall equilibrium perspective.

The influence of such school and university education, as well as increasing disciplinary specialization, are also reflected in actual society, symbolized by the way in which Japanese firms and organizations boast outstanding operational efficiency but are poor at organizational management and strategic thinking beyond this. These factors are impeding a major paradigm shift, and will need to be overcome to truly address market economy systems in the 21st century as well as the social responsibility of the companies constituting these.