日本に外圧が効果的なことは、今では欧米のジャーナリスト、政治家にとっては常識となっている。その認識にこの原稿CIVIL WARISM AND HARMONISMも一役買っている。
　この原稿を初めて高く評価してくれたのは、オーストラリアのロータリークラブの雑誌だった。私のロータリークラブでの講演を記事にまとめて発表してくれたのだ。二番目に高く評価してくれたのは、『ニューパースペクティブ　クオータリー』という米国の季刊誌。この原稿が認められて東京駐在員にしてくれた。『ニューパースペクティブ　クオータリー』はブッシュ大統領やクリントン前大統領、フランスの大統領など、世界のリーダーが読む社会思想雑誌なのだ。

PART THREE:
Outcome of Harmonism (5)

By Shun Daichi

3. Need of Outside Pressure
More and more, Japanese society requires outside pressure to shift the course of the country.

In the society of Harmonism, achieving a consensus among the people is the ideal. However, reaching a consensus is an almost impossible task in any human society. It is therefore only achieved by "tatemae" and not really by "honne" in Japanese society.

Even so, with "tatemae" it is very hard to get a consensus among people; it sometimes takes endless amounts of persuasion. This may be one of the causes for slow decision-making by Japanese institutions.

In the case of the beef and orange negotiations with America, it took a long time to persuade Japanese farmers to agree to the terms. It actually needed strong outside pressure to convince the farmers to submit to the government decision.

On the other hand, the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) was not popular in introducing the consumption tax because there was no outside pressure and people felt that the LDP had no reason to rush the tax reform.

It is easier and quicker to have outside pressure brought about a consensus in our country. It has now become a political technique to deliberately wait for outside pressures to rise, to gain consensus in the society.

In negotiations the Japanese are known to be persistent but will bend under strong pressure. For the Japanese, winning a negotiation is often only of secondary importance. In our society we sacrifice almost anything to keep harmony with others and this attitude seems to be reflected in international negotiations as well.

In our history, outside pressure had big parts in deciding the course of Japan. About 200 years ago The US Black ships reached Japan and asked us to open up seaports. At that time Japanese were divided in two camps but finally overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate (regime) to meet the demands of the world. There was no serious destruction of cities or all out wars between the Tokugawa shogunate and a new power.

This bloodless revolution was possible because of Harmonism. Under strong outside pressure, Japanese can unit and compromise to meet the challenge of the time.

We were also united and started a war against the US during the World War Two. This time, because of strong pressure from The US we were united and whole-heartedly fought against mighty military giant America.

We also needed outside pressure to open up our business market to foreigners in 1970s. Without outside pressure Japanese cannot really change the direction of our country. This is because of Harmonism.

(To be continued)