Japan Society – The Hollowing Out of Japan Inc: Japan’s Brain Drain
Japan’s moribund economy and rigid labor market have compelled many of the nation’s best and brightest to seek their fortunes overseas. Western venture capital has all but deserted Japan in frustration as new business formation stagnates, and some of Japan’s most innovative, ambitious minds in business, science, academia and technology have moved to the United States and elsewhere. What are the implications of this brain drain on Japan’s economic, political and intellectual future? Can Japan’s creative, industrious spark be brought home again? An expert panel looks at Japan’s human capital problem in the highly competitive global marketplace.
Jun Makihara, Chairman, Neoteny Co., Ltd.
Yasuyuki Nambu, Founder and Chief Executive, Pasona Group
Shigehiro Aihara, CEO, PaHuma Group
Thursday, 02/20/2003 06:30 PM
A few months early but I thought I’d blog it 
I still need to do a writeup of the Alex Kerr event at the Japan Society.
One quick anecdote: a good friend of mine who spent 5 years in Osaka and married his Japanese sweetheart was telling me that in the same week that Alex Kerr spoke at the Japan Society here in NYC, a semi-famous Japanse pianist came to Lincoln Center to play (I didn’t recognize her name. As long as it wasn’t Monday Michiru, it’s no big deal to me Anyway, they went to see that lady play and it was to a packed house at Lincoln Center- easily many hundreds of people, most Japanese nationals or Japanese-Americans.
How many came to hear Alex speak? Probably 30 people or so.
The discrepancy is obviously due to stuff like advertising and marketing, which the Japan Society doesn’t have the budget to promote as Lincoln Center does, but still it was pretty stark. The stuff Alex was talking about was easily as important to the audience of that piano recital but the message isn’t getting out.
One more anecdote- and I forgot who I heard this from but I was telling someone about the book (preaching the Gospel of Kerr, as I am wont to do) and someone mentioned that Kerr’s reputation in Japan is one of a “Japan-basher.” At a superficial level, that may seem correct, but it’s only through a deep love of Japan and Japanese culture that Kerr was able to write what he did. If he didn’t care about Japan, he wouldn’t have bought and restored the Chiiori House and he wouldn’t have spent the time and energy to write the book in the first place.
I just read ‘Lost Japan’ by A. K. and found it quite interesting. It is really a collection of essays about how he got interested in Japan, what he has been up to there, and his observations of the people and culture over several years. His opinions are subjective, as are his conclusions. I lived in Japan for 10 years in the 90′s, and I observed or experienced some of the same things that A. K. addresses. I believe him when he says that he cares about Japan, even though he sometimes criticizes Japan. He sees as regrettable those changes that he finds detract (or distract?) from what he believes to be true Japanese culture. They may be changes brought about in time by modernization, or, perhaps, westernizaton, etc. Not everyone will agree with his views, but he can hardly be called a Japan-basher. Nor is a Japanophile necessarily one who embraces any/all things Japanese without question.