The Power to Compete

In Turkey they have set aside an annual budget equivalent to 100 billion yen [U.S. $1 billion] in order to attract tens of thousands of foreign teachers.

Theories of education in Japan are really just about memorizing the knowledge, which is to say that I don't feel like they are really used at all. For instance, ask a bureaucrat at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology about theories or methodology of English education, and they can't even answer the question. [laughs]

one time, Sony had this capability. How did it lose that? I believe that the reason is simple—the founder of Sony, Akio Morita, passed away. Similarly, Steve Jobs passed away, and Apple's innovation has stagnated. Google is a slightly different case. Th

issue is that nationalism has made our regulations too strict and turned us into an isolated state. We need to tremendously enhance Japan's competitiveness, in much the same way that we raised the competitiveness of our soccer teams to the extent that Japan could even appear in the World Cup. Nothing good comes from overprotection. If we just opened Japan more, I believe that we would triumph in many different industries. Some industries would fail, too, but I believe it is crucial that we develop in an open and fair manner.

That's the logic behind the theory of comparative advantage, yes. It's just like you said.

“ratchet effect,” which is similar to the demonstration effect. It describes the consumption activity by which people refuse to go to restaurants that serve bad food after they have experienced good food at a fancier place. Once people have experienced or purchased something nice, they will continue to spend the same amount of money for it if they can receive the same experience or product. That choice is the consumption activity described by the ratchet effect.

Japan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the METI, and the Ministry of Finance are all part of a vertical structure and working in different directions.

No single person is looking at the entirety of the situation.

The government's curriculum guidelines are set once every 10 years, and education proceeds in a uniform manner based on that teaching policy.

I believe that it is crucial for us to create an educational program that features English and IT