Proponents of the Obama administration’s “pivot,” or rebalance of attention and resources, toward Asia should be heartened by the results of Japan’s parliamentary election. The Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) landslide victory in the lower house Sunday augurs well for a reinvigorated relationship between the United States and Japan.

The reasons are threefold. First, the LDP is experienced in U.S.-Japan alliance management, much more so than the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which had ousted the LDP from power in September 2009 after half a century. Although the DPJ was well-intentioned, its tenure the past three years was plagued with intraparty bickering, friction with the professional bureaucracy and a generally ineffectual and non-strategic foreign policy.

Second, the LDP will rely more on the expertise, experience and continuity offered by the professional bureaucrats, who were cast aside by the DPJ, especially in the cabinets headed by prime ministers Yukio Hatoyama (2009-2010) and Naoto Kan (2010-11). Perhaps reflecting their shortcomings as chief executive and in managing Japan’s relationship with the United States, Hatoyama chose not to run in Sunday’s elections and Kan lost his seat in the Diet to a relatively unknown LDP candidate. Of the three DPJ prime ministers since 2009, only Yoshihiko Noda, who served from 2011 to 2012 and whom many consider similar in style to previous LDP prime ministers, won reelection.

Third, the new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, values the Japan-U.S. alliance and has said publicly that his top foreign policy priority is to restore the trust and confidence that has characterized Japan’s relationship with the United States since the end of the Second World War. Although he is often portrayed as a nationalist, Abe, who studied in the United States and speaks English, is a staunch advocate of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. That treaty was renewed and ratified by the Diet in 1960, in the face of mass protests, under the leadership of his grandfather, then-prime minister Nobusuke Kishi.

But there are caveats.

Read the complete op-ed.

“PERSONAL REFLECTIONS OF A JAPANESE AMERICAN ARMY BRAT”
Glen S. Fukushima
President and CEO, Airbus Japan
Former President, American Chamber of Commerce in Japan
Former Deputy Assistant United States Trade Representative for Japan and China

Thank you very much you for your kind introductions, in both English and Japanese.

I. INTRODUCTION

Consul-General and Mrs. Nagamine, Senator Yee, Assemblyman Nakanishi, distinguished honorees and guests, ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased to be here in San Francisco tonight, and I am honored to be invited as the keynote speaker at the 2008 Annual Awards Dinner of the National Japanese American Historical Society.

The theme of this year’s dinner is “Leading in the Asian Pacific Era: Past, Present, and Future.” I would like to spend the next 30 minutes addressing this subject by (1) drawing on my own personal history (the past); (2) examining the recent emergence of Asia Pacific and its implications for Asian Americans (the present); and (3) discussing the leadership challenges facing Americans of Japanese ancestry (the future). I have titled my talk, “Personal Reflections of a Japanese American Army Brat.”

II. THE PAST

My ties to San Francisco reach back to June 1956, when my father brought my mother and me, then age six, to the United States for the first time. My father was born in Taft, California, near Bakersfield, in 1924 as the youngest of three sons to Naokichi and Toki Fukushima. My father’s family moved to Los Angeles several years later. My father was a senior at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The following year, my father’s family was incarcerated in Amache, an internment camp located in Colorado. My father’s two older brothers volunteered in 1943 to join the U.S. Army and were sent to Europe as part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team to fight the Nazis in France and Italy.

My father, on the other hand, was sent to the Pacific theater. The reason is that when he was a child, his parents had sent him to study in Japan, so his Japanese language ability was better than that of his brothers and of many of his Nisei compatriots. My father spent his second year of elementary school in a Japanese “shogakko” in Kumamoto, from which his parents had emigrated to California, and he spent his first year of junior high school in the Nichi-Bei Gakuin, a bilingual school located in Nakano in Tokyo, where Issei parents sent their Nisei children to study so that they would not forget their Japanese language and Japanese heritage.
Upon leaving Amache and enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1943, my father was assigned to the MIS (Military Intelligence Service) Language School at Camp Savage in Minnesota to study the Japanese language, especially military terminology. Upon graduating six months later, he was sent to infantry basic training at Camp Blanding, Florida for two months. He then returned to Minnesota, this time to Fort Snelling, to await orders to be shipped overseas. After two months in Hawaii for further training and preparation to go into the combat zone in the Pacific, he was sent to the Philippines and later to Okinawa. His main duties were to intercept Japanese codes, translate documents, interrogate Japanese prisoners of war, and, in Okinawa, to persuade Japanese soldiers to come out of their caves so that they would not be incinerated by the flamethrowers being used against them by the U.S. Marines.

For his valor and service to his country, the U.S. Army awarded my father the Bronze Star. However, working in the Philippines and Okinawa was in many ways a deeply traumatic experience for my father, since at times he needed to be guarded by his fellow American soldiers so that he would not be shot at by other American soldiers who might mistake my father for being the enemy. My mother tells me that, even to this day, my father during his sleep still suffers from nightmares about his harrowing experiences in Okinawa 63 years ago.

This reminds me of an encounter I had with a Japanese journalist in early 1985, soon after it was announced that I would be leaving my law firm in Los Angeles to join USTR (Office of the United States Trade Representative) in Washington, D.C. A Japanese journalist in Los Angeles wanted to interview me about my future role as a U.S. government trade negotiator. In answer to his questions, I described to him my family background. At the end of the interview, his parting words to me were, “Just as your father fought Japanese soldiers in World War Two, now, you must go battle Japanese trade negotiators.” It was then that I realized that not a few Japanese viewed economic relations with the United States in explicitly military terms.

After the end of the war, my father was assigned in Tokyo in 1946 to work at SCAP (Supreme Commander Allied Powers) as in interpreter and translator. There, in 1947, he met a Japanese woman whom he married, and I was born in Tokyo in 1949 in a U.S. military hospital. I am pleased to report that my parents are still alive and well, living in Torrance, California.

When the Korean War broke out in 1950, my father was sent to Korea, again as part of the MIS, to help the U.S. war effort against North Korea and China. In 1951, he was reassigned to Japan, this time to Camp Sendai, in the northern Tohoku District. I therefore attended kindergarten and first grade at the U.S. Army dependents school located on the base at Camp Sendai.

Then, in 1956, my father was assigned to Fort Ord, and it was on our way to our new home in Seaside and Monterey that we came to San Francisco. I recall that we flew on a MATS (Military Air Transport) Lockheed Super Constellation four-engine propeller airplane from Tokyo to Wake Island, then to Hickham Air Force Base in Honolulu, and to Travis Air Force Base near Oakland before arriving in San Francisco on June 6,1956.

After attending my second, third, and fourth grades of elementary school in Seaside, Monterey, and North Bayview Park at Fort Ord, we moved in 1959 to San Francisco, where my father was assigned to the Presidio. I attended part of fifth grade at the Hawthorne School (since re-named the Cesar Chavez Elementary School) on Shotwell Street in the Mission District and part of fifth grade and part of sixth grade at the Sutro School, on Funston Avenue in the Richmond District.

In November 1960, just as the announcer Douglas Edwards on NBC-TV news was reporting the voting results from the U.S. presidential election race between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, my parents and I left from Travis Air Force Base to go again to Tokyo, where my mother and I lived for two years, and I attended Yoyogi Elementary School in Washington Heights (subsequently torn down for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964) while my father worked in Korea on an MIS mission that did not allow him to take his family with him.

In 1962, my father was assigned to the Camp Zama Army base in Kanagawa Prefecture, so I attended eighth, ninth, and tenth grades at Camp Zama High School. In 1965, my father was assigned to Fort MacArthur in Los Angeles, and I finished my last two years of high school at Gardena High School.

I wanted to share with you my personal background, especially my father’s involvement with the U.S. Army and the MIS, for several reasons. First, I wanted to pay tribute to the MIS honorees at tonight’s Awards Dinner. Second, it is worth noting that it is thanks to their dedication and efforts that World War Two ended without more bloodshed and that the post-war Occupation of Japan went as smoothly as it did. Third, the work of the MIS paved the way for future generations of Japanese Americans such as myself to engage in the relationship between the United States and Japan.

In addition, the National Japanese American Historical Society is in the process of launching its capital fundraising campaign for the Military Intelligence Service Historic Learning Center. As you know, the planned Center pays tribute to the MIS linguists’ contribution to peaceful U.S.-Japan relations after World War Two.

III. U.S.-JAPAN RELATIONS

It was during my undergraduate days at Stanford in the late 1960s that I became involved in three sets of activities that provided the foundation for my future career path and my involvement with U.S.-Japan relations.

The first was my involvement in the Asian American Student Movement. This provided solidarity for Japanese Americans with Chinese Americans, Korean Americans, and other Asian American students to work with African American, Native American, and Hispanic students in a quest for racial and social justice and for an end to the war in Vietnam.

The second set of activities was my involvement in the Stanford-Keio exchange program. I spent two months in the summer of 1969 in Tokyo with 11 other Stanford students on a host family program, and subsequently served at Stanford as chairman of the Stanford-Keio Student Exchange Program. Then, from 1971 to 1972, I spent one academic year in Tokyo studying at Keio University, where a seminar on U.S.-Japan relations taught by Professor Gerald Curtis, visiting from Columbia University, piqued my interest in pursuing a career in U.S.-Japan affairs.

The third set of activities was my participation in the 22nd Annual Japan-America Student Conference (“Nichi-Bei Gakusei Kaigi”) in the summer of 1970, which was held that year at Stanford University. I was a member of the American student delegation attending the conference, and it was there that I first met Sakie Tachibana, a member of the Japanese student delegation. We got married two years later, and we will be celebrating our 36th wedding anniversary later this year.

After graduating from Stanford in 1972, I have had the good fortune to benefit from several programs aimed at strengthening U.S.-Japan ties. Among them are the Fulbright Fellowship, on which I did my Harvard doctoral dissertation research at the University of Tokyo; the Japan Foundation, which allowed me to continue my dissertation research; and the U.S.-Japan Business Fellows Program sponsored by the Japan Society in New York and the International House of Japan, which made it possible for me to spend the summer between my first and second year of Harvard Business School as an intern at Dentsu, Japan’s largest advertising agency.

In my professional life, I have had the opportunity to work in journalism, academia, law, government, and business. In each case, my work has focused on U.S.-Japan or U.S.-Asian relations. At USTR from 1985 to 1988, I was Director for Japanese Affairs, but from 1988 to 1990, my responsibilities expanded to include China as Deputy Assistant USTR for Japan and China. My work at AT&T also encompassed Asian regional responsibilities. Although my work as the Japan president of Arthur D. Little, Cadence Design Systems, and NCR all focused on the Japanese market, I did have many occasions to work with my colleagues in the Asia-Pacific region.

After having worked for so long in U.S.-Japan and U.S.-Asian affairs, I decided three years ago to accept an offer to work for a European company, Airbus, to learn about and contribute to Japan’s relationship with Europe. The opportunity to work closely with, and frequently to visit, my Airbus colleagues in France, Germany, Britain, Spain, and other European countries has provided me a truly global perspective on doing business, and one that helps me to understand and appreciate better the relationship between the United States and Japan.

IV. ASIA RISING

In the 1960s, Japan became the world’s first non-Western country to become an advanced industrialized nation, joining the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) in 1964. But by the 1970s, attention was also being given to the rapid economic development of the so-called four “Asian Tigers” of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. By the 1990s, the rise of China, India, Vietnam, and other Asian countries showed conclusively that Asia was the world’s center of economic growth. Although the Asian financial crisis of 1997-99 caused a temporary pause in this growth, the 21st century is witnessing a historic shift of economic activity and wealth from the West to Asia.

The impact of such a historic shift is profound for the Asian countries that are the central actors in this drama. At the same time, there are significant implications for Americans whose ancestors immigrated to this country from Asia. Simply put, as the importance of Asia increases, the potential role of Asian Americans also increases.

For instance, as the economic and political role of India has risen, the role of Americans of Indian ancestry has also expanded. Indian Americans have increasingly played an important role in the high technology industry in Silicon Valley, the financial industry on Wall Street, and other industries as well. One can cite, for instance, the Americans of Indian ancestry who are currently serving as the CEO of Pepsi and of Citibank. In the political arena as well, last year we saw the election of a second-generation Indian American as the governor of Louisiana, the first time in more than a century that a non-white was elected as governor of that state.

Just as the growing importance of Asia has had a positive impact on Asian Americans, the enhanced status of Asian Americans has made it easier for Asian countries, people, and products to be accepted in the United States. Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony, was a Japanese business leader who publicly paid tribute to Japanese Americans by pointing out that it was thanks to their loyalty and commitment to the United States and their acceptance by their fellow Americans as good citizens that helped to pave the way for Sony and other Japanese companies to export their products to, and invest in, the United States in the 1950s and 1960s.

V. LEADERSHIP

Japanese Americans—based on our long history in this country, our considerable accomplishments, and the prominence of Japan in world affairs—have the potential to play a much greater role than in the past in American society, as well as in U.S.-Japan relations and global affairs. However, to do so we need to consciously seek and take leadership roles, whether in business, government, politics, or community affairs.

In this, we are sometimes held back by what might be considered “traditional Japanese values” such as “enryo,” being polite, precise, and punctual; thinking about others over oneself; valuing group harmony; listening rather than talking; repaying debts; respecting elders; etc. Don’t misunderstand me; I do not deny that these are laudable values. However, if our behavior is based solely on a strict adherence to them, we will find ourselves severely limiting our chances to assume leadership positions.

For instance, when I was growing up, my parents taught me that when there are others in the room who are older or more experienced than me, I should listen and not speak. Imagine my surprise when, at my seminars as an undergraduate at Stanford, the professors gave higher grades to those undergraduate students who spoke up and debated, not only with their peers but also with graduate students or even with their professors. This was completely contrary to what I had been taught at home.

A Japanese friend of mine who spent one year as an AFS (American Field Service) exchange student in Leawood, Kansas told me that while she was in the United States, if she did not speak up in a meeting, her classmates and teachers considered her to be stupid. Upon returning to her high school in Tokyo, when she spoke up in meetings, her classmates and teachers considered her to be stupid. It is difficult to appear intelligent in both societies by acting similarly in both, since there are certain values and actions considered desirable in one society that are considered undesirable in the other.

One of the highest compliments I have received from a Japanese person was the following. At a cocktail party several years ago at the German Embassy in Tokyo, I was speaking with several guests, and one of them, a German businessman, asked me, “Mr. Fukushima, are you Japanese or are you American?”

Before I had a chance to respond, one of the other guests, a senior Japanese businessman I’ve known for over 20 years, said to him, “Mr. Fukushima is more American than Americans and more Japanese than Japanese.” He explained that I could be logical, analytical, legalistic, individualistic, assertive, articulate, vocal, and self-confident (as many Japanese view the typical American to be). But I could also be gentle, caring, sensitive to others, empathetic, polite, deferential, and team-oriented (as many Japanese view themselves to be).

I believe that my upbringing in both the United States and Japan has given me the flexibility to be able to tap those aspects of my culture and personality when appropriate. Given the real differences that exist between Japanese and American culture, it is often necessary to adjust one’s behavior in order to be effective.

For instance, in Japan, if one appears to be overconfident, one risks losing the support of others, since the attitude in Japan is often, “If you’re so self-confident, you certainly don’t need my support.” On the other hand, in the United States, one of the surest ways to lose the support of others is to appear to lack confidence, since the attitude in the United States is often, “How can we have confidence in you if you don’t have confidence in yourself?”

The prevailing Western conception of “leadership” is one that many Japanese Americans have struggled with, in part based on the cultural legacy from Japan as well as the tendency to be risk-averse and socially inconspicuous deriving from the internment experience of over 60 years ago. When I was graduating from Gardena High School in 1967, I still recall that most of my brightest Sansei classmates were being encouraged by their Nisei parents to become doctors, dentists, pharmacists, engineers, architects, or accountants—all professions with high social status, high salaries, low visibility, and low risks—in short, professions in which one could succeed by being good technicians, without being articulate, persuasive, risk-taking, political, or leading an organization.

Younger Sansei, Yonsei, and Gosei are probably not so limited as we were 40 years ago in the “preferred” career choices as seen by our parents. But there is still a dearth of Japanese Americans who have succeeded in corporate America (that is, big business), government, and politics.

One reason it is important for Japanese Americans to pursue such professions vigorously is the following. Very few Americans showed any concern when Henry Kissinger became National Security Advisor and Secretary of State in the Nixon Administration, when Zbigniew Brzezinski became National Security Advisor in the Carter Administration, or when Madeleine Albright became Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration, despite the fact that all three of these individuals were born outside the United States and were naturalized as U.S. citizens, and in the case of Kissinger and Brzezinski, have heavy German and Polish accents, respectively.

Although Norman Mineta and Elaine Chao have been pioneers as Asian American cabinet officers, it will be another significant step forward when we have a National Security Advisor or Secretary of State whose appearance is clearly “foreign.”

VI. THE FUTURE

Having discussed my own personal background (the past), the rise of Asia (the present), and leadership challenges facing Japanese Americans (the future), I will now conclude with a few observations about the role Japanese Americans can play in the Asian Pacific Era in the future. Here are some of the areas in which I personally hope more Japanese will actively engage:

The first is for Japanese Americans to be more aggressive in pursuing senior positions in big business, government, and politics, not only because these can be inherently interesting, meaningful, and important positions, but also because they will give Japanese Americans leverage to play a more central role than in the past in American society and in world affairs.
The second is for Japanese Americans to forge stronger links with other Americans of color, especially with other Asian Americans, to understand better our areas of common interests and to collectively wield greater political, economic, social, and cultural power and influence.

The third is for Japanese Americans to establish stronger ties with Nikkei in other countries. About five years ago, I created a “Japanese American Study Group” (Nikkei Amerikajin Benkyokai) in Tokyo consisting of about 50 Japanese American professionals working in Japan. In recent years, the group has included Japanese Canadians, Japanese Brazilians, and a Japanese Venezuelan. This individual, who is a Nisei and the Venezuelan Ambassador to Japan, has informed me that there are two other Nikkei ambassadors to Japan (from Paraguay and Bolivia), so I plan to invite these two individuals to join our study group, which we should probably re-name as the “Nikkeijin Study Group.”

The fourth is to become more engaged in U.S.-Japan relations. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Japan Foundation have since 2000 sponsored a one-week orientation trip to Japan each year for about a dozen Japanese Americans under a program known as the “The Japanese American Leadership Delegation to Japan.” I have had the opportunity to address this group every year they have come to Japan, and I have found it to be an excellent way to foster greater Japanese American understanding of Japan and Japanese understanding of Japanese Americans. I should add that Israel, China, Taiwan, and Korea have similar programs for their respective ethnic groups in the United States, but on a much larger scale. Encouraging more exchange and interaction between Japanese Americans and Japan can only benefit both parties.

The fifth and last point is that, for those Japanese Americans who become involved with Japan and with U.S.-Japan relations, please heed my advice: “Don’t be a bridge, be a player!” As I said in my speech here in San Francisco on July 24, 2006 at a symposium to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Japantown, a bridge is a structure that is built to allow for others to walk over and benefit from. Japanese Americans should strive to be players, actors, and decision makers in the relationship. If by doing so we end up providing a bridge that others find useful, this is fine. But to aim from the beginning to be a bridge seems to me unnecessarily to relegate Japanese Americans to a limited and subordinate role.

VII. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I would like to thank the National Japanese American Historical Society for hosting this Annual Awards Dinner tonight and for inviting me to present this keynote address. This is a tremendous opportunity for us to honor the individuals, institutions, and heritage that have made the Japanese American community the rich, vibrant and productive community that it is. I think that you can tell from my remarks tonight that I take great pride in the cultural heritage that my parents, grandparents, and Japanese and Japanese American communities have passed on to me.

It is truly wonderful to be with you here tonight, and I’m glad that I made the trip here from Tokyo. Events such as this Awards Dinner make me proud to be an American, and immensely proud to be a Japanese American!

Thank you very much.

“Glen Fukushima has a distinguished career in both the public and private sectors. His service in the Office of the United States Trade Representative, his strong business acumen, and his deep knowledge of Japan and East Asia give him an unparalleled perspective on issues facing U.S. policy in the Pacific, ” said John Podesta, Chair of the Center for American Progress. “We are happy to announce that Mr. Fukushima is bringing his knowledge and experience to our CAP team as we continue to tackle pressing issues in foreign policy and global trade.”

Fukushima previously worked as the senior vice president of Airbus SAS, and chairman and director of Airbus Japan K.K. Fukushima served two presidents at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, where he worked as deputy assistant USTR for Japan and China and director for Japanese Affairs. He is credited with opening Japanese markets in numerous sectors for U.S. exports during his time at USTR. After leaving government, Fukushima served as president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan and worked for four American companies, including time as president of the Japan operations of NCR Corporation, Cadence Design Systems, Inc., and Arthur D. Little, Inc., as well as vice president for International Affairs of AT&T.

Fukushima is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard University, where he received his J.D. and studied in the MBA and Ph.D. programs. His doctoral thesis examined the evolution of antitrust and competition policy in Japan from 1947 to 1982. He also studied in Japan at Keio University and at the University of Tokyo as a Fulbright Fellow. Fukushima has published numerous articles in both English and Japanese on topics ranging from political economy to international law, which have appeared in newspapers and journals such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Harvard Business Review, Asahi Evening News, and Japan Times. He is the author of three books in Japanese, The Politics of U.S. – Japan Trade Friction (Asahi Shimbunsha, 1992); A New Era in U.S. – Japan Relations? (Sekai Bunkasha, 1993); and How the Japanese Economy Can Revive by the Year 2001 (Bungei Shunju, 1999).

Allen McDuffee of the Washington Post posted this item on November 7, 2012:

The Center for American Progress (CAP) will announce the addition of former congressman Patrick Murphy, former British foreign minister David Miliband and Airbus Japan President K.K. Glen S. Fukushima to the progressive think tank’s national security and foreign policy team.

“The arrival of Patrick Murphy, David Miliband and Glen Fukushima marks a wave of new critical thinkers with high level experience in politics, foreign policy and trade to our institution,” said Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress. “Their diverse professional backgrounds and proven ability to handle complex foreign policy and international trade situations will ensure that the Center for American Progress continues to bring innovative ideas to a global audience.”

Thank you, John, for that generous introduction.

As John mentioned, I moved back to the United States this past summer after 22 years in Tokyo. I am now based in Washington, D.C. as a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, a public policy think tank. But it’s always a pleasure to come home to San Francisco, which is my favorite American city.

I’m truly honored to be invited to address this annual dinner of the Japan Society of Northern California. This is because, in my humble opinion, this Society is one of the very best Japan Societies in the entire United States of America. It is also because the three senior statesmen who will be speaking tonight are individuals I sincerely respect and admire.

George Shultz was the Secretary of State when I joined the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), 27 years ago, in 1985, as Director for Japanese Affairs and worked for USTRs Bill Brock and Clayton Yeutter. Those were the days of the Ron-Yasu relationship between President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone. That period was also known for the George-Shintaro relationship, between Secretary Shultz and Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe. His son, Shinzo Abe, was prime minister of Japan from 2006 to 2007, was elected on September 26 of this year as the new president of the Liberal Democratic Party, and is expected by many to make a comeback as the next prime minister of Japan.

Mike Armacost became the United States Ambassador to Japan in 1989, my last year at USTR. I attended his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, where he uttered the famous words, “Mr. Chairman, you can be sure that I will be the First Commercial Officer of the U.S. Embassy in Japan.” True to his word, he warmly welcomed me to Tokyo when I moved there in June 1990 representing AT&T. His support for AT&T and my activities in Japan helped me eventually to be elected Vice President and President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, which at that time was the largest American Chamber outside the United States.

And Yotaro “Tony” Kobayashi, whom I’ve known for 30 years, is among the Japanese business leaders I most respect and appreciate. In addition to recommending me for memberships in numerous corporate boards and important organizations including Keizai Doyukai (the Japan Association of Corporate Executives), he has been a mentor to me in everything from golf and classical music to my professional career. So when the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan’s leading economic newspaper, asked me about 10 years ago to select one businessman to write about in its Koyusho column (a column about people who are of vital importance to the author), I chose without hesitation to write about Tony Kobayashi as my friend, mentor, and role model.

Tonight, I was requested by the Japan Society to provide “your formula (and prognosis) for Japan’s recovery from the triple disaster, the economic malaise, and the demographic time bomb”—all within 10 minutes!

This is clearly an impossible task. But I will, in my remaining 7 minutes, share with you an outline of my plan to address these thorny issues.

1. Create a Kobayashi Commission, chaired by Tony Kobayashi, that will produce within six months a report recommending a comprehensive vision for Japan’s 20-year future from 2013 to 2033. This report should follow the constructive tradition set in the past by the Okita Report, the Maekawa Report, and the Hiraiwa Report.

2. Create a Competitiveness Commission that will propose within six months concrete and actionable recommendations for Japan to enhance its global economic competitiveness.

3. Create a Population Commission that will propose concrete policies and incentives to increase quickly and significantly Japan’s birth rate.

4. Actively pursue participation in the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) negotiations to expand Japan’s potential markets abroad and to reform Japan’s domestic market, including agriculture.

5. Actively pursue FTAs (Free Trade Agreements), EPAs (Economic Partnership Agreements), and EIAs (Economic Integration Agreements) with the European Union, Canada, Australia, Korea, China, ASEAN, and other countries and regions to expand Japan’s global economic presence.

6. Actively promote the equal participation in the workplace by women, youth (people in their 20s), the elderly (people over the age of 65), and non-Japanese. Japan is seriously underutilizing this valuable pool of human talent.

7. Reform Japan’s immigration policy to allow Japan to tap the vast reservoir of human talent, both men and women, from around the world.

8. Reform Japan’s educational system, especially its higher education system, to be more open, competitive, and in tune with the realities of globalization.

9. Completely overhaul Japan’s English language education system to ensure that English can be used as a tool for critical thinking, logical analysis, discussion, debate, persuasion, and communication rather than as a sorting device for school entrance examinations.

10. Devise a public diplomacy strategy that will draw on elements of Japan’s soft power and deep cultural strengths to project Japan’s positive presence on the world stage.

11. Reform Japan’s electoral system to realize the principle of one person one vote prescribed by the Japanese Supreme Court.

12. Institute term limits to reduce political dynasties and ensure that entrenched officials do not clog the system and deter new aspiring candidates from running for political office.

13. Fundamentally reform Japan’s tax system to promote simplicity, fairness, efficiency, economic competitiveness, and eliminate the huge government deficit.

14. Strengthen the National Strategy Unit in the Prime Minister’s Office to coordinate and lead issues of national and international importance that cannot be left to the petty bureaucratic and jurisdictional rivalries of the central government agencies.

15. Create a National Security Commission to discuss and debate Japan’s national security policy and to issue recommendations on such issues as the right to collective self-defense, the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, the roles and missions of the Self-Defense Force, and the appropriate scale and presence of U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan.

16. Finally, as I recommended in my chapter in “Reimagining Japan,” devise a policy to encourage Japanese youth to study and work abroad as a way to develop their foreign language fluency, diversity management skills, crisis management ability, leadership skills, and global networks.

I have just about used up my allotted 10 minutes, so I will not be able to elaborate on these recommendations. But I believe that if this 16-point Fukushima Plan were implemented, it would go far to revitalize and reenergize Japan, enhance its presence on the world stage, and give Japan the recognition and credit it deserves for its valuable contributions to the world community.

It is now my privilege to introduce to you our next speaker, Ambassador Michael Armacost.

Mike is currently a Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University. From 1995 to 2002, he was President of the Brookings Institution. Mike served with great distinction as the United States Ambassador to Japan from 1989 to 1993, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 1984 to 1989, and Ambassador to the Philippines from 1982 to 1984.

He is the author of three books, including Friends or Rivals?, an insightful and highly regarded book that draws on his tenure as the United States Ambassador to Japan.

Among many honors, Mike has received the President’s Distinguished Service Award, the Defense Department’s Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, and, from the Japanese Government, the Order of the Rising Sun, Grand Cordon.

Ladies and gentlemen, please help me to welcome to the podium Ambassador Michael H. Armacost.

On May 14, 2012, Glen Fukushima delivered a speech as part of the USF Center for the Pacific Rim and USF Economics Department’s Professor Yuan-li Wu Economics Speakers Series.

In his speech, “U.S.-East Asia Relations: As Seen from Tokyo,” Mr. Fukushima, talked about Japan as America’s most important ally in Asia and how Tokyo’s views remain critical for the region. Patrick L. Hatcher, Ph.D., Kiriyama Distinguished Fellow at the Center, moderated. The event was co-sponsored by the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco, the Japan Society of Northern California, the USF School of Management, the World Affairs Council of Northern California, and the USF Japan Policy Research Institute.

The news brought to mind several aphorisms: “Expect the unexpected” (since almost everyone had predicted that the United States, ranked number one in the world, would win); “There’s always the first time” (since Japan’s record against the U.S. had been 0-21-3); “Don’t believe the experts” (since virtually all the experts had bet on a U.S. victory); “It’s never over until it’s over” (since the U.S. dominated almost the entire game); and “Never give up” (since the U.S. was the first to score and led in points up to the last few minutes of the game).

Japanese women convincingly demonstrated their power by winning in the global competition of soccer. Yet, in Japan itself, the opportunities for women to excel outside the home remain limited. True, there have been some advances since the passage of the Gender Equality Law in 1985.

Yet equality is the exception rather than the norm. In 2010, Japan ranked 94th out of 134 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index, which compares men and women’s wages and societal positions, compiled by the World Economic Forum in Geneva. Similarly, Japan ranked 57th in the United Nations’ Gender Empowerment Measure, which assesses women’s standing in the politics and economy of 109 countries.

Professors at Japan’s top universities and recruiters at Japan’s major companies admit that if students were hired based on their school grades, achievements, and job interviews, more than two-thirds of the offers would go to women. To ensure against such a result, many companies impose an artificial ceiling to limit women to 15 or 20 percent of entry-level professional positions.

This is one reason why, according to a study done in 2009 by Corporate Women Directors International, women occupied only 17 seats on the boards of directors of Japan’s top 100 companies, or a mere 1.4 percent of the 1,198 board positions-placing Japan near the bottom of 35 countries surveyed, including Jordan (2 percent), Oman (2.3 percent), and Kuwait (2.7 percent).

With an aging population, declining birth rate, and miniscule immigration, Japan can ill afford to underutilize the power of women. This is especially so given the increasing insularity, risk averseness, and lack of drive seen among younger men, who have been coddled and protected by their mothers and sheltered from the competition, both domestic and foreign, that their fathers’ generation experienced in the nation’s high-growth period from the 1950s through the 1980s.

According to a study on the Japanese economy released by Goldman Sachs, “Increased female participation [in the workforce] implies higher income and consumption growth which we estimate could lift GDP growth by 0.3 percent to 1.5 percent from 1.2 percent and boost per capita income by 5.8 percent over the next 20 years.”

Perhaps it is time for Japan’s leaders-nearly all men-to realize that the skill, strategy, energy, determination, resilience, teamwork, and results-focus evinced by the women in Japan’s victorious World Cup team is exactly what the nation needs to overcome the political, economic, and social miasma of the last two decades.

Glen S. Fukushima, a native of California, is Chairman & Director of Airbus Japan and former President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. From 1985 to 1990, he was based in Washington, D.C. as Director for Japanese Affairs and, later, Deputy Assistant USTR for Japan and China at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.