Concept:　
Integrace “Fusion of knowledge and ambition”

I want to do something about Japan's decline.

The most memorable research I did during my university days in Portland, USA, was the book ``Decline of Japan'' written by Joseph Nye, who was a professor at Harvard University. The main reasons are the small number of intellectuals, scarcity of natural resources, population decline, decline in labor force, and peer-to-peer relationships (weak connections between people, such as religion (church), civil society, and local communities). was. This is a paper written around the time that Paul Kennedy's Rise and Fall of a Great Power (A Theory of American Decline) became a bestseller in Japan. It was a well-established theory within Japan that Japan's Achilles' heel would be energy resources, food, and a future labor shortage due to an aging population, but what I was curious about was the absolute number of intellectuals and the number of peers. .
First of all, I was surprised by the differences in IT environments at universities, the diversity of students' study attitudes, ways of looking at things, and ways of thinking, as well as the spirit of service. In Japan, when only a few companies were equipped with PCs, universities were equipped with Apple computers (big old PCs), and the United States even released the Super 301 to suppress Japan and make IT policy a national policy. This was around the time when I started steering the company. At that time, I had no idea that the result would be current globalization and DX, and the birth of GAFA. It was truly a time of soft power and a paradigm shift. In the school cafeteria, 18-year-old female college students talked about the presidential election and global warming in girls' talk, and more than one female college student had big dreams for the future, such as becoming president or a scientist. He also has a strong sense of social contribution, doing volunteer work like going downtown on weekends, and donating a few cents to a few dollars from his little pocket money to the people sitting around. Some students are openly gay or lesbian; others return to school after years of traveling the world or working to pay for their education; others have Swedish classmates who are drafted into the military; others receive combat training such as shooting. A friend of mine, a Swiss female college student who is also good friends with my stepmother (we had talked about my love of art so much that I went to art school when I was in high school), told me that I wanted to go to the National Gallery, and she said, ``Well, I'd like to go to the National Gallery.'' She told me that I could stay at my step mother's house, and she even arranged for me to stay at my friend's step mother's house without her staying there. In Japan, you would never think of having a friend stay at the home of a divorced father's new wife. If there's a woman or an old woman with luggage, she'll quickly take it and open the door. I felt a sense of social love that was different from Japan's ``family'' or ``friends'' love, in which people would help people if they were in trouble.

Japan's second resources are people, culture, history, greenery, and water.

Later, when I went to museums in Europe for work, especially the museums in Paris that I had high hopes for, I realized that America is the number one mecca for art in the world, as it is a victorious country. Large art museums such as the National Gallery, Boston Fine, and the Metropolitan have not only popular art by world-famous painters that you would expect to find in Europe, such as Impressionism and Surrealism, but also ukiyo-e, Japanese paintings, Satsuma ware, etc., which gave me a vague sense of Japan. It made me realize the true value of culture. Every time I'm asked about Japanese food or tea ceremonies or even the philosophy behind them, I realize that my mother was a Japanese dancer, and my grandmother, who ran a kimono shop, had her roots as a doctor at Nagoya Castle, but I had wasted the opportunity to educate myself. When I realized this, I thought I needed to relearn the culture from my mother and grandmother. At that time, I think we had a disappointing conversation similar to the Jomon pottery conversation between future President Chirac and a certain prime minister. Everywhere I went, I was respected and proud of the history of Japanese food, tea, kimonos, and the imperial family, and I wanted to learn more about it someday and pass it on. Also, when I talked to friends from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Arizona, they said that Portland is wonderful and has a lot of greenery, so I discovered that Japan is surprisingly rare in the world, as there is no land without greenery. did. Only 10% of the world has forests, and Japan is among them. Without abundant greenery and water, Japanese food, Japanese paper, the tea ceremony, kimono, and perhaps even the imperial family, the culture and traditions that are uniquely Japanese today, would not have been born.
Especially since the Gulf War, I wished there was a PR Ministry in Japan, so after returning to Japan, I joined Creative, a general advertising agency, as a copywriter and planner. engaged in At that time, I took breaks from work from 6pm to 9pm to learn about the spirit of environmental organization activities, tea ceremony, flower arranging, and pottery, which I have applied to my future work. In my work with overseas clients such as Denmark, I was inspired by clean energy sources such as wind and pipelines. My work with natural mineral waters such as Volvik made me think about water and water source management. Any job starts with analysis, so I found many social issues during various research, and always ended up in institutional policy and education.While attending political university of a political party, I became the valedictorian, which led me to run for the general election. To. Aside from the election stories that mainly appealed to the environment, education, and social security policies (I was able to support many elections later from this practical experience. It's good to have experience in everything) After losing the election, I became a policy secretary. Obtain qualifications and move on to the political policy field at a Diet member's office

When I was in the field of political policy at the House of Representatives

​The first lobbing achievement was the installation of a battery recycling box in the Diet Building.

When I was working at the House of Representatives, the things that bothered me the most were the lack of involvement of people involved in decision-making, the lack of young staff, and the excessive amount of paper and lack of recycling. Most of the people who went to the party headquarters, went to the ministries and agencies to make requests, and the members of the assembly hall were mostly men, except for the secretaries, and most of them were romance-gray people. At the start of the Japan Revitalization Council, which was established to recover the lost 20 years after the Lehman Shock, it was said that the future would be science, technology, innovation, and IT; I almost never saw him (as he was called). (Mr. Mikitani and maybe one other person. I thought he had impressive lobbying ability. That's probably the difference between him and the venture CEO who tried to buy a TV station, with whom he was compared at the time.) There were many mysteries and questions about the organization of the Diet Building itself, the organization of the annex, and the duties of the civil servants working there, but I will not discuss them here, but I was able to negotiate with the General Affairs Division of the Diet Building to create a recycling box for dry batteries, and finally succeeded in installing one. This small experience of success lowered my mental hurdles towards national policy. You can create what you don't have.
At the Diet Building, I felt the distance between Nagatacho and the Kasumigaseki bureaucrats. There are too many hierarchical relationships. At first, I did not have a good image of bureaucrats, having been influenced by the no-panties shabu-shabu reports, Karel Van Wolfren's books, and Taichi Sakaiya's theory of the destruction of the country by bureaucrats, and only had negative images of them, such as amakudari and bid rigging. When I spoke to them, I often felt that the bureaucrats had the same or even more patriotic patriotism, and I felt a considerable gap between what was reported in the press and books and what was happening in the field. When I visited Kasumigaseki after working overtime until the last train, there was never a day when the lights were off, and they returned to work after a drinking party. And somehow it looks fun. I was on my way home, remembering the days when I worked at an advertising agency and would take a taxi lined up under a building to get home after working late at night. It may seem black at first glance, but I think it's actually a blessing to have a job and work colleagues that I can spend time with day and night. At least my friends and seniors at Kasumigaseki had a firm belief in how to improve the country and a sense of mission, and they were working sincerely, so I even felt the dignity of working with pride. Some of them are aspiring politicians, and when they receive consultation, we connect them with a light person who suits their needs.

I want to create a forum for discussion between the public and private sectors.

Meanwhile, the Greek crisis and the first postwar change of government broke out. Seeing how the world is being influenced by the economy of a small country on the other side of the world, I realized that the world is becoming more and more borderless due to globalization due to information technology, which is completely different from the time of the Thai baht. I was confident that the world would become more borderless. The public and private sectors are no exception. In 2009, when this policy roundtable was launched, contrary to expectations for the new administration, there were calls for a break from the bureaucracy, and the administration did not take action on fiscal reform at the best of times, and the organizations were If there is a change of pace, there may be no chance for revenue to exceed expenditure for a while, or even ever. What, then, can be done to ensure that the private sector is responsible for public sector services or to encourage public-private collaboration? . . At the same time, I was crying over the summer of Saburo Shiroyama's bureaucrats, so I started an effort to widely convey his aspirations through a series of interviews with bureaucrats on Nikkei Business Online. Furthermore, we started the Policy Roundtable in order to have a flat and heartfelt discussion that transcends generations and sectors of the public, private, industry, and academia, and to utilize this information in policy making. A project to improve corporate capabilities was also launched as a subcommittee, creating an opportunity for innovations from startups and venture companies that are not seen at party headquarters to participate in rule-making for social implementation. As a result, it supports various collaborations and co-creations among participants, leading to policy reflection (recently called rule-making) and improved political literacy. At first, we believed that Japan's revitalization (at the time of the establishment of the Japan Revitalization Council) would come after that, and we have been putting this into practice so far, but it seems that this is still a long way off.
Roundtable discussions between the public and private sectors are a hot topic of discussion, but for some reason, bureaucrats, who are always open-minded, tend to become timid during roundtable discussions with members of the Diet. . It depends on the person, but there is still a distance between Nagatacho and Kasumigaseki, but it feels like they are closer than they were 10 years ago. The same is true for politics and the younger generation.Compared to 20 years ago, students have more opportunities to get involved in politics and real life, and Gov-tech has appeared, and more people are interested in politics.We are also seeing public-private collaboration and women's active participation. I'm glad that we're making visible progress and that political policy is becoming more familiar than before.

Take the next step with everyone who has the same thoughts. We will focus on the future of Japan, the world's most aging nation.

The reason I have been able to continue working on a voluntary basis for the past 12 years is thanks to the staff who have the same desire to improve the country and society. We are fortunate to have a lot of people, and as we hold more meetings, people naturally come to help us, and now they come to help us every time as staff members. I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who always supports us as core members. Thank you emails from friends and acquaintances who are participating are also encouraging. Friendships are formed with the people that friends bring, and the circle further expands with their friends.Although most events are usually limited to 50 people in a round table format, there are times when we have events with 200 to 300 people, and each time we have a speaker. We have been supported by all of you and our staff.
In view of the diversification and complexity of social issues, we are looking ahead to the world's super-aging society, a society unexplored by humankind, and how society with no front-runners should think about the expected issues and preconceptions about how life should be. We will face it and take action. Aging is also a global issue, so I would be happy if we could encourage the sharing and fusion of knowledge and aspirations from around the world, and new visions, approaches, policies, and innovations that emerge from this, rather than just within Japan.
Looking back, it all started with my encounters with people and work, and has led to where I am today. I also lost a friend of mine who was a speaker and a brainchild to cancer. In the future, I would like to cherish the connections and feelings I have made up until now, connect with people around me, and provide something to everyone who has helped me, or rather, I hope that we can grasp something together. (We will provide advocacy and policy adjustments as requested, but only for the benefit of our country.)

Yumi Sato Hai