Globalization:
The Future ofJapan and the World
Bruce Stronach

グローバリゼーション：日本と世界の未来photographs by© iStockphoto.com

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Globalization: The Future of Japan and the World
Copyright ©2022 by Bruce Stronach
All rights reserved for Japan.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
without permission from Seibido Co., Ltd.

Preface
Our world is changing more rapidly than our ability tounderstand how it is changing, or to deal with those changes.
Globalization is essentially about connectivity. The majority ofpeople in the world are connected to each other through5communications, trade, and travel, whether they like it or not.
Globalization is a result of the development of various
technologies that have collectively brought the world closer
together. Although government policy decisions still have animpact on globalization, in the long run the continual advancementof technology means globalization will continue to develop in the 10
future.
Transportation technologies (Chapter 9) allow both people
and goods to move quickly and cheaply from one country toanother. Communication technologies (Chapter 8) allow people
all over the world to have the ability to cheaply interact directly 15
with one another. Information technologies give us the ability toprocess the data that supports the growth of the other technologies.
Information technologies also create artificial intelligence(Chapter 10) which allows us to predict and anticipate human20
behavior.
Many of these changes work together in concert.
Information technology creates algorithms that influence the way
in which we use social media, and social media is becoming themost important way in which we communicate.
Globalization brings us together, but are we ready to accept global 25[i]integration? Many people fear that global culture will overwhelm
our national and local cultures (Chapter 6). This is forcing many
governments to back away from the trend toward
internationalization that has been happening for over 50 years
30 (Chapter 4).
All this means we must learn to focus on educating
ourselves, from an early age, about globalization and how to live
in a global world (Chapter 11).
This is especially important for Japan (Chapters 2 & 15).
35 This book is about globalization but it is specifically meant for aJapanese reader to understand how globalization is aﬀecting
Japan, as well as the broader world. Japan is a great case study inglobalization : although it has a history of isolation, and a very
homogeneous population and culture, it needs globalization to40 continue to prosper and grow. Japan can be a model for how best
to adapt to ever-increasing globalization.
It is my hope that after reading this book you will not only
know some of the important elements of globalization, but also beable to understand them, and discuss them, in English. I have45 attempted to use words and phrases that are not too diﬃcult, butdiﬃcult enough to instruct and to increase the reader’s English
language ability.
Bruce Stronach[ ii ]

ContentsPage
Chapter 1. What is Globalization?

1

Chapter 2. How Did We Get Here?

5

Chapter 3. Who Are We?

9Chapter 4. Governing the World

13

Chapter 5. Trade, Money, and Inequality

17

Chapter 6. Traditional Culture in the Age of the Internet

22

Chapter 7. Sports

26

Chapter 8. Bits, Bytes, and TikTok

30

Chapter 9. The World is a Day Away

34

Chapter 10. Will the Singularity Bring Us Together?

38

Chapter 11. Education and Science

42

Chapter 12. One Planet, One Ecosystem

47

Chapter 13. Lessons from the COVID Pandemic

51

Chapter 14. Bringing It All Together

55

Chapter 15. Japan’s Role in a Global Future59

Notes63

Chapter 1

What is Globalization?

I want to explore with you what globalization really means.
It is a word very popular around the world, but especially in Japan.
For many years the goal of Japanese universities has been to“develop global human resources.” But what does globalization
really mean? How does it manifest itself? What impact does it 5have on us as people, as well as on our institutions and systems?
In the early 1970s I studied at the Fletcher School of Law
and Diplomacy, a graduate school of international relations. I
studied with students from all over the world including Japan,
Bangladesh, Switzerland, Norway, and Yugoslavia. We felt we 10
1

1-2

1-3

1-4

1-5

1-6

had a mission; we were excited to think that we were bringing theworld together. ASEAN was founded in 1967. The EuropeanUnion continued to merge its political, financial and cultural
institutions through the 1970s and 80s. European integration was
15 especially important because it showed countries that had fought
horrible wars against each other could have peace if they worked
together. We wanted to end barriers and open the world to eachother.
The most important thing about globalization is that it
20 means more than simply participating in the world outside yourcountry. It is also about bringing the outside world into yourcountry and understanding that the most important issues facing
us as individuals can only be solved on a global level.
Globalization means most countries’ borders are more open
25 to foreigners. Flying to another country just 50 years ago was still
an adventure. I will never forget my first flight to Japan. I grew up
on a farm in rural Maine, and when I was a child no one would
ever have thought I would go to Japan! I was so excited to be inJapan that the first night I could not sleep and just walked around
30 Takanawa and Shinagawa at two o’clock in the morning. Now I fly
back and forth to the U.S. four times a year. Nowadays, flying toanother country is like taking a train to another city. I am sure you
have heard about people who fly to Korea for the day, or theweekend, just to shop and eat Korean food.
35
Globalization has also led to a very diﬀerent movement ofpeople in creating a large number of refugees, who often risk theirlives to find a better place to live. Some may take a small boat fromTunisia to Italy while others may walk thousands of kilometersfrom El Salvador to the U.S. border with Mexico. Why? One2

Chapter 1: What is Globalization?

reason is that the global economy has increased the gap between 40
richer and poorer countries. Even people who live in poor
countries have access to smart phones and computers so they can
see what life is like in richer countries. They want to go to thoseplaces. Friends and family who have made the trip tell them they
can make money. Smart phones also help them on their journey. 45
Their phones put them in touch with people who may help them
travel to another country, connect them to family while they are
traveling, and help them connect to friends or family when theyarrive.
Communication technology brings outside ideas into your 50
country. Some countries, like China, have begun to limit access tothe internet and blocked social media sites like Instagram,Facebook, and WhatsApp. On the other hand, India has banned
the Chinese apps WeChat, Baidu and TikTok. No matter how
hard any government tries, most people in the world are using 55
these applications. There is no filter to keep out “foreign” ideas.
Smart phones let you see what people are doing in other countries.
If it is something you are not allowed to do, maybe it will motivate
you to do it. If your culture or religion does not allow dancing,seeing young people dancing on TikTok may make you want to 60
dance, too.
The oldest and most obvious result of globalization is in thefood we eat. In Maine, we have blueberries in the summer, wemake maple syrup from our sugar maple trees in March, but wedon’t have persimmons. In Japan, I loved being so far away from 65
home and being in such a diﬀerent culture, but I also missed
home. In the 1970s, I looked all around Tokyo for blueberries andmaple syrup, but they were hard or even impossible to find. Now
3

1-7

1-8

I can find them all year round in any supermarket. There are
70 blueberries from Chile, cherries from California, and maple syrup
from Canada. But I was really shocked when I found my favorite
Hachiya persimmons in the local supermarket in Maine.
We have been eating food from other countries, and using
1-9products made in other countries, for centuries. The diﬀerence
75 that globalization has made is that now almost everything weconsume has some connection to international trade. Our choiceof foods is almost limitless.
There are problems. In a globalized world, multi-national
1-10
regulations and oversight are necessary. Many people push back80 against globalization. The U.S. built walls against immigration.
The British didn’t want to be regulated by a united Europe. Many
governments try to stop people from learning new things that are
not part of their traditional culture.
That is why it is necessary for us to understand globalization.
1-11
85 We must know how to manage globalization and the technologies
that drive it. We must use what is positive and change what isnegative.

4