But most welcome to Japan's neighbours would be an announcement of bold new reform measures at home that would turn Japan back into an engine of growth for Asia. Neither is institutionalized high unemployment buffered by costly welfare benefits, as in Europe, he says. We don't want people to lose the incentive to work. We have to find a middle ground. Whether or not he can find it will be the ultimate test of his leadership.
Japanese companies have a strong sense of responsibility to society.
Obuchi acknowledges that Japan also has a responsibility to the region. Japan accounts for two-thirds of Asia's economy, and two straight years of recession beginning in 1997 caused a painful drop in Japan's imports from and its investment in its neighbours. Now Japan is growing again, but not by much. Otherwise, it will be difficult to live up to our international obligations to Asia and the global economy. Even as Obuchi shrewdly voices what most Japanese still want to hear about job security, however, Japan Inc. is increasingly tuned to a different message, one from the global marketplace.