So the system may be working. I think the pressures on it are too great, but as I've said, I've been wrong before. Please accept the fact that no Japanese in his right senses begins with economics. That is an American fallacy. The Japanese begin their calculations with society because their society is so fragile, it has sustained such incredible shocks in the last hundred plus years.
Nobody really knows how solid it is.
What happened in Kobe a few years ago would indicate that it isn't solid at all. And yes, there are eccentric outsiders in their society. In today's paper you have a statement from the Chairman of Sony, attacking the bureaucracy. Well, that is the role of Sony. It was true of Akio Morita.