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I’VE been overly concerned about my
fortune of receiving an all-expenses paid trip to Japan, three times
in a row these past 10 months. But if you’re in my 3-year-old
Florsheim, how could you refuse the generosity of the Asian
Productivity Organization, the Philippine Embassy, and my Japanese
business partner, necessarily in that sequential order?
I’m writing a
column here, not bragging. And I’ll be out again to visit my
second home country on April 10 to 25 to catch the hanami (cherry
blossom viewing). It’s a good excuse to appreciate nature as well
as to raise Kirin beer toast to the fleeting nature of beauty.
Much as I’d
like to visit local tourist spots during summer, I can’t help but
be enamored by the allure of Japan in this time of the year when
Japanese foreign minister Taro Aso raised hell after the country
fell to third place finish in ODA (overseas development assistance)
disbursements.
Aso was reacting
to a report released last week by the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development showing that the largest net ODA donor
in 2006 was the United States, followed by United Kingdom, Japan,
France and Germany.
Japan’s place
has been relegated to third place as a result of its fiscal
rehabilitation efforts back home. It’s been on a downward trend
since 2000, except in 2005 due to debt relief. This is what
bothering Aso who was quoted by Kyodo News that “it is highly
likely that [Japan] will rank fourth or fifth next year as France
and Germany are increasing their ODA.”
He stressed
there’s a need to stop cutting ODA, which he considers Japan’s
key foreign management policy tool.
To ordinary
Filipinos like you and me, the question is—why would Japan’s
foreign ministry be displeased to Japan’s shrinking ODA? To some
political scientists, it’s another case of the foreign
ministry’s loss in its bureaucratic power struggle with another
equally-powerful finance ministry.
But if I’m to
wear my business hat, the coast is clear for me to tell you it’s
about “primal leadership.” The ODA is a political gizmo for
Japan that lacks military power due to a constitutional limitation.
And so the option for Japan is to become “street smart” like
believing that money is more important than having a powerful
military.
Military might is
not everything, but money, money, and more money. Japan’s
definition of power includes the ability to read the minds of people
and their culture and to empathize with those who are in need so
that in the end it could serve as the “group’s emotional
leader.”
Daniel Goleman,
who wrote Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional
Intelligence (Harvard Business School Press, 2002) talks about
“relationship management” as the leader’s ability to provide a
group (or countries) with a compelling vision, to influence and
persuade, and to provide feedback and guidance to others.
That’s exactly
why Japan is in a dilemma. As a neophyte Japanologist with special
interest in management, this struck me as odd. And for good reason
like its high cost of dry cleaning that I’ve no recourse but to
bring enough clothes for my trip, not to mention at least 100 pieces
of business cards.
It’s not much
of a big problem except I hate to sit in some low tables if only to
suffer a post-Good Friday leg cramps while being served delicious
sushi and Kirin beer via the ancient traditional method of opening a
corked bottle and making sure my glass is always full.
Now we wonder why
Japan lost the war but only to win it several times over in many
political and economic fronts where money is called
“everything.”
Rey Elbo is a
business consultant specializing in human resources and total
quality management as a fused specialty. Feedback may be sent to
kairoshq@info.com.ph
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