TENRYU, Shizuoka Pref. –

Japan can't change. Change in Japan is glacial. Japanese are stuck in their ways. In Japan, disappointment is what you can expect if you expect change.

You want to see things happen differently? Forget it. The way it is, is the way it's going to be. It can't be helped. Shikata ga nai -- that's the best you can hope for if you hope for change.

These are not only the sentiments of foreigners. Apparently, there are many Japanese who feel their country cannot change.

For instance, on the occasions that I have obligingly agreed to become a member of some committee or another "committed to change," my friends and neighbors are the first ones to tell me: "Ah, Anton-san. You are wasting your time. They have had a committee like that one before. Things will not change. Things never do."

Some of you may be familiar with the work of Kenichi Ohmae. In addition to authoring numerous books, he has been instrumental in change in this country through the Reform of Heisei, a citizen's movement he founded in 1994 to reform Japan's political and administrative systems.

A few years ago, at the request of a New York-based international business magazine, I interviewed Dr. Ohmae, one of the best-known management consultants in the world.

Ohmae also produces television programs in which participants get to discuss, debate, inquire. Ohmae told me "the programs are intended to give Japanese a chance to effect real change and take a detour out of this dilemma."

(The interview was conducted in 1996, after the facts of jusen, Japan's own savings and loan debacle, had come to light, and in the shadow of government ineptitude in both the Kobe earthquake and sarin gas attacks, and its gross negligence in the scandal over HIV-tainted blood.)

Ohmae said that there is a general perception among Japanese that Japan cannot change, "But it's wrong. The country has changed, many times."

To substantiate his view he cited the 1973 energy crisis. Recalling the period he said, "At that time I was a young consultant, and we spent many sleepless nights worried that the crisis spelled doomsday for the country and its postwar economic success."

He then pointed out that Japan is really one of the world's most "dynamic" nations and that the country changed its energy consumption habits "swiftly."

I am sure there are many of you who would say Japan may have changed practical energy use "swiftly" but "dynamic" is not the word that comes to mind, not the adjective you would choose to describe this nation. Conservative, conventional, tradition-bound and tortoise-paced are descriptives that might seem to fit.

Many of us who come from the United States are well-known for unapologetically expressing these blatantly disparaging views of Japan.

Maybe it's in our blood; perhaps we were born with an impatient gene. Or, it could just be a reflection of the history of how our nation was formed. We make no claims to have originated with the sun and take pride in the fact we came to nationhood through a revolution.

In any event, it seems we prefer change, and more than that, we prefer our change to be rapid. Yes, the quicker the better, the hypothetical "we" say, and if there is attendant turmoil, well, that's all right. A little upheaval from time to time is OK, radical change can be good.

I think most of us are aware this is not the only way. We hear that other countries and cultures are content with change taking place at a slower pace. Even other cultures in our country.

In another interview I did, this time with an American, the viewpoint regarding change was almost un-American. This man, who was living and working in Japan at the time I interviewed him, had no difficulty stepping back and looking at Americans from a different standpoint.

Thomas Dowd is his name. He's a Hopi; he grew up in Grand Canyon, Ariz. He told me that like the Japanese, Hopi accept that change can be a slow thing. Hopi elders counsel, "We've been here a long time -- we may be here a long time yet. We don't have to see change overnight."

"Overnight?" I hear some of you retort. You who, like me, have gone gray in this country, may be saying, "Overnight? Who's talking about change overnight? We mean change ever!"

Tom Dowd thought it was almost amusing how Americans are impatient with the pace of change in Japan. He said, "Americans can't seem to help it. They have to get up in the morning and go out in life and be agents of change. We should be agents of understanding."