With the Upper House elections looming and the previously overlooked "urban salaryman" vote attracting special attention, NHK has decided to address the issue with a special 21/2-hour discussion Saturday titled "Japan's Salaryman Revolution" (NHK-G, 7:30 p.m.).
According to the program's producers, there are 65 million salarymen in Japan "who want to change their companies." These companies, as we have heard over and over again for decades, made the miraculous Japanese postwar recovery possible, but for the past decade the Japanese economy has been in a slump, suffering from what is sometimes referred to as "regional affliction." In most countries, this affliction is natural: diseases and environmental problems brought on by unfortunate conditions unique to the area.
Similarly, Japan's economic troubles are seen to be a result of culturally bound business characteristics, namely a reliance on precedent, seniority, sectionalism and secretiveness. Unless these cultural impediments are overcome by salarymen themselves, the economy will never return to its past glories.