LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- A number of readers of this column have been writing to me directly, mostly, I have to say, to agree and to complement what I am writing with illustrations of their own. Some readers, however, have told me they are upset. That is good! If revolutionary leaders of the mid-19th century such as Shoin Yoshida, Yukichi Fukuzawa, Toshimichi Okubo had not been upset, Japan would have remained a feudal backwater and today would probably be comparable to Myanmar.
At a recent program for senior executives from Hitachi at IMD, I noted that the corporate maxim was "society is changing, Hitachi has to change." As I pointed out, this can be extended to "the world is changing, Japan has to change." When I am told by some Japanese that change in Japan does occur, but only slowly and incrementally, this displays on their part an appalling ignorance of history.
Japan in the 30 years between 1850 to 1880 changed far more profoundly and radically than China in the same period, France between 1770 and 1800 and Mexico between 1890 and 1920. All these countries experienced "revolutions" -- Japan in 1868, China in 1911, France in 1789, Mexico in 1910 -- but the biggest break with the past occurred in Japan.