LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- My good friend Philippe Pons, the Japan correspondent for the leading French daily Le Monde, wrote an excellent article, "Au Japon, la crise n'est pas ce que l'on croit" (In Japan, the crisis is not what people think), for the newspaper's June 19 edition. Pons rectifies many stereotypes and misconceptions about Japan, and points out the many positive things about the Japanese people. I would endorse everything he says.
When I was based in Tokyo in the second half of the 1980s, it was the heyday of "Japan bashing." Although there were some things said about Japan that were scurrilous and/or idiotic -- including by then-French Prime Minister Edith Cresson, who indulged in both -- for the most part criticisms were being leveled at Japanese economic policies and practices rather than at Japan as a nation.
With the benefit of hindsight, the Japanese should have listened more to the "bashers": The government's protectionist practices and policies have ended up costing the country very dearly indeed.