Foreign experts are part of the problem

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- One of Japan's problems in the global era arises from foreign academic experts on the country. The key qualification to be a foreign academic expert on Japan, or a "Japanologist," is to command the spoken and written language. Thus the late Professor G.C. Allen, who wrote some of the best pioneering work on the Japanese economy, does not fit this category, as he did not speak Japanese.

Ian Buruma, whom I referred to in my Sept. 11 column, does not fit either. Although he has mastered Japanese, he is a writer and a freelance journalist, not an academic.

Bill Emmott, the author of 1989's prescient work "The Sun Also Sets" -- perhaps one of the writers who best understood the Japanese economy -- would also be excluded, as he is neither an academic nor a Japanese speaker.