Revitalizing Japan through the Restoration of Humanity / Naoya Fujiwara (President, the Japan Revitalization Program and Promotion Forum)

Naoya Fujiwara
President, the Japan Revitalization Program and Promotion Forum

Keynote Speech, the 19th NSP General Assembly Event

Since this lecture will be the keynote speech after the Annual General Meeting, I would like to start by reading my address for this term, which was distributed to all members of our NPO. (NSP members-only mailing list: From the October 2021 issue of the board members' newsletter) I haven't done this much in the past, but since it is a basic and important point, I would like to start by reading it. Then I will move on to the keynote speech.

First of all, the title of my address is "Revitalizing Japan through the Restoration of Humanity.”

“Hello, everyone. I am Naoya Fujiwara, President of the Japan Revitalization Program and Promotion Forum, an authorized NPO. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your understanding, cooperation, and participation in the operation of our NPO.

The global spread of the new coronavirus, which began in earnest at the end of the year before last, has brought about a drastic change in the situation at home and abroad, and the change into a new era that I have been talking about is accelerating. Not only is the domination of the world by money and force dissolving from the bottom up, but also the discriminatory domination of the world by socialists, as seen at the end of the forced vaccine riots, has been quickly peeled off by people’s rebellion. The world is no longer so simple that it can be controlled and moved by man-made manipulation, but is now an extremely dynamic development, both in organizing the past and creating the future. In other words, it is not something that can be accomplished by man-made plans created by someone else, nor is it something that can be accomplished by some kind of coercive force, including state power. It is a historical development that can only be described as a heavenly scenario. The world must return to its original state of people and nature, and from there, the creation of a highly sustainable era must begin anew.

There have been many times in the past when the times have faced such enormous changes to varying degrees. Therefore, to some extent, this time, too, it’s possible to find a methodology for how to facilitate the consolidation and revitalization of the times, based on our past experiences. Its pillar is respect for humanity. In relation to the activities of our NPO, the Federation of Business Leaders for Respecting Humanity was launched in 2018, and many people have pledged to conduct their economic activities with respect for humanity. In the past, when the times were at a standstill, the humanity of society was always compromised, like a plant squeezed into a box with no sunlight, unable to photosynthesize or breathe fully, resulting in stunted growth all around. For society, respect for humanity means nothing more than creating an environment where we can fully enjoy the warmth and bright light, and where we can grow up with the strength we were born with. The first thing we need to do when the time comes to pass the milestone and finally begin the full-scale revitalization is to respect humanity in society. The first thing we need to do is to respect humanity in society, and to build a strong safety framework that can ensure this.

However, times are changing, and entirely new elements are being added on top of the repetition of past history. In 2021, if I were asked what was the biggest news of this year, I would say that the U.S. government announced that UFOs are a physical phenomenon that cannot be explained by modern science. This is an event that suggests an extremely significant historical turning point in civilization. It is a gateway to an ending that will fundamentally overturn the common sense we now take for granted about the relationship between this world and the world beyond, and between things and energy. Historically, it is clear from our human heritage that people in ancient times lived with all the gods and goddesses and had a more dynamic view of the relationship between the universe and the earth. However, over the past five hundred years or so, in the modern era, people have forgotten this past and have continued to try to explain the world using only visible materials and matters. Surprisingly, however, the final result was the realization that explanations of the world based on visible matter alone would fail. As this happens, we will have to build our future civilization not only with the visible world in mind, but also in harmony with the idea of collaboration with invisible worlds.

When our NPO used to promote the LOHAS (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability) movement, we promoted that LOHAS means sharing the same time axis of past, present and future. This will stand as an unshakeable pillar in this regeneration/revitalization of civilization, along with respect for humanity. I have to say that this is truly a historic event.

In the current fiscal year starting this October, our NPO would like to shed a great deal of light on respect for humanity. In other words, we would like to educate people about the meaning of respect for humanity, concrete examples, and how it can make people healthy and revitalize civilization, in order to expand the momentum and actions of respect for humanity in society as a whole. In the process, collaboration with invisible worlds will undoubtedly emerge. In other words, as we do this, we will inevitably find ourselves living in harmony with invisible worlds. This is because humanity is actually the invisible world itself. Humanity is nothing but the warm heat and bright light that pours into invisible lives.

The specific activities will be decided with you in the future, but I am sure that our NPO will be moving at the same fast pace as the world. I hope you will all participate in the activities of our NPO more actively this term, and let's all work together to promote the revival of this historical civilization. Thank you for your continued support.” This is my greeting for this term.

Looking at the current situation, I am sure that many of you are very concerned. There is a lot of anxiety about the specifics of the situation, but what I would like you all to look at is this: if you look at it from a long-term perspective, what is not good is not good. If you take a long-term view, you notice that what is useless is still useless, but what is born is born. It doesn't matter whether politics intervenes or whether money comes in during the process. The collapse of the Roman Empire was also a collapse. The collapse of the Edo Shogunate was also a collapse. The pre-war Japanese system also collapsed. There are dramas of ups and downs along the way, but the most important thing is to determine whether the end is the end or whether it will grow further. The best place to look is at the people. It’s about who is doing the work.

I don't want to say too much about this, but if a system created by people is barely working, and the only people left are those who are living within it, that system will never regenerate. Creating a system or evolving and developing a system has a completely different meaning than using that system. In this sense, I believe that the global financial system, Japanese politics, and the management of large corporations, for example, do not have people who can evolve and develop them.

This has been the case ever since the Heisei era. I think that most of the current financial, political and economic systems, especially those of large corporations, are just trying to prolong their lives by continuing to operate the existing systems, somehow patching them together. There are various ways to prolong their lives, so just as stock prices can go up or down, elections can be won or lost, reputations can improve or deteriorate, it is matter of joy and sorrow. But it is not enough to be happy or sad, though. In short, if there is no one left to shape the future, it is no good at all.

I am often told, "Mr. Fujiwara, you talk about the future in such a definitive way," but what I see in my own experience so far, and what hits me the most in discernment, is people. You have to look closely at who is doing it. I don't like to say this, but if you don't have people who are good at what they do, you are finished, quite frankly. Being an ace at work is a little different from being able to do all of the current work. Being able to do all the practical work now is the same as having a working computer now. Being an ace at work is not the same. It means someone who has the desire and ability to create something. The ones who have such people will be revitalized.

I have always thought that agriculture is a typical example of something that can be revitalized. In our NPO, we once had a project called "Agricultural Nation". What I mean by this is that, as you know, Japanese agriculture has a long history since Amaterasu, but it has not been a straightforward affair. In particular, from the pre-war period to the post-war period, increasing food production was a very big issue. At any rate, the national policy was to just produce enough. Once the quantity was produced, there was a surplus. As the surplus began to grow, farmers who had been following the government’s policy begun to face difficulties, to put it bluntly. This time, they were told by the government to change crops and so on. However, People who just grow and ship crops as they are told, and those who run their own business by covering the costs of what crops to grow, when to grow them, and where to sell them, have different ideas, don’t they?

Farming is important work, but selling is also important work. Since the government has centrally purchased the selling part of the products, farmers cannot sell them on their own, so even if they produce them, they cannot make a living. As you all know, for the past half century or so, there have been many people who quit farming because they could not make a living from it. It is a shameful thing. They quit because they can't sell the good crops they are growing. This is really a bad effect of the centralized management in this country.

But on the other hand, Japan is one of the countries that can produce the highest quality crops in the world, so there were many people who wanted to pursue agriculture for food safety, abundant food, and the future. Many of these people have been involved in agriculture for the past 20 years, or even 40 years for those who started early, and gradually started to enter the field around 20 or 30 years ago, around the time of the bursting of the bubble economy in the 1990s. So to speak, the number of people who are completely new to agriculture has been increasing. These people are not doing agriculture because they can make a living at it. They do it because they want to start working on a new kind of agriculture.

As for how to make a living, if you can't make a living, you earn the extra money somewhere else and work part-time while farming. On the one hand, people quit farming because they can't make a living from it. On the other hand, they want to start a new farming business, so they have to supplement their own living expenses with other jobs. I think that these two types of agriculture have really been mixed for the last 30-40 years. The results are clear. Many of the people who made a living from farming were, you know, mostly elderly. Because there were so many elderly people, more and more of them were closing down their businesses. In the end, only people, both young and old, who were willing to create a new type of agriculture and adapt to the new age, remained. I think that Japan has already started to take that kind of shape. There are a lot of people who used to be salaried workers or had other jobs, but are now succeeding almost exclusively in agriculture. This is what I call the creation of the future.

In short, it is the people that matter. If you have the people, you can do it. Unfortunately, many things are at a standstill, aren't they? I am not saying that there are no such people in large corporations, Japanese finance, and Japanese politics, but they have not yet reached the point where they can come out in shine. As time goes by, there are many people who leave, saying, "Oh, I guess this place is no good for my anymore." That's where you can see it clearly. In short, if the people who have the desire and ability to shape the future leave, the rest will be like empty shells, and they will disappear over time, whether they are happy or sad. Those who remain will create the next era.

What I think now is that the bureaucratic system is the one that is really losing people. Whether it is government office or large corporations, the bureaucratic system is the one area where people are really leaving. When we say "bureaucratic system," we also mean the administrative system, right? In this area, everything can be done by computer nowadays.

For example, there was a time when Japan’s railroads were run by the Japanese National Railways (JNR). I remember the days of JNR very well, and there were many employees. There were so many employees at that time. After JNR was split up and privatized, the number of employees has decreased considerably. But the number of trains has increased and the service has also become better than in the days of JNR, right? The fact that JNR was split up and privatized to become JR made it possible to improve services while reducing the number of employees. I won't necessarily say that it was 100 % good thing that they regenerated as JR, but the reason why they did what they did was because they didn't want to let the railroads come to an end. This was because there were people who felt that it was unbearable for JNR to continue to decay and for the railroads to fall into decay. There were people who desired that the railroads should be revitalized to create a new infrastructure for Japan, and that’s why JNR was regenerated as JR.

What about now? Is there anyone in the world of politics, or finance, who is willing to renovate with such big ambitions? I don't think so. It's outrageous, isn't it? It's really outrageous. How do you think you can renovate in a part of the world where people don't want to renovate?

Actually, the U.S. is in a similar situation. To be honest, the U.S. used to run the world, right? The U.S. used to run the world, leaving aside the domestic affairs of the country. In the past, the Soviet Union and the U.S. ran the world. Of course, there was Europe behind that. Ostensibly, it was the U.S. and the Soviet Union. However, the Soviet Union collapsed 40 years ago, and now it is in the form of Russia, and they are busy with their own country, aren't they? Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t care about the world. He cares about what concerns him, but he doesn't do anything unnecessary. In the U.S., people are talking about Biden, but to put it bluntly, Biden is only concerned about himself. He has never talked about meddling in the affairs of the world, and of course, neither has Trump. It must be the same with China. People who are obsessed with China and those who make a big deal about China say things like, "China is dangerous" or "China will do something crazy," but I don't really understand what they mean. I don't understand at all what is so remarkable about the People's Republic of China.

I have been observing the development history of the People's Republic of China's for a long time now, I think that they have only been concerned with themselves. I think they have been done everything with their own gain and loss. Even when it comes to expanding into the world, they have done everything for their own gain and loss. It is true that both the U.S. and the Soviet Union have their own gains and losses. But there was something more than just their own gain and loss, there was a handful of something that made the world follow them. In that case, to be honest, I don’t think the People's Republic of China has had this handful. I have been watching and knowing that country since I was a child, since the time of the Cultural Revolution in China.

In short, no one wants to run the world nowadays, not even the EU. The EU is just doing what it can within the confines of its own borders, and with the recent exit of the U.K., it seems that Poland is about to leave the EU as well. When Chancellor Merkel of Germany retires, who will take care of the EU anymore? I don't hear any ambitious talk of uniting the EU.

Looking at this situation, I really feel that the times have changed. The 20th century was a time when people were obsessed with big things; the 20th century is often referred to as the modern and contemporary era, and it was a time when people didn’t like anything unless it was big. If you compare the idea that you don’t like it unless it is big to the world of UFOs that I mentioned earlier, it’s the world of Newtonian physics. In a world where only gravity is considered, the largest and heaviest objects are the strongest. If you want to talk about something before that, it's the theory of celestial motion, that the universe revolves around you. This is “the best”, isn't it? The world is for you, and you are for yourself. There are still people like this in the world today, though, aren't there? Well, that's beside the point, isn't it? In short, the idea that bigger is stronger and heavier is stronger is the oldest physics, isn't it?

In the 20th century, we entered the world of quantum physics. As you can see in the case of nuclear power, when the power trapped inside matter is released all at once, it can blow away large objects. When a small group of people get together, they can produce tremendous power. This can be used as a metaphor for the influence of a venture company, which can blow up the world.

Did you know that the term "venture company" is Japanese English? I know the person who coined the term "venture company," and he grew up in a region where innovation is very abundant. They decided to create a new company by themselves, and about three of them came up with a name for it. The word "adventure" sounds a bit adventurous, so the term "venture company" was coined as a Japanese English word. The word "venture" is used all over the world today.
It's a word created by the Japanese. It is a term coined by people in the region who believe that innovation in Japan is still very active. The word "venture" has the power of a small group of people to defeat the monopolistic oligopoly of a large corporation. In some cases, a country is even about to be blown away. Why, when the influence of venture companies changes people's sense of values and the way they work, even large countries will tilt.

For example, when the Soviet Union collapsed, there were huge Communist Party organizations and huge state-owned enterprises, and it was a world of total gravity, so no one could move. Everyone was devastated. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, countless venture companies were formed because of the intervention of Europe and the U.S.. In the blink of an eye, they transformed Russia, didn't they?

In the post-war period, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation), the predecessor of Sony Group Corporation, was one of them. In short, post-war Japan was mostly dominated by military companies, and being "heavy and large" was very important. Big and heavy companies, with lots of people and lots of money, were the ones in control, but the war ended them all. After all, in the post-war period, although large companies were eventually revived, many new companies started to emerge. That’s how Japan’s revival began. This is how Japan was revitalized. Venture businesses led the way in this regard, weren’t they? In other words, it is the world of quantum physics, isn’t it? If you think about it in that way, just like what I said earlier, what is important is whether or not people with motivation and ability get together and say, "Let's do it," and turn their thoughts into action.

When motivation and ability come together and the desire to "let’s do it now" rises, not only will the celestial movement theory be blown away, but anything that is just a big, heavy figure will be blown away. That was the reality of the 20th century, wasn't it? We have seen it all the time in the 20th century, haven't we? So, this is very important. The things that will break down now are the things that can't be done if there is nothing to bring everyone together and energize them all at once. In such places, people try to push forward by relying on weight. Because they rely only on gravity, they try to piggyback on politics and cling to money and power. So they have nothing left. Then, people with energy will finally come out to the force.

Now let's think about the world of energy. Energy becomes form. The world of Emptiness itself is the true form. It is the quantum world. But this is where everyone misunderstands. Venture is a world of subtlety and there is nothing more dangerous than that. It’s true that in the past, being a salaryman or a civil servant might have been a secure job. In the old days, the mandatory retirement age was around 55, and it was possible to extend the retirement age to around 60. Since both the private and government sectors offered lifetime employment, there was usually no need to lose your livelihood. Whether you were a professional, an office worker, or even a frontline worker, you were able to survive without worrying too much about your livelihood. There were many people who wondered why I would go to the trouble of quitting my job to start my own business. If they didn't like the company, they would say, "I'm going to quit this company," or "I'm going to punch that president" while drinking at the pub, and there were many people who worked while complaining until they reached retirement age. How often did people do that? Every time they drank, they would say, "I’m going to quit this company" or "I’m going to punch the president," but they never did. There must have been many people who stayed until retirement without ever quitting. By singing songs to relieve the blues of work, many people were able to continue working and take care of their families. From the perspective of that era, venture business was not a worthwhile business.

But what about in the Heisei era? Nowadays, there is talk of a retirement age of 45, isn't there? What will you do if you retire at 45 in a big company? How would you survive if you were suddenly thrown out of the company, having no skills to swim through life and having been a member of society by gravity alone? In short, if a person who has never met and acted with many different people before, or who has not gained experience in making 1 + 1 = 3, suddenly being dropped off a boat or off a pier, that's a lot harder for them.

The most important thing in running a company is to keep going. There is a misconception that you all have. If you have ever run a business yourself, you know very well that many of the companies that the securities companies and the mass media like are all weird companies. Do you know what a weird company looks like? In the case of brokerage firms, a company whose stock goes up and down is a good company. You can make money by buying those stocks. It's a weird company, so it goes up and down. The media also likes weird companies because it is not newsworthy if the company says, "We did the same thing we did yesterday, and today we finished our work as usual." As is often said, if a dog bites a person, it won't be news, but if a person bites a dog, it will be news. That’s why it is a weird company that gets reported. That’s what everyone is misunderstanding. The companies that the securities companies and the media like are weird companies. If you try to start a weird company by yourself, everyone will become weird and you will fail, of course.

That's why decent companies don't show up on brokerage lists and don't appear in the media. They live in an irrelevant place. In short, to continue is the same for any weed or a magnificent tree. It is only when it is useful that it can continue. It’s not that they are doing something outlandish that keeps them going. It is the same with weeds, cherry trees, and anything else. It’s all about being useful to others, and that’s what keeps them going. There is no need to stand out at all. When we try to continue, it is very difficult to do so.

Times are changing rapidly, so if you are only doing things with gravity, money and power, there will inevitably be gaps. When you are running a company with only weight, money, and power, you spend most of your energy on internal control. Even though you are the president of the company, you are busy from morning to night just dealing with internal problems and coordinating various internal matters. For example, look at the government offices. Most of the work of government offices is coordination within the government. That’s what happens. In other words, if it were an electric circuit, there would be so much internal resistance that no power would come out of it. Then you are just wasting your life. If you don’t do it yourself, it's no good at all. You have to do it so that you don't go under.

It is a gratifying thing now, because side jobs are OK. It is nice to know that more and more organizations are encouraging side jobs. While working as a salaried employee, you can do side jobs. You can try anything you want on the side. As I said in my Internet radio show the other day about "the era of the Great Resignation, the age when everyone quits their jobs," it is amazing how much you can do on the Internet now. Nowadays, e-commerce, the business of selling things over the Internet, is becoming more and more possible for everyone. From now on, our various lifestyles will be reestablished on the Internet, and online business is a good way to start up a side business. You don't have to be online all the time, but it’s really convenient if you want to do something on the side or start something on your own, such as incorporating the Internet in some parts or doing it entirely. The important thing to remember is that the experience of being overcome by gravity and having your body twist around in a black hole is nothing but a waste of your life in the end. If you don't quickly realize your true mission and take an action, it won't work out.

Actually, what I am very interested in is the UFO story I mentioned earlier. I think that was really well said. Try saying in front of scientists, "There are physical phenomena in the world that cannot be explained by the science you are talking about." Until recently, they said, "You are an occultist,” or even "That's pseudoscience." They said, "Science can explain everything. Physical phenomena that scientists can't explain are all lies and bluffs. Occult. It's fraud." This time, the U.S. government said, "There are countless physical phenomena that cannot be understood by modern science." There is no need to be shy with scientists anymore. I am not saying that science is useless because science is also valid.

For example, some diseases can be cured by doctors while others cannot be cured by doctors. If a doctor is convenient for you, you should see a doctor. If a disease cannot be cured by a doctor, you have to cure it yourself. It's like anything else, nothing works for everything. If something is convenient, you can use it. If it is not convenient, you don't have to use it. It is just that. It is the same with science.
The U.S. government has clearly stated, "With today’s science and the current textbooks, there are something that can be explained and parts that cannot be explained." What is the unexplainable part of it? I really felt it a lot in the Heisei era.

When I think back to the days when I was a salaried employee, I had very little contact with people who didn't fit into the common sense of the salaryman world. It is a strange thing. When I was working as a salaried employee in both Japan and the U.S., there was almost no communication with people who did not fit the common sense of its world. However, once you quit your salaried job, you will be able to meet a lot of people and talk to them. There are many people who have completely different stories. But I understand what they are trying to say. I know what they are doing. Of course, there were many things that made me wonder what they were. So, even if you say that it is based on common sense in the world of businessmen, or that it is based on the physics textbook or biology textbook that you learned in high school, you cannot explain it at all. Economics is not much more explainable at all. The economics textbooks I studied in college are like the stories of the age of the theory of celestial motion nowadays. These textbooks are in my library in Tohyama, but you can’t get started by looking at that stuff. A book on the history of economy would still be good, but the part on modern economics isn't even helpful anymore. Anyway, the time has come when we have no choice but to find the truth by ourselves. You have to realize the truth by yourself. That's what I've always thought.

No one can tell you the truth, you have to realize it yourself. Even if someone says, "This is the truth," it is meaningless if you don't agree with it. Even if someone says, "This is the truth," and you say, "I see," will you be able to take the next step in your life with that truth? If you are said, " UFOs are out there, just wait for them. They will come for you right now,” but you don’t believe in it, you will not be able to wait for it, will you? That's the way it is with everything, isn't it? No matter what they say about the truth, the truth is the thought that you can believe in it and take the next step with your life. If you can't take the first step, it's not the truth. So you can decide for yourself.

I quit my salaried job a long time ago, and I have met so many people who have found the truth for themselves and are working on it. Of course, even those who say, "This is the truth," are also live their lives by rethinking and facing the truth every day. When they wake up in the morning, they reconsider whether the truth of yesterday is good or not. To be precise, it's the truth of who you are as of today, right? It's the idea that you are here now because this is your truth as of today, isn't it?

What I have always thought when I see such people is that what exactly will change this time is our relationship with the unseen world. They always talk about the invisible world and energy. You can use the words of religion for that, you can use the words, such as Gods or Buddha, you can use the words like "feeling of mood," you can use the words like "life energy," you can use the words like "blessings of ancestors," you can use the words like "the divine protection of God and Buddha," you can use the words like "power of the land," you can use the words like "power of the moon" or "power of the sun," and I'm sure there are many other expressions. But I think what everyone has been trying to say is clear. it was clear what everyone was trying to say. There is some unseen force that is making you successful today. When this force is weakened, it doesn't work. There is no way to explain it, and it is not in the textbooks, so everyone has their own way of expressing it, but I have always had the feeling that they were saying the same thing.

So, that's the root of it. This is the secret of success that everyone is talking about. When you are ready to leave behind the common sense of a salaried employee or the common sense of a government office and live once again, when you are truly naked and take off your armor and go out once again, what you need is the truth that you must realize for yourself. If you ask me what is at the root of it, I would say that it is warmth and brightness. I think it is the warmth and lightness of the Gods, the Buddha, the moon, the sun, and nature. Then there is the warmth of human relationships and the warmth of nature. When you get right down to it, it is warmth and light. In the end, warmth and light all come down to light, but I think we can call it heat and light.

It is warm and bright, isn’t it? I think it all comes down to this. As I mentioned earlier about the confined world, there are plants that can certainly grow without light, but most of them will die if they are kept in a sealed place. After all, you need brightness, warmth, and a bit of wind. It is only when you are in the midst of nature that you come alive. I sincerely believe that it is the same for human beings. So, really, when people who have been stuck are released from the black hole they have been in, when people who have been crushed by gravity can breathe outside for the first time, the next thing they will need is heat and light.

If you think about the past, there was a very miserable time in the Middle Ages in Europe, and when it finally ended and they entered the modern age, the Renaissance movement began. It's a powerful light, isn't it? There was a strong contrast, but there was also an intense light. Because the light was so strong, the world began to see reality as it really is. The same thing happened when the Edo period ended and the Meiji era began. In a sense, the Edo period (1603-1868) was all about the beauty of style at the end wasn’t it? They lived by the beauty of form. There were many things that deviated from the beauty of the form. That is the tragic part. From there, in the Meiji era (1868-1912), there was a strong awareness of the need to understand tragedy as tragedy, and to be cheerful. Then came heat, and the idea of helping each other. After all, we need to look at the reality carefully, and help each other.

Look at the situation in Japan today. Even if we talk about Japan's GDP and how it is somewhat fashionable, there are people in Japan who are in need of food today, aren’t they? There are people who are starving to death in Japan, too. At one time, the number of people dying of hunger was quite low, but in the past 30 years, or maybe 25 years, there have been many people who have died of starvation. There are also people who have become homeless. Many of us turn our eyes away and walk around there. But the harsh reality is that there are people who are starving to death or homeless. When that harsh reality becomes the main focus, everyone starts to think that the city has collapsed, that civilization has collapsed. In short, as long as the harsh reality, the reality we want to turn away from, remains minor and does not become mainstream, we all want to think that the world is doing well, and so it is. But when it becomes a major state, they think they can't do it anymore and run away. It is like the middle of a big city in the U.S. They run away. In the end, that's why people can't stay in such miserable and dark places. That's why we have to rebuild it.

The first step in rebuilding the world is to have a strong light shine on it. In other words, unless we start by facing the harsh and miserable reality that this is the reality right in front of our eyes, we will never be able to turn the times around. We have to ask ourselves why we went under, why we turned over, why we lost, and we have to look at this harsh reality. We have to face the harsh reality that we are not succeeding at all, and we are not a prosperous country at all. Because we have been refusing to see what we do not want to see, we have not been able to rebuild our country. There is a real reality, a reality that makes you want to run away, and you have to see this first. That is actually the turning point.

Therefore, a truly great leader in such situations is one who can clearly state the harsh reality. People who say, "I can still succeed if I work hard," are, in my opinion, all fakes. The situation in Japan and the world is not like that. It is good to say clearly that something is not good enough. If you can't say that, then you can't become the next leader. That's all I'm saying. If something is not good enough, it is good enough to leave it to the next leader. Gorbachev did the same, he brought the Soviet Union to an end. It is also important to end things. The end means that the black hole is gone. That's why everyone is relieved, it's not like we lost, it is the same feeling as in 1945.

This time, the coronavirus has shone a light on the reality that we have been living in. The coronavirus has shone a light on the reality that is actually so tragic and that the government and socialists are so terrible. I think some people thought that what was hidden until now was the expected star. Some of you may have thought that if everyone behaved well, the world would turn. Some of you may have thought that the reason the world was in disorder was because of a lack of morals. Some of you may have thought that the world would be fine if we all had morals and listened to each other but that is not true. It would lower your energy. The kind of venture-like power I mentioned earlier will not emerge. That is why they will rot and die out. It is said that the world is based on weight alone, so it stays still, but physics is more than 100 years old. If you say that, it is no good at all. It would be nice if we could clearly admit that power alone, money alone cannot bring us together. Money, power, and force alone cannot bring us together in order to make the world a better place.

Look at the situation in the U.S. You see, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, General Mark A. Milly as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has made it very clear that they lost the war in Afghanistan. That's the important thing. He clearly said that they lost. When the war in Afghanistan started, the proponents of the war said that the U.S. would definitely win, didn’t they? But those who know the history clearly said that the Afghanistan war was American’s to lose. Because no one has ever invaded Afghanistan and won. It was a miserable defeat. The same goes for Japan's Pacific War. When Japan started the Pacific War with the U.S., the people who were waging the war may have thought it was 50-50, and they did not know whether they would win or lose, but ostensibly they said they would win. However, those who calmly compared the U.S. and Japan said that there was no way to win this. It is the same. They lost in Afghanistan as expected. So, we have to start from the point of defeat.

The same is true for the Japanese economy. Over the past 30 years, the income of the Japanese people has been cut in half. Income has been cut in half. It is true that some things have become cheaper, such as the cost of lunch. You can buy cheap things at low prices, but let’s face it, it is far from an affluent life. Why do we have to be so poor? That is ridiculous. I don't think they should be doing that, subtracting wages just because prices are down. The quality has gown down, you know. You have to say clearly that this is a mistake, that it has failed, and that Mr. Takenaka has deceived us. You have to say that the U.S. has taken over, that it has sucked up all the money. It is not like the university that has been in the news lately, but if someone is sucking up the money from the top or whoever is at the top is sucking up the money, and we need to tell them to get it back.

The U.S. can't even win with military force. Do you think you can win a war with half-hearted armed force? Mr. Hiroo Onoda, a graduate of the Nakano School who spent all his time in the Philippines and came out, said. "Once you start a war, you are either going to kill or be killed, so you should never start one," and he was right. Everyone who has been to war understands that reality. So, when you think about it, force is not going to solve things at all. If you use force, things will only get complicated. Even Europeans, following the U.S. blindly, went to Afghanistan and Iraq, and now they're helpless. In the end, it came back to haunt and they had to carry the refugees on their backs. Why did Europe have to take on so many refugees from the Middle East? The reason why Europe ended up taking on so many refugees from Africa is because it rode the coattails of the U.S. DS and went to war. It has come back to haunt, hasn't it? It was a policy that would have destroyed the country, wasn't it? They made mistakes, didn't they? They have to admit that properly, don't they?

Then there is the heat. It is about helping each other. It is game over, so we have to end the relationship between friend and foe and help each other, otherwise the next era will not start. That is why we need both heat and light. This heat and light are, let's say, like the light of electrical light wire, which illuminates everywhere, or like the heat of a stove, which spreads everywhere. These things are needed in the whole society. This is why we can properly say the truth as the truth, and support each other despite our differences. We support each other. This is the part of humanity I was talking about. This was true during the Renaissance, and it was true after the war as well, but first of all, we have to shine the light and support each other.

The starting point to back to the basics is humanity after all. Whenever an era comes to a standstill, humanity is the one thing that disappears. The number of dehumanizing things increases. In any case, when the times come to a standstill, human beings become more inhuman. We often say, "As IT continues to advance, virtual reality will become more and more popular, and people will not have to move as much." It is said that eyeballs only bobbing up and down are enough. They said that it was enough for people to just sit still, because if they had an electroencephalograph, what they thought in their heads would move accordingly. No need to eat, either. I think that is stupid. To put it bluntly, that is the work of the world of God.

God is something that happens before birth and after death. Before you are born and after you die, you don't have a body, so you think and do a lot of things, right? If you do that, there is no point in being born, is there? When you are born with five bodies, you have arms and legs, eyes and nose, and ears, so you were born to use them, weren’t you? How can you say that degenerating it is progress? When we degenerate, we stop being human beings and go to the other world as soon as possible, going to a place where we don't know whether we are alive or dead. It would be a world where you don’t have to eat much, were you are put on an intravenous drip or something, and where you only have to sense your fullness level with a computer signals in your head. That way, they said, no energy would be needed. It is like being asleep and having cables connected to you all the time. What is the point of being alive at all? There is no point in living at all, is there? They are completely wrong. They are completely wrong.

We are alive because we have our own bodies, so it is important to use our own bodies. Also, when it comes to distinction, the secret to survival is to have differences. The point is, if everyone is the same, that is the weakest point. It is precisely because there are many differences that we can survive. Society as a whole can survive because different people do different things in different situations. The reason why it is not like that is because some people want to deal with weight alone. For them, power and money are the only things that matter. In other words, they want to control everything with gravity alone, and that is why they don't want to add anything else. But in the end, they can't even compete with venture companies, so they lose.

There are some things that can only be done by a living person, right? I think it is humanity, or the part of life. In the end, the difference between humans and machines is life. Life is completely different from AI, which has logic built into it. In other words, it is like a machine that is not connected to Wi-Fi. It is like a computer, so it only works inside of it. I believe that human beings are connected to the life Wi-Fi. I believe that the human body is connected to the universe through a kind of life Wi-Fi, and that living organisms move according to the instructions of the universe.

However, the things around the computer do not have Wi-Fi that connects to the universe. In this way, the same reaction may be concluded to go to the right if it is based on common sense and experience, but if it is a radio wave coming in through space Wi-Fi, it may go to the right 99 times out of 100, but this time it may go to the left. In that one left out of 100 times, the times will change, the person will be saved, and a new life will open up. Many people have had that experience. 99 times out of 100, it doesn't matter if it is a machine, because it is repetition. 99 times out of 100 can be done by a machine, because it is repetitive. But the last one, the part that cannot be done by machines, is the most important. That one time is actually the most important.

The reason why I always go on and on about history and even old stories is because if you don’t survive this last one, you have no future. For example, it is usually sunny or cloudy, so it doesn't matter whether you listen to the weather forecast or not. But if a typhoon is approaching or a big earthquake is coming, everyone will listen to it. It is quite difficult if you don't listen to the weather forecast properly. If you don't know where the typhoon is coming, or where the earthquake is, or what kind of tsunami hit, you will be in trouble. That is what history is all about, isn't it? That is how history works, isn’t it? Honestly speaking, real study is not very useful in most cases.

Since I majored in economics, I have often been asked, "What is the purpose of studying economics?" People often ask me, "How can you run a noodle shop after studying economics?" They used to say to me, "I want to open a noodle shop, but do I need to study economics? That is useless. Studying that stuff will not do you any good." That is right. That is true. You don't need to study economics to own a noodle shop. However, if your noodle shop is stuck, if your business is stuck, and you want to know what kind of business to do next and why you are stuck, you should study economics. You should study economics, not modern economics, but the broader economy, not economics, but the economy. For example, you can understand why your noodle shop's business is at a standstill, and you can know what to do next. It is the same with all kinds of work and life.

As I mentioned earlier, in the past, people were employed for life, they were able to live reasonably well without having to think about difficult things. But gradually, it became impossible to survive, and they were thrown out. They lost their jobs and suffered a lot. If you ask why things have become like this, it is hard to understand unless you understand economics and politics. If you know why, you know what to do next. If you don't know what to do, you really don't know what to do. That is why it is a good idea to study beforehand. If you really study beforehand, you will understand better. In that sense, the restoration of humanity is always a theme that is highlighted at the turning points of the times. 

In Japan, it is humanity. It is human kindness. The importance of humanity is very important. Humanity means human nature. Because of these things, the world will be saved. It is said that Japanese people today are the coldest people in the world, but that may be true. People on the continent are quite humane, aren’t they? People in China and South Korea are also very humane. If you have ever been there, you know exactly what I am talking about. The U.S. also has a lot of humanity. Humanity is totally lacking in Japan today. I think there is something very wrong with Japan. It is like the late Edo period. Japan has become trapped in a mold. Japan has once again entered a world where people think that they can eat for the day as long as they keep to the pattern, or hide themselves in the pattern.

I think we need another restoration. There was the Meiji Restoration, too. But there was no such thing in the Taisho era (1912-1926). In the Showa era (1926-1989), there was also a restoration. By the Showa Restoration, I don't mean the 2.26 Incident, but the postwar reforms. That was the real Showa Restoration. It didn’t happen in the Heisei era (1989-2019), didn’t it? I think there will be a restoration in the Reiwa era (2019- ). You need to shed all the things that have made you successful in the past if we fit into a mold, feel the light of life once again, and rethink what your role is for the world. We already have so many tools, whether it is IT or microorganisms, we can use them all. That is the key to the future of the Reiwa Restoration. That is what Restoration is all about.

What I just said about life energy is about human nature. One thing I would like to confirm about our relationship with the invisible world is that until now, we have not really thought of the invisible world as something real. The invisible world, as it were, is like the world before birth and after death. Some people say they were born from that planet, while others say they will return to that planet when they die. I think there have been a lot of people who think that they don’t have much to do with the unseen world while they are alive. Many people have thought that way about the world of Gods and Buddha. There is talk about the existence of Gods and Buddha and some people say that there are no Gods or Buddha, but it is said that we will go to hell if we don’t have someone to guide us when we die or what to do after we die. That is why there are so many people who would like to be treated well by a pastor, a priest, the Four Noble Truths, a monk, or a Shinto priest, so that they can attain to Heaven.

But the truth is different. The reality we are talking about is three-dimensional space plus time, right? If we call it four-dimensional, we mean it is four-dimensional. Time and space are often referred to as space-time, right? Space-time has a time axis, and things usually flow along this axis. However, there is a world that transcends that axis, isn't there? As I mentioned earlier, the fact that there are physical phenomena that cannot be clarified by modern physics means that physics, which is complete in almost space-time, has not been able to tell us the phenomena in this world. This almost is a quantum thing, isn't it? I guess it means that even though quantum fluctuations have almost solved the problems of this world until now, but even that is becoming more difficult to solve.

In other words, a world that transcends time and space has no past, present, or future. It is a world where you suddenly realize that if you look to the upper right, you can see the future 100 years from now; if you look to the lower left, you can see the past 100 years ago; if you look to the upper left, you can see the other side of the earth; if you look to the lower right, you can see the top of Jupiter today. To put it simply, this is the invisible world, the world beyond time and space. This is not the kind of world where people think that they don’t care about the past, that it doesn’t matter to them, that it doesn’t matter to the children who will be born in the future, and that it will all be over when they die. It is not enough to live a life where you only have to do what you can see and not worry about who's on the other side of the world or who's out of sight. If that is the case, then you are in trouble.

For example, if you are asked to do something for the future, you can't do anything rash now, can you? There are many forests and woodlands in Japan, but because they are not being cared for now, they have become very decayed, and this is a big problem. Forests in Japan have been cultivated as artificial forests for a long time. Artificial forests have been cultivated to a certain extent in Japan, and this is a typically the case with Satoyama (translation: an undeveloped woodland near a village). In Satoyama, artificial forests have been cultivated by taking care of them. It takes about 30 years from planting the trees to using them as lumber, so there are many trees that we will be used after the death of the person who grew them. Also, the same is true for urban planning; if you want to build a city that will last over 100 or 200 years, there are many things that will be completed after you die. For this reason, it has long been said that it is important to think properly about what will happen after you die, and to take actions while you are still alive.

In the case of a corporation, for example, if the executives of the current fiscal year would pay out all profits in dividends, even all future profits would be moved up the current period and those profits would be divided between dividends and executive compensation. If this were done, the future of the company would be lost. The Americans encouraged Japan to do such foolish things for the past 30 years. That is why it is over. But we must not do that, right? We have to do something that will last into the future.

Religious people often talk about this kind of thing, don’t they? They often say things like, "God is always watching over us" or "Our ancestors are always with us." What surprised me the most was the LOHAS movement, which started about 20 years ago. People who want to live a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle are practically saying the same thing. For example, forest bathing. For centuries, forests have been a mystical thing. Even in the European world, forests are mystical things. Europeans and Americans alike have a strong sense that there is something there that cannot be measured by human science.

The other thing is the inside of the ocean. The inside of the sea is always sacred, isn't it? The inside of the sea, the mountains, the forests, and the rivers must be kept clean. If these areas are in disarray, we will eventually go crazy, they said. The world of Westerners is a world trapped in time and space. They are the ones who created modern science. It was the Westerners who created modern science. Until then, God and the physical world were one, but we lost that unity and separated them. It was about 500 years ago that people started talking about explaining everything by only looking at the physical world and what we can see. But now that we have seen UFOs and other phenomena, it is clear that it was impossible to separate the two. When they saw the UFOs, they threw in the towel and said, "This is not good anymore." But people who have been aware of this for at least 20 years have been saying, "This is crazy."

For the sake of the future, we have to leave a legacy of the past, that is, this earth, this good earth, to the future. Thinking about the future and changing our current behavior is the idea of connecting and thinking the past, present, and future. Nowadays, in almost every field, the continuity of the past, present and future has become the motivation for many people's actions. The past is history, isn't it? The global environment is also a product of history, isn’t it? The reason why the earth is a rich planet is a product of its past history. Also, countries, peoples, towns, and farmlands are all legacies of the past, aren't they? The idea that we are where we are today because of that become the norm in the world, isn’t it? No matter how high the growth rate of a country, it is natural that they are thinking and doing things that way now, isn't it?

On the other hand, if there is a country that has no past, no future, and only wants the present to be good, it is practically a ragtag group. Even if it is a company, it will be condemned in the same way. I believe that the world is already changing. It has been moving for a long time now. But I think there is more to come. It is about whether the past, present, and future we are talking about have a will or not. It is a matter of whether or not they somehow came to be by random chance. In other words, the reason why the earth is the way it is now is the result of random selection, and it just happened to be this way. Also, many other things just happened to be this way. For example, the fact that Japan has come to produce so much miso and soy sauce is also due to chance. Other countries may have been able to do it, but only Japan happened to be able to do it. Everything happens by chance. If you're lucky, it works, if you are unlucky, it doesn't. It is just a coincidence. It doesn't matter how much you cherish a fluke. To live without worrying about chance is like money and power.

Money and power are not things that happen by chance, but by setting up laws, building banks, and saving money, everyone was moving in that direction because they thought they could do something if they saved power and money. Since I started my own business 30 years ago and stopped being a salaried employee, I have never seen a successful person who thought it was just a coincidence. It may be a fluke from the side, but I have never seen anyone succeed by thinking it was a fluke.

For example, the collapse of the bubble economy. The collapse of the bubble economy in the Heisei era. Nowadays, people are talking about the Lehman shock and China’s difficulties, but in my opinion, I really wonder why you guys didn't study about Japan. After making fun of Japan so much, the whole world was saying about Japan, "Japanese people were sloppy and that they were pathetic after the bubble burst," wasn’t it? They are completely cowed by the fact that they made a bigger mess than us. If you think about the cleanup of the bubble burst, Japan was much better at it than they are now. Japan was able to get away with something like this. Japan is only suffering from this level of damage, so how grateful we are that we are only suffering from this level of damage when we look at the world today. I wonder how bad they are going to get. It is all happening right now, isn't it? It is just like the apocalyptic prophecies of the Bible. It is become so bad that they are losing their minds, aren't they? Because they are hiding a lot of things, they are only managing to live one day at a time. If they told the truth, they would end up the Biblical apocalypse story, so they just keep quiet and keep their heads down, don't they?

If you think about it, it is not that Japan is particularly bad. In fact, we are much better than how terrible they are. But that is not the point I am trying to make. In this extraordinary time, as a result, many people are surviving today in spite of all the things that have happened. There are 100 different lives for 100 different people, 100 stories for 100 different people, and I think that 100 stories could have been 200 or 300 different stories. What I mean by that is that the stories kept changing. It was not uncommon for a single person to have three stories in the past 30 years: the first story was this one, but it didn't work, then the next one didn’t work, and so on. So, for some people, once they did this and it didn't work out, they had no choice but to try something else, and in the end, the last thing they did was very successful. There were probably a lot of stories.

If this world is random, that doesn't mean it is truth. The meaning of truth is whether or not a person can take a step forward in life with this theory. As I said before, randomness is just another emerging religion. "Randomism" is an emerging religion. Who said that God is random? Buddha never says this kind of thing. Christ doesn't say it either. When you say “nature is random,” you are saying that it is random because you happen to observe random things. Nature also has more stories to tell, doesn't it? There used to be dinosaurs, but not anymore. If there were dinosaurs in the past and there are still dinosaurs today, it may not be random. I think there is quite a story behind it. The point is that it may or may not look random, depending on where you set the zoom of the magnifier. Even randomness is not one thing that is fixed. There are many myths about the creation of the universe in each country. There are myths about the creation of the universe all over the world, but I have never heard of one that started by chance and exists today by chance. I don't think randomness is the truth. The fact that randomness is not the truth means that there is something of a story behind each and every one of us.

When each person is aware of their own story and confident that this is their story, then their life is open, isn't it? I can see that clearly. There are moments when you know, "This is my story." There are few things that can be known in advance. There is a path that you want to take, but as I said earlier, each person experiences about three different paths over the course of 30 years, but it is only when you look back that you realize that this is the path that you ended up taking. There are times when you reach a certain point and look back, and for the first time you realize that this was your path. Yes, it is a mystical world in my opinion. In the mystical world, when you listen to fortune telling, or fortune telling that hits you well, you can get a general idea of your direction, and you can get a general idea of your timing. However, there are many people whose fortunes are quite weak. People with strong fortune, whether they have good or bad fortune, will go along with it, but most people have weak fortune. People with weak fortune can become whatever they want. That is why it is a mystical world. Therefore, our life is an exchange with the mystical things. When interacting with the mystical, it is very difficult for everyone.

I would like to talk about what I mean by unlimited success and true sustainability. For example, I think that knowing in advance that "this is the story of how the world works, and this is the story of my life, so if I do this, I will succeed," or "if I do this, I will be able to overcome the crisis," is the prescription you are looking for in these times of transition. I feel that about 90 out of 100 people are looking for this kind of prescription. I would say 9 out of 10. That is about the percentage of people who really want it, but if you ask me, it is also very different from the Heisei experience. There are people who get it right and people who get it wrong. There are those who get it right and those who don't. That is the mystical.

It is the same with illness. There are people who get sick when they think it is nothing serious. On the other hand, there are people who get very sick and quickly cured. It is such a mystical thing. There are people who have terminal cancer and think it doesn't matter anymore, so they go on a trip abroad and get cured. On the other hand, there are people who say that their illness is no big deal, and then they die in a flash. You never know, right? Doctors don't know what it is, but the person concerned probably doesn’t know much more. That is how mystical it is. However, if you look back a little, you can kind of see the meaning. In other words, we are acting out some kind of drama. We are acting out the drama of this world. Therefore, I believe that managing a highly sustainable world means to live in harmony with the heavens each and every time. The world is really mystical.

Sustainability is a symbiosis with mystical, isn’t it? Not even physical phenomena can explain the world beyond time and space anymore. The moment we say "world beyond time and space," the time axis disappears. When the past, present, and future are all in the same place, and the geographical space is in the same place, there is no way to find a place to grasp. There is no way to find a place to capture and theoretically say that this is the place. It is a mystical world. You can think of your association with this infinite world as being a mystical world. Associating with the mystical world is something that everyone does. That is what it means to live on your own life. That is exactly what it means to run a company or a venture business. You never know what will happen tomorrow. How do you stay strong in the face of the fear of not knowing what tomorrow holds? At first, you may be too scared to do anything about it, but gradually you will become more and more determined. You will be prepared for anything. You will make up your mind. By doing so, we all come to realize that this is what it means to be given by the power of God and to deal with anything.

As you do this, you will be able to get a sense of the mystical things more and more. You will see things like, "I am going to try this direction for now, but I think I will have to go much further to find out," or "What should I do next? At this time, something strange happened, what does this strange thing mean?" You have your own interpretation of what the heavens show you, and you can understand how to live your life by asking yourself questions like, "Is this the right interpretation?" or "Wouldn’t it be a little different if I interpreted it this way?" That is why you are always interacting with the invisible world. That is what you get to understand when you do it yourself. It is about making use of abilities that are not being used. I think anyone can do that. It is an ability that you don't use when you are stuck in your old world, but when you start using it, you will be able to use it. I am still deeply convinced of the importance of such thinking. 

Therefore, there are many things that can be said about this "Restoration of Reiwa. For example, when we are talking about fixing the government, we are talking about the organization, such as the division and privatization of the Japanese National Railways. The current bureaucratic system should be abandoned. The old bureaucracy of the Taiho Ritsuryo Code and the Yoro Ritsuryo Coe, should be abolished and replaced by computers, and people who can do the job should be assigned to the key places. For example, look at the Japanese Railways (JR). After the Japanese National Railways (JNR) was replaced by JR, most of the work was completely mechanized. However, they still have people working there. If you don't have people in place, you can't run the business with just machines. Every facility, including train commanders, train stations, and other facilities has people working there. The people who remain are important. In short, it is very important to have someone who can babysit and take care of the machine, and you need to have someone like Superman around. I think it is the same with electricity. Nowadays, with the advancement of machines in electric power and telecommunication industries, it is necessary to have people like Superman. So, we have a pretty good idea of what the problem is with the government offices or the country. If we train people like Superman and use machines to do the rest, we can get by.

What about the rest of us? Some people say, "What should I do for a job?" But if I may be a bit blunt, I say, "Listen to the heavens. What I mean by that is, that you try and try and try, and then eventually a path will form behind you. You will see, "This is the way of the heavens." So what the government really needs now is light and heat. The heat the government gives out for now is money. It is money for food, clothing, and shelter to eat for the day as a source of livelihood. No matter what you say, we are not animals, we have food, clothing, and shelter to live with our families. If we don’t get to eat for a day today, we wouldn’t be able to go to the Restoration. What the government can do at this turning point is to make sure that everyone has what they need to eat safely today and to live safely tomorrow. What the government can do is to stop the despair. This is not the time for them to be saying something brave. Do you think that the current politicians, whether they are government officials, the LDP, or the Constitutional Democratic Party, are capable of doing something big? Do you think they are capable of doing something at this turning point of the times? I think they can only do what they can do, so why not stop the despair in the world first? This is the least they can do. In short, politicians and government officials should hurry up and stop the despair in the world. It is about stopping the despair of food, clothing, and shelter. That is the first thing they need to do. 

In order to create the future, we need opportunities and work for those people stop despairing about the world and themselves to the next step. There are many ways to create a story, such as doing this, doing that, and then trying this. So, there is no such thing as just doing one thing. If it doesn't work, just try another one. If it still doesn't work, try again, and keep going. My maternal grandfather used to be called "Momojiri". "Momojiri" does not refer to a woman's buttocks. It is said that peaches do not stand up nicely because they are distorted at the bottom, so people who move from one job to another were used to be called "Momojiri". When he was young, my grandfather worked at various jobs until he was 30 years old. When he finally got a decent job at a company, he ended up being the president of the company. So, in my opinion, until you are about 30 years old, you can do anything you want. In other words, the government should support them with food, clothing, and shelter so that they can try anything and don’t have to despair. However, it is not enough to support them with money. If you just give them money, they might go to Pachinko or something. Instead, they should have local food, clothing, and shelter. They have to make and eat locally, and they have to have a good job in their hometown. It is good to hone their skills when they are young. I think anyone can prepare for that kind of work. It would be good to do that. 

Also, as I have said before, you have to know, go, see, and meet. Since the elderly are now receiving pensions, they can know, visit, see, and meet people in all directions. But we have to let the young people do that. I am not talking about taking money away from the elderly. We have to let the young people do it, too. From now on, it is not just about getting money anymore. Money alone will not buy true wealth and it will not help us understand the world of truth. We all know that saving more money because we are worried about the future, buying mutual funds because we are worried about the future, or joining a company because we are worried about the future, does not mean we have created the future at all.

Look at the effects of the Corona disaster. In New York, San Francisco, San Jose, etc., people fled at once. London lest the EU, right? China is probably in the middle of a socialist revolution. In China, managers are already regarded as bad people, and it is hard to know what is right in the social system. After all, there is no way to feel secure unless you have your feet on the ground, closer to home. You have to go back to that. It is not just about money anymore. We need to create a foundation that will keep us from despairing in various ways.

And now we are talking about the business managers. Now it is up to them to work hard to create the future. I believe that the left of center has been doing well enough for some time. I think the leftists have been doing it for a long time, and I think they can do it if they are given the management resources. The Japanese leftists will work properly if they are given money, time, and people. Japan is a leftist country by nature. (Although there is a time before Emperor Jinmu) Since Emperor Jinmu, it has been the tradition of this country to value agriculture and to value and make the most of everyone living in this country so that no one falls behind. When it comes to the right or left, Japan is traditionally a leftist country. It is not a world like the current opposition parties. Originally, in Japan, it was said that it was important to do things without a single dropout. Even today, Emperor Tenchi is said to be an important prototype of governance, and the people like Sontoku Ninomiya, who revived the penniless, given up farmers, are enshrined as gods in shrines. That is why this country has always been left of the center.  

The people who are visible and in front of the eyes of the LDP people are probably the ordinary poor common people. What has been in the Japanese tradition for a long time, rather, conservatives have to do it. In this country, leftists are not innovators. In Japan, the leftists are the conservatives. So, although they are talking about the Liberal Democratic Party or the Constitutional Democratic Party, they should cooperate each other well.

What I would like to say, and what I have been saying for a long time, is about business people. The reason why we created the Federation of Business Leaders for Respecting Humanity in the first place is that we can’t do anything unless all business leaders work together to create the future. The left can go as far as stopping the despair. But what about new jobs? For example, farming requires land, fertilizer, plans to sell, and a processing plant. Of course, manufacturing naturally requires more equipment. In the service industry and other industries, you have to invest in various things and turn the money around in the process of investment. The only way to make use of microorganisms and natural energy is to use them as a system. If we could simply wake up in the morning as a human model, go outside, and open our mouths to photosynthesize and get nutrition on our own, it would not be difficult at all. But that is not how it works. We have to do something. You have to support them, but you also have to make sure that the people you support eat.

The reason why agriculture is so important is that someone has to feed the civil servants, the employees, and the soldiers. It is only when someone else does it for them that they can be employees, craftsmen, and soldiers without doing the farm work. So, if there is no food at the beginning, there is nothing to do, and everyone is left with nothing to eat. But then, we would have to have proper agriculture and management to make it work. It is the same with manufacturing. If we produce too much, the company will go bankrupt, and if we don't produce enough, we will starve. The economy is really difficult.

For example, in the economy, there is the pirate economy, isn't there? In short, they trade with foreign countries. Trade through the sea has always been lucrative. The history of Japan, as well as people overseas, is that a lot of money flies around when you are engaged in trade. That is why everyone wants to do trade. Look at the car dealerships, they all love to trade, don't they? The same goes for trading companies. They make a lot of money through trade. However, if you are only interested in trade, you will neglect your domestic business. In other words, rather than doing their best to do business domestically, they try to get rich quick. That is why it is not good to go too far. But we don't want to trade to disappear. If we don't trade at all, as was the case in the latter half of the Edo period, people will die of starvation due to lack of food, and it will be a miserable situation. So, moderate trade is necessary. However, we still need to create jobs in the domestic market as well. We have to keep a good balance.

Japan now has a trade balance surplus. A surplus in the trade balance means that imports can be covered by what we sell overseas. This is a very good thing. The money from the sales can finance domestic imports. So, apart from the circulation of money domestically, the money for purchases from abroad can be financed by exports. For example, look at Saudi Arabia. That country already has a current account deficit, right? The bottom line is that a current account deficit means that there is not enough money to pay for imports. They have to borrow money somewhere or make up for it with something else to make it through the day. Strangely enough, Japan still has a current account surplus. There are many tricks to this, but as long as we are still in the black, we can use the money we earn from exports to pay for our imports. Now is the last chance. If Japan misses this opportunity, it will finally run up a huge deficit, and the rest will be bleeding and hemorrhaging. The U.S. has been doing this for 40 years and 50 years. In my opinion, the U.S. has gotten better at manipulation. They have no money and no goods coming in, but they have a way of running the country. The U.S. is good at it, and so is the U.K. I don't want to say too much more than that, but I think theirs is a sleight of hand. I think Japan is more honest.

I would first like to ask the business leaders to fix things by all means. I am doing it too. In short, it is time to stop all this black hole stuff. When the war was over, we all ended it, didn't we? The Manchurian Railway ended, the Taiwan Sugar Refinery ended, the development of the South Seas ended, the munitions factories ended, and the Zaibatsu (the conglomerates) were dismantled at least once. We have to erase them once for all. Then we rebuild with light and heat. At this time, since we are facing the mystical world that I mentioned earlier, we can succeed if we do this tremendous process of creating our own truth while creating our own path for humanity. We have to do this. We can't acquire such abilities by waiting. I think what is most lacking right now is business leaders. The biggest problem is that business leaders are not able to create the future. If you look at the past of Japan, there were times when the government was in charge of the economy, there were times when the emperors were in charge, and there were times when the shogunate was in charge. There was also the time when it was done by merchants from all over the country. But anyway, in Japan, there have been villages since ancient times, and things have been done on a village basis. There are words like "village blacksmith" and "village rice-maker," and each village community had its own way of doing things. After all, the origin of Japan is a country with local economies.

The origin of the Japanese economy is the regional economy. Since all the elements are contained in the regional economy, it can be completed within it. The regional economy is almost complete with the circulation within it. The future lies on top of the regional economy, so I would like you all to do your best in this regard. I will do my best, too. The economy must be restored. That is why I want the government officials and politicians to solve the despair. In short, we should start all over again, just like we did with the division and privatization of the Japanese National Railways, and if we leave the people like Superman in charge and keep the system running, it will be able to work. The problem is the economy. In the business world, people are quitting all over the world. Since they are quitting, I want them to experience what it means to do things on their own. In other words, I want them to take the first step because they will understand if they walk and experience it on their own. That is why our NPO, through the Federation of Business Leaders for Respecting Humanity, we would like you to start by saying, "I respect humanity." If we respect humanity, people will cherish others, and they will gradually awaken to the truth and move forward.

Of course, raising people can be tough. Of course, nurturing a person can be tough, but you do it because you are thinking about the person's future. Nowadays, there are many companies that are taking away the future and using it for their own profit, and that is the problem. That is why we need humanity first. This is the important part. First of all, you need to know, visit, see, and meet the people. I would like you to get to know the people who are dealing with mystical things in various ways, get some advice from them, and try it out in your own way. When you try things out, it is hard to feel safe by yourself, so you need friends. Your friends change from time to time. If you quit your salaried job, your friends will change. If you start a side business, you will definitely make new friends. That is what is important. Your fate will change. It is a lie that your fate doesn’t change. It is not that you have made a mistake, it is that new fates are unfolding. It is not that the old fates will be cut off, it is that it will become distant. It is a matter of perspectives, just getting farther away, so there is no need to dwell on it. It is normal to have distant and closer relationships.

If you move, the mountain you saw in front of you will appear behind you. It is a natural thing. It is natural that there will be distant and close connections, so don't be afraid of them. We have to move on. I always talk about current affairs commentary and analysis of the current situation in the monthly study sessions, so I will not repeat it in this keynote speech. What I want you to understand today is that what to do in light of the current situation is a mystical world. The mystical world is not a world that you can't touch, but a dialogue with a world that transcends time and space. I think of it as a dialogue. You may think it is something else because you don't know what it is right now, but when you find yourself in an environment that requires such a thing, it becomes a dialogue. As I have said before, thankfully in this day and age, we don't have to go that way 100% of the time. We live in an age where it is OK to have a second job.

Japanese tradition is leftist. If they understand that Japanese conservatism is leftist, and that it is Japanese tradition to support people so that they do not despair, people will be able to do new things without worrying about such things. When being supported, people can challenge new things. By saying, "If I challenge myself, I will not be able to pay my mortgage," or "My wife and kids will be out on the street," they are afraid to challenge themselves. In the postwar of Japan and the latter half of the Showa Era (1926-1989) and postwar Japan, even if you had a fight with the company, you could support your wife and children because you would not be fired. That is why everyone was able to work earnestly and enthusiastically. "No, sir. You're absolutely wrong. You should change to this side." Even though something had changed, they still did their jobs that needed to be done because they didn't have to worry about the lives of their wife and children. If the government officials and politicians could guarantee that, people would start to move. Because of the fear of despair, their bodies have become stiff.

The rest is concrete action. We have to do everything from energy to everything else, so the business world has a lot of work to do. Let's all do our best together. With that in mind, our NPO will continue to do our best in the 19th term, and we will add various activities to our activities according to the situation. We will continue to have monthly study sessions, and we also have the ABE Zoom Bar (online social gathering) today. With the participation of various people, the opportunities for everyone to be active and participate are increasing, so I would be grateful if you could create more and more Tamariba (peer group activities) and participate in them to help everyone succeed. Thank you for your kind attention.

日本再生は人間性の回復から｜藤原直哉理事長｜第19期総会イベント基調講演 | 認定NPO法人 日本再生プログラム推進フォーラム