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The
Anglo-Japanese Relationship. Looking to the Future Address
by The Rt.Hon.Lord Howell of Guildford to the Daiwa-Anglo-Japanese Foundation.
Japan House, Cornwall Terrace NW1 1st December 1999. The
story of UK-Japan relations over the last three decades is one of growing
intimacy and mutually reinforcing friendship. We have heard it brilliantly set
out by Minister Umezu and I am proud to have played a small part in the amazing
transformation that has taken place. But
today I want to look at our relationship from quite a different angle. My story
begins not with practical agendas but with uglier manifestations - riots at
Euston, in Seattle at the WTO meeting, in Jakarta – in Athens yesterday –
where tomorrow ? All
growing evidence - if that were needed - that our societies are everywhere are
in tension, verging on turmoil In
other words I cannot disassociate UK-Japan issues from the huge technological
transformation now sweeping all societies and changing not only ways of
business, but ways of governance and indeed ways of life. I
want to begin with three items ( 2 quotes and a bit of history). 1,
From Manuel’s Castell’s monumental work The Rise of the Network Society –
his opening words - ‘
Towards the end of the second millennium of the Christian era several events of
historical significance have transformed the social landscape of human life. A
technological revolution, centred around information technologies, is reshaping,
at an accelerated pace, the material basis of society.’ 2.
From Boutros Boutros Ghali ‘The globalisation now taking place requires a
profoundly renewed concept of the state. Between the isolated individual and the
world there must be an intermediate element. This element is the state and
national sovereignty. They respond to the needs of all human beings for
identification. In a world both impersonal and fragmented such a need is greater
than it has ever been in history’. 3.
I want to remind you about Ned Ludd – a character who went around with a mob,
circa 1815, smashing up textile machinery. He calculated, correctly, that
eventually many traditional jobs would be lost and familiar ways of life
destroyed. The
argument that new technology would lead to more jobs cut no ice with him. He
believed, probably rightly, that the new jobs would be elsewhere. His followers
would be the losers, others would be the gainers. What
do these views and events have in common? Answer
– they are all about the interaction between technology and society, and the
political kingdom, which is now creating an upheaval in both our societies, and
world wide, going far beyond management and communications. Information connects
humanity. When that is transformed all relationships and structures are
transformed. What
we observe is an increasing distance between globalisation and cultural identity
– or as Castell puts it, between the Net and the Self. These
changes deeply disturbing. Luddism spread across the world. – riots,
revolution, governments overthrown, ruthless suppression. DAWNING
ON POLICYMAKERS THAT WE ARE NOW HEADING INTO SAME SITUATION WITH SAME POLITICAL
ISSUES . Whether
we are dealing with ideas of Japanese uniqueness, or with Western individualism,
huge new tensions and potential conflicts arise. New
competition global and ruthless is closing round us, accompanied by its
companion outrider – shareholder value – the demanding discipline which
tells every corporation in every country that if it wants access to world
capital markets then it will have to please world shareholders. That is the
death knell of subsidies, cosy monopolies, and much else. – always there but
now ten times more pervasive. Viz
farmersbieng destroyed by globalised fod markets, , retailers destroyed by
e-trade, high street bankers by the internet, ditto for car-dealers, travel
agents, bookstores, ,commodity markets and stock exchanges,newspapers seeing
theor classified ads.vanish – and so the list goes on. And thatis just at the
retail end. It is the same story all the way trough the supply chain. Whethre
it is Consumers, or Investors – OR voters it is the same story. They want to
use their new empowerment to get to the source, the producer, the capital
market, the policy-maker. It is DOWN with MIDDLEMEN. WHAT
ROLE IS MODERN STATE SUPPOSED TO PLAY in handling the new technology?? Some
answer ‘none’ – state too small for global issues. Too large for regional,
local and community issues. Economics
pulls one way – enticingly but alarmingly –
empowering the individual and weakening the traditional government structure Politics
pulls the other way – localising and narrowing the issues, encouraging
fundamentalism and tribalism, splintering old alliances and compromises and
intensifying local and specific interests My
answer ,ON THE CONTRARY, is that the state far from being by-passed, may be even
more the appropriate unit on the appropriate human scale, around which cohesion
and civic loyalty can be held together. . Why?
Because the moral and social order, which embraces both Authority and the free
citizen, both government and governed, must have a definable and identifiable
shape. Duty, loyalty, obligation (favourite Japanese concept), must be towards
something that has roots and that has grown from the past and continues. Can
abstract entities like ‘the community’ ,or supranational institutions meet
this requirement? And if not, how does the cohesive nation state re-design
itself so as to do so and to resist the disintegrating political trends? How
in particular, does a Japan, or a Britain, combine an active global role with
the legitimacy and democracy that holds societies together in face of great
tensions.? ------------------------------------------------------ We
have some models to study – 14 c. China – by far the world’s most
technologically advanced society until government closed it all down abruptly
– with a terrible price being paid in subsequent centuries Or
Isolationist Japan. Until of course the Meiji period turned it all round and
opened Japan ,selectively and skilfully to new Western and indigenous
technology. In
Europe, by contrast, there were either weak or quarrelling (or light)
governments, or numerous bickering mini-states, so that technology was allowed
its head unimpeded by powerful central states – except perhaps in France –
and loom what happened there. The
Position today with informational revolution is not dissimilar. – Governments
subjected to every kind of pressure and lobby to PROTECT. Viz
Japan, EU Viz ECB and electronic cash, or E-Commerce rules.( The Commission is
proposing new draft regulations giving the consumer of e-trade products the
right to sue in the consumer’s own home court under home laws – which would
strangle e-commerce in Europe at birth.) Japan
and UK both face enormous adjustments – can they be models in showing how to
handle all these tensions? How do we ‘renew’ the state? Governments
bombarded with contradictory advice interactive and continuous. Quiet
life for bureaucrats and cosy existence for politicians now blown away. How
can Japan and the UK help each other best in these totally new and challenging
conditions? A.
Broadly:
Balance and recognise social concerns with the march of the information age. B.
Narrowly, enlarge democracy and transparency and accountability. A vigorous and
independent Parliament (House of Lords reform?) Abandon
economic pretensions – stop pretending that economies can be managed by
jiggling interest rates., or that states need to be owners and providers of
services. Concentrate
on real needs of wealth creation – e.g. low and efficient market regulation
and light taxation, upheld law and property rights, competition and education
and training, plus well focussed social care Play
an international role which is nonetheless fully accountable and connected with
grass roots support. It
is an Awesome task. Yet Japan and Britain both face them from a favourable
starting point – as ancient and ,until now, cohesive societies. Could they
turn out to be the best suited societies to manage the transition – the models
for the next era as they were, in their different ways , for the past one ? Perhaps.
But there should be no illusions. The new global Luddites are now out in force.
It will take all the mental agility, patience and statesmanship that public men
and women can muster to ensure that their concerns, which are real, can be
balanced with march of the network world – and to ensure that the civic order
is held in harmony with ultra-revolutionary technological trends. Ends
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