Who reads Rules (Lessons from Japan Part 2)

My mother, known lovingly as Janice and beloved by all, had a tendancy to give me novelty gifts (often duplicated for all siblings) that have included but not limited too, parfet sundae glasses (to which I reacted 'a vase') and an indoor badminton kit (having never expressed nor played badminton ever) which all the same when it comes to gift giving, it truly is the thought that counts and above all its these seemingly useless gifts that I remember most easily and shall cherish as memories until I lose them. I mean you have to admit not many people actively sit down to recall their cherished memories.
But Janice did pick out a book one year for me as a gift called 'Lost Japan' written by Alex Kerr. I highly recommend this book, it is one of the best gifts Janice ever picked (or had recommended to her) and reading it before I departed for Japan gave me the priveledge of having a deep understanding of both the strengths and weaknesses of Japanese culture.
So prepare for what will no doubt be a long post, when I first got inspired to write this post it was going to be a simple defence of how much time I spent in overseas libraries on holidays delivered as my contempt for people who 'don't have time to read'. Suffice to say I shall deal with the latter first then move on to Japan.

He who reads rules

As a teenager I spent time needlessly stressing about the mythical phantom that was 'my resume' it was an almost constant throb at the back of my head that more then anything else robbed me of the pleasures of holiday mode as I came of age and holidays in Ballarat became less about taking a much needed break to reflect, watch videos and play computer games, and go cycling around with mates committing petty acts of vandalism and trying to discover those secret places in Ballarat back alley's that by day where childrens playgrounds and by night no doubt used for date rape.
The 'resume' which didn't exist was a liability because of the age old conundrum of 'the experienced kid' gets the job, and its hard to get experience without getting a job first.
Which is or at least should be a myth to intelligent employers. A proven mediocre performer cannot profit where an unproven but potentially high yeild prospect would not. The job goes first and foremost to the applicant who potentially can deliver the greatest value.
And the value of most 'experience' in ballarat is proving that you can turn up to work, do some mindless task and go home, on an ongoing basis without dipping your hand into the till. and jackoff employers are probably going to write a golden reference no matter how well you perform safe in the knowledge that you are becoming some other companies liability. Or that the performance expectations of a shitty casual ballarat job are significantly low to make 'impressive' performance a foregone conclusion.
That is if your future employer even bothers to read your resume anyway.
And that's the clincher, I was advised not to just put down 'reading' as an interest on my resume because it makes you sound introverted and almost every applicant makes the claim.
I guess you could tidy up the presentation of such facts about oneselfs choice of spare time by stating the benifit rather than leaving the meaning implicit. Because first and foremost my competitive advantage in my brief working life and source of greatly accellerated development has been: reading.
If I could rely on a resume at all I would look for the simple words 'I read' above and beyond everything else, and here's why:

1. Reinventing the wheel is 'do' learning and of value to the participant but of little to no value to the greater organisation except in the hope that the lessons of undergoing the process may have some future application to the company's bottom line. Reading can accellerate this process by giving some simple preparatory insight into mistakes and reasons others have made in the past.
2. Most of history did not have access to quality recording devices, therefore the richest repository of the human races collective learning is found through literacy, and then a little extra insight through archaeology. One can look in and see what the few people that have ever 'moved the earth' so to speak have learned in the process and what made them successful, diverse people such as Napoleon, Genghis Kahn, Julius and Augustus Ceaser, Shakespear, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander the Great, etc.
3. Books are an active medium, you have to look at them, pay attention to them. This greatly improves retention.
4. If a person lives there whole life and takes a moment to write down the one or two important things they learned in that whole time, it represents an enormous time saving to the reader.
5. Writing is difficult, to succeed in getting a book published, and the book being attractive enough to get read, is a form of natural selection, the strongest books have a tendancy to get read.

And as such, I have to say being able to pick up a book by Drucker and reap the rewards of a lifetime spent consulting with executives around the world and being able to myself effectively know what makes a good executive and what makes a bad executive is something a lot of uni graduates could not even claim.
Reading the memoirs of successful businessmen like Ricardo Semler even allows me to contrast and analyse the recommendations gathered from drucker and gain a general understanding of organisational problems something that won't be contemplated by a lot of colleagues my age until they are sitting in the hot seat.
Reading Takuan Soho's unfettered mind, and Musashi Miyamoto's Book of Five Rings, or Yagyu Munenori's Life Giving sword can give me strategic philosophy that I can reflect on and make my own so I know why I'd want to sit in the hotseat.
Even reading Sci-fi is a competitive advantage as Sci-fi has inspired a lot of systems that have defined the modern era including genetic engineering, the internet, AI, cybernetics and so fourth, furthermore many sci-fis plot is based on a study of a particular human behaviour exagerrated, philosphy or system of government, such as 1984 and Brave new world. The distopia's created can still be powerful insight.
Infact any form of reading if reflected on, if done consciously can yeild a greater understanding of the human condition. Be it the simplest childrens book as function of the social conditioning inflicted on the young from an early age.
Reading as competitive advantage has only two necessities: reflection and diversity. Reading the Koran or the bible over again ain't of any advantage at all. (and their so spiritually profound you shouldn't be going making up your own interpretations anyway right? thinking is a lack of faith.)
That being said my recomendation numero uno thus far for Japan is that: All citizens be forced to read the book of five rings and I'll explain why.

Fettered Japan:

Zazen is a practice that takes two forms, rinzai sect sits in contemplation of koans, nonsensical puzzles (that you can now obtain the "answers" to over the internet) until one obtains enlightenment through the mental gymnastics. The second school is soto zen, of which sitting in the proper posture is the entire practice. The practice of sitting like a frog leads to an improvement in concentration and eventually enlightenment. Suffice to say I could use the benefits of such a practice to gain control of my mind.
Japanese people from what I have observed have no longer any real cultural heritage from zen when it comes to their daily lives. Japan is fettered to an inertia. Many of its most famous sword saints drew inspiration from zen, similar to Neuro Linguistic Programming, Zen is the art of attempting to stop one's mind from interfering with one's perception of reality, to minimise the filter of reality imposed by the mind.
To a swordsman this was litteraly the difference between life and death, anticipation lead to expectations so like comedy surprise was the key to ending one's own life.
Musashi had techniques to exploit this weakness in opponents, such as never attempting the same attack twice, he found 'using the same path to victory' after one failure shameful. It has often been articulated in western culture as the definition of insanity 'doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result' or as my principle use to beat into our brains at least 12 times a year 'you always get what you've always got, if you always do what you've always done' which to his credit cockhead though he was, was this legacy hopefully will live on in me.
Musashi also had 'ways of seeing' techniques of literally how to take in the opponent which he called 'looking at mountains far away' the technique consists really in what it doesn't involve, which is stressing something to watch, such as watching the tip of your oponents sword, or paying particular attention to his eyes, or watching his footwork to try and predict his next move. Musashi simply opened his eyes, relaxed, waited and reacted. Reacting to the reality of the confrontation, easier said than done and Musashi had a myriad more techniques to actually make this effective, but such technique methinks could easily be applied to poker where 'you play the man not the cards' to not be looking for the tell on your opponents face and as such miss out on the crucial twitch of their hands.
One takes in the whole picture without narrowing the focus so one has a greater chance of seeing what actually happens.
Now Musashi's Zen teacher was Takuan Soho, so progressing even further one can get a better insight into the mind of Musashi, Takuan Soho's treatise on the sword was called the unfettered mind which was to say, freeing the mind of thought in order to experience reality. There is close to no discussion of swordplay at all but Takuan had a profound impact on two of the greatest swordsmen of the day Musashi Miyamoto and Yagyu Munenori.
Now if I had to imagine that Japan the nation today was a swordsman here's how they would be:

They would be large, very large, fat and sluggish even.
They would have their eyes as narrow as possible if not completely shut.
They would hold their sword out infront of them.
They would be going 'la la la la la la la la la' over and over to eliminate the chance of anyone offering any guidance.
They would progress towards where they think they're enemy was at a slow but steady pace, unwavering in their courage/stupidity. Using their bulk to hopefully drive their sword deep into their opponent.

That's how Japan strikes me at the moment. I'll try and substantiate with observations later. But for the most part, if you were Japan's opponent, you would simply have to stick your own sword out and wait for Japan to impale itself, its vast folds of fat preventing it from having even an early nervous warning system.
But probably truer to life is that there is no opponent at all, Japan the mighty fat warrior will walk forward steadily and forces of nature (read externalities) will finish it off.
When I first read 'Lost Japan' in the late 90's, people were talking about the greenhouse effect, but the ozone layer was more pressing, nobody really ever talked about china or expressed any interest in going their.
Japan was known to have a stagnent economy at the time but the book and my own experience left me thinking that 'there is enormous opportunity in Japan' for many years I shouldered the dream of living and working in Japan and becoming an insider. When I heard my bosses criticise Japan I had assumed that they just didn't 'get' Japanese culture.
Last time I noticed the changes (my second visit to Japan), all girl carriages where coming in, mobile phones were flogging video, everyone could use email from their mobiles. Fashion had changed etc.
Now though I truly appreciate the impact of China's growth and Japan's growing irrelevance, what truly breaks my heart is that I see the Japanese people, simply doing absolutely fucking nothing about it.
From the country that produced the wiimote last year (something that prompted my friend Miyuki, a japanese expat in Oz to say 'I'm so proud of my culture') I have to say I expected more. But my initial observations are that, the Wii is an exception, innovation is not the rule. Newton's law of Inertia states that an object will continue on it's current path indefinetely until another force acts on it. Japan is careening off into space.
I have to admit, I can't follow the television here and have to look up the news on Google to find out what's happening in the country. But contrasting to the only other country thus far I really know, public debate is not really on the cards, I see no other force gaining momentum to deflect Japan's course from becoming 'the arsehole of the world' Sick as Australian democracy is, Japanese government is sicker, think the Howard dynasty, but with no opposition whatsoever.

There is no Game:

This is rule number one, in my opinion of game theory. A game is most easily lost by people using the rules. The most important rule, again in my opinion, is that of scope. If the scope of the game is not large enough, one 'narrows one's focus to one key point' then an externality, ie something external to the game one is playing ruins the game.
Think lightning at a golf tournament.
For years the Japanese's own word for foreigners was 'Gaijin' this means loosely translated 'outsider' I have come to accept over the years that I will forever in Japanese eyes be an 'outsider' no matter how hard I try to fit in, to know Japan and its ways and its people. But who is the real loser from that transaction?
History Lesson: The only word in regular use in English language that originates from Japan without specifically referring to an aspect of Japanese culture is 'tycoon' Commodore Perry's nickname for Abraham Lincoln and the Tokugawa Shogunate's diplomatic title in foreing correspondance. Perry bestowed this title on Honest Abe because America's gunboat diplomacy had opened up Japanese ports to trade for the first time in 200 years.
This is a perfect example of someone succeeding, indeed dominating in a game that's scope was arrogantly small. The Tokugawa's had one of the most stable and enduring reigns of any political dynasty in history, the Tokugawa shogun's conquered all of Japan and maintained peace for 200 years, expelling foreigners and kicking off Japan's cultural renaissance.
The Tokugawa's just overlooked the rest of the world whom in the meantime developed steam powered navies, and artilleries that left Japan entirely defenseless, having never progressed beyond simple firearms and fuedal era military strategy.
The whole world was incorrectly reduced to Japan and it simply wasn't the case.
The Japan I see today, really hasn't broken the habit, and thus complies again with 'the definition of insanity'. Japan is simply fucking insane if it thinks its nationalism will win out against an increasingly integrated rest of the world.
But Japan is the second largest market in the world? but poised to become no.14. The USA is going to probably slip to number 2 in the next couple of years after China, but in reality will probably still be a player for a while because of the inescaple fact of it's military monopoly from the Reagan years. What it chooses to do with that will even ill advised probably still be better than what Japan could do with it.
Case in point, my friend Brenton, working in Japan as a floortrader told me of a company that was poised to be aquired by a US company at 30% premium on the share price.
The nationalistic Japanese share holders voted down the aquisition in what was internally viewed as a victorious blow for nationalism, the cost to the shareholders 110% of the companies value. Any victory that involves depriving yourself of future growth can be loosely termed 'death' yet this is precicesly what nationalism is.
Whilst generally acknowledging that the future is in immigrant labour, Japan displays no behavioural evidence of becoming multicultural. Tokyo maybe I haven't returned their yet, but Tokyo is just 20 million of the equation, the other cities show little evidence of any significant migrant impact. Think Melbourne being reduced to a suburb of significance in Australia rather than second largest city, and the whole rest of Japan being ballarat and you have a fair picture of the multiculturism in Japan.
And all the while its companies are shrinking, yet rather than experience reality, Japan seems dedicated to experience the opposite, in reality following contrary advice to that of their own invincible swordsman's strategy for invincibility. It is not even a case of upbeat denial, it is childish denial, a simple nagging fear of being unable to face the facts. That Japan can't keep paving itself forever in a poor show of a functioning economy. It needs to become part of the global culture.
It as a nation has a rather disfunctional relationship.
The more PC term for a foreigner now is 'Gaikokujin' or loosely translated 'people from an outside country' whereas outsider at least has been acknowledged as wrong.
But in reality I have sufficient esteem to not take offence at not being a member of Japan club, I can still come here, live here, eat here. The club is a weight around Japan's neck. Outsider is recognising that club Japan has become a nightclub so exclusive, noone else even tries to go there anymore, it has become irrelevant.

Deadweight Nation:

By far the inescapable lie japan insultingly throws up in my face is that 'it isn't a welfare state' Japan I begin to suspect is infact the worlds worst welfare state. In Australia, the cowardice endemic in our political structure when it comes to running at the sign of any policy that might be of shortterm detriment to the business sector such as the limp dicked involvement into stopping the futureless forestry and rice industries in Tasmania and Victoria respectively makes me furious and discard democracy as a workable model of government.
But in Japan it is at a level most heinously insane. For example, where in Australia you would employ one casual teenager to do a job, in Japan you would employ 3 or 4 full time employye, these include a person to guide you into the petrol station, a person to talk to you through the window of your car about your petrol and another to pump the petrol and then the fourth to safely guide you back onto the street. Not only is this an inferred slight apon your judgement it is also a complete waste of resources. And at one time I just thought was reflective of Japan's love of service and ceremony but I now see is a necessity to keep thousands of people needlessly employed rather than face the problem of real unemployment, the failings of the education system and the extreme undercasualisation of the workforce.
There are people who are paid needlessly to stand at certain intersections and direct traffic, others at pedestrian crossings that have lights there are construction workers that simply sweep paths.
There is so much fat to be cut, but the obvious problem would be that this would leave about 40% of Japan's labour market unemployed.
This is why I take this situation as personally offensive:

1. I view the entire world as a communal birthright of all those that inhabit the universe.
2. Stalin used to break men's spirits by have them dig holes and fill them back up again endlessly until the were completely broken. Stalin's record is pretty clear, but Japan seems to tolerate this as okay, in abundance.
3. The worlds resources are scarce, using them needlessly is a theft from future generations.
4. Making people small is the best way to mediocrity, giving people demeaning job's is not a happy place to live.

This is an expensive exercise not like China were the deregulated labour market makes it cheaper to higher 20 people to cut your lawn by hand than buy an expensive foreign lawnmower.
This is the country that houses the best car company in the world, Toyota that more or less invented Total Quality Management, from doing a years worth of Car surveys I know in Australia Toyota more than any other company is semantically synonomous with innovation.
And they teach you to go through any system and cut out all the fat as a matter of course. It would be cheaper to pay welfare, use the dissent as a platform for education and make something of a future for the country. But Japan is the archetype of culture's that refuse to admit they have a problem. You cannot walk 100m in Japan without meeting a useless employee. Its too stark to be noticed.

Tradition is the worst reason to keep doing something:

By virtue of tradition being the only real reason to keep doing the same thing. A sample for posterity is good. The Japanese love traditions and festivals, but this is not what the human race is destined for. The human race is gifted with the ability to improve upon itself. Japan has transformed itself into a truly ugly place. Its city centers shine brightly with Neon, crazy fashion and a sea of department stores and friendly cosy restaurants. But you can never escape the concrete.
It is paved from here to nowhere. Brenton played golf after four months in Japan and had forgotten what grass looked like. He too has adopted a standard sufficient enough to call Handa where I currently reside, the countryside despite a factory being in our back yard and high voltage power lines marching across said countryside, In australia you would call it Zone 2.
And that's the clincher, for me I had assumed all the concrete was necessary to allow for stable living in an earthquake prone country, but turns out entire departments are dedicated in government beauracracy to identify projects to pave that have no need or function whatsoever simply to keep the construction industry running.
Useless effort is endemic, Japan is a deadweight, a deadweight precisely because it seems it is unable to learn, even from its own culture. Musashi, Yagyu, Tokugawa, Hideyoshi, Oda, Toyota, Honda, Nintendo none of these big Japanese institutions where made famous by their conservative inertia, there strength of tradition in the face of growth. None of them succeeded by giving handouts to their useless aspects. They are infact shining examples of breaking the mold, of active participative learning.
If I was the Carp Japanese ancients thought Japan was on the back of I would have tried desperately to shake it off too. It is heavy, dirty and ugly now, somethings got to give.

A Belated Apology:

People who critacise Japan are known in Japanese Academic circles as Japan Bashers. But the costs of Japans moment in the sun are starting to become huge gaping soars. I bought Alex Kerr's follow up book to lost Japan because it seemed to sing out a profound knowledge of the generic problem of which I was increasingly noticing the systems. Japan is killing itself. When I would guestimate aside from Italy it probably has the richest living culture to draw upon as an asset.
But people who complain often do so because they care deeply, for me Japan was a dream of mine, to see it so lost is like having a child that despite your every effort to communicate keeps engaging in self destructive behaviour.
Criticising is not the answer, it is not even the first step. Behaviour is what counts so here is my behaviour:

Japan can I give you some feedback?

When you don't engage with the team in the conduct of our work, you withold any value you may contribute, what could you do differently?

I'm happy to work on this with you anytime.