Power Moves in Tokyo

Thursday - Back in Tokyo and making moves. This was our day of meeting with the big government machas, so we brought our A game. The day's first meeting was with the former PM Yoshihiko Noda, who led a main opposition parties before losing in a landslide to Shinzo Abe's LDP party in December 2012. One of the first questions dealt with the rapid turnover of Prime Ministers and its effect on policy continuity in Japan (avg. duration of prime ministership is ~2yrs). He answered with a cute story about attending an international meeting and the other world leaders greeted his translator, who had worked for many of his predecessors, before greeting him since they were always meeting knew Japanese Prime Ministers. I asked him a question about the future of Japan-South Korea relations in the face of a rising China in the west and America's pivot towards the Pacific in the east. After an initial, "Hm, that's a hard question" (1 pt for Sar), he gave a surprisingly candid answer that Japan should have closer ties with South Korea and he openly welcomes closer ties but that Japan is a convenient whipping post for South Korea's PMs to fall back on when they dip in the polls. His answer underplays the long history of animosity between the two countries but I was surprised how readily he welcomed closer relations with SK.  All in all, great meeting and good start to the day.


Second stop of the day's power trip: headquarters for Japanese Railways Central, the train operator in charge of the Tokyo-Osaka corridor. There are few things cooler than delving into issues of infrastructure, especially when it is as technologically advanced and important as JR Central. For background, Japanese railways functioned as a state monopoly until it was privatized into 7 regional rail operators and 1 national freight operator in 1987. JR Central controls the Tokyo-Osaka line which is by far the busiest and most profitable route in the country. Standing in a small observatory to the side of the main control room, we saw a beautiful plan of JR Central's daily operations with 406 trains diagrammed moving from station to station throughout the day. The trains operate with a top speed of 186mph but I am most excited about their SCMaglev trains. The technology is 20+ years in the making (NYTimes from 1994) and since I first heard about it almost ten years ago, I've been eager to see the beast. Unfortunately, it is still in testing along the ~20km Yamanashi test track, but with a top speed of 361mph, I can't wait for this technology to eventually hit the big time. One other cool fact about the JR trains is that they currently run with a buffer of +/- 3 seconds!!! for their scheduled stop times. For delays greater than 30 seconds, conductors have to provide a written account of the cause of the delay and for delays longer than 1 minute, our tour guide made it seem like the conductor would be strongly reprimanded. On top of this, the railroad has had zero passenger fatalities since 1964 (doesn't include people who commit suicide by jumping in front of the train).  This level of system-wide precision is tough to wrap my mind around but it is an amazing thing to behold and as a consumer and tourist, it's fantastic to have such a reliable means of travel!

We were having so much fun at train HQ that we were late for arguably our most important meeting with the Secretary General of the ruling LDP party, Shigeru Ishiba. Rolling into the room with his retinue of an official translator, security detail, and 3+ assistants, there was no mistaking that this guy is essentially the #2 person in Japanese government and allegedly the next Japanese PM. Compared to former PM Noda, Ishiba gave more measured, politically correct responses but he also answered with an eye towards Japan in the broader international context. For example, when asked a similar question about Japan relations with the US and China given the pivot towards the Pacific, he discussed the need for closer relations with South Korea, Philippines, Australia, and all other non-China players in the region. He also gave some extremely clear answers regarding domestic economic policy that followed the LDP party line of Abenomics without any hemming or hawing. Interestingly, Ishiba was also a former Minister of Defense and former Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) (he's the second government official we met who had held both of these positions). It seems like an odd political trajectory for these two ministries to be so closely tied together, but according to the junior Diet member I asked about it, he said MAFF deals with the most difficult domestic problems, so it's a natural fit for gifted politicians. This seems like a bit of a stretch and doesn't really explain the connection, even if the MAFF is taking the lead on TPP negotiations, which are obviously very politically important.

After this meeting, we met with a group of high school students who are interested in doing either college or grad school in the US. Our visit was a promo event for Route H (H for Harvard), a private after-school program that helps Japanese kids get into US colleges/grad schools. Route H is the largest sponsor of the HKS Japan Trek. After inspiring high schoolers with tales of grandeur and glory, we had dinner on a traditional Japanese boat that cruised through the Tokyo waterways. And, as all great nights in Japan should, this one ended with epic karaoke. A tambourine in each hand, spilled drinks, dancing like I'm Kevin Bacon in Footloose, and some Brown Eyed Girl - yeah, that all happened.