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(4) The importance of success examples
In advancing a reform, creating examples of success is very effective. Over the past several years, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, in its policy of establishing a tourism-oriented country, introduced many examples of success. In doing so, it invited so-called “charismatic persons in the tourism industry” from around the country. While people might not be urged to take a step forward by merely listening to the abstract, they tend to be motivated to act by getting in touch with examples of success, which inspires a concrete image.
In the forthcoming construction of the Great Collaboration society, there already are countless numbers of successful examples of people leading Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability. While most Japanese may not know the term LOHAS, I believe its substance and set of values are already common sense for many of them.
In the single-seat constituency system of the 2005 general elections, candidates who were against privatization of the postal service gained more votes than those who were in favor of it. However, as a result of the characteristics of the electoral system, the latter won more parliamentary seats by an overwhelming margin. This is a very important point. If we discount the sizable number of organized votes obtained by those candidates supporting postal privatization, we can judge that a considerably large portion of the people is already demanding a halt to the reform to date and thus a new change. Presumably, the reasons are as follows. For one thing, the destruction brought about by the failure of the reform has seriously excruciated the people. For another, the people’s set of values has already changed; and the people want politics to act with a substantially different mindset.
To table of contents (English)
(Date published / 公開日： 7/4/2021)
(Date last updated / 最終改訂日: 7/4/2021)
