This was brought home to me as I was editing this book in the spring of 2000, and found myself sitting in Tokyo's Keio Plaza Hotel coffee shop one day. Next to me was a young man interviewing another young man for a position in a start-up company, and I couldn't help eavesdropping. The earnest young interviewee, when asked to outline his strategy for a new startup business, replied, «Aisatsu. It's vital for company morale that everyone say 'Good morning,' 'Good afternoon,' and so forth regularly and respectfully.» It might seem charming that the young man thought this way, that there's a corner of the world where things like aisatsu still matter; on the other hand, while he's busy working on getting his aisatsu just right, the Internet whizzes of Hong Kong, Singapore, and Bangalore are going to leave him in the dust.

I saw the interviewer involuntarily move away, and I could see from his body language that this discussion was over. In spite of the pressures for conformity, there is a generation of adventurous young Japanese who are well aware of what will be needed to compete in the big wide world. The great question is whether there will be enough of them to make a difference.

As we have seen throughout this book, the Japanese people see the trouble their nation is in far better than foreign experts with emerald glasses firmly fixed on their noses. The public is disappointed with the educational system, and the press resounds with calls for reform. As Prime Minister Hashimoto said in his 1997 New Year's address, «The present education system just crams knowledge into children's heads. It values memorization too much. The system doesn't allow children to decide dreams, hopes and targets by themselves.» In a report delivered to Prime Minister Obuchi in January 2000, a blue-chip commission headed by Hayao Kawai, the director general of the National Research Center for Japanese Studies, concluded that Japan's society is «ossified,» and that adherence to rules and conformity have «leached Japan's vitality.» The commission called for individuality and more support for risk-takers. Unfortunately for Japan, at the very moment when change is necessary, education – and society as a whole – appear to be headed toward more regimentation, not less.