Blogs and Articles from Third Way Forum Membrs
Feb 9, 2023
Discussion#1
“Concept “New Dejima”: Can we create a separate international business district in Japan and make it a regional business hub?”
Blogs from The Third Way Working Group
- Creating a prototype first is always a good idea in Japan to persuade top management before making a major decision. So the New Dejima concept may work well.
- It is significantly important to shift the power of majority from domestically motivated older Japanese to internationally motivated modern Japanese in order to create a business hub in Japan. However, due to the population pyramid, we are always under the dominating psychological resistance from the majority of old Japanese people and it is nearly impossible to shift the power of majority to the younger and more modern people. By making international people a majority in this separate business district, we can deliberately make this power shift happen and adapt necessary changes swiftly. New Dejima can move forward without waiting for the rest of Japan to change.
- Some similar attempts have been made overseas such as Dubai’s Freezone and China’s Shenzhen.
- In Japan, too, Tokyo Minato-ku’s Azabudai hills and Tokyo Bay Smart City are trying to do something similar in a smaller scale.
- Especially, Fukuoka seems to be actively promoting itself as an international city by providing start-up visa, tax advantages and pitching the image of being much more open to overseas than other Japanese cities.
- We will try to contact Fukuoka city and find a person in charge and ask the person to talk to us at Third Way Forum.
- Although we are suggesting the creation of a new international district, we should clarify what we are trying to achieve with it. If our aim is to make this New Dejima a new international business hub in Asia, it should not be a place for normal immigrants and refugees. It should be as prestigious like Monaco!
- This place should have a different social infrastructure from Japan and make it easy, attractive and beneficial for international business professionals. English as the official language, the globally competitive tax system, the legal system based on the global standard (such as “innocent until proven guilty” instead of Japan’s “guilty until proven innocent”. Then Mr.Carlos Ghons may want to come to get a fair trial in New Dejima!), international schools, international housing/apartments, English-speaking medical cares and hospitals, and most importantly all the public services have to be delivered in English, such as police, fire department, all the city hall services.
- We need to carefully set the entrance requirements so that globally competitive people and organizations are gathered in New Dejima without being discriminatory.
- While it is exciting to think of New Dejima, we should also think of potential negative effects and future problems. This kind of special economic zone may backfire in the following ways:
> When many foreign businesses move to New Dejima, the cities/towns they are currently located in may be negatively impacted. Some main land Japanese may become protectionists and try to stop the move of people and companies to New Dejima from the current locations.
> All the benefits , special treatments and prosperity etc could widen the financial/educational/cultural gaps between New Dejima residents and main land Japanese. It could generate resentments, hostilities, discriminations etc which may develop into some serious conflict in the future. New Dejima may even want independence from Japan!
- We are still debating whether it’s better to create a totally new business district somewhere in Japan or just to accelerate the on-going efforts of some progressive-minded cities in order to make a competitive international business hub in Japan.
- We will research further about other special economic zones in the world and continue to discuss this concept of New Dejima.
- It is significantly important to shift the power of majority from domestically motivated older Japanese to internationally motivated modern Japanese in order to create a business hub in Japan. However, due to the population pyramid, we are always under the dominating psychological resistance from the majority of old Japanese people and it is nearly impossible to shift the power of majority to the younger and more modern people. By making international people a majority in this separate business district, we can deliberately make this power shift happen and adapt necessary changes swiftly. New Dejima can move forward without waiting for the rest of Japan to change.
- Some similar attempts have been made overseas such as Dubai’s Freezone and China’s Shenzhen.
- In Japan, too, Tokyo Minato-ku’s Azabudai hills and Tokyo Bay Smart City are trying to do something similar in a smaller scale.
- Especially, Fukuoka seems to be actively promoting itself as an international city by providing start-up visa, tax advantages and pitching the image of being much more open to overseas than other Japanese cities.
- We will try to contact Fukuoka city and find a person in charge and ask the person to talk to us at Third Way Forum.
- Although we are suggesting the creation of a new international district, we should clarify what we are trying to achieve with it. If our aim is to make this New Dejima a new international business hub in Asia, it should not be a place for normal immigrants and refugees. It should be as prestigious like Monaco!
- This place should have a different social infrastructure from Japan and make it easy, attractive and beneficial for international business professionals. English as the official language, the globally competitive tax system, the legal system based on the global standard (such as “innocent until proven guilty” instead of Japan’s “guilty until proven innocent”. Then Mr.Carlos Ghons may want to come to get a fair trial in New Dejima!), international schools, international housing/apartments, English-speaking medical cares and hospitals, and most importantly all the public services have to be delivered in English, such as police, fire department, all the city hall services.
- We need to carefully set the entrance requirements so that globally competitive people and organizations are gathered in New Dejima without being discriminatory.
- While it is exciting to think of New Dejima, we should also think of potential negative effects and future problems. This kind of special economic zone may backfire in the following ways:
> When many foreign businesses move to New Dejima, the cities/towns they are currently located in may be negatively impacted. Some main land Japanese may become protectionists and try to stop the move of people and companies to New Dejima from the current locations.
> All the benefits , special treatments and prosperity etc could widen the financial/educational/cultural gaps between New Dejima residents and main land Japanese. It could generate resentments, hostilities, discriminations etc which may develop into some serious conflict in the future. New Dejima may even want independence from Japan!
- We are still debating whether it’s better to create a totally new business district somewhere in Japan or just to accelerate the on-going efforts of some progressive-minded cities in order to make a competitive international business hub in Japan.
- We will research further about other special economic zones in the world and continue to discuss this concept of New Dejima.
Sponsor
