Sanpo-yoshi Communication

President's Column] Fallacy of Synthesis

We attended a lecture by Naotaka Kojima, author of "Cospa Disease. Mr. Kojima believes that the long-term stagnation of the Japanese economy has been caused by our own pursuit of "cheapness.

Japan's "self-defeating imports," in which Japanese manufacturing and quality control know-how is leaked overseas and products manufactured in regions with low labor costs are imported to realize ultra-low prices, have impoverished domestic producers and, in turn, have reduced Japan's national strength. This is a "synthetic fallacy" that has led to the decline of Japanese industry as a result of the pursuit by consumers of cheap goods, even if they cost only one yen. This applies to clothing, daily necessities, and even some agricultural products.

When I was around 30 years old, I strongly remember that when I went out for sales, some of our customers told us that they wanted to order printing from a local vendor, and they supported us. I am ashamed to admit that our company's technical capabilities at that time were not sufficient, and there were many times when we were inconvenienced by the quality and other problems. One customer even asked our competitor for a solution and shared it with me.

Why?"

The money has to go around the community.

Even now, I have never forgotten this debt of gratitude. Whenever I find the customer's (brewer's) sake at an izakaya, I make sure to order it. I have always tried to buy the customer's products as much as possible, but Mr. Kojima goes a step further and suggests that we should buy locally made products from local retailers. There may be cases where domestic technology has already been lost due to "self-defeating imports," or where locally owned retailers have disappeared.

Nevertheless, what we can do, as consumers, is to purchase as much as possible from local stores and companies, from production areas as close to our hometowns as possible. I realized that this will lead to breaking this vicious circle. The day after the lecture, I went to a department store in need of a souvenir, and immediately bought some sweets from a customer in Fukuoka Prefecture.

I can't say I'm a big fan of UNIQLO, but I decided to change my purchasing behavior a little from now on.