Japan
in the Global Information Age:
The Power of the Prefecture
Keynote address by John M. Eger before the Gifu Prefecture
and Governor Taku Kajiwara, Gifu, Japan, October 15, 1998.
There is a new world order and a new world order of communications,
propelled by the convergence of technology and economics --
the technology of telecommunications and information technology
and the economics of a global economy. In this new world order,
time and space have collapsed and existing institutions worldwide,
public and private, are being flattened. In the wake of these
powerful trends, we are seeing wealth redefined and power
realigned. These changes are startling, and at times even
frightening. Adapting to changes, particularly of this magnitude,
is never easy. But the opportunities for renewing civilization
from the bottom up have never been greater.
I can�t explain in simple terms the genesis of all this change, certainly not with any understanding or appreciation of the history of Japan. In America, however, a young nation in comparison to Japan, I like to begin with Abraham Lincoln, who was without a doubt one of America�s greatest presidents and who recognized the power of the individual. Indeed he gave his most famous speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1863. There was no radio or television. No audio/visual systems. Crowd counters said there were some two thousand people in attendance, and bits and pieces picked up by the daily newspaper, but it was months and years before the full impact of that historic address was known throughout the world.
Fast forward one hundred years to Dallas, Texas. President John F. Kennedy is shot, and two billion people, or two-fifths of the world�s population, heard or saw replays of the assassination within twenty-four hours.
Fast forward again. Let your mind wander. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the tragedy of Tiananmen Square, or the opening shots of the Gulf War. Chances are, you were there, along with four-fifths of the world�s population -- four billion people. Why? Because CNN was there, UPI was there. Because over a period of years, without even thinking about it, satellites have been positioned 22,000 miles in space, fiber optic cables have been laid across the oceans� floors, and wired and wireless systems dot the landscape in almost every developed nation. But developed, or developing, because of laptop, palmtop, or wrist watch communication devices, almost nothing happens today here or anywhere in the world of importance that isn�t known by everyone else. Time and space have collapsed.
And it is in the wake of this great change, and in the wake of the development of this global electronic cocoon, that we have seen and are seeing a tremendous realignment of power -- a reverse flow of sovereignty, if you will -- from presidents and prime ministers to individual communities and individual citizens as never before. Let me tell a personal story. I was with Charles Wick, director of Ronald Reagan�s United States Information Agency, in New York when a rhetorical question was asked: "Who sets the nation�s public policy agenda?" Wick, without hesitation or reservation, said, "No leader, no matter how popular or dictatorial, sets the public policy agenda any more. Who does? World public opinion does." Wick continued, "How else could a dock worker, and not a general, form that great force for change in Poland for solidarity; an ordinary housewife aspire to her dreams and rise to be president of the Philippines as Corrine Aquino did; or a black woman, Winnie Mandela, say no to the ravages of apartheid and the world stop and listen?"
We have seen evidence of this fundamental power realignment in the last two congressional elections in this country. We saw it in Mexico with the re-election of Pan, and in Japan with the election of two governors, Noku Yokoyama of Osaka, and Yukio Aoshima of Tokyo, who are not members of the dominant Liberal Democratic Party. We saw it in the fall of the Berlin Wall, the breakup of the Soviet Union, the shattering of the Eastern Bloc, and in the general elections in India. We see, in short, that people everywhere in the world have more power than ever before. They have power because they have information.
And in the wake of these changes, we are also seeing a redefinition of wealth. Walter Wriston, former chairman of Citibank, likes to point out as he did in his book, The Twilight of Sovereignty, what happened when Great Britain entered into discussions with the People�s Republic of China for control of Hong Kong. It was generally perceived that the proposed treaty was not a good one. People began to call their traders to get their money out of Hong Kong. The trading rooms of the world lit up, Wriston noted, like a global plebiscite, and overnight billions and billions of dollars left Hong Kong, leaving teetering Hong Kong on the edge of financial ruin.
People did not leave Hong Kong physically, nor they did not ship out all their worldly possessions. They simply called their broker. As Wriston pointed out, information has replaced gold as the new monetary standard, and I am sure he would add, the concept of information as valuable constitutes the reason why information technology has become the tool of wealth creation.
That is why over twenty years ago, President Giscard D�Sestaing of France launched the "Informatique" or "Telematique" as it is also known, eliminated telephone directories, and put the power of a personal computer -- a mini-tel as it was called -- on every desktop. It was an attempt to create a national information initiative not dissimilar from Singapore�s Intelligent Island project, or the United States� National Information Initiative. Clearly it bears some similarities to Japan�s Teletopia project and the $450 billion dollar program to wire Japan with optical fiber.
Unfortunately, most of these national information strategies, while thoughtful and well-funded, are not having their intended impact. I believe that it is because of the power of devolution; that this power has shifted from prime ministers and presidents back to individual communities and individual citizens as never before.
What we have seen in this new world order is a dramatic shift in the flow of power, or sovereignty, if you will, from the nation-state to multi-lateral trade organizations. There is no doubt that this is what the Europe 1992 represented in an attempt to create for the first time a common European market. NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, albeit on a different scale, was the Americas effort to do the same and while not called a community, APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation program bears a striking resemblance to these other regional trade initiatives.
But there is also a shift in power in the other direction, to local and regional collaboratories. Not surprisingly, Kenichi Ohmae, the Japanese scholar formerly of McKenzie, in his book, The Borderless Economy, and in his most recent book, The Rise of the Region-State, said it best. He and Neil Peirce of the National Journal argued persuasively that there are no national economies anymore -- only global economies with a constellation of regional economies at the core.
The nation-state, of course, is not going to disappear, but its role and responsibilities have shifted. Between the nation-state, the new global organizations, which have been strengthened by the flow of sovereignty in one direction, and the local and regional collaboratories, those governments closest to the people who are benefiting by a flow in the other direction. It is ushering in a new age of interdependence.
Hence, we are seeing the rise and rebirth of region-states like Gifu Prefecture. In many ways, Gifu Prefecture has already broken bold new ground with Softopia, the Academy of Art and Sciences and other innovations throughout the region. We are optimistic that the Prefectures of Japan expect the smart communities of California have the look and feel to be the new Athens of the Information Age.
Let me share with you what we have learned since we have been studying this movement to realign power and redefine wealth over the last ten years. First, we have learned, and this may surprise some of you, that this movement is not about technology at all. When Susan Golding, Mayor of San Diego, for example, charged us with creating the first smart community or "City of the Future," as she called it, she encouraged us to quickly wire the region with fiber optic cable. Wishing to take advantage of the experiences of others, we invited a representative of the National Computer Board from Singapore, a gentleman who talked a great deal about the importance of robust communications infrastructures and particularly fiber optics, with its tremendous information-carrying capacity. Several times during his address he talked about the "bandwidth in the ground." Once we had the bandwidth in the ground, he said, we could do almost anything. Not surprisingly, one of our task force members not well-grounded in technology, was concerned that this was not helping her assist the Mayor and the Commission in defining their goals for the City of the Future, and so she asked the question, "what can you tell me that is important about a City of the Future other than the bandwidth in the ground?" After a long and pregnant pause, the gentleman from Singapore responded: "More important than the bandwidth in the ground," he admitted, "is the bandwidth in people�s heads."
It was indeed a defining moment for us, because we realized then that this movement to create the smart community, this movement to respond to the power of information and to build or create the tools of wealth creation, was not about technology at all. Rather, it was about jobs, dollars and quality of life.
The second major thing we learned and we learned this, too, from the East more than the West, was about the power of cooperation. As you know, in most of the world there seems to be a natural division between art and science, between cable and telephony, between government and industry. In the United States in particular, as a litigious society, there is entirely too much "us and them." As we move forward to build a smart community, we have learned that cooperation between and among governments, and certainly between competing industries, and industry and government and other organizations throughout the state and the City of the Future and the Smart Community need to be involved in the rebirthing process and involved in changing the way we govern ourselves. Indeed, some people would argue that to remain competitive, cooperation is an integral part of one�s competitive -- some say coopetition -- strategy.
Last we have learned that the movement to become a smart community is really about power. Not the power in Tokyo or Washington, but the power within each of us, and the power we have to take responsibility and rebuild the "Prefecture of the Future," the smart community for the global, knowledge-based economy. For California communities, this has not been too difficult, because of our First Amendment, our tolerance for dissent, and our emphasis on individual enterprise. The State of California produces more hardware and software than almost any other country in the world. In Japan and other nations, the movement toward having a smart community might be more difficult. But clearly here in Gifu Prefecture, a vibrant "can-do" spirit and respect for individual enterpreneurship is beginning to take hold. For that reason, Gifu could serves as a model, a model for all of Japan.
Many people say that today, if you can think it, it can happen. If you think of the applications that are possible, they will evolve. If we can put a man on the moon, or into space, we can certainly change things right here on earth.
Let me close with a thought from Walter Lippmann, a well-known author and scholar, who said:
"We are living through the closing chapters of the established and traditional way of life. We are in the early beginning of a struggle, which will probably last for generations, to remake our civilization. It is not a good time for politicians. It is a time for prophets and leaders and explorers and inventors and pioneers, and for those who are willing to plant trees for their children to sit under."
Thank you.