Can We Reclaim Lost Pride? — Who Really Decides?

Chapter 1: “There Used to Be So Many Factories,” My Wife Says

The other day, my wife looked up from the news and said, “There used to be so many factories around here.”

She’s not wrong. I remember as a kid, you could hear the hum of local workshops. Now? Silence. Those factories have been replaced by condos, and the signs now read “Closed for Good.”

Maybe this is what they meant by “structural reform.” Funny how progress sounds a lot like loss.

Chapter 2: “Global Competition” or Just Plain Abandonment?

Since the '90s, Japan has embraced globalization—free trade, deregulation, efficiency. We were told these were the demands of the times.

But in reality, the government let the logic of “survival of the fittest” take over. If you couldn’t compete, you were left behind.

The result? Japan’s shining stars—electronics, semiconductors, shipbuilding—fell one by one. Instead of defending our industries, we started calling protection “overindulgence.”

Chapter 3: Who Chooses What to Focus On?

“Select and concentrate”—you hear it all the time in industrial policy. But who’s doing the selecting? And based on what?

Take EVs and batteries. Sounds like a smart focus. But on the ground, it means phasing out internal combustion, abandoning local mechanics, and letting smaller shops die off.

Internal combustion tech was a global edge for Japan. We led the world.

So when my wife said, “I’d like to buy an EV, but our local mechanic closed down,” I thought—who exactly are these policies for?

Chapter 4: Subsidies and the Birth of New Cronies

These days, the government is pouring cash into “growth industries”—semiconductors, biotech, AI. Sounds great on paper.

But here’s what worries me: is this just a new crony game?

You’ve got big companies cozy with politicians and bureaucrats, sucking up subsidies. Meanwhile, real diversity in the market gets choked out.

They say, “We’re supporting industry.” But are they really? Or are they just feeding their favorites?

Chapter 5: Industry Is About People and Place

Industry isn’t just GDP or global share. It’s people—working hands, local pride, communities rooted in production.

I always think of what Konosuke Matsushita once said: “A company is a public institution of society.”

In chasing “global standards,” we’ve chipped away at our local factories, neighborhood mechanics, and small manufacturers who’ve carried Japan’s soul.

My wife recently told me, “Our neighbor had to take a night shift at a convenience store after his factory shut down.” If that’s the reality of our industrial policy… it’s heartbreaking.

Chapter 6: Rethinking the “Invisible Hand” of the Market

Some say, “Let the market decide.” But reality’s not that simple.

Industries don’t grow on their own. If politics decides which to support and which to leave behind, there must be transparency and accountability.

Who decides what to save? Who decides what fades away?

I can’t just sit back and watch local workshops vanish without a trace.

Japan has always built itself—with its own hands, through every era. And manufacturing has been at the heart of that.

But in chasing globalization, we’ve cast that strength aside. Is that really the path we want?

To stand again, Japan must reclaim its craft. That’s the only way forward.

We need to remember the sound of lathes, the care in each handmade part, the sweat of workers in back-alley shops. That’s where our pride lived.

And maybe—it still lives quietly inside us.

Let’s not let the flame of craft go out. Let’s rebuild this country, with our own hands, in our own way.

I’m not saying we need to oil up and turn every wrench ourselves. But I do believe there’s a kind of craftsmanship only Japan can deliver today. And we must reclaim it.

Pride isn’t something we just remember—it’s something we pass on, hand in hand, from past to future.

Who decides?

We do.