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2012.10.27 KIP Forum "Measuring the National Power"
By Toshiro Nishizawa, a head of foreign investigation of JBIC
Forum in October: We invited Mr.Nishizawa who currently works as a head of foreign investigation of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). The main theme of his lecture was "Measuring the National Power". We also discussed about the future Japanese national power. Not only the main theme but also he told us about his career experiences and we could learn a lot from his lessons.
Mr. Nishizawa entered JBIC after his graduation of graduate school and after that he served several important roles at IMF, World Bank and others. He currently gets back to JBIC and works as a chief of foreign investigation.
He mainly talked about how do we measure the national power precisely. He told that it is one of persuasive way to show national power in numbers such as GDP. However, there exists the limit so he asked us how could we measure it not using numbers. There is no right answer for it but one important factor is the trust between countries. He also mentioned that the trust is not only fulfillment of obligation, but also it will be built up by the history of the country.
On discussion, we shared our opinions about"What should Japan do in order to build strong national power".・In my opinion, I believed that having big presence in the international society is necessary factor to extend the national power. In order to increase the national power, improvement of education and political policy should be done at first and after that those revise will have an effect to the economical side of the country. Japan should not postpone the improvement of the base of the country and make a long-term goal to carry on a few at a time.
Moreover, I was impressed about one of his lesson that there is no useless thing in our life and let’s think all things are convenient for us. Of course, it is important to deicide you goal and pursue only for it but at the same time you can learn and feel a lot by struggling seriously in other field. I thought that I would like to follow the way of this mind-set from now on.
Thank you so much for sparing your precious time and giving us fantastic lecture. (Ryohei Iseki)