Japan’s Lost Decades: A Call for Fundamental Statecraft Reform

The world is gripped by geopolitical crisis, with wars intensifying and tensions in East Asia running high. For Japan, still constrained by its ‘Lost 30 Years’, the central question is how to secure national interests and achieve true renewal.

The Committee to Examine Japan’s Lost 30 Years has formulated comprehensive proposals for the fundamental reform of national governance, which were presented at this lecture. The Committee contends that ‘the lost 30 years’ were in fact ‘the 30 years we lost’, the result of political and bureaucratic inertia. At the heart of the problem lies the absence of statecraft—the strategic, long-term management of the state.

The proposals demand a decisive break from the status quo. They call for deep electoral reform, including a reduction in Diet members, and advocate the construction of a new framework of statecraft that unites political leadership with effective executive governance.

A recording of this seminar can be viewed here:

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