While we continue to spark a debate about the economy and politics in Japan and what it will mean to future generations, a new survey released by Nikkei Human Resources shows us just how big a mountain we will have to climb.  If the results can be believed, our mountain makes Fujiyama seem like a molehill.

The survey asked for parents to choose preferred companies for their children if they were to go job hunting this year.

For the sons, the first choice was Mitsubishi Corp.  For daughters, it was Shiseido Co.  All well and good.  The red flag appears in the second choice for both sons and daughters.

It seems that for parents in Japan, the second best they can hope for their off-spring is a job in local government.  Not Prime Minister, nor even Councillor or Representative.  No, today’s parents want their kids to live the bureaucrats life and not even in the national bureaucracy, but local government.

Have these people not seen Kurosawa’s “Ikiru”?  Is that really the life they want for their children?  And what about Japan?  If everyone wants to work for the government,which produces nothing for the economy and, as we would argue, very little for society, who will be the next business leaders, innovators, scientists, and entrepreneurs?

Apparently, these parents are less interested in seeing their children excel than in just having a stress-free life. Parents of sons based their selections on future prospects (in government?) and corporate philosophy (in government?) while parents of daughters lean more toward better welfare packages (ahhhh….government).

There is much that can be extrapolated from these results and little of it is good for Japan.  Although, this does explain why the government of Japan is lacking in leadership and is so intent in making sure that no one can fail. Safety nets for everyone!

If the current crop of politicians had parents like these it is no wonder they seem weak in foreign policy and have a hard time making decisions that might make someone (either the citizens of their own country or the leader of a foreign country) angry.  Or that they can be swayed by groups like RENGO who take advantage of them and write legislation that makes the economy weaker and the labor unions stronger.  Or buy into scams like climate change without having an open debate with the nation about the people behind the global scheme and how much money they will extract from Japanese families and businesses without accomplishing anything from an environmental standpoint.

Or listen to the egg-head theorists who continue to dominate the economic dialog with their Keynesian idiocy which, after twenty years of failure, should be pretty much discredited in the minds of most rational beings.  Or have to lie to the public about the true reasons for clawing back the privatization of the postal system.

Or continue to plunge the country into massive debt rather than telling the people that their vaunted pension system is broken beyond repair and that no amount of taxes will save it.

We could go on.  Suffice to say, for all the hand wringing over the ineptness of the last four or five prime ministers, anger over the corruption in government, and concern for the lack of a stable economy, with parents like these, the people of Japan are getting the government they deserve even if they are not getting the government the want.