Mr. Masahiko Ishizuka takes up a recent controversy over the "national interest" argument by the chairman of the board of governors of NHK, and maintains that the role of a public broadcaster like NHK should go beyond "national interests" in the narrow sense. It is about time to form a broad forum to make Japan's position known to the outside world, rather than depending solely on the government's initiative, which might influence NHK one way or the other, according to Mr. Ishizuka.

Professor Hideo Fukui warns that creation or unification of government agencies such as a new consumer agency and a unified government personnel agency would likely result in too much power and authority, leading to demerits due to the concentration of power. Furthermore, a newly created administrative agency tends to become a kind of "mosaic" organization with its members temporarily transferred from various related agencies and, therefore, the fate of such a new agency depends crucially on the availability of those members who can work effectively for their new agency without looking to their original organizations, according to Prof. Fukui.

Professor Atsushi Seike maintains that a higher skill level is being required of public sector personnel in face of structural change in the economy these days, and in that light some of the recent arguments about public personnel system reform seem questionable. "Political leadership" should mean making full use of highly skilled public personnel by politicians, and not suppressing public personnel's power in accordance with politicians' ability. It is up to the public's choice whether costs should be borne to continue employing highly skilled personnel in the government sector, according to Professor Seike.

Mr. Masahiko Ishizuka points out that the Japanese government's failure to appoint a Bank of Japan governor is due to the lack of preparation for the current political situation in Japan, where the problem has been the almost unquestioned assumption that the LDP rule would last forever. While this situation is troublesome especially during the current financial chaos in the global economy, it could give good lessons to all of us including the Japanese media about our role to play in these changing times, according to Mr. Ishizuka.

Professor Fumio Ohtake takes up the addictive behavior of smoking, drinking and gambling, and points out that those who are addictive to such goods are quite unhappy but cannot quit even if they wish to do so. In this kind of situation, raising the prices of addictive goods by taxation or strengthening regulations on such goods would likely increase the degree of happiness for everyone, and Japan should seriously think of higher taxes and/or stricter regulations on gambling like pachinko parlors, according to Prof. Ohtake.

Dr. Rene Duignan argues that the quality of Japan's healthcare service has been declining due to low health spending per person, the "iron triangle" of medical professionals, bureaucrats and politicians, as well as weak patient advocacy movement in Japan. To turn around this declining trend in Japan, Dr. Duignan recommends that private sector activity as well as patient advocacy group activity be encouraged so that healthcare could become a highly productive service sector contributing to consumption and GDP growth rather than being a huge fiscal burden.

Professor Kazuhito IKEO argues that the quality of the regulatory environment is widely recognized as one of the most important factors that determine the international competitiveness of financial and capital markets, where it is not easy to reconcile the aspect of the authorities' uncompromising stance against unfair practices with the aspect of their supportive role to facilitate financial business in the market. Japan's regulatory and supervisory agency should improve the quality of its regulations, especial.ly in terms of the aspect of facilitating business, in cooperation with market participants, particularly by their proactive actions, for achieving better regulations, according to Prof. Ikeo.

Mr. Masaiko Ishizuka maintains that Japan remains insular at various levels, even as it falls behind in this age of rapid globalization. As the renowned Maekawa report proposed 20 years ago, Japan should achieve domestic demand enhancement and deregulation by strong political leadership, according to Mr. Ishizuka.

Professor Takatoshi ITO maintains that that regulations on foreign investment in airport facilities, currently advocated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, seem to be against recent trends toward a more open capital market in Japan, and have negative effects on the image of Japan in the world. Such regulations would not address national security issues, where large shareholders, rather than foreign investors, should be regulated. Monopoly-related economic problems could not be handled that way either. We should be careful about regulations associated with possible privatization of Narita Airport, according to Prof. Ito.

Mr. Yutaka HARADA emphasizes that Japan's economic level depends on not just the competitiveness of its export sector, but the productivity of its industry as a whole, in response to the popular argument that Japan's international competitiveness has been declining in recent years. Comparing Japan and the U.S. in terms of industrial productivity, Mr. Harada concludes that the U.S. has a higher productivity and is improving it over time by creating new industries and abandoning old ones, and thus Japan should have courage to do the same to improve its productivity and quality of life in the future.

Professor Toshihiko KINOSHITA asks why there has been virtually no improvement in managing locally hired employees, especially managerial personnel, at Japanese-affiliated companies overseas for more than a couple decades, based on his recent hearings from foreign managers on a training program in Japan. According to Prof. Kinoshita, Japanese business must be more transparent and accountable in decision making, communication, and human resource management both at home and abroad, and more comprehensive training programs for overseas business should be offered to both Japanese and foreign personnel.

Mr. Izumi HARADA argues for establishment of a joint risk management system between Japan and China to deal with various risks, threatening human security and environment in the both countries as well as the rest of the region, in view of recent incidents in the areas of environmental pollution, infectious diseases, food poisoning, etc.

Mr. Masahiko Ishizuka maintains that pessimism is currently prevailing in Japan where many people are concerned that this could be the beginning of a long-term declining trend in Japan compare to China and other Asian countries. Prime Minister Fukuda must present an innovative policy program to continue reforming Japan for growth and prosperity under the pressure of globalization, according to Mr. Ishizuka.

Professor Koichi MERA makes proposals for Japan to overcome the problem of declining presence and influence in the world and revive itself as an independent nation by strengthening its ability to utilize key information and intelligence to its own advantage. Japan should take a first step now, even though it takes some time to see any substantial change in Japan's capabilities in intelligence and security in a desirable direction, according to Professor Mera.