Yesterday I attended a lunch on meeting at Gakushi-kai (alumni club of former imperial universities). The day's speaker was Kotaro Higuchi, Chairman of Economic Strategy Committee. He explained eloquently about how they made a recommendation to Premier Obuchi titled as ' Strategy for Renovation of Japanese Economy' which was submitted to him on February 26, 1999. And also he reported how the premier executed, how the diet and government reacted to it （he said he made such a speech more than one hundred and thirty times through today.) He told a few items as follows:
*The recommendation was made by mobilizing civilian talents without getting any help from bureaucrats.
*The premier was asked to attend the every monthly committee meeting so he never failed to do it.
*The committee asked the premier to execute it as speedy as possible and also as much as possible. They have been watching its executions.
*When they find necessary measures which are effective for promoting renovation, they asked the government to adopt them without hesitation.
*Through today no resistance against it came from bureaucrats who had been always against suggestions from civilians, Furthermore, there are few diet members who criticize it.
*The committee contributed much to the fact that Japanese economy started to recover.
He also added "If you have any opinion or suggestion, please send it to the committee by fax or e-mail. It is very sure that we will study it at the committee. We will make efforts to execute good plans."
The members of this committee are made of four scholars from Universities, namely Iwao Nakatani (former professor of Hitotsubashi University). Heizo Takenaka (professor of Keio University), Motoshige Ito (professor of Tokyo University), Kazuko Takeuchi (assistant professor of Tokyo University). and three top business men. Japan has started to renovate itself for good direction by their efforts for sending fresh air into the government and industries. It would be better if they made much clearer recommendations for labor and education problems. It is preferable to have items such as ’Exploitation of Labor Market' and 'Introduction of Elite Education.'