by Noriyuki Morimoto
The history of mankind is the history of dominance by violence. The formation of modern society is defined by the formation of the nation state. While the establishment of the national state at least establishes the rule of reason within the country, it in turn justifies the exercise of violence among nations in the name of war.
Globalization involves the progress of history, advancement of human wisdom, and creative development of reason. The progress of globalization shall eventually overcome the limitations of the nation state and ultimately establish rule of reason on the earth as one global civil society. No matter how far it may seem, the direction of mankind being set, that day will definitely arrive.
Globalization is at the horizon of social philosophy. However, this in turn tells how the real society is far from global. A prime example is the Olympic Games. Although it is supposed to be a truly global celebration of the sports, it actually represents the competition among nations, from the structure of each sport to host city selection.
Rather than the Olympic Games, global economic activities may be actually supported by truly global coordination and mutual understanding. Perhaps that is due to the underlying universal principle of economic rationality within economic activities.
Since Japan exists on the earth, it is in a sense global. As far as the economic field is concerned, Japan is a very big part of the global economy. The global economy is not the external environment surrounding Japan, but one that contains Japan as a major element.
As Japan is a part of the earth, denying Japanese elements and eliminating uniquely Japanese features are not acts of globalization. Globalization is not to be integrated into any one thing. Besides reason, human beings do not have anything in common in the first place. Everything is unique.
Globalization is not only the rule of reason but also the coexistence of diverse tastes, mentalities, values, languages, food, clothes and everything else that is unique. Therefore, another important concept along with globalization is diversity. Global becomes meaningful only in combination with diversity.
Diverse elements remain diverse as they respect, stimulate, absorb, and interact with each other to create new things. That is what it means by the progress of human beings, creative innovation of world culture, and growth of economic society.
Chief Executive Officer, HC Asset Management Co.,Ltd. Noriyuki Morimoto founded HC Asset Management in November 2002. As a pioneer investment consultant in Japan, he established the investment consulting business of Watson Wyatt K.K. (now Willis Towers Watson) in 1990.