The "lost decade" of the United States was the beginning of it all - that's how I describe the new round of economic crisis triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis. When the financial turmoil hit, many people were affected, coupled with the original problems such as rising crude oil and food prices... There is no doubt that the global economy has entered a period of chaos. I am trying to analyze the current unpredictable world situation and think hard about where we should go in the future.At the same time, I make my views and methods public through books, magazines and the Internet for reference.

Although I think there are some constructive suggestions in this book, I still hope that readers can give more opinions and point out the deficiencies. I am very glad that people are eager to read and listen to my analysis and opinions, but I hope that no matter at any time, people will not get tired of thinking, and make full use of our "weapon" - mind. This is a passage from "The New Global Stage" that I wrote in 2005.It means that the weapon of "mind" is more important than resources, territory, and army. However, Japan, which once became the world's second economic power with its own brains and hard work under the circumstances of scarcity of resources, small land and large population, disappeared from the international community in an instant after experiencing a bubble economy and became a "shadow country" ".In other words, Japan has now become content with the status quo, and Ah Q is full of spirit.

Counting from the collapse of the bubble economy, Japan has been in a state of being content with the status quo for seventeen or eighteen years, so that now Japan does not have any sense of urgency, from the central government to the local governments, and even the citizens Extremely numb and slack. I feel that especially in recent years, in Japan, the number of people who give up using their brains, that is, "people who don't think", is increasing at an alarming rate. Consider that Japanese society was not like this before the global recession.The Japanese at that time were full of hope and vitality, diligent in thinking and hard in work.

What is going on in Japan now? Former Finance Minister Hiroko Ota once said in a speech in parliament: "The current Japanese economy is no longer world-class." Such remarks made the "Japanese recession theory" prevail in Japan, and everyone was sighing for the country's decline. Nowadays, although people are more and more able to look at the recession of the Japanese economy from different angles, few people discuss the problem that "people who don't think" are increasing, which is precisely the root of the problem. Why is this?There is a common belief that "we're dumber than we were, so everything is messed up".I really can't agree with this statement.

Is Japan really headed for recession, as the former finance minister said?This is probably something that every Japanese does not want to see. So what should the Japanese do? This is the original intention of my writing this book. In recent years, I have clearly felt that we Japanese are becoming less good at thinking.It's not nice to say it, but I have to say that the overall IQ of the Japanese is dropping significantly.The evidence is some unbelievable and strange phenomena that have continuously occurred in Japanese society in recent years.