Tokyo Stock Exchange

One of the world's three largest stock markets, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) is a place where huge sums of money flow in from all corners of the globe each day. Started in 1878, the TSE has evolved to become a major player in the Japanese, and world, economy.

After a tour of the exchange we heard from Kyoji Kimura, who is the head of the promotions department of the TSE. In an effort to promote the TSE, Mr. Kimura and a number of associates are delivering informational workshops to teachers, students and interested citizens who want to learn more about financial education and the workings of the TSE.

In Japan, cash and bank deposits account for 50% of assets as compared to a mere 13% in securities. The TSE believes that the Japanese economy would benefit from increased consumer purchases of securities and to that end the TSE is promoting the stock exchange as a great place to invest.

Meet the Kato's

I challenge all of you to find a nicer/cooler/greater Japanese family than Miki, Yoshi and Ao Kato of Kawasaki City. You can scour the country from Nagasaki to Sapporo and you will come up empty. This past weekend all of us were sent out to spend the weekend with Japanese families and I am pretty sure I hit the jackpot with my host family. The Kato's could not have been more gracious and welcoming. They put me up, fed me, drove me around and even let me watch the strangest Japanese kid show ever with young Ao.

The most memorable part of the weekend, other than the fact that I was staying with three great people, was our trip to the Kawasaki Daishi Temple. Another one of those "I am so lucky to be in this exact moment right now" moments.

Funny cultural/lack of common language moment of the weekend: at Dinner on Saturday night I mentioned that I like to eat pizza. For breakfast on Sunday morning Miki makes me.......... pizza! I have eaten a lot of pizza in my life but never for breakfast. This definitely opens up a whole new world of opportunities for me.

Now I am off to the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Kawasaki-City, 2:12 pm

Putting the "labor" in Land, Labor, Capital and Entrepreneurship.

Dinner with Tateisi san

Last evening we were honored to have dinner with Mr. Nobuo Tateisi. Mr. Tateisi is the former Chairman and Representative Director of the OMRON Corporation and is currently serving as the Executive Advisor for the OMRON Corporation . He is also one of those people that, after meeting for about two seconds, you realize is just an amazing human being. Intelligent, visionary, funny and incredibly down to earth.

Mr. Tateisi spoke at length about the current state of the Japanese economy, the many economic challenges Japan faces and Japan's role in a globalized world. Not surprisingly Mr. Tatseisi also discussed the declining birth rate/aging population dilemma of Japan. Did you know that there are more than 36,000 Japanese citizens over the age of 100? Did you know that the birth rate in Japan is now only 1.3 children per family?

The other major topic touched on by Mr. Tateisi was Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR, the philosophy that says companies should work for the benefit of society by becoming active members of the global community. Take a minute to read the CSR link and then think about the Bernie Madoff's and corporate executives who make $49 million a year while their company's go broke.

Thank you Tateisi-san for an incredible evening. One that I will never forget.

Oshukan Pride

So how many students do you have in each class? Our colleagues in Japan regularly teach 40 students per class. Learning that bit of information was certainly the biggest surprise at our visit to the Oshukan Secondary Education School this morning. Oshukan School, which has a little more than 1,000 students, was all I thought it would be and more. The students all seemed very involved, on task and genuinely serious about learning. The teachers, all true professionals, were kind enough to let nine Americans and one Canadian into their classrooms in the middle of everything.

The money quote of the day (and the trip so far) came from one 8th grader who said to her teacher, "Can we talk about this with the foreigners in the room?" Classic.

The educational objective of the Oshukan School is "The Quest for Truth" by developing students with high intelligence, world views and strong wills. From what I saw they are doing a great job in meeting this objective. Does it pass the "Would I send my kids to this school" test? With flying colors.

Mmmmmm.....Sweat

Not surprisingly, a bit on the salty side.

Tokyo Town

After enduring the most frustrating flight of my entire life I have finally arrived in Tokyo. My original flight, which was supposed to leave on Monday at 2:20pm, got pushed back again and again and again... and finally we left exactly 23 hours late! Very long and miserable story that involved a plane warming oven that did not work, unionized flight attendants, a recent airline merger and a lot of important looking airline officials standing around with walkie-talkies in their hands looking serious yet inept at the same time.

As a result of all of this nonsense, I have missed the entire first day of the Keizai Koho/Japan-America study tour. Crud. On top of that I arrived at the Tokyo Dome Hotel to find that all of my fellow travelers were already at the nearby Tokyo Dome catching a Yomiuri Giants game. Crud again! (Giants lost 2-1 to the Carp)

All of that is in the past now and in a few hours we are off to visit the Toshiba Science Museum and then the Toshiba Recycling Center. After that we are going to hear the Chief Economist of the Dai-Chi Life Research Institute speak about the Japanese Economy. Life is good.

Hello Japan, nice to meet you.

Crunch

I bet the price of parking in this part of Atlanta just went up.