Ten years after the burst of Japan’s economic bubble, with the erosion of a common sense of values that had been shared for many years through an earlier period of strong economic growth, we face an era of confusion in which it is not even clear what we should believe in.

That’s my rough translation of the first line describing a seminar, held on March 15th by the Institute of Engineering Innovation at the University of Tokyo, entitled “Miete kita mirai” (見えてきた未来/The future that has come into view). The line reminds me of the words of well-known IT journalist Sasaki Toshinao, who speaks about the challenges faced by Japan’s “lost generation” in an era of uncertainty and rapid change. I was lucky enough to catch this event because I read the blog of Fujishiro Hiroyuki, one of four speakers at the event. Like Sasaki, Fujishiro is a Japanese blogger/journalist who I greatly admire (and whose views I have translated and introduced elsewhere).

Miete kita mirai (見えてきた未来), from the blog of OBII

Fujishiro’s talk mirrored in many ways what he argues in the discussions (with Yukawa Tsuruaki and Takada Masayuki) recorded in “Blog Journalism: Media for 3 million people” (ブログ・ジャーナリズム—300万人のメディア). The underlying theme in his talk was the split of generations, between an older generation who was guaranteed a secure future if they worked hard, and a younger generation who is no longer offered such a guarantee. These and other factors, he explained, split society into different groups with different interests: some people are sure to receive their pensions (or are already receiving them), while others are not. Many are members of the corporate community, but many others are not. The associated split in values is evident: the older generation grew up with a common thinking that “if you work hard, you will be okay,” but this thinking is loosing its relevance today as the welfare system that supported it begins to crumble.

Blog Journalism by Yukawa Tsuruaki (湯川 鶴章), Takada Masayuki (高田 昌幸) and Fujishiro Hiroyuki (藤代 裕之)

Disillusioned by a “paradise” that they will never be able to enter, a place where hard work and dedication gurarantee a safe and secure livelihood, members of the younger generation are forming new communities and doing things that the classical top-down Japanese corporation cannot do. Fujishiro stressed in particular that innovation, which these new communities bring out through flexible new forms of association, is beyond the capacity of the classical Japanese corporation. A corporation cannot come together and break apart the way that a group of individuals can, and it is this flexible form of association that is the key to innovation.

The organization that Fujishiro leads, the Otemachi Business Innovation Institute (OBII) — a “platform for connecting people” — takes this idea as its core principle. Started in late 2006 and now into its 9th session, OBII was created with the aim of providing a place for discussion and guidance in setting up innovative businesses, focusing particularly on young entrepreneurs and students in their 20s and 30s. The key here is again the underlying change in communication media: the Internet allows people to connect and create new ideas in ways that “corporations cannot do”, and this is the starting point for innovation.

After reading countless gloomy reports about the future of Japan’s economy, and then hearing a talk like this one, I have to wonder if we are all in fact talking about the same country. Watching figures flash across the screen is one way to evaluate the prospects for the future of a country, but there is a limit to what this really can say about something as complex as a human society.

There is in any case another narrative that these reports tend to ignore: the possibilities, opening before our very eyes, for shaping a different future. Corporations may be feeling the crunch, but there are also opportunities opening up that were never there before, made possible thanks to a changing media landscape. While I see plenty of panic over this new landscape, and no lack of insane legislation attempting to regulate it, when it comes to the constructive narrative that innovators like Fujishiro devote their careers to, traditional media seems to have little or nothing to say.

That will eventually change. Given the difference in perspectives between generations, it has to change. And it is when it does, when the mainstream acknowledges that the individual has a voice in the new landscape, that the “future that has come into view” will truly take a central stage.