＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
Most of the people whose portraits appear on bills are politicians, scholars/educators, novelists, etc. This may be the first time for a businessman like Eiichi Shibusawa to be featured on a bill. Let us consider Eiichi Shibusawa, who will be the face of the “new 10,000 yen bill” issued in 2024.
１．About Eiichi Shibusawa
I do not recall learning about Eiichi Shibusawa in detail in my history classes at school. Until now, my knowledge of Eiichi Shibusawa was limited to his involvement in the establishment of the First National Bank and many other companies, and that he is known as the “father of Japanese capitalism.
Eiichi Shibusawa (1840-1931) was born as the eldest son of a wealthy farmer in Chiaraijima, Musashi Province. At one time he formed friendships with pro-imperial, anti-foreigner patriots and even plotted to overthrow the shogunate, but at the recommendation of a servant of the Hitotsubashi family he served Yoshinobu Hitotsubashi (later known as Tokugawa Yoshinobu), and when Yoshinobu became the 15th shogun, he became a vassal of the shogunate.
At the end of the Edo period, he followed Yoshinobu’s younger brother Akitake to France as a delegate to the Paris Exposition. There, he saw and heard about modern Western industries and institutions.
After returning to Japan after the Meiji Restoration, he moved with the Tokugawa family to Shizuoka, where he established a “commercial firm” (an organization that combined a bank and a trading company). This is said to be the first joint stock company in Japan.
２．Eiichi Shibusawa’s Achievements
This caught the attention of the new government, and he was persuaded by Shigenobu Okuma to join the new Meiji government. In the new government, he devoted himself to the introduction of a fiscal and monetary system.
However, he eventually quit the bureaucracy and became a businessman, and was involved in the establishment of as many as 500 companies, including the First National Bank (today’s Mizuho Bank), the Paper Company (today’s Oji Paper), Tokyo Gas, and the Tokyo Marine & Fire Insurance Company.
He was also involved in the establishment of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Tokyo Negotiate Exchange, and Riken.
He also devoted himself to educational projects and was involved in the establishment of the Institute of Commercial Law (now Hitotsubashi University).
He preached a theory of “moral and economic congruence,” in which self-interest and the common good are in harmony, stating that “it is our duty to act so as to give as much happiness as possible to as many people as possible. His lecture book, “Analects and Arithmetic,” describes his ideas in detail. It was based on this idea that he did not create the Shibusawa Zaibatsu.
Noted management scholar Peter Drucker said of him
Frankly speaking, I know of no one in history who has discussed the “social responsibility” of management better than Eiichi Shibusawa, one of the great figures who built the great Meiji era. He was the first person in the world to recognize that the essence of management is nothing but responsibility.
As a side note, one of the business leaders I have heard directly from is Konosuke Matsushita, and I think his “waterworks philosophy” is similar to the “theory of moral and economic unity.
His “Waterworks Philosophy” is “a management philosophy that aims to make prices low and easily available to consumers by supplying large quantities of high-quality products at low prices, just like tap water.
３．History is made by individuals.
I am of the opinion that “history is made by ‘individuals’”. As I wrote in my previous article on “Mr. Sakuro Tanabe, designer of the Nanzenji Suirokaku Pavilion,” various benefits have been brought to human life through the inventions and discoveries of outstanding individuals.
In the case of modern Japan, our predecessors who learned about advanced Western technologies and systems from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji era (1868-1912) were the first to introduce these technologies and systems, which rapidly modernized Japan’s industries, politics, and economic systems.
There are no “ifs” in history, but many of the students who served in the Pacific War and died in the war were probably more brilliant than those who survived. Had those students lived, they may have made even more brilliant inventions and discoveries than they have today.
I think that great figures such as Eiichi Shibusawa could be taught in more detail in school history classes. I believe that this would deepen the students’ interest in history.