Prefatory Note
Leaders Should Never Become Indecent
Jiro Ushio, Chairman of USHIO INC.
■There Are “Three Highs” for Leaders As Well
I had close friendship for nearly 40 years with Mr. Saburo Shiroyama, a novelist who passed away in March.
He was slim by nature, but since his wife passed away 7 years ago, he became frail to the extent his weight was temporarily under 40kg. We used to enjoy playing golf together 3 or 4 times a year, but he began to leave in the middle of the rounds. He lost the vigor he used to have, and I had been concerned about that.
Mr. Shiroyama occasionally participated in “the Gathering with Mr. Sohei Nakayama”, in which I had been participating in since about the year Showa 40 (1965). There he shared stories with profound implications, with us.
One of the most impressive stories I heard that I still remember now, is that we were told that there are “three highs” for leaders just like young women who desire “three highs (high educational background, high income, and high height)” as conditions for an ideal marriage partner.
First “high” is “high stability”. Speaking of people in the management, their business performance must be stable. In the case of leaders in whatever fields other than management, it is important to have their own solid criteria about life and a direction to pursue.
The second “high” is “high sensitivity”. People with high stability tend to be inferior in terms of sensitivity. However, high sensitivity is required to deal with dizzying pace of changes of the times.
The third “high” is “high blandness”. Selflessness, unpretentiousness, no appetite for fame and positions, and little material greed. In a nutshell, it is an especially important requirement for leaders not to be indecent.
Mr. Shiroyama mentioned he was comfortable if people interpreted that he liked those with these “three highs”. It seems people he preferred to write about were those who satisfied the “three highs”, including Koki Hirota*1 of “War Criminal: The Life and Death of Hirota Koki” and Reisuke Ishida*2 of “Rustic, Savage, but Not Indecent”.
*1Koki Hirota (1878-1948) was a Japanese diplomat, politician and the 32nd Prime Minister of Japan from March 9, 1936 to February 2, 1937. Following Japan's surrender in WWⅡ, Hirota was arrested as a Class A war criminal and was brought before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. He offered no defense and was found guilty. He was sentenced to hang, and was executed. The severity of his sentence remains controversial, as Hirota was the only civilian executed.
*2Reisuke Ishida was the Head of the Japanese National Railways from 1963 to 1969.
■Never Become Arrogant Even in Favorable
Circumstances
Through my experiences, I realize the importance of Mr. Shiroyama’s warning, that leaders should never become indecent.
As previously introduced in this Prefatory Note, I met great criticism from the public when I was young. It was because the company, of which I served as an outside director at my friend’s request, went bankrupt. I visited Mr. Wataru Tajitsu, who was the then president of Mitsubishi Bank, Ltd. (current The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd.) that we had business with, for apology. Upon then, Mr. Tajitsu kindly advised me, “You were not protective enough and you have to reflect on that. However, what is good about you is you are not indecent. You should never lose the virtue in the future.”
Also, when I was working on creating a private-sector-led society with Mr. Toshio Doko at Doko Ad Hoc Commission on Administrative Reform, Mr. Doko spotted and argued, “People talk about the issues surrounding respecting the bureaucrats and looking down on the citizens. However, the situations were not triggered because the bureaucrats were arrogant. It was rather the indecent mindset of the citizens, who tried to suck up to the bureaucrats, triggering the situations.”
It is difficult to keep posture of not being indecent. There are countless examples of respected leaders, who were with honest poverty in pioneer days, expose indecency and lose modesty when their work succeeds. I think it is a more difficult theme to never become arrogant even in favorable circumstances, than to stick to honest poverty in adversity.
Mr. Shiroyama’s last novel, “Commanders’ Suicide Attack”, underlines that how many people had to suffer from the selfishness of leaders. I would like to take each word left by Mr. Shiroyama as an important warning for leaders, and continue thinking about it.
⇒ Chichi WEB (Japanese version)
