Fukuzawa Yukichi’s Advice for 21st Century Japan

Tom Whitson
ACCJ President
twhitson@accj.or.jp

Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901) is best known as the founder of Keio Gijuku (now Keio University). But he is much, much more.

He was part of a group of late Tokugawa samurai who helped Japan understand and respond to the changes that arose from monumental internal and external pressures on nearly all of Japan’s institutions. The situation is similar today.

I knew that KPMG hired a lot of Keio grads, and I knew that I appreciated their practical, analytical approach to business problems. But until I read “The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa” translated by his grandson Eiichi Kiyooka, I didn’t realize the philosophy and world view that underlay the education that KPMG’s Keio grads brought to work at our firm.

Fukuzawa was born into a low ranking samurai family in a rigidly hierarchical feudal society. He spent his youth in the Nakatsu clan territory (Oita) and only started his education at 14 or 15 with the Chinese classics. In his book, he expressed his discontent with his station in life, his poverty, and his prospects. He resolved to change his future by going to Nagasaki to study Dutch. After five years of intense effort, he had mastered Dutch. But in 1859, when he visited Yokohama, he couldn’t read the signs or communicate with any of the foreigners he met there. For a fellow Dutch scholar/translator, the uselessness of what he had worked so hard to achieve, was crushing and he returned to Kyushu. However, Fukuzawa resolved to learn English and he succeeded. In 1860, he persuaded the captain of the first Japanese-officered transpacific ocean voyage to take him along as a servant. Fukuzawa mentions that once he was able to get an audience with the captain, he was quickly accepted since there were few volunteers for this risky voyage. Fukuzawa took many notes on American society and economy some of which became the basis for his later bestseller “Seiyo Jijo” (Things Western). Many of the Japanese had their pictures taken in San Francisco. Only Fukuzawa posed with the photographer’s daughter to create a unique historical photo.

Reading about Fukuzawa’s keen interest everything that was going on around him and his perseverance in overcoming the shock of finding that his Dutch learning, which would have enhanced his status in the 17th and 18th centuries, was not what he needed as a 19th century man, has parallels today. What did we learn at university which is still useful or relevant today? Today our tools, our understanding of science and technology, and our ability to draw on so many new sources of information and knowledge are unimaginably different from what I learned at university. And I expect that we will see similar fast and furious changes in the future. Therefore, what we most need is mental flexibility, agility, and perseverance to overcome the limits of our backgrounds, our experience, and ourselves.

Many of today’s young Japanese are sophisticated, rich, healthy, educated and have unlimited opportunities. They can travel freely and challenge conventions—like Fukuzawa. They live in the most dynamic and exciting part of the world and are well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities it presents. I would like to see more young Japanese who challenge intellectual, political, and business tradition like Fukuzawa did 150 years ago.