Joi Ito's Web

Was just on Hodo 2001, one of my favorite morning news programs. Mr. Kuroiwa, the announcer is quite an outspoken investigative type who is not affraid to question authority and Mr. Takemura, the comentator is also extremely sharp and says it like it is. Today, was the first program of the year and we talked about the outlook for 2003. The other panelists included Professor Yonekura who will be moderating my talk in Hawaii, Chairman Idei of Sony, Mikitani-san, the founder and CEO of Rakuten and the Chairman of Infoseek Japan, which I am on the board of, and Minister Hiranuma, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry. It was a much friendlier panel than the last time I was on the show protesting the national ID head-to-head with Minister Katayama, Minister of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications.

Today, we started out by talking about Idei-san's new book about the quantum leap necessary for reform. This section of the program was very similar to what we have been talking about here on this blog and in preparation for the Blueprint for Japan 2020.

I was asked about venture businesses and their role and the Internet bubble. I said that venture businesses are about high risk/high return. The bubble was about people thinking there was no risk and just high return. Post-war Japan, there were people working hard, taking lots of risk building companies. Most failed, but some turned into companies like Sony. I think that the young people today do not understand that there is no "easy road" and that the low risk / high return days of big company elitism doesn't work, and that this lack of entrepreneurial risk taking is hampering Japan's ability to be innovative.

We talked about how Rakuten was enabling people to go to market very cheaply (the story is similar to eBay in the US). Takemura-san talked about how the Internet is enabling people.

When asked about what barriers and regulatory restrictions we had to overcome, I said that it was less about overcoming rules and more about overcoming misinformation by people like the mass media. I talked about blogging as an example of how the Internet can help give a voice to the people. I mentioned that blog sites had been blocked in China. (Since I have some stuff on BlogSpot, me to!) I'm glad I got to say "blog" on national TV. ;-p

I talked about how I blogged the public support of Minister Takenaka which was under-reported and even spun by the mass media and how Mr. Kuroiwa protested on my blog (Japanese blog) that he wasn't doing that.

Since I was talking about blogging, people didn't seem to mind me taking pictures. Unfortunately, my best shot came out blurred.

I did get a chance to moblog Idei-san and Hiranuma-san as well as myself getting make-up put on. Make-up is a bit embarrassing, but I realized that people with make-up on look "cleaner" on TV. I didn't get makeup until recently. Another way Mass Media makes the important people look better. ;-P (just kidding)