It Didn’t Succeed, So Iwate Prefecture Decided to Give Up tells the peculiar tale of a Japanese governor and his prefecture:
Nothing was going right for the residents of northern Iwate prefecture. Try as they might, the people of Iwate seemed stuck in a poor backwater, with factories closing, shaky state finances and few prospects.So, three years ago, Gov. Hiroya Masuda sent out a bold new message: Just give up.
“We don’t make an effort in Iwate,” Mr. Masuda declared in a nationwide ad campaign that has run annually since 2001. Iwate should build traditional wooden houses rather than modern buildings, he said. Instead of striving like the big cities for economic growth, people should take pride in their forests.
“In Tokyo, people are chased by speed, and life consists of working, eating and sleeping,” says the 52-year-old Mr. Masuda, who has local government employees print the we-don’t make-an-effort slogan on their business cards. “Here, I want people to go home early in the evening, take a walk with their family, and talk to the neighbors.”
The wacky ads have been a hit. They boosted Mr. Masuda’s standing in Iwate, helping him get elected for a third time last year, with 88% of votes cast. They also struck a chord with Japanese nationwide.
Japanese culture may be changing:
Opposing effort in Japan is as bizarre as disparaging freedom in America. But since their economy slowed in the 1990s, many Japanese have started to question whether their hard work was really worth it.In the past, even average Japanese workers who devoted their lives to a corporation could prosper. “If you graduated from college and worked solidly, you would reach an annual salary of ?10 million,” about $90,000, says economist Takuro Morinaga, author of a shelf of downshifting bestsellers with titles such as “It’s Cool to Be Poor.” But now that not everyone gets rich, “They think, why should they work themselves to death for their company?” he says.