PLATFORM : We Can Dish It Out, but We Can’t Take It

TOKYO —  Americans have borne the brunt of foreign criticism for a long time. We’ve been called haughty, hawkish, closed-minded, greedy, wasteful, even tasteless. But recently a different, infinitely more insulting opinion seems to be solidifying: Americans are crybabies. We can’t take even the slightest bit of the harsh criticism we love to dish out.

In a recent hearing of the Japanese budget committee (a misnomer, because the committee discussed issues ranging from recent scandals to foreign affairs), Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa was asked if he thought “American workers need to understand that real work demands accuracy and punctuality.” This was a loaded question, coming from a member of a rival faction, but Miyazawa responded openly.

“When I look at America over the past 10 years, I feel the connection between the creation of goods and the creation of value has become extremely blurred. The very top college graduates have gone to work on Wall Street, which means the number of high-quality engineers has rapidly declined. In this general sense, I do think Americans are lacking in work ethic. However, these factors have led to the bubble (or speculative) economy here in Japan. The bubble economy has been a hell of a mess to clean up, but it has helped to educate our nation. Without a doubt, creating value (that is, material goods) through hard work and sweat is extremely important.”

Data reported by The Times on Tuesday suggest that the prime minister’s information about engineers and MBAs is out of date. Yet, with the benefit of a complete translation, Miyazawa’s comments do not seem sinister, nor do they say anything about the American “working class” as it is normally constituted. His argument is critical and incisive, but it is also thoughtful, honest and perhaps even a bit trite. There is nothing here that we Americans haven’t criticized ourselves for time and again. Miyazawa might well have been quoting MIT’s Lester Thurow, or any number of other economists who have characterized our problems in the same way. It is hard not to agree that the financial excesses of the 1980s, and the concomitant shift away from manufacturing, had a negative impact on the health of the American economy that we are still paying heavily for today.

Why is it that Americans, who are so keen on free speech, are so intolerant of criticism from foreign corners? The Japanese certainly have their opinions about the cause of America’s relative economic decline. Maybe they are wrong. But they have a right to speak their piece.

The assertion that the American work ethic has declined is not unarguable. (That was not the thrust of Miyazawa’s statement but it certainly was House Speaker Yoshio Sakurauchi’s.) Many Americans believe it to be true. America’s workers may lead the world in productivity, but this is largely because we have more sophisticated machinery per worker than any other country.

It is a fact that we don’t work as many hours as the Japanese, that we don’t study as hard (at least through high school), that our math skills and literacy levels pale in comparison; that many of our leading industrial products trail theirs in quality. This is reality. And it is a sorely different reality than we were facing 25 years ago. Why, then, is it so hard to swallow that some Japanese think Americans could benefit from working a little harder?

Part of the blame for America’s intolerance lies with our mass media. The bits and pieces they cut from Miyazawa’s statement made it appear arrogant, igniting righteous anger. But too many Americans seem to begrudge Japan its right, as an important trading partner and ally, to criticize America.

Silencing the Japanese will not solve our problems. And becoming a nation of cry-babies, quick to anger when others point out our flaws, will only mask the real challenges we face.