Hideaki Ota delivers a lecture to students at Shimizuoka High School in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture. (©Sankei by Koki Yata)
Hideaki Ota, advisor to The Sankei Shimbun and representative director of JAPAN Forward, delivered a lecture to students at Shimizugaoka High School and its sister institution, Kure Aoyama Junior and Senior High School in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture.
Titled "Japan and the Japanese People," Ota stressed the long history of Japanese pioneers and urged the approximately 600 students in attendance to boldly follow in their predecessors' spirit.
JAPAN Forward is an English-language news and opinion website that he co-founded in 2017.
Lessons from History
Tracing Japan's history, Ota highlighted that in the Edo period — often linked with feudal imagery — the country had "already established a closed-loop system for human waste." This accomplishment, he added, "astonished the world and achieved a level of sustainability 300 years ahead of its time."
In another example, he introduced a flag signaling system developed in the Edo era to transmit rice market prices from Osaka to Edo.
"It covered in eight hours a distance that would have taken a messenger six days," Ota said. "There is much to learn from the wisdom of our predecessors."
Carrying the Torch Forward
Ota went on to hail Koi Furuichi, a trailblazer who shaped Japan's modern civil engineering administration and devoted himself to building the nation's engineering institutions.
Sharing an episode from Furuichi's student days in Paris, he recounted a time the young engineer caught a cold. When his landlord urged him to rest, he retorted, "If I rest for one day, Japan will fall behind by one day."
Ota mused, "The landlord must have thought, 'This country called Japan in the East is bound for something extraordinary.'"
"It's a timely reminder that Japan today stands on the indomitable spirit of those who came before us."
Ota also spoke about JAPAN Forward. "I launched it after turning 70," he explained, "driven by a desire to share Japan's true face with the world and showcase its unique appeal."
He offered words of encouragement to the students, saying, "With purpose and determination, you, too, can bring forth valuable new creations. I look forward to the emergence of young people like yourselves, who take pride in the history of Japan and the Japanese people, and who will carry the nation forward."
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Author: Koki Yata
(Read this in Japanese)
