Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
To the Philippines-Japan Society

Released on February 25, 1993]

Japan’s culture
of excellence

THE ACTIVITIES and achievements of the Philippines-Japan Society form a continuing record of how, over time and despite changing politics and economics and our changing relations since just before World War II, two nations, the Philippines and Japan, can sustain their deep-rooted fraternal ties. These ties are all the more crucial today, in a world threatened by fragmentation along ethnic and racial lines, and by the increasing economic competition between nations, rich and poor.

Keeping national identities intact

How should Japan and the Philippines respond to this time of opportunity and challenge? And how can we best manage our relationship in order to advance our hopes and aspirations?

If Japanese friendship with the Philippines has been strong and full of meaning, over the last 25 or 30 or 35 years or so, it is because we have kept our national identities intact, even as we have worked to reach out to each other and to learn more about each other. We have not been imprisoned by our experiences during the war, but rather we have found greater meaning in our older ties in history and in the profound possibilities of the future.

Consider, for instance, when Legazpi came to the Philippines after Magellan in 1565, he already saw ample evidence of Filipinos trading with Japan. Over the next centuries, that commerce flourished, and along with it a mutual appreciation of our cultures, which grew and grew.

It was Japan that Dr. Jose Rizal spoke of warmly in 1888 during a six-week visit there, when he said that he was impressed by the discipline, the honesty and industriousness of the Japanese people. Rizal knew that Japan had only recently been compelled by the Western powers to open up its trade. But he observed that the Japanese, turning adversity into opportunity, had devoted themselves to modernization.

This, too, was the Japan where Mariano Ponce—one of our national heroes who along with Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar led the propaganda movement in Spain—went on a mission to solicit aid and recognition for our new republic, which was then at war with the Americans. In Yokohama, Ponce became friends with another expatriate revolutionary, the Chinese Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who helped him buy arms for the Filipino army. Today we retain a remarkable photograph of these two men, with Sun Yat-sen in a Western suit and Mariano Ponce, interestingly enough, in a Japanese kimono. And so, even as it wrestled with its own internal conflicts, Japan provided a haven for other Asians fired with freedom during those days.

Esteem for Japan’s achievements

A more obscure account of contact between Japan and the Philippines at this moment of revolution in our country is recorded by our historians. In 1896 Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto, among other Filipino revolutionaries, met with a visiting Japanese admiral in Manila to solicit aid for the revolution. Jacinto expressed his belief that as France did for America, so could Japan help the Philippines gain its independence.

We realize, of course, that nothing material came out of this episode, and perhaps just as well. But it does underscore the high esteem each Filipino felt for the Japanese even in those days. More than once, we have looked to you, our friends from Japan, for help and inspiration. And today, although vastly different in development, we can look to Japan again for an example of success which it achieved in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

To say this is not to gloss over the agony of World War II for both our countries. That was a war in which we sacrificed the finest of our youth, ruined the beauty of our land and spent untold resources. And when it was over, no true victors were to be found, no winners in the devastating losses we all had to live with. No victors, but only the gains of the spirit—in the indomitable will of our people to revive themselves, and to gain in peace what could not be achieved in battle.

Over the half-century since, we have recovered something far more precious than our material possessions. We have recovered, together with Japan, the familiarity of friends, the good will of old neighbors, the understanding and compassion of human beings for one another.

Disparities between two nations

But even as we speak today as brothers in the same Asian family, the disparities in our situations are only too apparent. Japan today is a titan, and the Philippines is no more than a developing country. Japan enjoys an overwhelming trade surplus with the Philippines, and the material evidence of the Japanese presence in our economy is everywhere to be found. Japan has become one of the most generous donors of development assistance to the Philippines.

I draw attention to these facts neither to demoralize our own hard-working people and entrepreneurs nor to diminish our accomplishments. I mean rather to emphasize the need for us to understand the reasons for Japan’s enduring achievements, so that we can perform the same miracle for ourselves and for our country.

Some of us will say that Japan has gotten to where it is because of American postwar munificence. Indeed, generous American assistance hastened Japanese reconstruction. But the most important reason was the Japanese themselves, and what they did with that American investment.

Just as they did after Commodore Perry’s incursion in 1854, the Japanese in 1945, rather than brood on their wartime defeat, focused on rebuilding their economy. And this they achieved, in spite of and because of their own shortage of natural resources, by efficiently producing goods of impeccable quality, which, of course, required the establishment of industrial and trading complexes to produce and market them, and, just as important, a positive commitment of support from the Japanese government and Japanese labor.

Learning from the Japanese ethos

This cooperation implies a national culture that lives on in Japan, of excellence and discipline that would engage the full faculties of a nation to achieve a national goal, for the benefit of the nation rather than just a few of its elite. Such a culture is what we Filipinos must develop for ourselves—in industry as well as in our daily lives.

We have much to learn from Japan’s ethos of excellence. And I speak here not only of the means of progress, but of the attitudes and values that make for those means. We can import all the machines and the technologies that we want and can afford. But we cannot possibly import, wholesale, the mind-set, the discipline and the enthusiasm for better things that have lifted Japan and the Japanese to where they are now.

We may borrow and acknowledge the means from such successful models as Japan. But ultimately the desire and the will to excel must come from within the Filipino himself, for Filipino goals.

As has often been said, modern Japan in its formative years borrowed much from the West—its army from Germany, its navy from Britain, its Constitution from Germany and Austria, and its economic system from the United States. But we are reminded that the guiding spirit and motives behind these remain uniquely Japanese.

And so we need to ask ourselves today of the Filipino: What can we give that would bring profit and distinction not only to himself, but to the nation as well, that would distinguish the Filipino handiwork by the impress of quality?

These are questions of immediate moment for our entrepreneurs, workers, educators and policy-makers. And in answering them, we define as well that culture on which the material goals of our development plans and programs depend for their success.

And the answers, I am sure, will implicate the values and attitudes that true achievers everywhere possess, whether they be Japanese, Germans, Singaporeans or Chinese. And these are honesty, discipline, industriousness and perseverance, foresight and innovation, and the willingness to sacrifice short-term profit for long-term gain.

Recognizing our own culture

All in all, the Japanese model can only be just that: a concrete example, a guide, an inspiration, a model. But we will need to look into and recognize the positive nuances of our own national culture, and bring them into our offices, workshops and assembly lines. Among these, of course, is the Filipino value of delicadeza, which is really a form of command responsibility. And so we say: People who fail at their jobs should quit, to make way for others who can do better. At the same time, we must learn to reject self-defeating attitudes and ways of doing business, such as the padrino or the lagay system, which apart from their moral damage only perpetuate inefficiency. Let us encourage and reward achievement; punish wrongdoing; minimize waste; exalt the dignity of labor and the pursuit of excellence. To these purposes, I commit my Administration, as I trust that the captains of industry among you, our Filipino members, will run your ships and crews.

The point that must never be forgotten is that there are many ways wherein our relationship, the friendship between Japan and the Philippines, can grow, not apart but together.

Japan, whose economic might rests on constant and beneficial contact with the world, has known this for two generations now. We Filipinos are only beginning to learn the nature of this kind of diplomacy—that besides hurdling the problems of politics, diplomacy must be and can be used to achieve economic and social goals; that in the end, economic progress and mutual benefit make the best of neighbors.

Examining the opportunities before us

Hence it is fitting that we should look carefully into the new possibilities offered by the historic friendship of the Philippines and Japan. We should consider the strengths of our relationships and see how we can foster and enhance them. Where there are weaknesses and imbalances, we should strive to remove and correct them. And whenever opportunities exist to help each other, we must seize them.

Private societies and organizations like the Philippines-Japan Society are our essential tools for examining these opportunities before us. For without them, our governments would never fully know how and where to steer our relationship. Being free societies, we depend a lot on our peoples and our fraternal organizations to realize truly the meaning of cooperation and friendship.

I salute what your Society has done these past 23 years for Japanese-Filipino friendship. And I look forward to all that you can do to help bring Philippines-Japan friendship fruitfully into the next century.