Former Vice Minister of Cabinet Office and Member of the House of Representatives, Masaaki Taira

It's not about your academic background or career. What matters is how you changed the world.

■ Profile

Born in Tokyo in 1967, he graduated from the Faculty of Law at Waseda University. After working as a salaryman, he served as president of the family business, the Ota Fruit and Vegetable Wholesaler, and as chairman of the Tokyo Junior Chamber of Commerce. He first ran for office in 2005 and was elected for the first time, winning five consecutive terms since then. He has served as Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, State Minister of the Cabinet Office, Chairman of the House of Representatives Environment Committee, and Director-General of the LDP Internet Media Bureau, and is currently Chairman of the LDP's Second Cabinet Division (responsible for digital reform, science, technology and innovation, space policy, etc.).

Surprisingly, he says he never studied hard during his university days.
He was once a salaryman and ran a small business, but how did he get to where he is today?
He has served as Vice Minister of the Cabinet Office and is a prominent politician, having been featured in "100 People Who Will Change Japan - Key People to Watch in 2021." We spoke to him about his journey to becoming a successful politician and his outlook for the future.

When I was a student, the bubble economy was at its peak. At the time, it was said that if you went to a good university, you could easily get into a good company. It was also a time when student protests were reaching their final peak, and final exams were canceled during my first and fourth years due to strikes. I believe that interacting with a wide variety of people is important in university life. In my case, I made friends from other universities through friendly matches in the badminton club I belonged to, but it wasn't enough. However, I met my wife through this club. I played badminton and worked part-time as a private tutor. I also loved cars, so whenever I had free time, I would go for drives in the car we had at home. I didn't study much.

■I never thought we would see a time when banks would go bankrupt.

Ever since I was a student, I have looked at political news with a fairly critical eye, thinking, "Maybe I could do it better."
Amidst all this, I had worked for a company and taken over my family's fruit and vegetable wholesale business, just as the economic bubble burst and the financial crisis struck. Two of the main financial institutions with which my company did business went bankrupt, making management extremely difficult. While small and medium-sized businesses do go bankrupt, I never imagined a bank would. I'll never forget the struggles I had to overcome to secure financing at that time. Naturally, I made every effort to keep the company afloat, but the collapse of a bank isn't my responsibility; it's also the responsibility of politicians. However, from the statements made by politicians at the time, I felt they lacked a true understanding of the realities of small and medium-sized businesses, particularly their cash flow. One of the reasons I decided to become a politician was because, after experiencing events like this, I became increasingly convinced that people with business acumen were essential to politics.

■Create your own system to change the world

Another reason I became a politician was because I believed that simply criticizing politics would not change anything in the world, and so I worked to hold public debates at the Tokyo Junior Chamber, where I was a member. I used a method created by the NPO Lincoln Forum in a way that did not violate the Public Offices Election Act, and expanded it nationwide. Until then, elections had consisted of nothing more than pamphlets and poster displays and the repeated calling of names, but by holding public debates, voters were able to hear candidates debate each other directly and make their choice.

In 2003, I became chairman of the Tokyo Junior Chamber of Commerce and took the lead in implementing this, and as a result, public debates became the norm across the country. Political parties also introduced a system of public recruitment. In districts where veteran ruling party members had been elected repeatedly and there was a lack of tension, women and young, energetic people who had previously found it difficult to run for office, as well as those not from hereditary backgrounds, were selected through public recruitment by opposition parties. They demonstrated their strength in public debates and were elected, beating out the veteran members. Once the public recruitment system took root among opposition parties, it spread to ruling parties as a countermeasure. In 2005, I myself applied for public recruitment and became a candidate, taking the stage at a public debate I had created, advocating my policies, and winning.
For people like me who have no connection to the world of politics, not being the son of a big-name politician or a bureaucrat graduating from the University of Tokyo, but working early in the morning in the market gritting our teeth to run a small business, there was almost no chance of becoming a member of parliament, but public debates and the open recruitment system changed that.
To change the world, you create the systems and environments yourself. Then, once that's done, you go out into the field as a leader. I think that's one way to change the world.

■ Politicians should be the ones to go to space

What the COVID-19 pandemic has made clear is that digital transformation (DX) and sustainability transformation (SX) will accelerate in the future. Specifically, DX refers to the establishment of a digital agency in the public sector and a data-driven economy in the economy. The establishment of the digital agency will further accelerate digitalization in the private sector, boosting international competitiveness and productivity. At the same time, achieving SX, such as achieving the 17 SDGs, is essential. SX can be thought of as the direction, while DX is the means. As DX advances, collecting, storing, and utilizing big data collected via IoT devices will require enormous amounts of electricity. Achieving SX with CO2-emitting power sources will make it difficult to achieve DX. The key issue is which Japanese technologies we use to realize DX and SX. Japanese technology may be able to lead the post-COVID world. I'm paying attention to new technologies such as nuclear fusion reactors and carbon capture (Google it for more details). The Suga Cabinet is also considering an idea to build a digital government server in space. Solar-powered satellite data centers have a carbon-neutral impact on Earth, excluding CO2 emissions during launch.
Furthermore, I would like to hold a summit on the International Space Station in the future. When I was Vice Minister for Space Affairs, I was talking with the president of JAXA at ​​a pub in Tanegashima after the successful launch of the H2A rocket, and he said, "Politicians are the ones who should go to space." He said that people who go to space clearly return filled not only with love for their country, but also with love for the Earth. I believe that if world leaders could discuss food issues, climate change, child poverty, and conflict issues while gazing at our blue Earth, we could come up with a declaration of solutions on a completely different level than we have seen so far. Based on this "Space Declaration," I believe it is important to provide a framework for achieving a sustainable Earth and the technology to make it a reality.

■Message to university students

Of course, studying is important, but I also think it's important to have a variety of experiences and to be conscious of putting yourself in an environment where you can interact with a diverse range of people of different backgrounds and ages. Ambition is also important. The higher your ambition, the more quality colleagues and quality funds you will attract. So how can you have high ambitions? Ambitions are something you can decide in your own heart, and you can have high ambitions right now. There's no need to limit yourself. People who have high ambitions that they could never achieve in their lifetime will have an interesting life, and they will be able to continue growing through a variety of experiences.

Student newspaper WEB January 25, 2021 interview Toyo University 2nd year student Akane Isa