ここらでコロナウイルス感染関連でフィリピンの現状を。もしあなたの出張先がここだったら？

コロナウイルス感染対策で、日本よりも諸外国の方が大胆な対策を講じています。万一、そのような時期にそのような国に出張していたらどうなるのか、それを考えさせるニュースがあったのでご紹介します。平和ボケの日本人は、大丈夫だろうか。

「フレンドシップクラブ便り2020.3.27」から現地情報を拾ってみた。＜　＞内は私のコメント。

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〇　怒り！！　ウイルス禍　ルソン島全島閉鎖　日本大使館休館

フィリピンにお住まいの皆様及び旅行者の皆様へ

在フィリピン日本国大使館
１　３月１６日のフィリピン政府による「ルソン地域全域へのコミュニティー隔離措置（Enhanced Community Quarantine）」の発表を受け，在フィリピン日本国大使館（マニラ）は，3月17日から当分の間臨時休業し、領事業務その他の業務を停止させていただきます。

２　ご不便をおかけしますが、ご理解のほどお願いいたします。

３　なお，休館期間中の緊急のご用件については，邦人援護ホットラインで承ります。
　　邦人援護ホットライン（24時間対応）：　　Tel：（６３－２）８５５１－５７８６
・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

ひとりごと　大バカ野郎！！）＜本当に。国が真っ先に逃げる！！おいおい＞

フィリピン政府が、ルソン島全島封鎖を発表した日、マニラの日本大使館から、送られてきたものです。在留日本人が、突然の封鎖でパニックに陥っているのに、大使館が休館する。
政府に、外務省に、在外大使館は、何のためにあるのか、問いたい。
逃げまどう、途方に暮れている在留邦人を、そのままにして、連絡を絶つ。
これが、日本政府の在外公館が、日本国民に対する仕打ち？
あなたたちの目は、フィリピン政府に向いているのか？、日本国民ではないのか？
万死に値する。

発表直後から、クレームのあらしが押し寄せる、慌てて、休館を取りやめました。

そういうレベルの話ではない。

〇　外国人4500人が立ち往生、ホテル閉め出し（NNA PHILLIPINE 2020/3/25)

フィリピン政府がルソン島全域で外出制限を開始して以降、約4,500人の外国人旅行客がホテルから閉め出され、野宿を余儀なくされているようだ。

＜もし、主張中だったらと思うとぞっとします。私の場合、知人・友人いるフィリピンは何とかなるが、誰も知り合いのいない国でこのようなことになったら？もちろん、出張には出張先があっていくので知り合いがゼロではないでしょうが、はたしてサポートしてくれるでしょうか。また、出張の途中で立ち寄った国の場合はどうでしょうか。ホテルの外は治安も悪く危険だらけのところもたくさんあります！！＞

駐フィリピン欧州連合（ＥＵ）代表部のトーマス・ウィーアシング副代表が24日、ロクシン外相にこうした現状を訴えた。

ひとりごと）

外国人の入国拒否しても、滞在中の外国人は、大勢います。多くが、ホテルに宿泊しています。そのホテルを、営業停止にしたら、泊るところがなくて、困るのは、目に見えています。

政府のやることがわかりません。

数日後、ホテルが外国人受け入れはじめました。これが、フィリピンです。

〇マニラ首都圏隔離措置、3月15日から1カ月間

人の出入り原則禁止、日本等からの入国制限も（フィリピン経済・金融・投資2020/03/13）

ドゥテルテ大統領は、国内の新型コロナウイルス(Covid-19)感染者が52人に増えたことから、12日夜、警戒レベルを最高のコード・レッド・サブレベル2に引き上げた。

そして、

1.マニラ首都圏の全てのレベルの学校を4月12日まで閉鎖、
2.期間内の大規模イベント・集会の禁止
3.マニラ首都圏全体について、1カ月間(3月15日～4月14日)の隔離措置を発動する

と発表した。

在フィリピン日本大使館等によると、マニラ首都圏についての隔離措置などは以下のとおり。

・マニラ首都圏全体について隔離措置(マニラ首都圏と他地域との人の移動禁止など)をとる。それ以外の地方は、異なる家庭から二人の患者が出た段階でバランガイ隔離。

二つのバランガイに出た段階で市町村等のレベルで隔離、二つの市町村等に出た段階で州全体を隔離する

(アニョ内務地方自治大臣は、マニラ首都圏外からマニラ首都圏への通勤は、マニラ首都圏で雇用されていることの証明を提示すれば可能と発言)。

・行政機関は期間中機能停止。ただし最低限の職員は維持。公衆衛生等は完全に機能させる。立法・司法も同様にすることを勧告

・民間企業には柔軟な業務体制を取ることを推奨。

DOLE(労働雇用省)・DTI(貿易産業省)がガイドラインを発出。製造・小売り・サービス業は営業継続を勧告。

・首都圏内の公共交通機関は原則として継続して運航するが、首都圏に出入りする陸路、内航船舶、国内便航空機は

3月15日に停止。
　
・上記措置は毎日モニターし決定から毎日再評価する。上記措置は、フィリピン国家警察やフィリピン国軍によって実施される。

・マニラ首都圏以外の地方自治体(LGU)は学校の閉鎖に裁量を有する。

・フィリピン人国外労働者(OFW)は、湖北省を除く中国本土に、危険を理解する旨の誓約書に署名して渡航することが認められる。

・国内感染が起きている国(日本を含まない)からの渡航者は入国制限を課される。

ただし、フィリピン人及びその外国人配偶者・子、フィリピン政府が発行した永住査証所持者、9(e)外交査証所持者は除く。

なお、ドゥテルテ大統領は「マニラ首都圏隔離措置は、戒厳令とは全く異なるもので政治的目的を有するものではない。純粋に新型コロナウイルス感染拡大を防ぐための措置である」とコメントした。

＜日本からはなかなか海外の国々の詳細が見えないので、このような情報を共有できるのは心強い。出張前に相手国の治安などは当然調べていましたが、今後はコロナウイルス対策のような予防措置が取られることも意識の片隅に置いておく必要がありますね＞

Global Interaction & Understanding - A Personal Journey : No.15 フォーチューンマガジンに載る！

Ronさんと私の奇妙なつながりの一つは、以前お話ししましたカリフォルニア州サンノゼ。ロンさんはサンノゼ州立大学で学び、私はIBMサンノゼ研究所で仕事。

もう一つのつながりはこのいすゞ自動車。IBM藤沢工場・研究所があった桐原工業団地にいすゞ自動車とその関連会社があり、また、同じマンションにいすゞ117クーペをデザインした社員もおり、当時の状況はよく耳にしました。117クーペは、いすゞの個性的なデザインの乗用車。今でも中古市場では人気のようです。ピアッツアの登場により1981年に生産終了。

さて、翌1982年、Ronさんに凄いことが起きます。

In those days, it was extremely rare for a foreign person to work full-time in a large Japanese company. Because of the language, corporate culture and business style, there seemed to be little value. In my case, I was one of a growing number of people taking this career path. It was so rare that along with four other people, I was interview for an article in FORTUNE MAGAZINE. It was in the July 12, 1982 issue. I am still in close contact with one of those people today.



FORTUNE MAGAZINE interview

確かに当時、日本企業で働く外国人は少なかったですね。IBMのような外資系でも私の知る限りではおりませんでしたし、今ほど、海外からの出張者もいなかったと思います。

さて、当時のいすゞ自動車の経営状態は？

Even in those days, Isuzu Motors was in financial difficulties and had a debt to equity ratio of 85% to 15%. Also, its working capital (current assets to current liabilities) was mostly in the red. Simply, they lived off of bank borrowing. As there were a lot of land and other long-term assets that were heavily undervalued on the books, the banks were always willing to continue to lend to Isuzu.

Most of the shareholders were institutional investors, like GM. Their main concern was related to working with Isuzu more than Isuzu’s profit making. The banks wanted to lend. The trading companies wanted to process overseas sales and lend short-term. GM wanted cheap and good vehicles, which they could not produce themselves. The financial health of Isuzu Motors was a minor concern to almost of the major shareholders. When the company did lose a great deal of money during a business term or because of a product failed, no one at the top management level would be held responsible. There was always a reason other than bad management decisions. That lack of attention and accountability is one of several reasons the company continued to deteriorate during my 21 years in the company.

From the job interview and throughout my career in Isuzu Motors, I had always been able to get agreement on proposals if I said I could do it cheaper than the way it is currently done. There was always a cost cutting program in place, and that got attention.

During the job interview, I said I would bring all language training programs in-house. I would hire teachers directly and set up an in-house testing system. That alone saved millions of Japanese Yen per year. No one was interested in improvements, only how to do the same thing cheaper.

Uploaded by Nobi Saito

Global Interaction & Understanding - A Personal Journey : No.14 日本企業でのサラリーマン生活開始

ここから第六章です。代表的な日本企業いすゞ自動車の社員としての生活が始まります。さて、入社までの経緯は？

Chapter #6: BECOMING AN EMPLOYEE OF A LARGE JAPANESE CORPORATION

One of the English students I had was my next-door neighbor’s daughter. The father was to top executive in Isuzu Motors Limited. That was one of the major truck manufacturers in the country. It was one of the three oldest automotive companies in the country along with Toyota and Nissan. During and after World War II, Isuzu decided to devote most of its strength in building and marketing trucks instead of passenger cars, which Toyota and Nissan did. All three produced both cars and trucks, but Isuzu put most of its effort into trucks. The truck industry is very cyclical and is affected by economic shifts, and Isuzu suffered greatly during periods of recession. In order to survive, it had to sell off one of its plants (later to become Hino Motors) and affiliated several times with other manufacturers through product cross badging. Nothing seemed to work until in 1971 General Motors (GM) bought 34% of the company.



The family to got me into Isuzu Motors

With the very different corporate cultures and approaches to business between GM and Isuzu, there were always areas of friction and pro-GM/anti-GM camps within Isuzu Motors. The pro-GM camp was basically saying that Isuzu could not survive without GM, and to prosper, Isuzu needed all the help it could get from GM including management support. The anti-GM camp was saying that Isuzu and GM are equal partners with different strengths and GM need not participate within Isuzu’s management at all. Interestingly, I didn’t know it at the time, but the person that brought me into the company was more in the anti-GM camp. His feeling is that he could build Isuzu into an international organization without GM’s help. Anyway, he was my gateway into the company.

最初の仕事は人事の研修部。
My first position was to work in the training section within the Personnel Department. My first function was to set up a range of English classes for the entire company, as well as test staff on their English ability.

一方で、結婚に向けて準備。
While I was adjusting to working in a large Japanese company, I was also adjusting to married life. I had been with Taeko most of my time through graduate school. She’s a Tokyo girl, born and raised right in the center of the city.

The first time she brought me over to her house, I met the whole family, father, mother, two brothers and sister. Taeko is the youngest of the four children.

Taeko’s father ran a carpenter business but was pretty much retired when I met him. The two sons ran the business with the older of the two managing the company, the mother doing the accounting and the other brother doing a lot of the carpentry work.

Uploaded by Nobi Saito

以上は1980年の話です。日本の自動車の生産台数が世界一になり、モスクワオリンピックをボイコットし、竹の子族が出現し、ルービックキューブとチョロＱが流行った年です。この頃、読者の皆様はどうされていましたか。まだ、生まれていない！？私は1977年に日本IBMに入り、入社時から狙っていた海外出張で1979年12月から1980年5月までサンノゼで過ごしました。Ronさんは、サンノゼ州立大学を卒業して日本に、私はサンノゼのIBMに長期出張となりました。Ronさんと知り合ったのは30年後ですが、縁を感じます。
そして、今も、海外と関わる仕事を行い、それなりの生活を続けていられることに感謝し、自分の人生の選択が間違っていなかったことを実感しています。

Global Interaction & Understanding - A Personal Journey : No.13 上智大学で勉強開始。人生最高の出会いが。

チャレンジし、努力する。そして、初めて道が開ける。私にそのことを教えてくれたのはシリコンバレーの人たちでした。
Ron-sanは文化の異なる日本の大学院での勉強を開始、このチャレンジがその後の大きな展開につながりました。
仕事でもプライベートでも。

As the subjects in graduate school became more interesting and demanding on my time, after the first year I decided to reverse the process. I changed from a working visa to a student visa. In order to do that, I had to leave the country and process the visa outside Japan. So, I spend two weeks in the Philippines with several of the other students I studied with. We traveled from Baguio City in the north on Luzon Island to Cebu Island in the center of the Philippines all by bus or jeepney, which was a form of taxi in the Philippines.

At that time, my Japanese was good enough so I could go out and generate my own English classes to support myself. Although I only stuck to the business community, my heart was not into teaching English. I always found myself teaching more business in English to businessmen than just English itself. Also, I learned a great deal about how business was run in the respective companies I taught at. I even wrote several papers for graduate school based on what I learned teaching English. So, teaching English achieved several goals.

Much like my undergraduate studies, about 10% of the material learned was helpful throughout my professional career, but that 10% paid for itself hundreds of times over. My studies evolved around the rapidly developing economies in Asia, foreign exchange, foreign investment and different management styles between western businesses and Japanese businesses. Those management differences learned in graduate school were very helpful when I started working for a large, old-fashion, traditional Japanese company.

As I did a lot of the research by interviewing companies in Japanese, I went through the second time of the exhaustion in using daily the Japanese language, as the subject matter was so different from basic living and daily subjects of conversation. I was now talking about growth industries, management decisions and investment strategies. I really had to develop my Japanese vocabulary to discuss those topics.

As the school was graduate school, many of the students were well into their careers and worked full-time. Therefore, most of the classes were in the evenings. After our classes we would quite often go out for a couple of beers with one of the professors, Professor Hirono from Seikei University. He even published one of my papers in his school’s economic journal. It was on the development of Malaysia, and I was very proud of that 50-page paper. At the time, I had no idea that I would be traveling to the countries repeatedly once I got into my career.



Professor Hirono, Petra Fujiwara

Other people from those beer parties that I still maintain contact with today are Petra Fujiwara and Wayne Toyomura. Petra eventually went back to Germany, her native country and spent many years working for Canon of Germany as their PR Manager. At the time of this writing she’s working for Fuji-Film in Duesseldorf. She married a Japanese guy who lived a great deal of his life in Germany. Wayne was from Hawaii and eventually moved back there.

Both Petra and Wayne are excellent in Japanese and started learning the language about the way I did, but both of them were more serious about it than I was, particularly on the writing side. They have very great depth in the language. I’m more a talker and negotiator.



Early days dating

When in graduate school I met my wife Taeko. She was working at the time and had no connection with the school, but I just loved her personality. It was, and still is, very light and happy. She was the perfect match for a serious worrywart like me.

Coming to Japan, studying the language, getting to know the way the Japanese lived and attending graduate school in international business all contributed toward my dream of contributing to the world through working in the international community. A pathway to my goals of global interaction and understanding was starting to become clearer.