[AI Library] Chapter 4: The Prophecy of the "God of Management"
Beyond the Glass Ceiling
Part 1: Roots — From Nara to Washington
Chapter 4: The Prophecy of the "God of Management"
Kim Kyung-jin
Chigasaki City (茅ヶ崎市), Kanagawa Prefecture (神奈川県). Located 30 minutes by Shinkansen from Tokyo and 20 minutes by train from Yokohama, this coastal city is close to the Shonan (湘南) sea. In a corner of the city where young people carry surfboards to the beach in summer, there is a building with an imposing front gate. The 20,000-square-meter site houses a main hall, training center, dormitory, tea house, and gymnasium. It is quiet and orderly. It is not a tourist attraction, nor is it a corporate office. It is the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management (松下政経塾). The final dream of an old man who sought to change how Japan develops its political leaders lies buried here.
The founder was Konosuke Matsushita (松下幸之助). Born into a poor family near Osaka in 1894, he was a boy who began working at a bicycle shop at age nine without even finishing elementary school. That boy later founded the company known to the world as Panasonic and left his mark on Japanese economic history. Electric irons, washing machines, refrigerators, and televisions—products that changed the landscape of post-war Japanese homes poured out of his factories. In the 1960s, the Japanese media, searching for a title to describe him, settled on this expression: the "God of Management" (経営の神様). That phrase became the title that followed Konosuke Matsushita throughout his life.
However, at the age of 84, Matsushita was not satisfied with the wealth he had built. He had a concern: Japanese politics. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was dominated by factions and personal connections, the opposition was buried in ideological struggles, and lawmakers prioritized their parties over the people. He once remarked in an interview, "If Japanese politics continues like this, the country will perish." He reached the conclusion that to prevent this ruin, politicians must be properly trained. In 1979, he invested 7 billion yen of his private fortune to establish the school in Chigasaki. The Matsushita Institute of Government and Management opened its doors in April of the following year, 1980.
Competition for admission was fierce from the start. Out of approximately 200 applicants each year, only five or six were selected. The process included essay exams, group discussions, and multi-stage interviews. They looked for passion over knowledge and potential over background. The selected students paid no admission or tuition fees. Instead, they received millions of yen in annual research stipends to support their studies. Matsushita’s philosophy was simple: Do not spare money when it comes to developing talent for the country. That is a true investment.
The educational method was unique. It was not a system where students sat in a classroom and took notes on a professor's lecture. The philosophy that Konosuke Matsushita had practiced throughout his life was reflected directly in the teaching method: "Jishu-jitoku" (自修自得)—self-study and self-attainment. Instead of teachers providing knowledge, students learned by confronting the real world directly. They visited rural villages, toured fishing towns, looked into local administrations, and walked through corporate sites. A 3-kilometer jog early every morning was standard. There were 100-kilometer forced marches, trial enlistments in the Self-Defense Forces, and practice in tea ceremony, calligraphy, and Zen meditation. A strong body, a calm mind, and a broad perspective—this was the image of the leader Matsushita desired.
It was in the spring of 1984 that Sanae Takaichi entered as a member of the 5th class. It was immediately after her graduation from the Faculty of Business Administration at Kobe University. Choosing the Matsushita Institute over a corporate job or graduate school was a choice that those around her likely found puzzling. At the time, while the Institute was known, it was not a place that guaranteed a career path after graduation. Though it aimed to "develop politicians," the Japanese political world was one dominated by hereditary succession and personal networks. For a woman with no organization, no local base, and no famous politician father, there was no guarantee that graduating from the Matsushita Institute would allow her to become a lawmaker.
Nevertheless, she made her choice. The exact reason for that decision is not recorded. However, there is a consistent character trait in the fact that a college student who majored in business mathematics at Kobe University while playing drums in a heavy metal band volunteered for a school that trains politicians. She does not follow conventional paths. She moves in the direction she believes is right. That character, which would later permeate her entire political life, was already evident in her career choice at age twenty-two.
Life within the Institute was much more intense than expected. Living communally in the Chigasaki dormitory, she started each day with a morning run. There were oral presentations, paper writing, and visits to local sites. Above all, it was a system where one had to set their own research topics and find their own answers. No one provides the right answer. One must go to the field to see for oneself, meet people to ask directly, and make their own judgments based on that. That method would later become ingrained in Takaichi's approach to policy: looking at data personally, hearing field opinions directly, and forming her own conclusions based on that.
During the same period, individuals who would later become prominent politicians were studying at the Institute. Yoshihiko Noda (野田佳彦) was a member of the 1st class. He would later become Prime Minister during the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) administration. There is an interesting connection. Part of the Institute’s educational policy included practical training where students learned by assisting senior politicians in their election campaigns. In 1987, while Takaichi was a student in the 5th class, Yoshihiko Noda ran for the Chiba Prefectural Assembly for the first time. There is a record that Takaichi participated in that campaign as a staff member, staying at Noda’s house and helping with poster pasting. Later, the two would stand on opposite sides of Japanese politics, but at their starting point, they shared meals as senior and junior of the same school.
And then there is a lecture that Konosuke Matsushita is said to have given personally. In 1985, Matsushita spoke to the students about the future of the Japanese economy. What he said there was at odds with the atmosphere of Japan at the time. In 1985, Japan was overflowing with confidence. The Nikkei stock index was rising sharply, the trade surplus was at an all-time high, and it was an era when Japanese companies were buying Rockefeller Center in the U.S. and Hollywood film studios were being acquired by Japanese capital. The term "Japan Money" headlined global economic news.
Matsushita said on that occasion, "By 1990, Japan will enter a long recession." He warned that the current boom was a bubble, and once it burst, the Japanese economy would experience a long period of stagnation. It is not recorded what expressions the students had when they heard those words. They were likely skeptical. The reality before their eyes was too different from that prophecy. However, Takaichi, who heard that prophecy, remembered this moment years later.
January 1990. The Nikkei index began to fall from its peak. The decline that started from 38,000 points did not stop. In 1992, it fell below 15,000 points. Real estate prices collapsed along with it. Land prices in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya dropped to less than half in five years. Banks staggered under the weight of non-performing loans. Companies began restructuring. The "Lost Decade" had begun. Those words Konosuke Matsushita had spoken in the Chigasaki classroom in 1985 became reality exactly five years later.
Konosuke Matsushita passed away in April 1989 at the age of 94. He did not live to see his prophecy come true. However, there was a student among those who heard that prophecy: Sanae Takaichi, a member of the 5th class. What that prophecy planted in her can be glimpsed in her economic policies thirty years later after she became Prime Minister.
There is something Takaichi has consistently advocated throughout her life: "proactive fiscal policy." A fight against deflation. A position that fiscal austerity further kills the economy. At the root of this claim lies the recognition that Japan received the wrong prescription after the bubble burst. The choice of the Japanese government to opt for fiscal austerity in the 1990s made the recession even longer. A person who heard Matsushita’s prophecy with her own ears now examines the causes of that recession and seeks to translate those lessons into policy. The memory of the Chigasaki classroom thus leads all the way to the Prime Minister’s Official Residence.
The period of study at the Institute was officially five years. However, a decisive experience was inserted during those five years. In 1987, the Institute sent her to Washington. She was dispatched as a fellow to the United States Congress. That story is in the next chapter.
Let us note one more thing. The Matsushita Institute of Government and Management has produced numerous graduates over the 45 years since its opening. Lawmakers, local government heads, businesspeople, and journalists. Among them, two individuals have become Prime Ministers of Japan. Yoshihiko Noda of the 1st class (2011) and Sanae Takaichi of the 5th class (2025). Two people from the same school with different ideologies and opposite political positions. In the Prime Ministerial election in the House of Representatives on October 21, 2025, the two faced each other at a crossroads of history. Noda received 149 votes, and Takaichi received 237 votes. Graduates of the school founded by Konosuke Matsushita competed at the pinnacle of Japanese power, and the 5th class student defeated the 1st class student.
The "God of Management" did not live to see this. However, the results are clear regarding how the seeds planted in Chigasaki have grown. An investment of 7 billion yen gave birth to Japan’s first female Prime Minister.