Tsukasa Jonen is a representative of Audit & Analysis Corporation, and business partner of current visiting professor at Business School of Chuo University, economic analyst Kazuyo Katsuma. He offered advice to the Kan Cabinet and rang alarm bells on deflation before the well-known deflationary economic situation facing Japan today started. We asked Jonen, who commentates on economic affairs in a way even ordinary people can understand, about three skills he mastered while at university, and the events during those days that led to him acquiring those skills.

Skill 1--English proficiency

Jonen first become familiar with Chuo University when he was 15 years old. Jonen, whose parents both worked, didn't go to cram school and had little information regarding entrance exams, was recommended to Chuo University High School at Koganei (Chuo HS) by his junior high school teacher at the time.

One of the skills, English, was gained during this time at Chuo HS. At the time, Chuo HS had an exchange program where you could study a year at Columbia High School in New Jersey, USA. Every year, only one third grade was selected for the program, and Jonen decided to have a go. Extremely intense training at the stage before selection - an extra-curricular English conversation class held in a library room, was the key to his improved English ability.

"That lesson was really hard." says Jonen, looking back.

If you were to compare the teacher, Professor Baker, to anyone, it would be Sergeant Hartman from the Stanley Kubrick directed, Full Metal Jacket. He was a Spartan teacher and tough drillmaster who would hit the desk and yell at anyone who didn't raise their hand within two seconds of not understanding something. It was so strict that the course which started with 15 students dropped in number as the days went by, and by the third term the number of students had dwindled down to two. Only Jonen remained to the end and was basically learning in a one-on-one situation.

As a result, the following year he was selected and got to experience a year in America. Thanks to Professor Baker's Spartan methods, Jonen had no troubles with the language from day one to the point where friends he had made were saying, "You came here to study English didn't you? You can already speak enough, can't you?"

Skill 2 - Legal mind

After coming back from a year in America, Jonen graduated from Chuo HS a year later and went straight into the Department of Law, Faculty of Law, Chuo University. The Faculty of Law contained professors with individual characters such as Professor Toyo Atsumi and Professor Tetsuya Fujimoto. Jonen enthusiastically attended lectures delivered by such tutors.

I remember listening to talk on the topic "What is justice?" being stretched out over Professor Atsumi's first three lessons. Now, the passionate lessons of Professor Michael Sandle of Harvard University are popular, but 20 years ago, even more powerful lectures were taking place at Chuo University. And, at the time, Professor Fujimoto's class was classified in the criminal policy category, but we were actually profiling criminals in the same way as in movies and television dramas. It reminds me that we were doing some quite front-running stuff."

Professor Atsumi taught the Code of Criminal Procedure at the Faculty of Law, and was a leading figure in the university as the first Dean of the then newly-established Faculty of Policy Studies. There were more than a few students who came to Chuo wanting to hear these lectures, one of those being Yoshimi Watanabe, leader of Your Party, who gave a lecture at Chuo University the other day.

"On top of not being a very serious student, the bubble economy meant there were many well-paying part-time jobs, so I only went to the classes I wanted to attend, picking up information each time. But even an irresponsible student like myself could polish a wide ranging legal sense, from the concept of why laws exist, to policy issues such as what concrete procedures need to be guaranteed to apply those concepts."

Jonen, when looking back on his student days, says this sense comes in useful when helping out on the various political debate and policy discussion programs Kazuyo Katsuma appears on, as well as in preparing opinions from a legal viewpoint that don't simply finish as idealistic and narrow-minded theories.

Skill 3--Presentation skills

Jonen claims he couldn't have achieved the final skill if it wasn't for the existence of Chuo University's sole debating club, Jitatsugakkai. During his student days, the club was based on the four pillars of discussion, debate, street preaching (stumping) and mock student Diet meetings. Through his experience of these over four years, Jonen managed to sharpen his logical thinking and communication skills. Not satisfied with club activities alone, he says there were seniors who actually gave free scope to their acquired talents while working part time as secretaries to Diet members.

He also appeared on television discussion shows, fortunate enough to have the opportunity to conduct heated debate with enthusiastic guests such as Soichiro Tahara and Naoki Inose. Colleagues from the debate club have since followed a path in their own ways to realize their dreams, becoming politicians, social activists and journalists, etc.

"I just met Tahara the other day for the first time in 20 years and we were talking about those times. He still remembers us clearly. That was an unexpected and emotional reunion, but it was the moment when I realized that what I learnt at Chuo University is supporting me now".

In January this year, Jonen, the rapid writer, published his debut work, The Evil of Deflation and a Strong Yen, and last month released his third title, Japan Won't Go Bankrupt! The content of the book is written in an easy to understand style like Soichiro Tahara's Live TV Until Morning, direct and getting straight to the point. I also have high hopes for his next publication.