Kohei Saito: AI Planned Economy, Green War Mobilization, and Japan's Isolation Risk

Economist Kohei Saito argues GAFAM already runs a planned economy and Japan must build a democratic alternative or face isolation within a decade.

• GAFAM already practices real-time planned economy: Amazon collects purchase data, personalizes feeds, and optimizes warehouse inventory algorithmically at scale.
• China has implemented large-scale data-driven planning across provinces, coordinating local firms and services — without pure top-down command.
• Saito proposes a national email service (J-Mail) as a concrete step: state-run with explicit data-use rules is safer than GAFAM reading emails with zero disclosure obligations.
• His Green Total War Economy calls for WWII-style industrial mobilization — EV, renewables, food self-sufficiency, job guarantee retraining — funded by wealth taxes and carbon taxes.
• Rejects basic income as too market-oriented; prefers direct provision of essential goods, public canteens, and luxury taxes on high-carbon consumption.
• Disagrees with economist Yusuke Narita: AI cannot choose between growth and degrowth scenarios — that value judgment must be made democratically, not algorithmically.
• Predicts AOC may run in 2028; if elected, a US-China socialist alignment could reshape global politics, leaving Cold War-minded Japan isolated and abandoned by Washington.
• Cites interwar Red Vienna as proof that scarcity-era governments can expand public housing and services rather than collapse into fascism — calls for similar radical local governments in Japan.

2026-04-23 · Watch on YouTube