Following are a couple of readers' responses to the Aug. 18 Hotline to Nagatacho column headlined "National service stint could help Japan out of malaise" by Rick D. Marsh Jr.
What provides prosperity for nations is first and foremost the protection of liberty. To mandate national service is a practice that goes in direct opposition to this, and it will ultimately fail — as all such programs do — because it is a centralized mandate not in the best interest of the individual.
From a financial perspective, Japan, like the U.S., prints its money out of thin air, so funding for programs like this ultimately results in inflation, which is exactly what an increase in the money supply is. This is then later followed by increases in retail prices, which ultimately hurt young people and those on lower incomes the most.