Economics, it is sometimes useful to point out, can hardly be analyzed at all if divorced from some basic cultural parameters. A recent academic gathering in Japan reminded us of just that.

The annual Shizuoka Forum took as its starting point the human element behind the flood of statistics, economic forecasts and analyses. How, in short, can the prosperity of individuals, as well as the harmony of figures, be achieved?

The 1998 forum, which focused exclusively on the Asian economic crisis, was enriched by hints for including and considering the cultural dimension as well the purely economic one. The latest forum, still basically a gathering of economists, considered the general theme of "Skills and Cultures in Asia." The moderators and panelists, academics and prominent businessmen -- mostly Japanese, along with some Japanese-educated Taiwanese, Koreans, Thais and Malaysians -- had, of course, to treat many delicate economic, political and technical points as they examined issues such as new information technologies and their revolutionary impact, the complex notion of the "industrial cluster theory" and the dangers of the current situation in Indonesia. But at the same time they recognized the importance of the cultural element.