The captain of a sinking cruise ship was trying to persuade his male passengers to let women and children board the lifeboats first. But he quickly learned he'd have to customize his pitch according to the nationalities on board. The Englishmen were easy; the captain simply appealed to their sense of honor. The French weren't so difficult, either; he just told them (though it wasn't true) that the Americans were insisting that men go first. The Germans were also a snap: the captain yelled, "Women and children first. That's the rule." And they all fell into line. The Americans went along, of course, a second after he asked them if they'd like to be heroes and save the world.

But the captain had to reach far down for a subtler argument in order to motivate the Japanese men to do the right thing. 'Women and children will go first," he declared finally, "because that is the ship-wide consensus."

This classic illustration of Japan's political nature has been told at conferences -- and by Japanese tour guides -- the world over. At the annual gargantuan Milken Institute Global Economic Conference -- a deep-thought-talkathon held last week in Beverly Hills, Calif. -- it surfaced at the conclusion of a major panel on Japan's future. The joke, warhorse that it is, contains an essential truth about Japan and its unfolding economic tragedy: The Japanese do not move forward until they are "one," in purpose, direction and sense of urgency.