How an Aesop’s Fable Became a Symbol of Japan’s New Activism

Seeking to explain changing attitudes in the world’s second-biggest stock market, asset managers in Tokyo have been evoking Ancient Greece.

In Aesop’s fable of the North Wind and the Sun, the two elements have a contest to see which is stronger, the challenge being to make a man remove his coat. The north wind unleashes a gale and the man wraps up tighter. Then the sun shines and he takes the jacket off.