Chapter two: East Asia and me
The difficult problem between Japan and East Asian countries, especially China and Korea, is well known. It's the problem about perception of history.
Although the economical relationship between East Asian countries are becoming closer, the perception of history sometimes has a strong barrier. I think this situation is a miserable.
My interest in Asia was not strong before.
My old Aeon teacher happened to go to China and invite me there. After that, I started to think about Asia and Japan seriously.
Some Japanese think that Japan was not bad in the World War II.
I disagree with this opinion. However, it is understandable that Japanese bad would be softened when we think about the world situation at the time of war. Western countries had already invaded Asia. Japan was also their target. But Japan tried to get her own power after facing Western power. And Japan became their rival. If Japan had been still weak, it would have been invaded by Western countries.
This might be a good excuse for some Japanese.
But my opinion is different.
We became a competitor against Western countries. But we could be a protestant together with other Asian countries. I think Japan at that time chose her way wrongly.
It is difficult to interpret history.
Most Chinese people, most Korean people and most Japanese people think we have a barrier, to understand each other. The barrier is mostly related to the perception of history.
This problem is very deep, but on the other hand we could be optimistic.
Because nobody thinks there is another problem except for the historical perception.
In other words, if we can solve this only one problem, we can be combined easily and smoothly.
Actually our life style in East Asia is similar.
Recently a textbook of history was published.
The textbook was edited by Chinese, Korean and Japanese scholars, together.
It aims at breaking the narrow Nationalistic perspective of history.
I've never read the book but I think the aim of the book is the right one. We can carry on after solving this only one problem.
Some Economists think East Asia should be one community. I agree with it.
East Asian countries can make a community like EU in the future.
I know EU has many internal problems. The integration of economy created unemployment and low economical growth for some countries. It often causes strong political reaction.
Watching such a phenomenon, some people oppose merging of Japan with other countries. However, Japan can not escape from merging with other countries. The reason is her aged society and decreasing population.
I think Japan is one of the sexually open countries. But now people don’t make babies. On the other hand, people’s life span is still long. Consequently old people are increasing.
Who is going to support the old generation? This is the biggest problem in Japan.
In some years, Japanese population is going to decrease. It will be a chance for foreigners to come to Japan. The high housing cost now will get lower because the demand for houses will decrease.
I expect that many foreigners come to live in Japan and become a social power.
Considering the regional closeness, it’s easy for South Asian people to come.
Now Japanese have to think about this situation and make a good social infrastructure.
If Japanese mind is not open to new comers, East Asians will make small communities in Japan naturally. This is a bad scenario.
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I know that it is not easy to mix different people and different cultures.
I had gone drinking with a Korean student at Aeon once. That person was strange. He had worked in Japan as an engineer for some years. His Japanese was very fluent and good. He knew about Japan very much.
When we started to drink with some teachers and students, he was very polite.
After finishing the first drink, I invited him to another bar.
In every drink, I want a second stage.
In the bar, his character has changed a little, may be due to alcohol, but he was getting aggressive and critical to Japan. His tone of talk had the looking down of Japanese.
I am not a lawyer for Japan. I didn't have to defend Japan at that time, and anytime. But I have to correct what I think is incorrect anytime, and I had to do at that time. That’s why he might have thought I defended Japan. Our argument began to heat up.
I have forgotten almost all of what we discussed there. The discussion might not have been interesting.
But I remember one thing.
He told me that he didn't want to stay in Japan, and would go to America in the future. It was his dream.
He had a long experience in Japan then. And he was good at Japanese. It was better than English. And he even had Japanese friends and colleagues. But he was not interested in Japan as a stage of life.
This was quite a thing to think about deeply.
I don't think this is only his case.
Maybe we are failing to construct real friendship with non-Japanese.
Now Japanese universities are getting many young foreign students.
The number is already over 100 thousands.
This is a good chance for both Japanese and foreigners, to communicate with and understand each other. And I think now they are enjoying together in campuses. But not many foreign students can stay in Japan after graduating.
Because, it is difficult for them to find a job here.
We are losing easily the people who are familiar with Japan.
Even though they are the best supporters for Japan.
What should we do?
My thinking about the ultimate solution is to break the barrier of some Asian countries and to mix them.
I think this idea is more acceptable for Japanese than for other Asians.
Because now Japanese people prefer Individualism to Nationalism.
Chinese and Korean may think that the nationalism in Japan is getting bigger.
Yasukuni Shrine problem looks like the symbol. But, politician's performance is not related to people's mentality. Most people are interested in personal things, not in history or nation; in short, public things.
So, I think the mixture of countries is possible.
But also, I know that things can proceed step by step.
Before destroying something, we have to construct a “New Road.”
