Last Chapter: Communication and me
I'm going to summarize my idea at this point.
For Japanese people, it is necessary to get along with different people in the world, especially Asian people, because Japan is a economically, socially and culturally matured country, and now she doesn't have the power of growth as before. In addition, the population in Japan is going to decrease. So, I think that we have to think about our immigrant policy seriously.
We have to have an attitude to understand different people more, in order to make the policy successful. As a book salesman, my possible contribution is to make Japanese libraries better. I think that it helps people get higher literacy, therefore we can understand different people more.
I am Japanese, that’s why now I am thinking about Japan and Japanese first.
But, of course, it is important in general for everyone to understand and work together with different people.
However, now, I have to ask me this. “Is it possible?”
After September 11th in 2001, we became pessimists. We know the importance of understanding of others, but the world is now filled with Terrorism and War. We can't find out the attitude to understand each other in the world. On the other hand, we can find easily the attitude to use violence to beat different people.
Although I hate and don't choose violence as the way to solve problems, I can, a little, understand Terrorism and War. (Safely, I add that I said not "accept" but "understand".)
We have different opinions, beliefs, viewpoints and policies. Sometimes the difference is very big. We sometimes think that it seems to be impossible to understand each other. But I think that the difference is from different information and knowledge, on which our thinking is based. Thus, if we can communicate with each other enough, we can share same information and knowledge. Then, our difference can be ignored or erased.
However, actually it is difficult to communicate with each other enough. Because we have to decide many things within a limited time. Our life time is short. We usually have to stop the dialogue with different people, before reaching a same viewpoint.
My point is that we can understand each other logically, but we can't communicate enough actually.
So, the people hurrying up to solve problems, can be violent.
I know that Democracy is the best way to reach an answer to many issues.
We can solve problems together in democratic rules, without using violence. I agree that Democracy should be spread out more in this world.
However, I don’t think that Democracy is perfect.
The reason is, as I said above, that we have to stop dialogue with the people with different opinion, before understanding each other.
Some time, Democracy is used as an excuse of suppressing minor opinions. Majority can call ”TIME OUT” when Minor is speaking, and can make a decision by the numerical power.
Democracy is not always patient.
We have to understand that some people are very skeptical about Democracy.
My question to myself is, that could we understand and get along with different people?
It is more difficult to understand others, than to get along with others.
So, it might be better for us to try to get an easier skill at first.
In fact, we can go well without understanding others.
The skill we have is to ignore each other. We might not be friendly to everyone. If so, it is wise to try not to keep in touch with the people we don’t like.
Hate can be amplified by Communication.
Or, I might be able to say that Hate is created by Communication.
I don’t think that American can be a friend of Arab by communication.
I don’t think that Palestinian people can enjoy to communicate with Israel people.
For them, keeping their distance for a while (maybe for about 100 years) could be better, to be friends someday.
But, there is a case when we can’t escape from the people we don’t like. Now most of countries are related to each other very much; economically and politically, on the government level and the private level.
In this case, we can’t choose the way to ignore each other.
As a Japanese proverb says, if we eat poison, we should eat even the plate with it. It means that we have to do anything fully after we have started it.
If we can’t escape from the communication with others, we have to communicate with them fully.
From now, I am going back to think about Japan-China and Japan-Korea relationship. What kind of communication is good for us?
These days, anti-China and anti-Korea books are sold very much in Japan.
The readers of such books were limited before, and ordinary people saw them as extreme. However, recently, Japanese began to prefer such books.
The feeling of hatred towards China and Korea is presented very directly and honestly in the books.
More is Net World. We can find many Japanese sites for giving dirty words to our neighbors.
It is obvious that this phenomenon is stimulated by anti-Japanese movement in China and the Korean president’s criticism of Japan.
The movement and the criticism were caused by Yasukuni shrine problem. But, Yasukini is just a trigger. The feeling of hatred towards Japan has been accumulated in the two countries for a long time.
Japanese look to catch up with the accumulation of hate now.
We are collecting a lot of “evidences” in history, to make a strong logic to defend Japan and attack “the lie” of Chinese and Korean.
It is generally right, to correct the wrong facts of history for the study.
But, we had better know that the motivation to defend or attack something is not needed for the study. For me, the Japanese preferring to this issue is too political or too emotional.
So are Chinese and Korean. Their perspective also looks far from a neutral position.
I think that our knowledge is limited about history. That’s why, for Japanese, it is easy to find out wrong facts about Japan from the Chinese and Korean’s opinion. We know about Japan-side well, but they don’t.
On the other hand, Japanese would have a lot of misunderstanding about Chinese and Korean history.
The important thing is to share each-side’s facts, than to attack others.
The problem among us is clear. Japanese, Chinese and Korean all are too much concentrated on making the opinion to beat each-side.
The solution is clear. We should give our attention to exchange and share our knowledge. We should communicate with each other more.
However, this solution is not easier than we think.
When I talk about the historical problem, I feel my unconscious tendency to try to defend Japan. I guess that Chinese and Korean have the same one.
Why do we have the tendency?
I think that the main reason is in our language.
Listening to Japanese idea, I can understand Japanese feeling TOO MUCH.
I can easily sympathize with it.
Although exchanging historical facts is easy, but sharing the feeling is difficult. So, our communication must not be led by an emotional factor.
My suggestion is this. When we communicate with different people, we shouldn’t use our mother language. It has a magical power. It discourages us to come close to the different way of thinking and feeling. It makes us attached to our familiar thinking. But, we have to know that too much understanding is as dangerous as no understanding.
For Japanese, Chinese and Korean, it is better to communicate with each other in English. I think that it can be the neutral zone for us. We know that it is a good way for hostile countries to meet in a third country. My idea is the language version of this way.
In the future, I want to make a publishing company in Asia. I will use English first for my publication. I don’t think that our difference will be erased even then. But, I can expect that we will make a new history of our communication. By this new experience, we could get over our differences.
This is the goal of my English study!
Fin.
