The Japan-China Friendship association of Junior Chamber International Japan (JCI-Japan), which I serve as the president, is a typical pro-China organization composed by people concerned non-profit organization“JCI-Japan”. And, the association has been supported diversified exchange events between JCI-Japan and China.
　
First of all, in order to explain about the association and our activities, I will introduce you JCI-Japan, which pass the 30th anniversary this year.

 

JCI-Japan has approximately 36,000 members in Japan, and more than 180,000 people in the world participate in the activities. Also the members are mainly composed of people from the business circle and most of them run their own business.

 

Their themes of the activities include social reforms, personnel trainings, and so on, and these activities are pure voluntary activities contributed by volunteers who were with no regard of gains or losses.

 

Sometimes that kind of activities is misunderstood, but the association is neither a political organization with certain political objectives, nor an economic organization aimed to promote business transactions. Rather it is a social organization for financially-independent entrepreneurs to make contributions and realize self-cultivation.
　
As one of the features, the activities carried out by JCI-Japan take new forms each year. For example, mechanisms and cadres are both one year. That’s because the members think various practice through the activities lead to promote member’s individual development and personality formation.

 

On the other hand, in the aspect of the relationship with others, like establishing cross-border friendship and personal relations, that feature can be disadvantages. So, regarding Japan-China friendship activities, which are one of the major topics of JCI-Japan, the association members who have engaged in the activities support the active members. In the other words, the association has established to help JCI-Japan, and it is composed of   those who are 40 years old or more and have fulfilled their membership of JCI-Japan.

Reviewing the activities we have carried out in the past 30 years, as first and foremost achievement, we changed Japanese people’s attitude toward China and Chinese people. That is, many people have improved their understanding about China.

 

Our longest relationship in China is with the All-China Youth Federation. We have worked together to organize exchange programs every year. These programs and conversations with Chinese people enabled Japanese to experience ‘China’ and Chinese culture as well as life-style.

 

Although you feel new and fresh at your first vising of China, the scenery and the impression you see and feel will become a bit different through the experiences. What I want to mention is, not all the experiences in China is pleasant. There would be unpleasant or tiring experiences. In other words, that kind of memory, caused from people’s different perspective, provide you such a good opportunity to get in touch with new values.

 

If one makes no attempts to get progressed, he can only stay in his own world. By visiting different places and realizing that the world is different from our common sense, we can get the breadth of mind and kindness, which makes us matured. Additionally, the most important thing is to understand　things deeply. That means, if you go abroad just for sight-seeing, or you join activities only in a passive manner, what you get will be very limited. This theory is true not only of Japanese, but also of Chinese.

 

In fact, the international exchange activities carried out by JCI Japan are aimed at allowing its members to earnestly participate in a common cause, so as to gain that kind of special sense and notices, which is never same depending on one’s own background and experiences.
　
Although the youth exchange program with the Chinese Association for International Understanding (CAFIU) has just started this year, we had a good result by focusing on the attractive topics and inviting people who have curiosity to them. That’s because CAFIU Secretary-General Ni Jian and I both believe that the exchange should be focused on content rather than on scale or form. Based on this consensus, we realized in-depth exchanges, which were divided by field and with only small number. This effort was the key to our success.

 

In the coming year, I sincerely wish that the Chinese participants would visit Japan and feel the real situation in Japan and know the way of thinking of Japanese.I also hope that more and more young Chinese opinion leaders have the chances to see Japan with their own eyes and exchange their ideas with Japanese, especially with people who get matured.

 

We are neither aimed at simply gathering some pro-China people who hold some pro forma conservative activities, nor winning the debate or persuading the other side via argument. The most meaningful thing is the improvement of the mutual understanding in order to ease the gap between the two countries by accepting the other’s ideas and delivering one’s own messages.
　
Someone says the relationship between Japan and China would be on the verge of breaking out these days. In my opinion, for easing this situation, we should not wait blindly for the formal diplomatic progress between the governments. Instead, we should turn to the civil society, start from individuals and cultivate public opinion with years of efforts-this method seems to seek the far and neglect what lies close at hand, however, it can obtain tangible achievements.

 

I also think we can avoid repeating the mistake which we have made in the past, if both Japan and China provide the wide range of education on the national level and promote each people’s awareness. This is the strongest safety valve of Japan-China relations.
　
By the way, one can usually live for no longer than 100 years. Even though people feel they experienced lots of things in their own lives, the span seems very brief comparing with the eternal Japan-China relations. Therefore, in order to enrich our limited life and not to waste it on meaningless disputes, I pinned my hope on the bright future of Japan-China relations. And I hope people make all-out efforts so as to make it better. Shouldn’t neighbors learn from each other, respect each other, and achieve harmonious development more naturally? Since the tribute era, both countries have gone through different historical periods and neither side occupied the absolutely leading role. Now that 70 years have passed since the end of the World War Ⅱ, I hope both countries reaffirm their stance on learning from each other without criticizing.
　
There’s an old saying that “When a person has met his wants, he is scrupulous” originally coming from China. In the past, Japan also experienced the chaos phase, which was in the high economic growth period, and suffered from shortage of food and clothes. At that time, on the one hand, some Japanese wasn’t matured enough and took some bad attitude, but the other hands, some people had the good energy and vitality. For example, it was quite natural for people to look forward, dream of tomorrow with the hungry spirit, and work hard for it, at that period. Compared with the past, I think   today’s Japan has got completely matured and is with much more perfect etiquette, but it doesn’t mean the Japanese today have surpassed the Japanese of that time at all aspects. One thing I could say is that people can grow up, seek for the happiness at the higher level, and at last realize it by knowing various societies and seeing lots of individuals beyond times and national borders.

 

In Japan, there are not only attracting commodities, but also many other outstanding aspects worth looking, understanding and experiencing for the Chinese people. As for in China, there are things we Japanese have forgotten or not good at, which deserve to feel and learn. Also there must be the undiscovered virtue, which is far beyond the imagination of Japanese people. It’s not a bad thing that people of each country are proud of their nations, but the point is, excessive pride would cause the embarrassment. Therefore, while competing with each other, an important quality to be a member of the developed world is the respects for its competitors and the self-cultivation.

 

For the better future of both China and Japan, what we should do now is to accept the things we see and hear with our own eyes and ears, rather than imagine or conclude based on the limited information offered by education and news reports. There are a lot of means to realize this objective. Among them, to encounter people and to have mutual cultivations through the international exchanges is very meaningful method. I believe this experience enables us to know lots of new things and learn from each other, and furthermore gives us the opportunity of growth. To tell the truth, this is the one of the main reasons why JCI-Japan focus on the international exchanges as the public diplomacy.

By promoting international exchanges as programs, we expect two outcomes. First, program organizers in charge of designing, preparing, and implementing the programs will get knowledge and exercises in the very process. Second, the programs will deeply impress and influence each participant. For example, it is impossible to realize our objective solely with sightseeing or on-the-surface exchanges, but I believe our programs can leave deep impression and experiences into the participants. This is because we try to match the participant’s aims and backgrounds and put emphasis on the program effect rather than scale. And I expect this special activities have a great effect on the medium-term mutual understanding between Japan and China, which also help making a good public opinion.

 

Therefore, rather than catering to the current external environment, we should take our sight on the 20-year development goals of Japan-China relations.
　
In the end, I’d like to tell a little story of my own. Before long, I accidentally left my wallet at the Currency Exchange of Shanghai Pudong International Airport. It was the next evening that I noticed the fact, which would be nothing more than silly. Almost all my Chinese friends told me that I was unlikely to retrieve my wallet. The third day, it was weekend, and on that morning, I went to Shanghai Pudong International Airport with a glimmer of hope. To my big surprise, although two days had passed, the wallet was still there. Fortunately, airport staffs keep my wallet at the counter, and it was completely untouched.

 

When the anticipation of my friends was smashed and my slim expectation came true, I could felt a strong confidence in the future of China. Rather than a proportion of Chinese, we have ample reasons to expect all the Chinese to become mature citizens. And, China will become a country which has mutual understanding between Japan in the near future.

 

         

         (The English version was provided by the author, who takes sole responsibility for it.)