Booming economic ties bind Japan to China
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2005-11-01 12:16

The gap in understanding extends to schools and universities. Even though more Chinese students are choosing Japanese universities over American ones, they are often surprised that their Asian neighbors are in many ways more foreign than the Americans, the newspaper said.

"I think Chinese people understand American people better," said Gao Ruihong, 35, a Chinese student at Kobe University. "People hold parties at home and invite their friends and neighbors in China or the United States. I came to Japan nine years ago, but I have seldom been invited to friends' homes." However, Gao was optimistic. "The relationship between Japan and China will become closer in the future," she said, "and I'd like to act as a bridge between the two countries."

For many in Shanghai's large Japanese community, the best way to build a better future between the countries appears to be in taking advantage of huge opportunities for prosperity today.

"We don't know what will happen to this market in the future, but we know that our development will depend on what happens here to a large extent," said Satoshi Tachikake, director of operations for Mazda in Shanghai. Japanese car companies arrived late in China compared with their European and American rivals, but today no one is investing more heavily in China than Japan.

Shanghai's official Japanese school has 2,214 students, a tenfold increase from a decade ago, and is expanding faster than ever. "We have zero space now," said the principal of the school, Kazuyuki Taichi, smiling as he displayed the model of a new school that is near completion.

Mr. Taichi, who came to Shanghai just before the April protests, expressed surprise at what he found on arriving in China. "I expected to see another transition from Communism," he said, not a booming city as big as Tokyo.

"It's difficult to make Japanese, even your own brothers and sisters, understand that Japan's development depends on China and China's development depends on Japan. They are under the influence of the media back home, which is always blasting at China."