TOKYO, Sept. 16, 2021—Almost day in and out, China’s successisve invasions of Japanese territorial waters, ruthless catching of marine resources around Japan, acquisitions of precious Japanese resort properties and numerous other aggressive acts splash the Japanese media.
Chinese naval forces’ increasing intimidations of Japanese fishing boats around Senkaku Island, impolite and overt investments in prime Niseko, Hokkaido and many other resorts, acquisitions of Japnese companies through obscure Hong Kong entities are quietly taking hold, while Japanese cities are largely devoid of floods of Chinese tourists after the COVID-19 outbreak 1-1/2 years ago. The absence of boiterous Chinese tourists on Tokyo and Osaka streets give a semblance of pre-tourism tranquility to Japanese residents.
It probably is an ephemeral quietness before the pandemic is harnessed firmly and tourists, notably the Chinese, come back. And the Japanese are going to welcome the mobs next time, many of them armed with some Chinese language capabilities. Their hope is to transact with Chinese more professionally in Chinese languages that they are learning now.
It’s the reason why Chinese language schools are gaining traction in Japan. Japanese celebrities are attending Chinese language classess, the likes of Ruriko Kojima. Some Japan-resident Chinese, encouraged by a fresh Japanese interest in Chinese languages, have begun offering on-line classes. And although a small but growing cadre of Japanese school children are attending Chinese and Hangul Korean language classes after school hours, on top of English in schools.
‘Animal instinct is telling Japanese to learn Chinese (and Korean to a lesser degree),’ a friend of mine told me recently. ‘China’s global expansion is difficult to stop, so they need to be prepared to welcome Chinese.’
On Sept. 15, 2021, the Biden administration announced that it would help deploy Australia nuclear-powered submarines with capabilities to mount nuclear weapons to counter growing Chinese threats in South China Sea. Washington is known to be negotiating similar deals with South Korea. Japan doesn’t have nuclear-powered submarines nor nuclear weapons under its peace constitution.
Almost contrary to the Japanese government’s anti-China rhetorics, lay Japanese seem lukewarm to the idea of confronting Chinese. For one thing, they are skeptical of the U.S.-led military approach toward China because of China’s geographical proximity to many conflict areas of the seas and airs around China.
Japanese also seem overwhelmed by the fact that the Chinese population is more than 10 times that of Japan’s 126 million. If a war ereupts, Japan’s military capabilities would be pulvarized in a matter of days, and worse, in a nuclear war, the entire Japanese archipelagoes would be annihilated in a matter of hours.
It’s this doomsday fears that are prompting the Japanese to practise Chinese languages.
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Insight Into the Future