The U.S. Had Paid More Respect to a Japanese Businessman Than to Japanese Politicians

CHINO, Japan, Aug. 22, 2020—I was not surprised to learn today that a Japanese civilian, one Mr. Tadao Yoshida, was (at least according to my research) the first and only Japanese civilian who had received, in post mortem, an American president in his funeral services.
And Mr. Yoshida seems to have been the only Japanese, including civilians, government officials and military personnel, who received in his eternal sleep an American president as a guest of honor.
President Jimmy Carter attended the funeral services of Tadao Yoshida, the founder of YKK Co., the world’s largest zipper manufacturer who died in 1994 at 84 years old, as the first and only American leader to offer eulogies to a Japanese civilian.
When Carter visited Japan for a G8 summit in the 1980s, he met Yoshida, who explained his philosophy, the Cycle of Goodness, to the U.S. president. Carter was so impressed by the philosophy that he began associating with Yoshida frequently. The philosophy, or theory, goes something like, no one prospers without giving benefits to others.
The Carter Center website quotes the former president reporting on the ‘Trip Report, Japan & China September 3012, 2003’ as saying that Carter had 12 meals at his favorite yakitori restaurant in Tokyo’s Roppongi since 1975, including some with Yoshida.
‘We had supper with Trustee Tad Yoshida and his family at the same little yakitori restaurant that we habitually visit. According to the plaques around the table, this was my 12th meat there, beginning in 1975,’ Carter wrote, expressing friendship to Yoshida.
What about the Japan-U.S. relationship in the contemporary time between peoples of all walks of life in the two countries? Even before Donald Trump became the president, the bilateral interfacing was weakening fast if not breaking down in response to the emergence of not only China but also other Asian economies while Japan’s standing had been eroding also for its own making. After the coronavirus pandemic, Japan’s presence in the world has took a dive for its inept handling and failure to develop vaccines fast enough.
What now to the Carter-Yoshida-like relationship? It probably won’t be reincarnated because of divergence of interest on the part of the two countries and, in the business world, moves to repatriate business activities to home countries.

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