ESUJ Lecture

Are Japan and Italy birds of a feather?
Lecture by Mr. Masamichi Hanabusa Chairman, ESUJ Former Japanese Ambassador to Italy

On Tuesday, February 14, a lecture by Mr. Hanabusa, our chairman, was held at Tokyo YMCA Hall. YMCA and United Nations Association of Japan are holding joint "International Forum" periodically, and this time, ESUJ jointed as a co-host. Can a proverb "Birds of feather flock together"(Like attracts like) be applied to Japan and Italy?

Within Europe, Italy sometimes is named "riddle", while Japan is often described as "inscrutable". Mr. Hanabusa, based on his 4 years experience in Italy as an ambassador, concluded that he believes Japan and Italy are birds of a feather although the color of wings and the ways of flying of the birds might be different.

Japanese people now seem to love Italy in a various field. Ten thousand of Japanese tourists are staying in Italy every day, and a flood of Italian restaurants can be seen in every city in Japan. This tendency has become remarkable in 1990s because of the change in Japanese consciousness wherein economic growth in no longer a supreme goal for Japanese but an Italian's way of thinking "enjoy life" is broadly accepted especially by women. Items common between the two countries, Mr. Hanabusa pointed out, are 1. Artisanship 2. Aesthetic Sense and 3. Epicurism. Besides these, we can see common phenomena such as frequent cabinet reshuffles, coalition government, structural corruption, low birth rate or huge financial deficit. There are also many similarities in respective histories. Introducing an analysis that the best temperature for human being to work well is between 15.5C-18.2C, Mr. Hanabusa pointed our that even the respective weather climates are rather similar. As a matter of course, he indicated there are big differences between the two such as Japanese obedience to the authority and Italian's vigorous spirit of independency, or Japanese preference of tradition and Italians acceptance of changes. Mr. Hanabusa concluded with his dream that the both nationals with their fertile sensitivity, which is their most valuable commonality, could devote to the peaceful development of the world.

The lecture was followed by vivid exchange of views on various subjects, such as educational problem, IT situation and how to communicate with Italian people through