Aso’s optimism shines in spring visit to China

• Source: The Global Times
• [09:19 April 29 2009]
• Comments

GT: (1) It is well-known that you enjoy manga very much. Have you been able to read manga since becoming Prime Minister? Have you ever seen the Chinese manga?
(2) What do you consider that Chinese and Japanese culture have in common, and points in which they differ?

Taro Aso: (1) There have been a large number of entries from China in the running for the International MANGA Award that I founded when I was foreign minister, and entries from China won both the First and the Second International MANGA Award. The high degree of excellence of manga in China surprised me. Chinese manga have pictures very similar to Japanese manga and, since Chinese is a character-based language, the page spreads are the same as in Japanese manga, with the works being read from right to left. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Lee Chi Ching, the author of “Sun Zi’s Tactics” (of Hong Kong), which won the award for the best work in the First International MANGA Award competition. This manga has also been published in Japan, and it is one that I feel superbly demonstrates the merits unique to manga and is something that can be enjoyed in a way transcending national borders and generations. I would be pleased if in the future the entire spectrum of so-called “pop culture” – of course manga but also anime, movies, fashion, and so on – can be a vehicle for further deepening the friendly relations between our two countries.

That said, unfortunately since I became prime minister my opportunities to enjoy manga have necessarily been limited because of my many responsibilities every day.

(2) Japan and China have a long history of exchanges that is quite rare anywhere in the world, and of course we are all well aware that our countries hold many cultural points in common. The characters we use in writing certainly epitomize these, but beyond that, Confucian culture and Buddhist culture have influenced Japanese thinking considerably, and the poems of the great masters Li Bai and Du Fu and works such as the Records of Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West are all well-known to the Japanese people.

In addition, in Japan there is a great array of practices that have come to take root as Japanese traditional culture by assimilating with the culture grounded in our own social climate after being passed down through exchanges with China in antiquity. The tea ceremony is an excellent example of this.

Pop culture, such as J-pop, fashion, manga and anime, is already culture that has fresh appeal and represents Japan. Chinese young people, and indeed, young people all over the world, are attracted to it. An appealing culture is specific to one country, yet at the same time it has universality.

That is why culture spreads. Among my tasks is promoting to the world exactly that kind of Japanese culture with fresh power to appeal.