Beijing residents play table tennis in a park.  Source:VCG

In an exclusive interview with the Global Times in Beijing on Thursday, Shinkai Norihiro, director of Japan's Tokyo Shimbun in China, talked about the changes he has felt since returning to Beijing after seven years.

Norihiro's article entitled "Seeing Beijing's Air Pollution Improvement through Jogging" was published earlier and attracted widespread attention.

"I feel that Chinese people have improved a lot in terms of politeness, etiquette and service awareness," Norihiro said, adding that "when I left Beijing in March 2015, people's material living standards were already very good and this time I saw a different spiritual appearance."

Norihiro returned to Beijing in June this year after a seven-year hiatus. This is the third time he has set up resident in Beijing after living in the Chinese capital from 2006 to 2009 and from 2012 to 2015. He also studied Chinese language and literature at the Minzu University of China from 1991 to 1992.

In just over a month, he has felt the goodwill of Chinese people, but not because he is a foreigner, Norihiro told the Global Times, noting that a woman in front of him in the supermarket offered to let him pay first when she saw that he only bought a bottle of water. "I look like a Chinese person, so she should not know that I am a foreigner." Norihiro said.

Norihiro is impressed by the improvement in China's service industry, noting that it is not only more attentive to the service attitude, but also "considerate of guests" in detail.

"I accidentally left my business card and umbrella in the restaurant and I thought I would never get them back," said Norihiro, adding that he found that all the things he lost were well kept.

As a marathon enthusiast himself, Norihiro always likes to run on the streets of Beijing in his spare time. Norihiro also observed a "fitness craze" in China, which he sees as a sign that people have "money and leisure" and are paying attention to their health. 

Compared with seven years ago, there are many more runners now, he told the Global Times, and I can see many cyclists with professional equipment along the way. 

"It is a change of mindset which means that more and more Chinese people are enjoying their lives," Norihiro told the Global Times, noting that the changes happened "naturally."

"In fact, China has surpassed Japan in some respects," Norihiro said, recalling that when he was in Japan, he learned about China's technological innovation and progress through some books and reports, such as sharing bicycles, mobile payments, among others.

"But after I really came here and experienced it myself, I realized the beauty of it," he said, highlighting that China's food delivery and taxi service are "convenient and cheap" compared with Japan.

Norihiro also has a feeling that in the past some Chinese people seemed to like to use brand products to "show their identity" but now people no longer judge others by their appearance. "This shows that Chinese people are more mature and confident," Norihiro said.

Back in China, Norihiro felt that the whole society was full of vitality and that young people were motivated. He told the Global Times, for example, that the younger generation in Japan prefer to do the work assigned by the boss step by step.

In the past ten years, the income of Japanese people has not increased, the gap between the rich and the poor has gradually widened, the living conditions of young people have not fallen but have risen, and society has become more introverted and conservative, Norihiro noted. 

He said that some people may feel that China's development has slowed down in recent years, but compared with other countries, China is still fast.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan. Talking about the ups and downs in China-Japan relations Norihiro told the Global Times that he hoped that after the epidemic, the increase in people-to-people exchanges between the two countries could ease bilateral relations.

Next, Norihiro will go to Xi'an to report on an exhibition about the Terracotta Warriors. He said that he hopes to explore China from different perspectives in the future and tell Japanese readers rich and three-dimensional Chinese stories.