Local governments nationwide upgrade the counterpart support system initiated by China, which is highly effective in helping recovery and reconstruction after the Noto Peninsula Earthquake

1. Growing popularity of Japan

As the COVID-19 pandemic calms down, the increase in the number of visitors to Japan from overseas is conspicuous.

The cumulative number for the period from January to November 2023 remained at 22.33 million, more than 20% smaller than during the pre-COVID period (2019), when it was 29.36 million.

A look at monthly numbers, however, shows that it recovered to the pre-COVID level, at 2.52 million in October (up 0.8% compared to the same month of 2019) and at 2.44 million in November (up 0.0%).

The number of visitors from China, the largest before COVID-19 on a country-by-country basis, continued to be sluggish, at 2.11 million during the period of January to November 2023 (down by 76.2% compared to the 2019 level), and even in November alone, it remained low, registering a decrease of 65.6%, but the overall number of visitors to Japan from overseas recovered to the level specified above.

During the interval, an increase in the number of foreigners who purchased real estate in Japan was also noticeable.

It is said that expensive condominium units on high floors at the Azabudai Hills, which opened in November and furnished a major topic of conversation, were priced at 10-30 billion yen, and I heard that many of them had been bought by foreign wealthy people.

It is also reported that ten to 20 percent of those who purchased high-grade tower condominium units in Toyosu and its vicinity, which commands a view of Tokyo Bay, were Chinese.

As described above, the increase in the number of foreigners who like to visit Japan or buy real estate in the country is remarkable.

One major reason for this is that partly because of the yen depreciation, travel expenses, including lodging and dining, in Japan are considerably low in foreign currencies, and another is that real estate in the country is relatively less expensive compared to those in major overseas cities, especially Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing, which are all close to Japan.

Nonetheless, a comparison of prices alone indicates that on average, hotel expenses in China are lower than those in Tokyo and that real estate in Seoul is relatively cheaper than that in Tokyo.

Despite these circumstances, China is suffering from a decrease in the number of visitors to the country from overseas, and Seoul’s real estate is not attracting as much attention among foreigners as Tokyo’s condominiums.

Given these facts, it is assumed that factors other than pricing also contribute to making Japan highly attractive.

When I ask a Chinese friend of mine about the appeal of Japan, he indicates that when he stays in Japan, he finds many attractions such as varied tourist sites with beautiful scenery, hot-spring resorts, delicious meals, low-priced yet quality services, and a wide variety of charming souvenirs (such as daily necessities, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and goods for hobbies).

Underlying these various attractions of Japan are the spirit of hospitality and consideration for others, disciplined, careful, and reliable services provided by transport, lodging, and other facilities, and the high standard of public safety and other daily consideration as well as norms of Japanese.

These features are based on traditional Japanese moral culture, and behind it is character-developing education based on the five virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness, merciful heart, altruism, and so forth.

The postwar school education does not put emphasis on such moral education, which attaches importance to character developing.

During the Edo period, thorough moral education was widely provided to the entire nation through terakoya private schools, hanko (domain schools for the ruling class children), and other educational institutions, and this penetrated deeply into the minds of Japanese and became an integral part of Japanese moral culture.

It has survived mainly through family education and personnel training in corporate and governmental organizations until today, providing the foundation for the appeal of Japan, which is favorably evaluated by people in the world.

2. One of Japan’s attractions: flexibility in absorbing different cultures

In addition to this attitude which emphasizes morality such as consideration and norms, another attraction of Japan is the ability to absorb foreign cultures flexibly, evolve them in a Japanese style, and cultivate them in the society.

One ancient example was to import Chinese characters and create the hiragana syllabary based thereon.

Japanese also imported Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Zen, etc., and cultivated a traditional moral culture based on Oriental ideas, together with the Japanese ancient religion of Shintoism.

This traditional moral culture is the source of Japan’s attractions described above.

In the process of building a modern society after the Meiji Restoration, Japanese actively introduced modern Western social thought and political, economic, and social institutions founded thereon, science and technology, and so forth, thus laying the foundations for state administration systems.

As mentioned above, historically, Japan has achieved remarkable development since early on by bringing in superior foreign ethical cultures and technologies actively and utilizing them effectively to lay the foundations for political and social systems.

The ability of Japanese to absorb and apply foreign cultures was used effectively after the recent Noto Peninsula Earthquake as well.

That is “counterpart support” provided by local governments nationwide.

Originally, counterpart support was a measure to promote reconstruction, which was adopted by the Chinese government after the Great Wenchuan Earthquake in China in May 2008.

The Chinese government assigned support for reconstruction of earthquake-stricken municipalities to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and other provinces and cities and made them bear responsibility for assigned support.

It divided stricken-municipalities into around 30 areas, and provinces and cities such as Beijing, which did not suffer from the earthquake, took charge of rescue and reconstruction in the respective areas assigned thereto.

This system worked well, making reconstruction from the Great Wenchuan Earthquake progress swiftly and smoothly.

When I went to the province of Sichuan on a business trip, I heard from local government officials about the effectiveness of the measure.

Therefore, immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in March 2011, I proposed that this system should be adopted in Japan, too (“Assign Stricken Areas to Local Government Nationwide,” Yomiuri Shimbun, March 18, 2011).

Experts in various fields in Japan and the United States other than I proposed to the Japanese government that China’s counterpart support system be introduced.

However, amidst the inextricable turmoil in which unprecedented events such as the massive earthquake, catastrophic tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear accident occurred one after another, the then Japanese government had no elbowroom to adopt such a new rescue and reconstruction system.

About 13 years later, starting immediately after the occurrence of the recent Noto Peninsula Earthquake, rescue measures for stricken areas using the counterpart support system worked splendidly, enabling the dispatch of local government officials nationwide to those areas in the peninsula.

As far as I remember, partly because the counterpart support system adopted after the Great Wenchuan Earthquake in China was the first attempt, it focused on post-disaster reconstruction support such as the rebuilding of infrastructure and other structures destroyed by the earthquake.

By contrast, the recent Japanese-style counterpart support was introduced starting from emergency response support immediately after the earthquake, a phase prior to the start of such infrastructure reconstruction.

In this process, the experience gained from the counterpart support provided after the Kumamoto Earthquake of 2016 and thereafter was also used effectively.

Specifically, counterpart support included the operation of evacuation sites, the installation of temporary toilets, support for garbage disposal, supply of relief goods, medical service and nursing care support, various kinds of administrative work such as the acceptance of applications for disaster damage certificates, and the recovery of lifelines.

In earthquake-stricken areas, personnel of local governments themselves fell victim to the disaster, making it impossible to organize a normal work system, and in addition, administrative functions were inevitably paralyzed as governments were urged to perform various non-routine duties associated with the disaster.

In response to this situation, the counterpart support system initiated by Chinese was introduced, and excellent results were brought about by combining the counterpart support system with Japan’s unique emergency support system, which had been established through the rescue and reconstruction experience gained from past earthquakes and other disasters.

Needless to say that grass-roots cooperation among victims, based on consideration for others, social norms, and voluntary moral actions, added to the effectiveness of the system.

As described above, the ability of Japanese to absorb different cultures flexibly, which had been shown since ancient times, was demonstrated, indicating a model of disaster rescue and reconstruction.

It is said that the major reason all passengers and crew members of a Japan Airlines jet were able to evacuate safely after it collided with a Japan Coast Guard airplane the day after the Noto Peninsula Earthquake was the high moral standards the passengers showed when following the instructions of crew members.

Japanese faced extreme difficulties from the very beginning of this year, but in these difficulties, it is shown that the good moral culture of Japan has not been lost, and I hope that this will support the hearts of people who are faced with various difficulties.

3. Concern about decline in the appeal of Japan

There is no guarantee, however, that the appeal of Japan rooted in the Japanese moral culture described above will be maintained over a long period of time in the future.

Rather, it seems that the mentality of Japanese who emphasize consideration and norms, both of which provide the basis for the appeal of Japan, has continued to decline over the years.

Although ten years have passed since the Act for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying was established, the rise in the recognized number of bullying cases has not been stemmed as typified by the fact that the number has more than trebled during the past decade (“Rules Alone Cannot Prevent Bullying, Social Division, or a U.S.-China Conflict,” published in JBpress on July 18, 2023)

In addition, I hear that the number of children who refuse to go to school and stay at home owing to attachment or mental disorders is continuing to rise.

According to a survey by the Cabinet Office, some 1.46 million persons, or about 2% of the population aged 15-64, refuse to go out and stay at home in Japan.

The problems of classroom breakdown and monster parents are also left unsolved, and the heavy workload of elementary and junior high school teachers is not being reduced.

If this situation of school education, which provides the important foundation for character-developing education, essentially the basis of Japanese moral culture, continues, the foundation of the good moral culture of Japan, which was fostered through character-developing education during the Edo period, will certainly weaken.

If this continues, it is only a matter of time before the appeal of Japan’s important moral culture described in this article will be lost.

This should be prevented by school education, family education, and human resources development training at businesses, governments, and other organizations.

A look back upon recent events shows that various ethical problems have been pointed out, including false reports on quality inspections at distinguished businesses, inappropriate claims for insurance money, sexual abuses and the silence of mass media about them, and off-the-book funds amassed by factions of a political party.

The malfunctioning of compliance systems and other imperfect rules and institutions are indicated as the causes of these problems.

An expert in corporate crisis management points out, “No matter how rules are well established, they alone do not work as effective measures. What is essentially needed to solve problems is to improve organizational culture drastically.”

In order to improve organizational culture drastically, it is necessary to ensure that each and every member of the organization shares its moral standards and maintains discipline voluntarily according to the sense of norms.

It has become clear that it is insufficient to respond to the problems of bullying at school and refusal to go to school by establishing rules and systems alone.

In addressing these problems, it is important to concentrate on character developing in school education and in other forms of education and ensure that each student can acquire moral standards that emphasize consideration for others and norms.

The origin of Japanese who have absorbed foreign cultures and cultivated an ethical culture unique to Japan since ancient times lies in character-developing education based on Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, etc.

Re-establishing the foundation for character-developing education at schools, businesses, governments, and other organizations is an urgent issue to be addressed to prevent the appeal of Japan favorably evaluated by the world and the ethical culture of Japanese who fight against massive natural disasters from declining further and restore them.