Number of Visitors to Japan Rapidly Increasing Thanks to Omotenashi (hospitality), and That of Chinese Tourists Also Recovering Sharply, but Deterioration of Japanese Standards Progressing

1．Recovery in the Number of Chinese Tourists That Promotes Mutual Understanding between Japan and China

Chinese tourists are flooding the streets of Tokyo during the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) holidays. The total number of inbound travelers visiting Japan last year (2023) reached 25.07 million (6.5 times more than the previous year), nearing pre-pandemic levels of 31.88 million in 2019. While the number of inbound travelers has not reached 2019 levels for the full year, it has recovered since last October to almost the same level as or slightly above 2019 when compared on a single month basis.

Meanwhile, the number of visitors from China remained at 2.43 million for the whole of last year, still only a quarter of the 9.59 million for 2019. However, a look at the number of Chinese tourists in and after last October reveals that the rate of decline has slowed down: 256,000 in October (down 64.9% from the same month of 2019); 258,000 in November (down 65.6%); and 312,000 in December (down 56.0%). It has now recovered to about half of the 2019 level. These Chinese tourists are mostly free independent travelers.

The slow recovery in the number of visitors from China compared to other countries is said to be due to the Chinese government’s restriction on a complete lifting of the ban on sightseeing group tours to Japan. This is believed to be mainly attributable to the conflict of the treated water from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which Beijing has severely criticized. However, the issue of treated water now receives little coverage in the Chinese domestic media, and the public’s interest has waned. Considering the Chinese government’s acceptance of this situation, I hope that the ban on Japanese sightseeing tours may be lifted in the not-too-distant future.

Most of the Chinese tourists we see in Tokyo are young couples and families. Thus, they are mostly young people around 40 years old or younger. Relatively few people of this generation, whether Chinese or Japanese, have antipathy toward the other country, while relatively many have a sense of closeness. This may be due to the fact that many of them visit the other country for travel or business, and a high percentage of them communicate with each other over the Internet. In other words, they have a deeper understanding of the other country.

2．Direct Exchange Experience Corrects Media Reporting Bias

Those who have no direct interaction experience with, and have no knowledge of, the people of the other country are more likely to be affected by negative media coverage in their own country in developing some kind of feelings toward the other country.

For example, employees of Japanese companies stationed in China hardly talk about the treated water and the risk of being detained by the Chinese authorities these days. Major topics of discussion among them are the slowdown of the Chinese economy, the risk of a Donald Trump presidency, Taiwan’s presidential election, and the Liberal Democratic Party political fund scandal. This is immediately apparent when one goes to China, but these facts are rarely reported in the Japanese media. For this reason, many Japanese still believe that treated water and the risk of detention by Chinese authorities are the two main hindering factors in Japan-China relations.

However, since a higher percentage of the younger people understand the actual state of the other country through direct communication, they are less susceptible to reports with a negative bias, and more likely to make judgments from a neutral perspective. Even people in the older generation usually have a very different view of China once they have visited the country and seen the actual situation in China with their own eyes. I have heard that some senior members of the delegation of a major Japanese economic organization that visited China just recently had such experiences.

However, in general, people in such older age groups have few opportunities to visit China or communicate with Chinese people online. Accordingly, a high percentage of people in the older generation believe media information with a negative bias as it is.

Considering that even the average Japanese and Chinese citizens, many of whom have mutual antipathy toward each other, can improve their views of the other country through direct exchange, it is likely that the citizens of the other country with whom we have a normal relationship will be even more positively affected by direct exchange.

3．Limits to Order Formation by Strengthening Rules

Even though direct exchanges can deepen mutual understanding and improve one’s view of the other country, it is impossible for foreigners to like Japan if Japanese people are closed, unfriendly, impolite, and rude to them.

The reason why many foreigners, including Chinese who repeatedly visit Japan, have a good impression of Japan is believed to be heartfelt hospitality, politeness, cleanliness, thoughtfulness, meticulous and courteous service and other daily practices for the etiquette mindset of Japanese people. Such moral characteristics of the Japanese people are cultivated on the basis of daily discipline and character-developing education at home and at school.

Recently, however, there have been many cases in which the foundations of character-developing education seem to have been shaken. Incidents that go against humanity are repeated every day, such as the politicians’ political funds scandal and response to Diet questions that lack integrity, large corporations’ fraud and false reports, bullying and refusing to go to school in elementary and junior high schools, socially withdrawn children, students and adults, and abuse of children and the elderly in the home and in care homes.

In response, governments and corporations have strengthened legal controls by enacting various rules, including stricter laws regarding political funds, corporate compliance and governance, and the Act for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying.

However, such legal reinforcement has had little effect. As reported in my previous article, despite the enactment of the Act for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying in June 2013, the number of bullying incidents recognized in elementary, junior high, and high schools and schools for special needs education is increasing at a furious pace: 186 thousand in 2013, 414 thousand in 2017, and 682 thousand in 2022.

The recent problems of corruption with political funds in politics and false reporting by corporations have been pointed out over a long period of time. Despite the tightening of administrative regulations, similar problems continue to occur one after another.

I have to think that these problems are caused by the moral decline of Japanese society. Without making efforts to fundamentally remedy such problems, no matter how strict the rules are made, we cannot solve the root of the problem and the rules will simply be ignored. There is no distinction between adults and children here.

4．Character-developing Education to Prevent Moral Decline

How, then, can we prevent moral decline?

There is no special remedy that will significantly improve this situation in the short term. All we can do is help children learn and practice morals at home and at school and steadily implement character-developing education, thereby restoring Japan’s moral standards over time.

The starting point is the recognition of what the problem is.

The only improvement that rules can make is to ensure that the minimum standards are met.

To achieve anything beyond, i.e., to improve the social order and make the people around us happy, practical actions based on the ethical principle of altruism are essential.

By merely calling for a moral revival, we cannot put it into practice if it is not connected to a concrete image of action.

To say it a little easier for imaging, it is defined by the five basic principles of Jin-Gi-Rei-Chi-Shin 仁義礼智信.

Jin 仁 is compassion for unfortunate people around us and the desire to do something for them.

Gi 義 means to feel ashamed of unrighteousness.

Rei 礼 is the spirit of respect for others and a willingness to make concessions.

Chi 智 is the ability to introspect one’s own mind and to recognize an immoral mindset and conduct and remedy it.

One who has acquired the four elements of Jin-Gi-Rei-Chi can gain Shin 信 (trust) from many others.

When we break it down in this way, we can understand what we need to practice to acquire morality in various scenes in familiar everyday life.

It should be started in early childhood and continue to be consciously learned and practiced in the elementary, middle, and high school curricula and in family education.

The steady accumulation of such efforts is the path to the restoration of Japan’s ethical-based value.

The difficult part is to make these moral education practices take root.

No matter how strict the rules are, if each individual does not sincerely try to put them into practice, no matter how splendid the curriculum, it will be nothing more than pretense.

To prevent this from happening, leaders must encourage people to sincerely try to put them into practice.

A leader here is someone who recognizes issues and takes unselfish, risk-taking, and practical actions to address them.

A leader is a person who, even if he or she does not have a high social status, has high aspirations, recognizes what they should do, and courageously takes up the challenge of putting it into practice.

You can decide if you want to be a leader or not. If you choose to become a leader, all you do is act honorably as a leader.

Once such leaders are established in each region and organization, they can encourage and collaborate with each other through the Internet and social media, which is a great advantage of modern society.

Since this network can easily transcend national borders, a continuous effort to spread such character-developing education from Japan to the rest of the world will lead to leadership around the world.

If as many Japanese as possible continue these efforts, Japanese morality will revive, even more people around the world will become fond of Japan, and the circle of character-developing education and moral practice will spread throughout the world.

It is important for Japanese people themselves to recognize the role they should play in the current chaotic world.