Growing up in a community where there were many Chinese from all backgrounds (those native to Taiwan, from Hong Kong, from the Mainland, from Southeast Asia), I was always aware that there seemed to be a strong level of interest with Japanese traditional and modern culture. When I got to college I realized that Koreans were quite fond of Japanese products as well. Yet my Japanese friends, at the time, seemed totally unaware of the level interest Asians had in their country. When I finally got to live in Japan, my cultural exchange program allowed to me get in touch with several foreign professionals, and this included a very large number of Chinese residents. I walked away from such conversations with a greater level of understanding regarding Chinese interest in Japan. It’s still surprising that the foreign community is often equated with us “Westerners” yet the Asian community in Japan is enormously larger, and often it seems, invisible to Western gaijin.

To a certain extent I believe that news tends to be dominated almost exclusively by negative historical issues, with scant attention given to inter-cultural relations. It’s unfortunate, but negative news sells much better after all. Which seems more interesting, roving crowds of racist anti-Japan protestors, or bands of pro-Japan enthusiasts?

I think what many of us in the West fail to appreciate the depth and history of the complex interactions between Japan and its neighbors China, Taiwan and Korea. I remember taking upper division modern history classes on China and Japan, and noticing the astonishing level of interconnectivity of the two in many matters, from educational exchange, drug lords, musical legends, to literary figures and political intrigue. Very interesting and oftentimes strange stuff. Japanese products, including cultural ones, quickly became quite popular in mainland China in the early twentieth century, and once again when that country opened its doors to economic reform in the late 70s, and characters like Doraemon and Nausicaa were extremely popular (despite the tribulations of war and protests). My Chinese history professor spent a small but substantive amount of time focusing on the complexity and depth of Sino-Japanese ties, I would think that the same level of attention should be paid to China in any modern Japanese history class, but my sense is that this is unfortunately not true. Yet as the importance of their bilateral relationship increases, I think more time should be spent exploring the issues of historical and cultural exchange. This news segment is hopefully a harbinger of better things to come.

I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future some of these people in the video might also immigrate, if they are still interested in Japan. They certainly have an enthusiasm for it.

Anyway, watching this I can’t help thinking that Japan has a great opportunity to absorb some of these people as immigrants! It will probably be more difficult for Japan to get used to immigration than European countries, but they do have the opportunity to start from a clean slate and learn from the mistakes of Europe. The kind of people in this segment obviously have a genuine interest in Japan and the Japanese language and would probably integrate well – provided they are not put off by some Japanese people’s xenophobic attitudes.

For Japanese language : person who are crazy in J-culture, J-Pop, anime, manga, J-series, J-movie, wanna work with J-companies.

For Chinese language : Person who are keen on Chinese culture and realize about China’s economic boom.

And Korean language is seem to be the third popular choice for people(mostly women) who are Big fans of Korean Wave led by Mr. Rain, Yon-Sama, Super Junior etc.

It makes learning english (or any language) easier as you don’t have to alternate between native and foreign pronounciation within a sentence or decide which language to use for the real names, as you would either sound weird or twist your tongue.