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2015.9.19 KIP Seminar by Mr. Yoshibumi Wakamiya
Mr. Yoshibumi Wakamiya is a former chief editor of Asahi Shinbun, a visiting professor in some Japanese and Korean universities, and a Senior Fellow of Japan Center for International Exchange. We thought about the present and future international relations between Japan, Korea, China, and the United States of America with Mr. Wakamiya.
Seventy years since the Second World War, the political situation in East Asia and the international situation have been changing greatly. Now that the security bill has been passed, Japan has to reconsider its relationship with its neighboring countries and allies. In the seminar, each student was assigned to represent a country. After studying their assigned countries for three weeks, they played their role as ministers or leaders of each country in the seminar.
From the perspective of his or her assigned country, each student expressed their stances on the statement by Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on World War II anniversary and China’s military parade to commemorate the defeat of Japan in World War II. The statement made by Japan’s Prime Minister was especially a highly controversial topic and resulted in a heated discussion. However, by looking at the statement from the perspectives of different countries, we felt that it was fairly a well-written one that took many countries with different positions in consideration. From the discussions, we learned how difficult it is to negotiate on a diplomatic topic because it is necessary to think about the economy, religion, human rights and others as well.
As we have prepared for the seminar, collecting information and reading statements, we were able to understand the current situations of each country’s speculation and Japan’s position in the world. This seminar provided us with such a great opportunity to think about Japan’s future. (Shiori Asada)