“The Impact of an Expanding Germany”: dialogue between K.Nishio and M.Kawaguchi, in 2015 by Business Inc.
(What impressed me)
-Japan is interested in Germany, but Germany is neither impressed nor knowledgeable about Japan.
–Japan has overtaken Germany in economy. Correspondents in Japan write terrible things about Japan. They are also very much in favor of China and South Korea.
-They are only interested in China.
–The field of music is dominated by Asians and foreigners.
-Young Germans do not distinguish much between their own countrymen and foreigners.
-Japanese people are less interested in and less appreciative of Germany and Europe. Also, there are no more models in Europe.
-The Japanese image of Germany is disappearing in Germany itself.
-The pictures and music are okay. But literature is terrible. The number of members of the German Literature Society in Japan has gone from 3,500 to 1,000.
-The level of the German people is low and they lack knowledge. There is also a gap between the elite and the masses.
-The Germans have continued to apologize for the massacre of the Jews, but not for the war itself. And they only made reparations for the massacre.
-The relationship between Japan and China is similar to that between Germany and Russia. The relationship between Japan and Korea is similar to that between Germany and Poland or the Czech Republic.
-The relationship between Japan and the U.S. is similar to that of Germany’s neighbors such as France.
-Japan and the U.S. were able to reconcile because of the Japanese people’s patience with the atomic bombs in HIroshima and Nagasaki.
-There is no rift between France and Germany among their children.
-Islam has a grudge against Europe because Islam was superior to Europe for a thousand years, but has become inferior since the modern era. The same picture can be said of China and Korea against Japan. They missed out on their own modernization.
-In Germany, 20% of the population is foreign including ex-foreigners.
-They are afraid of Salafists who have returned from Syria.
-The German people, in its true heart, don’t want the Japanese to be in the G7 because of their race.
-The Japanese are not good communicators. They have no short- or long-term strategy.
-Image is better than reality in many countries, and Japan is the only country where the opposite is true.
-German people are fat, grumpy, aggressive, and unfriendly.
-Japan’s position in Germany is in a league of its own with Turkey, Russia, Iran, and other troubled countries.
-Germany and Europe will not get any better.
-The war in Germany was:
1: Germany was a 20th century terrorist state.
2: It had biological racial ideology.
3: Germany had an intra-religious war.
-Japan’s war was a war between Whites and Asians.
-The difference between before-the-war and afterwards is that Japan was liberated.
But Germany suffered. The devastation after the fall of Berlin: 12 to 14 million refugees and 3 million dead or missing in Germany after the Soviet army entered the country.
-War responsibility is the propaganda by the victorious powers. War is also something that happens without knowing it.
-I think that the attitude of apology will be less and less in the future in Germany. They have apologized enough to themselves and they have nothing to do with it now. That’s what they think.
-There were brothels in Germany. There were also genocides in other countries. Germany had most of its people complicit with the Nazis.
-The refugee problem in Germany (Europe) is not a human rights issue. It is a natural process of wanting to go to a place of affluence.
–E.Todd states that Germany is the sole winner.
-The current powers are: US, Russia, Germany, China, and Japan.
-China and Germany are getting closer: Germany tends to be more aligned with the U.S. Germany does not have nuclear weapons, but it tends to strengthen its military power.
-Europe’s coldness toward Japan is due to the fact that it lost its Asian colonies because of Japan.
-The UK’s complaint is that the EU parliament has too much power and money flows to weaker countries.
-UK’s City (financial center) handles 50% of international stock trading, 70% of Eurobond trading, and 55% of new equities.
-The U.S. continues to make bad decisions and cannot be counted on.
(My comment)
This dialogue provides an overview of the recent situation in Germany and Europe in comparison with Japan.
However, it is necessary to distinguish between the facts and their judgments and evaluations. The judgment comes from their own sense of values, outlook on life and worldview, and this is the image of Germany from their viewpoint.
This is a combination of Nishio’s extensive knowledge (history, current situation) and Kawaguchi’s firm and broad recognition of the current situation. The two of them taught me a new reality. I also understood the significance of Germany’s growing momentum.
