Creating Balance With People From Other Countries

With Japan being admired by many foreign people, Nick and Naoko Hosokawa believe that it should practice harmony within its society and among people from other countries -- keeping its traditions while being open to ideas from different cultures.

Japan has the potential to create harmony within its society and among people from other countries.

Nick: I loved living in Japan and I want to go back but at the same time, I love Japan because of its uniqueness. And I guess in some way because of its purity, this dichotomy of Japan should have more people going in, but Japan should maintain its culture and its traditions and customs. And that might be a real challenge with a foreign population. 

But maybe, I'm thinking of a term I talked with Ken Mogi about, nagomi. And he often gave examples of indigenous Japanese concepts and foreign concepts working together to create this nagomi, this balance of harmony. So maybe that's the goal, to find this nagomi, this balance, harmony in, I guess refugee intake, and I guess increased immigration.

Naoko: Yes, indeed, actually, this traditional idea of harmony, or as you mentioned, nagomi can be applied in a very positive way to harmonise society with people from other countries, and not only referring to the purity of Japanese society. 

And I think once this idea kicks into Japanese society, actually, Japan might be one of the leading countries to kind of create this harmony within the society with different people, with different origins. So at the moment, it has not reached this level yet. 

And it seems to me that a lot of Japanese people have a much more close mindset, that I think there has been a potential for the Japanese society to catch up with this idea and actually try to promote its traditional values in kind of a positive way to accept the diversity. So that's my hope for the future.