‘It seems quite a sad city’. The Berlin that I visited in 2017 was extremely blurred and appeared to be trapped in its past. Exposed to the pouring rain, the remnants of the Berlin Wall stood silently, as if bitter about their sad history. Like that impression of darkness, I also felt something similar towards this forum’s theme, ‘Aging Society’. I was reminded that the Chinese character for ‘old age’ (老rō, oi) originates from the image of an elderly, hunched person walking with a cane. Ageing means that you can no longer stand up without using a cane and are gradually losing the vitality and energy to live. My mind was filled with such negative images.
However, my perspective changed considerably during the ten days I spent at the German-Japanese Young Leaders Forum. Hence, I wish to recount the insights I gained through participating in the forum.
Shaping Future Society
The declining birth rate and ageing population is a common issue facing both Japan and Germany. In the autumn of 2023, 14 young leaders, who had been eagerly awaiting the end of the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020, gathered together in Berlin to seek a solution to this issue. The participants from Japan and Germany came from diverse professional backgrounds and included government officials, researchers, company employees and entrepreneurs.
The participants examined the issues of declining birth rates and an ageing population through various angles, such as the pension system, labour market and migration. The discussions were surprisingly active, and not only were there numerous questions following the experts’ lectures, but heated discussions continued even into the coffee/tea breaks. The level of English proficiency among both the Japanese and German participants was extremely high, and I was deeply inspired by everyone’s attitudes as they actively contributed to discussions. Talks took place at a breathtaking speed, and in situations where the focus of a discussion was constantly changing, I often needed to think about what I should say at the moment and to quickly summarize my ideas. What was required was perhaps no longer a certain level of English proficiency; instead, it had more to do with mental agility and the ability to think on one’s feet.
I also rediscovered the need to state clearly when I disagreed with something. The participants were divided into working groups consisting of three to four people, and each group had to prepare a final thirty-minute presentation on their individual theme. My working group’s theme was ‘inter- and intra-generational inequality and their reduction in the pension systems of both Japan and Germany’. In order to make a convincing presentation, the three of us held in-depth discussions on reasoning and debated which data to cite.
‘When comparing inter-generational financial disparity, not taking into account the inflation rate is wrong.’ As I was rather unfamiliar with mathematics and economics, a participant from the German side disagreed directly with me. The German participant’s argument was completely convincing, and his straightforward attitude of saying ‘no’ to what he disagreed with without any hesitation made me feel hopeful and relieved that we were on the same team.
Although it is not appropriate to stereotype an entire group, generally speaking, we Japanese tend to hesitate in making a counterargument, I think. This seems to be related to the Japanese mindset of respecting “和wa”. In the past, Japan was known as the Country of Great “和wa” (大和の国 yamato no kuni), and this Chinese character “和wa”, which is used here, also appears in the words harmony/balance (調和 chōwa), peace (和平 wahei), and reconciliation (和解 wakai). Namely, it means harmonization. As a result of respecting harmony/balance, there seems to be a relatively large number of Japanese who ‘feel bad about opposing an opinion that someone has put in the effort of presenting’ or worry about ‘rupturing their relationship with the other person’. Although the mind of harmony does not necessarily work negatively during discussions, I greatly admired the way the German participant held discussions, which involved speaking face-to-face with someone whenever they disagreed with something. It reflects an attitude of seeking to create something better together. During our final presentation, we could get into the specifics regarding the necessary reforms of pension systems in both countries in order to assist people in dire need.
We also held a lot of discussions on ageing from various perspectives, such as what could be done to create a society that respects the rights and needs of immigrants and women to work and liveable for everyone, including the elderly. Although both Japan and Germany face similar issues, their responses have been different, such as how they control the labour market and utilize technology, and there is plenty of room for both countries to learn from each other. The discussions were much more optimistic in tone than I had anticipated, and the conference room was filled with positive energy. Contemplating a society with a declining birth rate and ageing population does not entail feeling sad about growing old or lamenting over how things were handled in the past. I realized that we should all work towards shaping our world in the way we think it should be rather than simply accepting a given situation. Faced with this difficult issue, there are many actions that we, as young leaders, should be taking.
Learning From the Past
The active discussions held in the conference rooms drastically changed the image I had previously held towards ageing. The darkness of Berlin, which I felt earlier on, was swept away after taking walks through the city. The daily conversations I had during the short transfers to and from our meeting place gave me continual discoveries. For example, when I mentioned that I often came across the state flag and bear in Berlin, but not the German national flag, a participant from the German side explained to me that since the German flag reminded people of the war, it was rarely displayed and instead, the state flag was often used. Another German alumnus excitedly told me that it had been quite a new experience to openly display the German national flag during the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Germany and Japan may be similar in the way that they do not often display the national flag, but I believe that our approaches towards history are vastly different. While walking through the streets of Berlin, I strongly felt the traces of history in everyday life. During my limited stay, I saw a large number of what appeared to be golden tiles embedded in the roads here and there. They are in fact plaques to commemorate the Jewish people who were persecuted during the Second World War. I also passed by the Tränenpalast, which is the former border crossing point between East and West Berlin and is located right beside the beautiful River Spree. It is known as the ‘Palace of Tears’ since families, friends and lovers shed numerous tears in this place after becoming separated through the sudden emergence of the Berlin Wall.
Traces of a mournful past are not just related to the Second World War. I also saw several photographs and flowers laid in front of a church right near my hotel. They were in honour of the victims of the 2016 terror attack at a Christmas market, where a large truck charged into the crowd. In another place, along the side of the road, a white forlorn bicycle that is usually placed at a scene where a fatal bicycle accident had occurred was staring at me.
In contrast, although there are museums in Japan dealing with the theme of war, I feel that we are not reminded of history to such a degree in our daily lives. From a young age, history education in Germany is taught in combination with what in Japan is referred to as moral education, and the students learn through holding discussions on history. As a student in Japan, I had regarded history as a subject which required memorizing, and I was thus surprised to find out about the different educational approaches between the two countries. While I pondered over why the approaches are so different, a participant from the German side shared his opinion: ‘under the guidance of the United States, post-war Japan had been able to concentrate its energy on rising from the ashes towards economic activity, whilst East and West Germany had to compete for the position of having the capital city of their new country through both clearly displaying a stance of never repeating history’. The history of war is brutal, and we naturally want to avert our gaze from it. In fact, if I hadn’t had that conversation with the German participants, perhaps I would not have gone beyond my 2017 traveller’s impression of ‘Berlin appears quite a sad city’. The traces of history that we glimpse in our daily lives reveal a strong will not to repeat the sad past, and it is a lesson that must never become blurred for the sake of our future.
Inclusion
While I was on the train having a conversation with a German participant, since he was continually staring into my eyes while listening to my talk, I burst out laughing before I finished my story. I laughed and told him that he really didn’t make any polite interjections (this is called aizuchi in Japanese), and he also commented with a laugh that the habit of covering my mouth with my hand when laughing was a rather shy and unique gesture.
When I am in Japan, I rarely pay attention to the small gestures that are ingrained in me. However, with both Japanese and German participants conversing together for a considerable time, it enabled us to notice many things about each other, and we often teased each other about our mannerisms with pleasure. Towards the end, the German participants were able to perfect their tone and timing, like a Japanese native speaker, when using the Japanese interjection, ‘Hee (I see!)’. When I said that since I was currently in Germany and speaking in English, I should be careful about overusing Japanese interjections, a German participant responded to me with the following words: ‘You are you. There is no need to force yourself to change your habits. What’s important is that you enable the other person to understand that it’s a habit’. These words hit me. I had studied abroad and felt that I was accustomed to differences in culture, but I may have unconsciously felt a slight duty to adjust myself to the culture of the country I was visiting. If that is true, I may have been applying the same criteria towards foreigners in Japan. This is clearly not what accepting another’s culture truly means.
At the forum, nearly half of the German participants were either vegan or vegetarian. However, I only realized this fact on the third night. I was extremely surprised since I had already been eating with them several meals up to this point. Although an increasing number of Japanese restaurants specialize in vegan or vegetarian food, it is still a far cry from all restaurants indisputably providing vegan or vegetarian menu options. I feel that adding options to an already existing menu, instead of “forcing” people to go to a specialized restaurant, is a wonderful approach towards facilitating people’s choices.
As for the factors that determine the difference in the Japanese and German approaches towards vegans and vegetarians, which may include the simple differences in food culture or the overall number of practitioners, I think it is perhaps also related to the Japanese value of harmony (和 wa). Harmonization and a sense of belonging are two sides of the same coin. Perhaps our respect for harmony/balance (調和 chōwa) provides a sense of security in which people do the same thing as others are doing or belong to the same group. In fact, the presence of harmony within the Japanese mindset relates to the image of the careful and polite Japanese. However, there is also a need to pay attention to the people who do not belong to what the majority regard as the same group. Choosing a path which is slightly different from other people leads to maintaining a special quota, despite there being no malicious attempt to do so from the surrounding people. Therefore, if my friend is a vegan or vegetarian, I tend to fall into the mind trap of searching for a specialized restaurant. In a society which respects freedom of choice in its true meaning, as well as the acceptance and inclusion of diversity, people would not notice let alone pay attention to whether a person was vegan or vegetarian. I summed up the courage to ask a German vegetarian participant whether he minded that I ate meat at a restaurant. He replied with a laugh that the choice is up to each individual, and he definitely wouldn’t interfere with another person’s choice. I felt that I had fully understood the importance of including the diversity and never enforcing something to others, but through conversations with the other participants, I came to realize the unconscious elements within me. Coincidentally, the theme for next German-Japanese Young Leaders Forum is ‘Diversity and Inclusion’. As an alumna, I am now in the position of examining the program’s content. As I confront my unconscious, I am already excited.
Connecting Japan and Germany
The image of a dark and sad Berlin, which I mentioned at the beginning, no longer exists within me. The ten days were filled with surprises, discoveries and laughter, and each moment remains precious and unforgettable. Above all, through this program, I was able to make lifelong friends who are an invaluable treasure. With the learning that I gained through the program, and as one of the ‘young leaders’ from Japan and Germany, I hope to contribute towards further enhancing the future relationship between Japan and Germany. I would like to become a bridge that connects the two countries. I am certain that the other participants, despite coming from different backgrounds, also share the same determination.
I would like to end by expressing my heartfelt gratitude to the organizer: the Japanese-German Center Berlin, the sponsors: Daido Life Insurance Company, the Mori Manufacturing Research and Technology Foundation, the Yamaoka Memorial Foundation, Yanmar Holdings Co., Ltd. and Yuasa M&B Co., Ltd., along with the expert lecturers, alumni and everyone concerned who provided us with this precious opportunity.
