{"id":167,"date":"2014-09-22T06:52:17","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T06:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/?p=167"},"modified":"2014-09-22T06:52:17","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T06:52:17","slug":"re-consideration_of_diversity_hajime_takahashi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/2014\/09\/22\/re-consideration_of_diversity_hajime_takahashi\/","title":{"rendered":"Hajime Takahashi \u201cRe-consideration of Diversity\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2nd<\/sup> Asia Future Conference, sponsored by Atsumi International Foundation, was held on August 22\uff5e24, at Bali, Indonesia and 380 participants from 17 countries, including researchers, having studied in Japan, had hot discussions.<\/p>\n

Theme of conference this time was \u201cDiversity and Harmony\u201d. As the conference should be based on academic approach, a lot of sessions and lively discussion on extensive range, such as globalization, peace, sustainability, environment and communication, were held. I, myself, attended 3 sessions regarding main theme \u201cDiversity and Harmony\u201d. And as I co-chaired at the final session, I like to re-study about \u201cDiversity\u201d based on research publication and discussion at the conference.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When we think of the meaning of \u2018diversity\u2019 from daily context, we can say \u201cto exist in diversely and differently\u201d. Originally, this word have been used in the field of biology.<\/p>\n

But, we use this word very often in the field of sociology, politics and international relations now. Actually, in multiracial nations, a slogan \u201cintegration in diversity\u201d is being used as racial integration. Indonesia, where the conference was held, consists of about 17,000 islands and around 228 million of people are living in those 9,000 islands.<\/p>\n

Around 490 groups of race are succeeding their own ethnic and diversified culture.<\/p>\n

(Official website of the Ministry of Sightseeing Creative Economy, Indonesia)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There were two publications this time regarding \u2018BATIK\u2019, Indonesian traditional clothes. It is said Batik, as a symbol of the integration of various races, played an important role when Indonesia became independent as a republic. They created special Batik of their own as a tool for integration of different races, which does not impartial to any races who had their own Batik and were adopted as uniforms of students of junior\/middle\/high schools and public officials. Indonesian Batik is now acknowledged as the World\u2019s intangible cultural heritages and contributes to an establishment of identity of Indonesia in the world community. It is good example that variety of Indonesia, which have been said to be difficult to overcome, has been overcome by Batik which were the great common factors among variety of races, or by adoption of patterns which impartial to any races. I was impressed by the pointing out of Masakatu Tozu (honorary professor of Kokushikan University), saying \u201cclothes are identities of races\u201d in his speech titled \u201cTrial of Establishment of National Culture in a Multiethnic Indonesia\u201d.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, there is an existence of suzerain state as an external factor behind their foundation of country, which urge their standing together of Indonesian ethnics and overcame difficulties of establishing national consent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The word \u201cDiversity\u201d began to be used, as globalization progress, in the context of regional cooperation and integration among nations. Actually, when we think of the future of Asia in the conference, \u201cDiversity and Harmony\u201d were discussed from various aspects and \u201cUnity in Diversification\u201d became an unavoidable theme on regional cooperation and integration. \u201cUnity and Diversity\u201d is the motto of EU which have accomplished unprecedented deepening of regional integration. EU explained on their official website that European people live and cooperate together for the purpose of our peace and prosperity in the form of EU and become rich by our diversified and different cultures, traditions and languages.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is a picture card named \u201ca perfect European\u201d which I bought in Brussels as a souvenir in 1980s and have thought a great deal of it even now. This card explain diversity in Europe humorously making fun of characters of EU 15 members of country(at that time) saying paradoxically and ironically \u201cdriving a car like French, excel in technics like Portuguese, controlling themselves like Italian, carefully like Danish, humorous like German, being organized like Austrian, talkative like Finnish, famous like Luxemburg people, generous like Dutch, being good at cooking like English, few off duty like Belgian, flexible like Swedish, sober like Irish, and modest like Spanish. Number of member countries of EU is 28 now. They have a customs union, common international trade policy, market integration, introduction of common currency and common foreign policy. They verified toward international societies that it is possible to make an international connection by transferring sovereignties depending on the field of policies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0In Asia too, market integration, in the frame of ASEAN, is going to be accomplished. At Jakarta airport, immigration controls for ASEAN people are separated from non-ASEAN people like EU. It clearly shows harmony in diversity is being realized in Asia. At the sessions which I co-chaired, there were questions about concrete meanings in \u2018unity in diversity\u2019 in the context of Asia. Against such questions, presenters explained that each country shall recognize the difference mutually and produce new values which are more than their own. It is common with the motto of EU.<\/p>\n

Proposition which I encountered at the 2nd<\/sup> Asia Future Conference was \u201cwe cannot cooperate because of our differences\u201d or \u201cwe should cooperate each other because of our differences\u201d. Actually, in the case of North-East Asia or East Asia where cooperation or connection on regional revel fell behind most the world stream, people often say that it is impossible to make a framework for systematic connections. Dr. Maria Elena Tisi, University of Bologna, who introduced a trial to produce harmony from a comparison between children\u2019s book of Italy and Japan, said \u201ca word \u2018difference\u2019 does not limit to big difference, such as culture, language and religion, and small difference also can be a reason for big reasons, – – – It is important to make the most of such differences not trying to overcome.\u201d It is very suggestive when we think of \u2018diversity\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is also pointed out at the conference that colors composed of multi-colors bring about complex tone in depth than single color. I talked to one of my friend who is musician about such context in the conference after I returned to Japan. He said promptly and flatly \u201cin the field of music, harmony in diversification is the most basic of basics.\u201d He said also \u201can orchestra is compilation of harmony of variety of musical instruments\u201d and never forget to add pointing out \u201cfor this purpose, existence of conductor as a great leader of an orchestra is absolute condition\u201d.<\/p>\n

It weighs on my mind when I re-consider \u2018diversity\u2019 in international context.<\/p>\n

Can I say the word \u2018diversity\u2019 has different meaning such as \u591a\u7528\u6027(multi-usable) or \u4ed6\u7528\u6027 (used in different way) ?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I dare to emphasize that it is important to consider geographical neighborhood when we discuss about \u2018diversity\u2019 in the context of Asian region. It is an undeniable fact that there are unavoidable relations among neighboring countries. When we discuss about \u2018diversity\u2019, it is also important to have viewpoints whether we understand the relations with neighboring countries positively or negatively.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The 2nd<\/sup> Asia Future Conference was a good chance for me to recognize that domestic political factors in the context of North East Asia and struggles for leadership among nations in East Asia are hazards for forming systematic frameworks for regional connections.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(SGRA Counselor)<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Translated by Kazuo Kawamura<\/p>\n

English checked by Mac Maquito<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SGRA Kawaraban 421 in Japanese (original)<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2nd Asia Future Conference, sponsored by Atsumi International Foundation, was held on August 22\uff5e24, at Bal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afc-sgra","category-kawaraban"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}