Sino Japanese Relations

Recently I attended a conference organized in part by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on a project entitled the National New Talent Plan: Job Skills and Japanese Language Project (Quan Guo Shuang Ren Cai Ji Hua Zhi Ye Ji Neng Ri Yu Xiang Mu).  The organizers invited members of the government (mostly the NDRC), Chinese universities, Chinese education associations, as well as various members of the Japanese government and industry. 
(There is a link to the general program here, but the link to the Japanese language program leads back to the main page.)

The program aims at addressing the paradox where university students are unable to find jobs and Japanese firms are unable to find suitable workers in China.  It is divided into three stages.  Students will attend classes to improve their general Japanese language skills, then take courses in industry specific Japanese, followed by an internship period in a Japanese firm. 

The potential here is significant.  Japan and China are well suited to cooperate with one another.  Linguistically, there are many similarities between the two languages (see Wikipedia).  Chinese people are arguably the people most suited to learn Japanese (this argument could also apply to Japanese studying Chinese).  Japan imported a significant amount of Chinese culture during the Tang dynasty, including Chinese characters, many of which are still used today in verb stems, nouns and names.  The other kana (hiragana and katakana), while different, were derived from Chinese characters. 

In addition, Japan and China's demographic needs can both be addressed by one another.  There are severe population pressures in China.  As controversial as they are, policies such as the One Child Policy and Hukou Registration System were devised and implemented for the very reason that there are not enough resources to be distributed to this massive population.  According to statistics supplied by NDRC officials, the number of university graduates grew from over 1 million in 2000 to an estimated 7 million in 2010.  At the same time, job creation remained generally static during this period.  Japan is experience a very different situation. It has an aging and declining population, making it difficult for companies to find workers.  In addition, give the highly advanced nature of Japan's economy, they also will need a source of blue collar workers to do the jobs that Japanese graduates are not willing to do.  China has an excess source of this type of labor as well.  Japan also faces a similar situation as the United States, in that high costs of manufacturing domestically are forcing Japanese manufacturers to go abroad (often China) for production.  

Human resources is, however, a serious hurdle in China.  Often I have heard entrepreneurs report that it is not hard to find educated, intelligent Chinese graduates, but to find people who are hard working, creative and driven is a challenge (see, for example, the Happy Farm phenomenon, in addition I have also previously discussed the situation in Chinese universities here).  This problem is also serious at the managerial level.  When I met Jim McGregor, author of One Billion Customers, he told me never to trust people over 40 in China.  They lived in a completely different time, and are usually typified by the two personality extremes of either being so bureaucratically minded that nothing gets done, or with such a cut-throat entrepreneurial instinct that you are afraid that they will take your money, burn down your factory and set up a competing business.  This is obviously a bit of an extreme statement, but it is a lesson he certainly learned the hard way. 

(For a more in depth discussion about HR in China, refer to the podcast by Amcham China)

Other obstacles include history and nationalism.  The history between China and Japan is emotional and complicated.  Many Chinese can paint a dark picture of Japan's involvement in World War II  (primarily its invasion of China), and specifically instances such as the Nanjing Massacre.  I have seen Chinese smirk and make faces when I mentioned that I had studied Japanese prior to coming to China.  I have also overheard hostile remarks made by Chinese when I mentioned that Japanese students were studying abroad with me in China.  Obviously, not all Chinese feel this way or will make these comments, but there is enough hostility to keep people such as a Japanese friend of mine from attending the Olympics for fear of being Japanese caught in a period of heightened Chinese nationalism.  (For an example of this hostility, see a chinaSMACK translation of an online discussion of Hiroshima survivors, there is no shortage of comments with cheers of karma and payback.)

There is certainly great potential for cooperation between the two countries, but there are still significant issues the two countries need to deal with before they can truly take advantage of what could be a mutually beneficial relationship.