8/1/12

"Catalans and Japanese have the same feelings"

Hidehiro Tsubaki, Consul General of Japan in Barcelona

< 1 min.

Hidehiro Tsubaki, Consul General of Japan in Barcelona

What is the role of the Consul General of Japan in the city of Barcelona?
The mission of our consulate general is to fulfil three core aims: the first is to protect the safety and assets of Japanese citizens and Japanese companies; the second is to foster mutual understanding between Japan and the area under my jurisdiction: Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearics; and the third is to observe and get to know the political, economic and cultural and social situation of these areas well.

I have been living in Barcelona for one year and eight months and I'm observing how people from Barcelona think and act.
And what is the result? What is the main difference and what is the main similarity between the two cultures?
The main difference is that in Japan we speak Japanese and you speak Catalan, but we're human beings and we have the same feelings. And the sense of the aesthetic between Japan and Catalonia is very similar.

However, the Catalans are braver in starting new things, like you did with Catalan Modernism. In Japan we renovate by adding new things to tradition, but here, Picasso, Miró, Dalí, Domènech i Muntaner, Gaudí... they started everything from their own originality and I really like that courage in starting new things.
How do we get relations between Catalonia and Japan to be fluid?
The difference is the difference, but recognising the difference is essential. Not to impose a point of view or a style but to know how to respect the difference, for which you need understanding. I think that's how we've come this far, mutual respect and recognition.
Barcelona is a city that attracts many Japanese tourists every year. But how many stay here to live?
It is recorded at the consulate general that around 230,000 Japanese people visited the city last year, and a little over 2,000 people have chosen to live here; there may be more, but they have not registered with the consulate general.
Why do you think more and more Catalans are becoming interested in learning Japanese? Is it to do with business?
I don't think it has so much to do with economic motives but because they are interested in Japanese culture.
And to be able to visit Japan, for example...
Also. There are many Catalans who visit Japan and when they return they tell me that they found it incredible, such a tidy, clean, polite society.
Besides the growing interest in the language, Catalans are also becoming interested in studying East Asia Studies, such as the courses offered at the UOC.
That is very good. Everyone thinks they are at the centre of the globe, whereas there really is no centre to a globe. What is important is to know our own culture and other cultures well, spiritually and with knowledge.

Perhaps for Westerners, the Pacific would be a cultural antipode, but it is always better to know the other side.
What do you think of the role of the university as an institution that enables the cultural enrichment of people?
You have to study systematically. In my case, I always study of my own free will and I am not systematic. But university prepares organised and complete courses. Besides, the UOC is an Open University to the world... and that is very important. It also offers more opportunities to people of all ages who work.

What is also important is that every student has a passion and the desire to learn new things and the UOC gives them this opportunity.

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