Japan, Jews & demography
Those coming to the Far East from the Middle East discover that, unlike their Israeli counterparts, Japanese politicians do not manipulate the demon of demography to frighten their public.
The Japanese birth rate decreased from 3.6 children per family in 1950 to 1.3 in 2001. In the not too distant future, there may not be enough Japanese citizens to keep Tokyo's economy bustling.
Meanwhile, Japan's stringent immigration policy keeps legally registered foreigners down to 1.8 million ñ there are also an estimated 300,000 illegal workers.
The natural solution to Japan's labor shortage is nearby China. Economic competition between China and Japan creates an atmosphere of mutual suspicion. However, the historic intense hatred between the two peoples has passed.
In Israel, politicians scare the public by calling attention to how few Jews there are in the Arab sea. For their part, the Japanese wish to guarantee their place in global competition, but are seeking solutions without panic. Plainly, demographics is partly a matter of geography and mentality. The proud Japanese aren't frightened by Chinese numerical superiority.
THEN THERE is the issue of oil. Japan must maintain an uninterrupted flow of Middle East petroleum. The government's attitude toward Israel is influenced by the fact that 87% of Japan's oil flows from the Middle East. This explains Japanese interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and why the Japanese media take a pro-Palestinian line.
But Japan's relative anti-Israelism should not be translated into anti-Semitism. An Israeli friend of mine with a command of Japanese, and familiar with how the Japanese perceive Jews, insists that European-like anti-Semitism is absent in Japan.
So what about those respectable publications that depict Jews in America as having instigated the war against Saddam Hussein? What about images of Jewish economic domination? Why do themes about Jewish wealth and power sell books ñ like What I Learned from the Jewish Millionaires ñ in Japan?
And why are powerful non-Jewish American personalities presented as Jews?
This, my local Israeli source tells me, is not malicious but results from ignorance about Jews.
At the posh offices of Mr. Sonobe, the assistant managing editor at Kodansha Publishers, one of the largest in Japan, told me that the Jewish image among Japanese is associated with money and Shakespeare's Shylock. Sonobe, an educated man who speaks several languages, explains: "But this is not anti-Semitism. We also know that Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, and many Nobel Prize laureates are Jews. Anyway, stereotypes of Jews in Japan have no anti-Semitic significance because there aren't more than a few thousand Jews living in Japan."
Sonobe emphasized that numerous books written by Japanese authors about Zionism, Jews, and Israel are strictly informative and not at all hostile.
A well-known Japanese journalist working for a daily newspaper admitted that some books do depict Jews as dominating the world, but "the Japanese public is sufficiently educated to reject such conspiracy theories."
It is, of course, difficult for a visitor from Israel to properly evaluate the effect of all these publications on the average Japanese. I occasionally encountered remarks ñ in English, of course ñ such as "The Jews control the US" or "You are good at negotiations because you understand money" or "You are intelligent people."
A visitor comes away with the impression that the Japanese need not be envious of the Jews or of Israel.
Japan is, after all, an industrious country of polite people, masters of technology. Cleanliness is evident everywhere, from average homes to the skyscrapers of giant corporations.
Plainly it is oil and not sensationalist books about Jews that dictates Japan's Middle East policy.
My Israeli friend, who thinks in Hebrew but speaks and reads Japanese fluently, warns, however: "If the terrorists in Iraq harm Japanese soldiers, a public outcry may arise in Japan. Public opinion is already divided on the issue of the dispatch of the soldiers, and the Japanese are liable to point an accusing finger at the Jews and Israel."
Of course, there is fear that Muslim terror may yet hit Japan itself or American targets based in Japan.
If such a situation arises, the Japanese stock exchange may well be harmed, and worries about demography will be pushed aside.
The writer is the Mideast correspondent of The New York Post.
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