The visit of Japanese Ambassador to Manipur University

Rajkumari Sona Devi *

The visit of Mr. Shunichi, an ambassador of the Japanese embassy in Manipur University was a brief one. From his words, for now, the Japanese seem to have more of an emotional attachment towards Manipur rather than a diplomatic one. And this is evident from the 100 families he visited in Khurai.

In his speech he talked of the historical past of the 2nd World War and the people that lives within this small state of India. His talk ignited and awakened the history that we share with Japan.

Our Professors as well as students thanked Mr. Sunichi for coming to Manipur and though Mr. Sunichi didn't promise of any future commitments on student exchange programme with Manipur University which seems to be what we want, I hope the future will foretell a different and a positive turn of event.

The words of Professor K. Ibo of Political Science department, Manipur University showed keenness and extended a hearty welcome to the Japanese embassy. The questions from the students showed the diplomacy and curiosity to some level and in some cases childlike.

I hope if there is another future to this interaction programme, it would contain a well thought and well prepared mind for a more elaborate deliberation. Arriving at the queries raised by the students, one query that striked my mind was that of the political relationship and the vulnerability of the Japan and North Korea to which Mr. Suinichi answered that not just them but everybody is insecure of war.

However, I would like to draw all due attention to one query that a student asked on the working hours and the workaholic nature of Japanese people to which Mr. Sunichi gave an elaborate answer which inspired me to write about his visit.

The sentiments with which the question was asked might regard us as lazy or in other hand draw our positivity on ground of human right.

Mr. Sunichi talked about the reduction in the working hours after the death of people due to the work overload. While answering he referred to the demographic position of Japanese that the Japanese have more of an older age group, they are importing employees from other countries and one thing he mentioned was the use of Robots to take care of old aged population.

This may seem very detached from the emotional point of view of Human nature. And I personally do not support this aspect of their life as a human and more because I fall in the category of age group which will get older to become that chunk of population who will have the least number of population to take care of, this thought again is a selfish side of human nature.

But I cannot change my faith, this is the truth and I have to accept it. The interaction caught me to think of how hardworking the Japanese are.

The 40 years old Mr Sunichi has been with the embassy for 20 years which means he started working at the age of 20. At that age how many Indians must have achieved that much and then I questioned myself meekly of how many Manipuris. I wonder if it was their sheer hard work that makes them look so farsighted.

Japan has few populations which seem to have attracted them more to work on the technology of Robotic so that they can substitute humans. This endeavour has led them to emerge as the leading country on Robotic technology from 1980s.

The culture and tradition of the economy is such that they have driven themselves to be economically efficient. These cultural drives that have been embedded have enabled them to accept the robotic technology into the society much more than any other country.

There are many Robotic industries in Japan such as JARA, NEDO, PORO and PORO is the industries that have introduced the robots that could take care of age old population.

This is where they stand and my question is where do we stand 30 to 40 years from now when we will have third phase of Demographic transition. This age group seems to have more responsibility than any other because if we don't wake up now, we won't be able to change our future that seems very predictable looking at the present scenario.

Do we have what it takes to better the future if not,will we be able to match up the advance Japan.This is the question that lies within us and this question should be raised and answered by us for the future.