Thirty years ago, the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka normalized relations with the People's Republic of China. Historically, the relationship between Japan and China has often been compared to that between Rome and Greece, since much of Japan's culture (writing system, Buddhism, handicrafts, etc.) was imported wholesale from China. Last week, about 13,000 Japanese people participated in an anniversary celebration in Beijing that was topped off with a Sino-Japanese concert headlined by superstar Ayumi Hamasaki.
However, the ties are both deeper and more complicated than a pop concert. This month will see many television specials devoted to various aspects of Sino-Japanese relations. Three, in fact, will be aired Sept. 29.
At 2 p.m. on that day, Asahi TV will present a program hosted by veteran political journalist Soichiro Tawara that will look at the predictions of famous men of the past and how those predictions compare to the reality of East Asia today. Among these men are Sun Yat-sen, the Chinese revolutionary leader who helped overthrow the Manchu Dynasty in 1911. Sun, in fact, formed his political party, the United Revolutionary League, in 1905 while in exile in Tokyo.