Today's Sankei Shimbun is full of genuine articles that should be required reading not only for the Japanese people but also for people worldwide, as it should be.
The following is from the Sankei Shou.
I learned a lot from Toshio Takashima, a Chinese literature scholar who passed away recently.
According to his book "Kanji to Nihonjin (Kanji and the Japanese)" (Bunshun Shinsho), Chinese dictionaries of foreign words contain many Japanese Chinese words, and "hegemony" and "territory" are said to be representative of them.
It was surprising, but it is an example of incorporating a concept not found in China from Japan.
I recall that Mr. Takashima also mentioned "reason" and "philosophy" as Chinese words of Japanese origin.
Is this a country that is tolerant of language, or is it the result of a preference for words that are convenient to the system?
The truth is still unclear.
Both "hegemony" and "territory" are words that should never have been taught to that country.
It has expanded its influence in the East and South China Seas as if it were our own and has no unapologetic attitude toward suppressing human rights in Hong Kong and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
It is threatening Taiwan by towering over it.
The joint statement issued by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and U.S. President Joe Biden after their meeting took on the tone of deterring China.
The statement that "encourages the peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues" over the Taiwan Strait, which holds the seeds of the conflict, was rational, but the "don't cross the line" statement has a specific strength.
The new corona disaster is dividing the security and economy into friend and foe. It can no longer describe the Japan-U.S. alliance only in terms of the security of one's own country.
Japan and the United States have no choice but to show the folly of pursuing hegemony as the two pillars that support democracy.
Japan should not lean on the alliance and should not neglect efforts to enhance its defense capabilities.
In the Chinese language, some stories are not funny.
The words "communism" and "dictatorship" are also said to have been reimported from Japan.
The two countries are linked by the Chinese character culture across the narrow sea, but the "idea" of democracy has never been understood.
What gave birth to this deformed superpower, and how did it work?
It is a test that history has given to humanity.
