Japanese’ feelings towards foreigners

A conversation with an Englishman (Ⅰ)
1. The name of a sumo wrestler who stopped the consecutive victories of Asashoryu, and the death of a scholar.
One day this May, Malandro met Peter in a town in Tokyo.
P: Hi, Malandro! How are you?
M: Oh, Peter! How are you? What a coincidence! If you are free now, let’s have some drinks in a coffee shop, shall we?
(In the coffee shop)
P: Do you have any interesting news?
M: Ah, this morning, a little item in the newspaper came to my attention. It was the death of a scholar of Japanese literature,
Haruhiko Kindaichi, because only two days ago, a young sumo wrestler Hokutoriki(北勝力) stopped the consecutive
victories of the grand champion Asashoryu(朝青龍).
P: Malandro, I don’t follow you. What relationship is there between sumo wrestling and a scholar of Japanese literature?
M: Because, I remember that Mr. Kindaichi expressed dissent upon the pronunciation of a sumo wrestler’s name.
He argued that it was not good to pronounce Hokutoumi written Kitakatumi(北勝海) even if it was only a Shiko-mei
(nickname of sumo wrestler). Hokutoumi is the master of Hokutoriki and the name “Hokutoriki” has the same problem.
P: Oh, I see. By the way, are these big news for Japanese people?
M: I think the death of a scholar is not so big. Probably very unimportant news. On the other hand, the stopping
of consecutive victories by Asashoryu had to be big news for many Japanese.
P: Why? Did many Japanese expect him to set a new record for successive victories?
M: No, I think many Japanese didn’t want him to.
P: Because he is a foreigner?
M: No, not because he is a foreigner. I think there are two reasons.
Firstly, he has no rival at the moment. We don’t want him to extend his record of successive victories easily.
Up to now, the record holders fought strong rivals and earned their records. Asashoryu’s run had been extended
too easily.
Secondly, his manners are not good for we Japanese. We expect grand champions to be more broad-minded, liberal
and tolerant.
P: Do many Japanese have the same opinion on these issues as you?
M: I don’ t think so.

2. Japanese’ feelings towards foreigners
In October, Malandro chanced to meet Peter in a town in Tokyo again.
P: By the way, I still think the reason that many Japanese didn’t want Asashoryu’s new record is because of his
nationality. Because, this year, Japanese pitchers gave intentional walks to Cabrera when he was going to set a
new record for a season’s home runs. The other hand, this year, Ichiro broke the hits record in the US Major
League. It seems to me that Major League players are fairer than Japanese.
M. I’d like for you to know two facts. One, many Japanese didn’t want pitchers to give intentional walks to
Cabrera. I believe that many Japanese were not satisfied with the pitchers. Second, the Home-run King “Oh” was
probably given more intentional walks than Cabrera. As far as I remember, he got only one chance to hit in four
or five turns at bat every day when he was in good condition. In extreme cases, catchers stood up even if no
runner was on the base.
Additionally, it is natural for players to block the new record. And the biggest problem in the baseball game
is this “walk”.
P: Do you have some ideas on how to prevent the “walk”?
M: For example, when a pitcher give intentional walks to a batter, let other runners go to next base. It’s good
idea, isn’t it?
P: Only in the case of some runners being on base, it should be efficient.
M: Another, when a batter gets four balls, let him choose if he wants to continue to hit the next ball or go to
first base. After five balls, let him chose again.
P: Oh, that seems like a good idea. What do you think about letting him run around the bases as if he has hit a
home run?
M: It’s too extreme an idea.
P: Then, I understand what you’ve wanted to tell me about the Japanese’ feelings towards foreigners. Still,
I don’t share the same view as you, OK!
M: That’s okay. I expected as such.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　(’04.11. Malandro)