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<v Al Austin>[Birds chirping] Mr. Serizawa has invested in a rice combine. <v Al Austin>He harvests the rice from fields belonging to many different farmers near the city <v Al Austin>of Shizuoka. It takes him most of the day to harvest this small patty <v Al Austin>and sack the rice. <v Al Austin>He charged the owner of the patty a thousand dollars for the day's work. <v Al Austin>The owner seemed pleased to pay that amount, thanking Mr. Serizawa when he had <v Al Austin>finished. The owner will now sell the rice for about <v Al Austin>1000 dollars, the same amount it cost him just to harvest it. <v Al Austin>But he and other Japanese rice farmers will go right on planting rice in the face <v Al Austin>of such puzzling economic conditions. <v Al Austin>What they're really worried about is America. <v Al Austin>They also think America doesn't understand Japan. <v Al Austin>Maybe not. I sure didn't. <v Al Austin>Hoping to separate the truth from the myths, I came to Japan not to <v Al Austin>talk to government officials, but to people directly involved in these issues. <v Al Austin>Salaryman, farmers, housewives, teachers, students.
<v Al Austin>It's confusing. Do the Japanese hold us in contempt or do <v Al Austin>they want to be like us? <v Al Austin>And if the picture we have of the Japanese as being tranquil and serene is <v Al Austin>accurate, why don't they relax a little? <v Al Austin>I had a lot of questions about Japan and maybe the Japanese were just as confused <v Al Austin>about America. <v Al Austin>Toshio Suzuki, a television reporter, and Shizuoka, Japan, said he <v Al Austin>pictured Americans as big, friendly people who drive big cars, live <v Al Austin>in big houses and complain about competition from Japan. <v Al Austin>I had always thought Japan was a busy, crowded, fiercely competitive place <v Al Austin>that was at the same time spiritual and a little mystical. <v Al Austin>Toshio agreed to show me around part of Japan.
<v Al Austin>And then he'd come to America and we'd both try to get some things straight. <v Al Austin>We would talk to everyday people, not the politicians, not the newspaper reporters <v Al Austin>and not the TV anchors on the 5 o'clock news. <v Al Austin>This program will show what each of us found. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] America is a very important country to we Japanese. <v Toshio Suzuki>We have been watching Americans on TV and in the movies. <v Toshio Suzuki>So we believe that we know America very well. <v Toshio Suzuki>But I wonder whether we know the real people of America. <v Toshio Suzuki>Everybody in Japan knows the term American dream, which means whoever tries hard <v Toshio Suzuki>will succeed. It's a positive and cheerful term. <v Toshio Suzuki> Our image in the U.S. is that of a huge rich country full of hope and opportunity. <v Toshio Suzuki>I don't understand why Americans are complaining about other countries, especially Japan. <v Toshio Suzuki>I mean, why should such a big country complain about us? <v Toshio Suzuki>You talk about is our image of America wrong or outdated? <v Al Austin>[Children singing in Japanese] The first thing I wanted to see was a Japanese school.
<v Al Austin>By every account. It's the key to Japan's stunning economic success. <v Al Austin>It produced a generation of whiz kids at technology and business. <v Al Austin>[Woman speaking Japanese] Mrs. Suzuki teachers, 45 second graders. <v Al Austin>More than would be in most American <v Al Austin>classes. They attend the school 5 and a half days a week. <v Al Austin>The school year ends on March 31st. <v Al Austin>The next school year begins on April 1st. <v Al Austin>It's the beginning of an unrelenting struggle for success that enlists every Japanese <v Al Austin>child and will increase in intensity until the child reaches college. <v Al Austin>These kids will outdistance American students in no time. <v Al Austin>By every measure. <v Al Austin>But at what price does childhood and fun end with the first bell <v Al Austin>of grade school? <v Mrs. Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] The first and second years are no so difficult for the children.
<v Mrs. Suzuki>They can do most of their studying in school so that their only homework <v Mrs. Suzuki>is reading. I want them to have a good foundation even <v Mrs. Suzuki>at this age, it is important for the students to learn good study <v Mrs. Suzuki>habits. They will need these good habits for later school years. <v Al Austin>When I talked with American teachers, they've expressed frustration with their jobs. <v Al Austin>Not so with Mrs. Suzuki. <v Mrs. Suzuki>When I meet friends that I went to high school and college with, I <v Mrs. Suzuki>am proud to tell them I am a teacher. <v Mrs. Suzuki>Being with the children makes me very happy. <v Mrs. Suzuki>The children in my class are in the second grade. <v Mrs. Suzuki>They play and have a good time. <v Mrs. Suzuki>But with the schedule of the school, the number of things they have to learn, <v Mrs. Suzuki>you increase. So they must have more and more homework in the 4th, <v Mrs. Suzuki>5th and 6th grade. <v Al Austin>At about grade 4 the system really starts to get intense.
<v Al Austin>I wondered if that was good. <v Mrs. Suzuki>It is necessary for the children for once in their life. <v Mrs. Suzuki>They must act very seriously and try very hard to achieve something <v Mrs. Suzuki>they need to. They have goals to achieve. <v Mrs. Suzuki>It is very important. <v Al Austin>All attention turns toward learning. <v Al Austin>Learning the endless number of symbols of the Japanese language. <v Al Austin>Learning English, science, math, studying, reciting, memorizing <v Al Austin>homework grows heavier. [Children chanting in Japanese]The <v Al Austin>lines between school and home blur. <v Al Austin>Students in all the schools wear uniforms. <v Al Austin>At today's Final Bell, students and teachers alike grab brooms and mops
<v Al Austin>and clean the school. <v Al Austin>Inside and out. <v Al Austin>Incredible as it seems to an American visitor, they all seem to consider it fun. <v Al Austin>The teachers believe it shows respect and adds to the feeling that they own their <v Al Austin>schools. <v Al Austin>This immense workload is one that many teachers and parents accept as something their <v Al Austin>kids must do to have a happy life. <v Al Austin>Masauki Umai, a professor at Shizuoka University describes his <v Al Austin>son's typical day. <v Masauki Umai>[Speaking Japanese] My first son is in the 9th grade. <v Masauki Umai>He leaves our house at 7:30 in the morning, comes home at 5:00, <v Masauki Umai>and eats at 6:00. He goes to cram school at 7:00, returning <v Masauki Umai>home at 10:00 where he studies until he goes to sleep at 2 a.m.. <v Al Austin>All of this so he can get a good job? <v Al Austin>I wondered how many American parents and students would consider a schedule like this. <v Al Austin>Lasted from the 4th grade through high school.
<v Masauki Umai>[Speaking Japanese] This hard time for my son is only <v Masauki Umai>a few years. If he has good marks and into his high <v Masauki Umai>school, he will be able to go to top university and ?inaudible? <v Masauki Umai>a good future. These years from grade school through high school <v Masauki Umai>are training time. So he must work hard. <v Al Austin>This is Cram School. <v Al Austin>Nighttime drills of math and science to prepare for the tests <v Al Austin>that will climax high school and decide which university the student will go to. <v Al Austin>Cram school is voluntary and costs extra. <v Al Austin>But most Japanese parents consider it a necessity. <v Al Austin>Those tests may determine a child's career for life full <v Al Austin>[Man speaking Japanese] Is it all too much?
<v Speaker 1>[Speaking Japanese] No. Everyone does the same thing. <v Speaker 1>So it's not too much. I want a good job for myself. <v Speaker 2>[Speaking Japanese] Sometimes it's too much. But what's important is that it will decide <v Speaker 2>my whole life. So it is very important. <v Al Austin>Mr. Saki's students are working on a problem in ethics, <v Al Austin>this kind of pondering and discussing is a rarity in Japanese education, <v Al Austin>which is filled with reciting and memorization of facts. <v Al Austin>Some Japanese, including teachers, have come to believe that this is a weakness in the <v Al Austin>system. <v Mr. Saki>[Speaking Japanese] I asked my students. <v Mr. Saki>What do you want to be in the future? <v Mr. Saki>The number one answer was, I don't know the number two answer was <v Mr. Saki>I want be a salaryman, a businessman. <v Mr. Saki>To be a salaryman, they want to go to high school, then university, <v Mr. Saki>and then to a company. But they don't know what they want to do in that company.
<v Mr. Saki>They don't have time to think about their whole life. <v Mr. Saki>The right school, the right company, that's our only goal. <v Mr. Saki>Japanese education has learned a lot from America. <v Mr. Saki>America was dream country when we were children. <v Mr. Saki>And we thought whatever America was doing was the best way <v Mr. Saki>now to then buy only what is written in the book. <v Mr. Saki>We haven't learned to deal with things not written in the textbooks. <v Mrs. Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] What we need now is how do you have an individual student think <v Mrs. Suzuki>for himself? We need individual thinking and individual <v Mrs. Suzuki>opinion. If we have group studies always, then the students <v Mrs. Suzuki>always think in a group when they become adults, they need to <v Mrs. Suzuki>be able to think on their own. <v Al Austin>We are at almost the same lament from a housewife in Tokyo. <v Al Austin>Shihoko Ogawa, who is worried about her 4 year old son as he nears school age.
<v Shihoko Ogawa>You are creating children with originality or <v Shihoko Ogawa>expressing themselves freely and things like that. <v Shihoko Ogawa>In Japan, our children are not very original. <v Shihoko Ogawa>They are not creative. <v Shihoko Ogawa>They are sort of forced to sit still and <v Shihoko Ogawa>memorize things and accumulate the <v Shihoko Ogawa>knowledge. A kind of, you know, the wisdom <v Shihoko Ogawa>from very other people. <v Shihoko Ogawa>They are not creating their own thing. <v Teacher>[Basketball bouncing] Nice try. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] Education is the mirror that shows the real image of a society. <v Toshio Suzuki>Schools in Japan and America will show us the basic differences between Japanese <v Toshio Suzuki>and American societies. <v Toshio Suzuki>Mrs. Chris Ritter is a first grade teacher in Perlis Grade School, located in a suburb
<v Toshio Suzuki>of Portland, Oregon. There are only 20 students in the class. <v Toshio Suzuki>Half the size of the Japanese class. <v Toshio Suzuki>And the children were studying in an open freestyle. <v Toshio Suzuki>I couldn't imagine that this would ever happen in a Japanese classroom. <v Toshio Suzuki>The Japanese teachers and parents would find this extremely chaotic. <v Toshio Suzuki>I wondered if there was a strict line between the class period and recess. <v Chris Ritter>Well, the behavior that they were eliciting at that point was acceptable behavior <v Chris Ritter>in a classroom of this structure. <v Chris Ritter>Doing their work on the floor, if they can see better and work more <v Chris Ritter>comfortably here where they're closer to the work that's <v Chris Ritter>acceptable. As a matter of fact, I initiated that I at the beginning of the year said, <v Chris Ritter>would you like to work this way or this way? <v Chris Ritter>How do you best work? It depends on their style. <v Chris Ritter>?inaudible? spelling to correct spelling today, okay? <v Toshio Suzuki> [Speaking Japanese] A mother of one of the students came to see the class. <v Toshio Suzuki>She began teaching another child. <v Toshio Suzuki>This would never happen in a Japanese classroom.
<v Toshio Suzuki>A Japanese teacher would get angry at her because her actions would disrupt the class. <v Toshio Suzuki>Here in Chris Ritter's class, it is accepted. <v Toshio Suzuki>Perhaps this is because America makes much of freedom and individuality. <v Toshio Suzuki>Still, I wonder if this may widen the gap between the bright and common students. <v Toshio Suzuki>In Japan, we believe it is better for every child to reach the same level of achievement <v Toshio Suzuki>[Man speaking Japanese] This <v Toshio Suzuki>is the inner city of Portland, Oregon. <v Toshio Suzuki>Drug dealers do business in the area. <v Toshio Suzuki>It is economically depressed around here and a rough place to live. <v Toshio Suzuki>Jefferson, a public high school is in this district. <v Toshio Suzuki>I recognize many differences between a Japanese and an American school. <v Toshio Suzuki>American students do not wear a uniform and they never clean their classrooms themselves. <v Toshio Suzuki>I was surprised to see a guard in the school to protect the students. <v Toshio Suzuki>I have never heard of such a person in a Japanese school.
<v Toshio Suzuki>We believe that school is a place to study, not a place to worry about your safety <v Toshio Suzuki>and getting into trouble. <v Linda Chrischansen>Nanny's words make Janey's kiss Janey kiss. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Man speaking Japanese] Ms. <v Toshio Suzuki>Linda Chrischansen has taught literature for 17 years. <v Toshio Suzuki>These students are juniors in high school. <v Toshio Suzuki>Blacks, Mexicans and Asians, students of many races were studying together. <v Toshio Suzuki>Japanese people would be stunned to see students eating and drinking in the classroom. <v Linda Chrischansen>For a lot of students, education, they see that education has not helped <v Linda Chrischansen>people in their neighborhoods get better jobs. <v Linda Chrischansen>So I think the lack of opportunity through <v Linda Chrischansen>education has become more apparent to students. <v Linda Chrischansen>So they're less willing to sit still and be contained <v Linda Chrischansen>for eight hours a day. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] These children are students of a private school called Katlin Gable.
<v Toshio Suzuki>Most of them come from upper middle class families or higher. <v Toshio Suzuki>One of the parents told me that a good education is very important to securing the <v Toshio Suzuki>American dream. <v Toshio Suzuki>Catlin Gable has a huge school yard and there are students from kindergarten through high <v Toshio Suzuki>school. The class size a Katlin Gable is very small. <v Toshio Suzuki>The average number of students is twelve. <v Toshio Suzuki>That is 1/3 to 1/4 the size of a Japanese class. <v Toshio Suzuki>This does not come cheap. Tuition here is $10,000 dollars each year. <v Toshio Suzuki>It may be worthwhile for parents to pay this much because 100 percent of the students <v Toshio Suzuki>go on to universities or colleges. <v Toshio Suzuki>And many of them go on to famous colleges. <v Toshio Suzuki>The school says it does not have a violence, drug or theft problem. <v Toshio Suzuki>They say that in most American schools, students use lockers, not open shelves. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Men speaking Japanese] They <v Toshio Suzuki>are teaching Japanese to the students.
<v Toshio Suzuki>They say they are trying to create business people who will someday play a role in <v Toshio Suzuki>international society, especially the Pacific Rim area. <v Toshio Suzuki>What school master Jim Scott says reminded me of something Japanese teachers also say. <v James Scott>We experience probably more than the public schools do, <v James Scott>more keen competition or expectations <v James Scott>among our parents and our students about going to good colleges and universities. <v James Scott>So we feel that pressure as well. <v Toshio Suzuki>Physics teacher, Mr. Lowell Herr, is very satisfied with the teaching in this private <v Toshio Suzuki>school. He was not satisfied with his salary, but he likes the educational environment <v Toshio Suzuki>of the school and the eagerness and ability of the students. <v Lowell Herr>I taught in a public school one year and I was going to give up teaching. <v Lowell Herr>I teach and I think one of the best places I can imagine in <v Lowell Herr>this country. I honestly don't think I would <v Lowell Herr>trade places with any other physics teacher anywhere else in the country.
<v Toshio Suzuki>But Ms. Chrischansen has a different view. <v Toshio Suzuki>She says that public school is necessary to American society. <v Linda Chrischansen>America is no longer. <v Linda Chrischansen>I mean, this is now a multicultural society and that there are more and more <v Linda Chrischansen>people of color in the United States, people who come from different backgrounds. <v Linda Chrischansen>And really, in order to succeed in the United States, in order to succeed <v Linda Chrischansen>and get along and work with other people, you need to learn how to <v Linda Chrischansen>understand the cultural linguistic backgrounds of people who <v Linda Chrischansen>aren't like you. <v Linda Chrischansen>And so continuing to close people off in these small pockets <v Linda Chrischansen>of advantage is is going to be detrimental for <v Linda Chrischansen>people in the long run for this children in the long run. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Ragtime music playing] [Speaking Japanese] Jefferson High School has established art <v Toshio Suzuki>classes like painting and dance. <v Toshio Suzuki>These classes attract students from outside the inner city.
<v Toshio Suzuki>The school wants to mix wealthy students with those who are poor. <v Toshio Suzuki>This is a great idea, but the problems of class differences cannot be solved with just <v Toshio Suzuki>this one attempt. America is not a simple society where everybody can pursue the <v Toshio Suzuki>American dream from an equal position. <v Toshio Suzuki>It is a complex society, culturally diverse, with many financial classes. <v Toshio Suzuki>Americans make much of freedom and individuality. <v Toshio Suzuki>However, each person's individuality is confronted by another's. <v Toshio Suzuki>I find many differences between American and Japanese education. <v Al Austin>Yoshio Mitsumori is a prized product of Japan's high powered educational <v Al Austin>system. His high school test scores were outstanding. <v Al Austin>So he was accepted in one of the best universities. <v Al Austin>This assured him a lifelong career with a successful company. <v Al Austin>Star Micronics. <v Al Austin>As an engineer, he helped perfect computer printers and a long list of other electronic <v Al Austin>devices.
<v Al Austin>He works 12 to 15 hours a day, 6 days a week. <v Al Austin>As with most Japanese, he gives no thought to changing jobs or companies. <v Al Austin>He has stayed put and now manages, other engineers searching for <v Al Austin>new products. <v Al Austin>He has even worked in America and compares the two. <v Yoshio Mitsumori>The big difference is we are doing by group. <v Yoshio Mitsumori>When I was in California working for the U.S. <v Yoshio Mitsumori>companies, I only need to concentrate. <v Yoshio Mitsumori>You know, I'm working for the R&D divisions. <v Yoshio Mitsumori>So then if I only need to concentrate R&D <v Yoshio Mitsumori>matters only. But when I return to Japan, you know, the two <v Yoshio Mitsumori>I'm working for the R&D, you know, product running divisions. <v Yoshio Mitsumori>Still I have considered the <v Yoshio Mitsumori>production schedule or production quality, ?inaudible? <v Yoshio Mitsumori>control or an affairs matter, marketing matters.
<v Yoshio Mitsumori>Everything combined. <v Al Austin>This working in a group means no private offices. <v Al Austin>Everyone works together to make even the smallest decision. <v Al Austin>Mr Mitsumori told me that if a single person wanted to make a decision on his own, <v Al Austin>it would be impossible. <v Al Austin>Even a company manager would never make a decision by himself. <v Yoshio Mitsumori>In Japan, we don't have any partitions, you know, even a big room. <v Yoshio Mitsumori>We can see that everybody's <v Yoshio Mitsumori>sometime and that is sometimes good, you know, because uh much easier <v Yoshio Mitsumori>to communicate. <v Al Austin>Americans have had difficulty selling products in Japan, according to <v Al Austin>Mr. Mitsumori. It's because Japan has so many layers of middlemen <v Al Austin>and because Japan thinks long term profit in the next five to 10 years <v Al Austin>instead of the next six months. <v Al Austin>He also gave me an interesting insight into their philosophy about profit.
<v Al Austin>He said that in Japan, a salesman who had a product that cost 1 dollar <v Al Austin>and sold it for 2 dollars, making a 100 percent profit, <v Al Austin>he would be considered a bad salesman. <v Yoshio Mitsumori>In Japan, if somebody heard of that. <v Yoshio Mitsumori>They say he's a very bad guy. <v Al Austin>It would be much better for everyone to make a little profit. <v Al Austin>Even with their spectacular success in business, Mr. Mitsumori echoed the <v Al Austin>thoughts of the teachers I had met. <v Yoshio Mitsumori>One very good thing is an American style systems <v Yoshio Mitsumori>always be creative. <v Yoshio Mitsumori>We can learn from the America what we have to do <v Yoshio Mitsumori>in the future. <v Al Austin>So it seems that both the schools and business see creativity as <v Al Austin>Japan's next step.
<v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] This computer software company called Mentor Graphics, it is a <v Toshio Suzuki>growing company. They have a good restaurant for their employees and a wonderful fitness <v Toshio Suzuki>center. It is a very beautiful work environment. <v Toshio Suzuki>Very few Japanese companies have these types of facilities. <v Toshio Suzuki>Mr Rob Bartel has been an executive with mentor graphics since its earliest days. <v Toshio Suzuki>The computer business is a fast growing industry in America as it is in Japan. <v Toshio Suzuki>I learned that if you want to secure the American dream, you had better stay in a high <v Toshio Suzuki>tech business like the computer industry, rather than growing rice or cutting lumber. <v Toshio Suzuki>Before coming to America. I thought that American businessmen worked much harder than <v Toshio Suzuki>Japanese businessmen. <v Toshio Suzuki>I was surprised when I learned that Mr. Bartel returns home at five o'clock every day. <v Toshio Suzuki>I asked him what he thought about balancing his work and his home life.
<v Rob Bartel>My father worked very hard. <v Rob Bartel>I think that whole generation was different than the generation that we have <v Rob Bartel>now. In this country, we've made perhaps a trade off <v Rob Bartel>where we've said it isn't worth it to us to have quite that many goods <v Rob Bartel>and services, but rather, we would prefer to have the <v Rob Bartel>incredible rewards and satisfaction that comes from raising <v Rob Bartel>children and being with them and watching them grow. <v Toshio Suzuki> After dinner, Mr. Bartal went to a local Cub Scout <v Toshio Suzuki>meeting with his children. It is very, very difficult for a Japanese businessman <v Toshio Suzuki>to be involved with his family. There is almost no chance. <v Toshio Suzuki>The biggest difference between Japanese and American businessmen is not the way they do <v Toshio Suzuki>business, but the way they live their lives. <v Toshio Suzuki>For the Americans, it seems that the number one priority is a happy family life. <v Toshio Suzuki>His work is simply a means to that life. <v Toshio Suzuki>I think it is true for Mr. Bartel.
<v Toshio Suzuki>I was very surprised that he said exactly the same thing that Japanese fathers say <v Toshio Suzuki>about their children's futures. <v Rob Bartel>It is relatively difficult to <v Rob Bartel>to be in the middle class or above <v Rob Bartel>in America with less than a college education. <v Rob Bartel>It certainly has been done. There are always the stories of multibillionaires that <v Rob Bartel>had 8th grade educations. <v Rob Bartel>But but it would be very disappointing <v Rob Bartel>for us to see our children decide not to go to college. <v Rob Bartel>Not so much because it would embarrass us or something like that, but rather <v Rob Bartel>because it would make the boys lives much less pleasant than they <v Rob Bartel>would be otherwise. <v Al Austin>High in the mountains of Japan, the life is slower, less hectic.
<v Al Austin>Farmers cultivate manicured hillsides with tea, vegetables and even <v Al Austin>trees. <v Al Austin>Hidemoto Suzuki climbs the steep hills side of the family forest <v Al Austin>in the mountainous woods an hour from Shizuoka. <v Al Austin>For generations, his family has made a living carefully, cutting and replanting patches <v Al Austin>of trees. Each day Hidemoto, works in the forest that will <v Al Austin>someday be his. <v Hidemoto Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] Ever since I was a child, I have loved the forest. <v Hidemoto Suzuki>I am very much interested in the forestry business. <v Hidemoto Suzuki>I know this work is difficult and frustrating, but I get much enjoyment from it <v Hidemoto Suzuki>and I know this is what I will always do . <v Al Austin>Hideomoto's father, Hidetsugu Suzuki, has seen many changes <v Al Austin>in his years as a logger. <v Al Austin>I asked him if he resented American competition. <v Hidetsugu Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] I think it is all right to import lots of logs and lots of lumber
<v Hidetsugu Suzuki>that only grows in America. <v Hidetsugu Suzuki>This is wood that Japanese wood farmer cannot produce. <v Hidetsugu Suzuki>The smaller wood products that compete with Japan's lumber, I would like to see left to <v Hidetsugu Suzuki>Japanese loggers. <v Al Austin>That sounded like the American car manufacturers who want to limit Japanese competition <v Hidetsugu Suzuki>[Speking Japanese] I don't have any bitter feelings. I can't sell product here if it's <v Hidetsugu Suzuki>not a good quality. So I make good logs and good lumber. <v Hidetsugu Suzuki>I want to export and sell my logs to America. <v Hidetsugu Suzuki>We don't have enough lumber in Japan to meet a domestic demand. <v Hidetsugu Suzuki>If we stopped in putting wood, the hillside over Japan would be bald in just few <v Hidetsugu Suzuki>years. <v Al Austin>What he said next surprised me. <v Al Austin>It isn't the competition that's hurting Mr. Suzuki or any shortage of trees. <v Al Austin>He can't find anyone to cut them. <v Al Austin>No one in Japan wants to be a lumberjack. <v Al Austin>As I learned when I talked with the students, they all want to make good grades and be
<v Al Austin>white collar workers. <v Al Austin>Mr. Suzuki needs five workers to harvest his trees. <v Al Austin>He can only find two. One of them is his son. <v Hidetsugu Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] We say this work is a three case. <v Hidetsugu Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] it means you dirty, difficult <v Hidetsugu Suzuki>and low status. <v Al Austin>So here in Japan, there is the problem of having lots of trees and <v Al Austin>no one to cut them. In America, the problem's just the reverse. <v Al Austin>Not enough trees and lots of unemployed loggers. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] Oregon is a very beautiful state and well known for its rich natural <v Toshio Suzuki>resources. One of the largest industries here is the timber industry with <v Toshio Suzuki>few barriers, American lumberman sell in international markets. <v Toshio Suzuki>I visited Vanport Manufacturing in Boring, Oregon.
<v Toshio Suzuki>Vanport has been very successful in producing finished lumber and selling it to Japan. <v Toshio Suzuki>This large tree was cut into small parts that will make up a Japanese shoji screens, <v Toshio Suzuki>90 percent of the products made here will go to the Japanese market. <v Toshio Suzuki>Japanese professionals taught the workers here how to select good lumber and control the <v Toshio Suzuki>quality. Vanport Lumber has a close relationship with the Japanese. <v Toshio Suzuki>5 planks are tied in a bundle, which is the perfect size and weight for Japanese <v Toshio Suzuki>carpenters to carry. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Traditional music playing] This house is standing not in Japan, but in Oregon, the owner <v Toshio Suzuki>of the mill, Mr. Hertrich, built this traditional Japanese house to teach <v Toshio Suzuki>the employees how American lumber products are used on a Japanese home. <v Toshio Suzuki>His approach is much like that of the Japanese companies that succeed in the U.S. <v Toshio Suzuki>market. <v Adolf Hertrich>You look at different values, different appearances,
<v Adolf Hertrich>different idea of what quality is. <v Adolf Hertrich>And so anybody who wants to be successful in your market. <v Adolf Hertrich>First he has to study. <v Adolf Hertrich>What is realestc demand in your market. <v Adolf Hertrich>What do people want to buy? <v Adolf Hertrich>Once you do this, it's not difficult. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] But many American mill owners are having a very difficult time. <v Toshio Suzuki>Some have lost their business, even though the United States has 25 times more <v Toshio Suzuki>land, then Japan. They are running short of trees in the forest. <v Toshio Suzuki>This sounded peculiar to me. <v Toshio Suzuki>Much of the problem surrounds a bird called the spotted owl. <v Toshio Suzuki>There are only 4000 of them left. <v Toshio Suzuki>Environmental groups fear that more logging in the old growth forests will cause the <v Toshio Suzuki>spotted owl to go extinct. <v Toshio Suzuki>The environmentalists say that 100 years of continuous cutting has destroyed <v Toshio Suzuki>90 percent of the old growth trees.
<v Toshio Suzuki>It is very difficult for the sawmills to get logs from national forests that have <v Toshio Suzuki>old growth trees. <v Gary Callahan>Oh, it's hard. Spotted owl and the economy <v Gary Callahan>and everything, you know, it's. <v Gary Callahan>It's hard on the loggers, you know, sort of a dying breed, all the mills <v Gary Callahan>and. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] Hull Oaks Sawmill is one of the oldest sawmills in Oregon. <v Toshio Suzuki>It is an old style mill and has no computer guided machines like Vanport Manufacturing <v Toshio Suzuki>Hull Oaks cuts lumber for the domestic market using traditional methods. <v Toshio Suzuki>It is not making as much money as Vanport manufacturer. <v Toshio Suzuki>This is the owner of the mill, 80 year old Ralph Hull. <v Toshio Suzuki>He's been in the business for 50 years. <v Toshio Suzuki>His mill is running with a steam engine built 100 years ago when no electricity <v Toshio Suzuki>was available. <v Ralph Hull>It was a good thing it was a positive thing.
<v Ralph Hull>We built, made lumber for houses. <v Ralph Hull>During the war we made lumber for warehouses and factories <v Ralph Hull>in military camps. <v Ralph Hull>It was it was a good thing. But today we're looked on wer're we're <v Ralph Hull>bad people. They say we're destroying the environment. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] 80 people work in this mill. Some of them have been here for 50 years <v Toshio Suzuki>since the mill was built. <v Toshio Suzuki>As I show you, this is the only industry in the town. <v Toshio Suzuki>But Mr Hall is having the most difficult time of his life trying to run the business <v Toshio Suzuki>in the last three years. Thirty five sawmills have closed and 5500 <v Toshio Suzuki>people have lost their jobs. <v Ralph Hull>I'm sad. We think people should be working. <v Ralph Hull>The United States owes about 3 times as much money now as the did 10 <v Ralph Hull>or 15 years ago. We've gone in debt.
<v Ralph Hull>And yet we have these environmentalists and do-gooders that <v Ralph Hull>don't want business to continue. <v Ralph Hull>We don't want they don't want to produce lumber. They don't want to produce a lot of <v Ralph Hull>other things. That's a lot of negative attitude. <v Ralph Hull>And to me, that's in a sense the reason we're going <v Ralph Hull>in debt so much. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] I thought American people were proud of having such vast land with <v Toshio Suzuki>rich natural resources. It sounds strange to me to hear that they have the same serious <v Toshio Suzuki>environmental issues as a small and crowded country like Japan. <v Toshio Suzuki>No one, including Mr. Hull, can stop the environmental movement. <v Toshio Suzuki>Mr. Hull's good ol America and his American dream have gone and will never <v Toshio Suzuki>return. <v Al Austin>Far from the isolation of Ralph Hull's ancient sawmill, most of Japan <v Al Austin>lives in cities, crowded cities.
<v Al Austin>What we call rush hour in America pales in comparison. <v Al Austin>Commuters endure the daily grind on the trains and a body crunching twice a day <v Al Austin>trip. <v Al Austin>But even in the middle of the crunch of bodies, you see practical solutions. <v Al Austin>A quiet moment in a temple is just <v Al Austin>a few steps from lunch. <v Al Austin>All that I had heard about Japan being obsessed with baseball or the sumo wrestlers <v Al Austin>seemed to take a backseat to this [Arcade music playing] Pachinko. <v Al Austin>Many Japanese seem to be addicted to pachinko. <v Al Austin>It consists of feeding beebees into a machine and beebees come back out <v Al Austin>in a bewildering ratio. <v Al Austin>Men, women, children, everyone they sit for hours. <v Al Austin>It's obviously gambling, but gambling is not allowed in Japan. <v Al Austin>Winners were exchanging buckets of beebees for cheap watch bands.
<v Al Austin>They then went somewhere else to cash in the watch bands for money. <v Al Austin>All very roundabout. But in perfect Japanese logic, you <v Al Austin>can still have a law against gambling. <v Al Austin>But the people can still win money like a casino in America. <v Al Austin>But different. <v Al Austin>It also seemed to me that Japan had another national addiction, shopping. <v Al Austin>In every city, town and village the streets are a continuous flow <v Al Austin>of people going from store to store. <v Al Austin>The department stores are like ours. <v Al Austin>You can find the usual things, things we have in America, but different <v Al Austin>too. <v Al Austin>And in America, I don't ever remember the salespeople and the managers greeting <v Al Austin>me like this. <v Al Austin>[Man speaking Japanese] Here was another example of the difference between our two <v Al Austin>countries and something that helps explain the near absence of unemployment in <v Al Austin>Japan, a service station.
<v Al Austin>To an American, it's ridiculously overstaffed and sort of puzzling. <v Al Austin>A service station that provides service? <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] I visited an American gas station. <v Toshio Suzuki>It was very different from those in Japan. <v Toshio Suzuki>In many stations, the customers fill up their cars by themselves. <v Toshio Suzuki>I had never seen that in Japan. There was no window cleaning, no polite bowing, no asking <v Toshio Suzuki>to change the oil in Japan. <v Toshio Suzuki>I usually choose the station with the best service, but there was no service here. <v Toshio Suzuki>They say American people are creative. <v Toshio Suzuki>Why don't they use their creativity in selling goods? <v Toshio Suzuki>Many people in America are out of a job, but it seems to me that they are not willing to <v Toshio Suzuki>do these small jobs. American people say that the Japanese work too much. <v Toshio Suzuki>But I think Americans would not like to work as much as we do. <v Toshio Suzuki>For London, there is a small supermarket in Portland called Anzen, which means <v Toshio Suzuki>safety in Japanese. The store was established by a Japanese immigrant from Okuyama, <v Toshio Suzuki>located in west Japan.
<v Toshio Suzuki>This immigrant sought the American dream. <v Toshio Suzuki>At the beginning of World War Two, the owner of the store was put into an internment camp <v Toshio Suzuki>and his store was taken from him. <v Toshio Suzuki>After the war, he and his son started the business again from nothing. <v Toshio Suzuki>Soon they will open another store in San Francisco. <v Toshio Suzuki>There has been a certain change in this store. <v Toshio Suzuki>The customers have changed. Years ago, most of the customers were Japanese and Japanese <v Toshio Suzuki>American. Today, they are in the minority. <v Speaker 3>I'm a chef and it's a fairly healthy diet, not <v Speaker 3>as fatty as most Western diets. <v Speaker 4>I wish I could speak Japanese. <v Speaker 4>You might be interested to know that right now I'm a 3rd grade teacher, <v Speaker 4>Sensei. And right now we have a unit studying <v Speaker 4>Japan. So we've been studying their culture and speaking <v Speaker 4>domo arigato and things like that. And so these are eight year olds. <v Speaker 5>The people I do business with, are people I've known for about 10 years.
<v Speaker 5>I don't have any friction with the Japanese. <v Toshio Suzuki>What kind of business? <v Speaker 5>We produce seeds and sell them too. <v Toshio Suzuki>Is it a good business? <v Speaker 5>It's a good business. <v Al Austin>The average Japanese and the average American salaries are now about equal. <v Al Austin>What makes a difference is that prices in Japan are much higher than in America for just <v Al Austin>about everything. The puzzling thing for me was that the customers in Japan <v Al Austin>don't just accept these higher prices, they create them. <v Al Austin>It's true that practically everything in Japan is expensive, but <v Al Austin>with some things there's more to it than just a high cost of living. <v Al Austin>That's particularly true with food. In this market, for instance, here's a melon <v Al Austin>priced at 4,000 yen. <v Al Austin>That's about 34 dollars. <v Al Austin>That's because it's so beautiful. <v Al Austin>You can get a less attractive melon here for as little as 15 dollars. <v Al Austin>Here's one, it's especially beautiful. <v Al Austin>It costs 82 dollars.
<v Al Austin>Appearance is very important in Japan, food must not only tastes good, it has <v Al Austin>to look good and people are willing to pay extra for it. <v Al Austin>Here are apples 4 dollars apiece. <v Al Austin>That's because the color is so beautiful and that color didn't happen by accident. <v Al Austin>For Mr. and Mrs. Momoru Saiki of Yamanashi, the hardest part <v Al Austin>of tending their apple orchard is the wrapping, unwrapping and rewrapping <v Al Austin>of each apple on every tree as they ripen. <v Al Austin>He outfoxes the sun and improves on nature so that the apples take <v Al Austin>on just the right golden color. <v Al Austin>Left on their own, the apples would have uneven color and no Japanese would <v Al Austin>want to buy them. Farming in Japan requires artistic talent. <v Al Austin>Although it was a hot day, Mrs. Saiki wore protective wrapping on her hands <v Al Austin>and face, a protection against suntan.
<v Al Austin>The Japanese consider a pale ivory complexion on women as important as <v Al Austin>the golden red on their apples. <v Al Austin>The psyche's also own 18 little rice paddies scattered all around <v Al Austin>their village. Even with government subsidies, the rice only amounts to <v Al Austin>a third of their farm income Mr. Saiki says. <v Al Austin>Even so, it is by far their most important crop. <v Al Austin>Rice is not just a crop. <v Al Austin>It's something more. <v Momoru Saiki>[Speaking Japanese] I have been a farmer all my life. <v Momoru Saiki>When I harvest and have the rice in my hand and look at it, I get a lot <v Momoru Saiki>of pleasure from what I have grown. <v Momoru Saiki>I get more pleasure from growing rice than I do from tomatoes or apples. <v Momoru Saiki>I think all Japanese farmers feel this way. <v Al Austin>I even heard rice describe to me in religious terms. <v Toshio Nagasaka>[Speaking Japanese] If you look into roots of Japanese culture, <v Toshio Nagasaka>you find rice. One thing I think symbolized this.
<v Toshio Nagasaka>The emperor is a symbol of the Japanese people and Japanese state. <v Toshio Nagasaka>In the spring, he plants rice. <v Toshio Nagasaka>In the autumn, he performs a ceremony of harvesting rice. <v Toshio Nagasaka>Now Japan is wealthy because we manufacture products and export <v Toshio Nagasaka>them to America and other countries. <v Toshio Nagasaka>So why doesn't the emperor go to an automobile plant? <v Toshio Nagasaka>Instead, he put boots on and he goes into the paddy field and plants rice. <v Al Austin>Every farmer we visited in Japan is disheartened. <v Al Austin>They say the Japanese farmer, especially the rice farmer, is in serious trouble. <v Al Austin>American rice farmers want to sell their surplus rice to the Japanese. <v Al Austin>[Man speaking in Japanese] Last fall, demonstrators, Japanese farmers demanded that their <v Al Austin>government continue to forbid imports of rice. <v Al Austin>They fear their government will give in to America's argument that if Japan can sell
<v Al Austin>cars to America, America should be able to sell them what we produce more <v Al Austin>efficiently food. <v Al Austin>Japanese farmers insist it's different. <v Toshio Nagasaka>[Speaking Japanese] Japanese farmers produce less, but still we have a rice surplus. <v Toshio Nagasaka>So I wonder why we would want to input America rice. <v Toshio Nagasaka>I understand Japan export cost to America and Americans have been hurt <v Toshio Nagasaka>by this. They think Japan should buy something in return. <v Toshio Nagasaka>The only thing they can sell to us in return is rice. <v Toshio Nagasaka>Because rice is staple food here. <v Toshio Nagasaka>And America had surplus rice. <v Toshio Nagasaka>I understand this, but as a farmer I can't accept it. <v Al Austin>And there's another reason the Japanese farmer is finding it harder and harder to cling <v Al Austin>to his farm and its valuable land. <v Al Austin>His children, polished in the Japanese school system, don't want to be farmers <v Al Austin>anymore. They want a piece of Japan's success story.
<v Al Austin>American imports may only hasten the end. <v Toshio Nagasaka>[Speaking Japanese] ?inaudible? Has a population of 3500. <v Toshio Nagasaka>These are 1000 families. <v Toshio Nagasaka>550 of those are farming families. <v Toshio Nagasaka>But none of these 550 families have a child who will take over the farm, <v Toshio Nagasaka>not one child. We worry about the future if things continue <v Toshio Nagasaka>as they have been the Japanese farmer will become extinct. <v Al Austin>But many Japanese believe the rice farmers enemy is not the American farmer. <v Al Austin>But simple reality, changing times. <v Al Austin>And that the farmers attempts to preserve the rice fields as something sacred are doomed. <v Al Austin>The land is simply too valuable to be used as farmland. <v Al Austin>100 million people, one third the population of the United States <v Al Austin>are packed onto islands with an area smaller than California. <v Al Austin>Seventy percent of the landmass is mountains and forests, with half of
<v Al Austin>the rest being farmland, some fields and paddies persisting <v Al Austin>inside the cities between overcrowded apartments. <v Al Austin>City dwellers resent having their taxes subsidize the fantastically uneconomical <v Al Austin>farms. <v Al Austin>The esthetic, environmental, historical and spiritual value of <v Al Austin>home grown rice may not be enough to save Mr. Saiki. <v Toshio Nagasaka>Farming has been good life for our family. <v Toshio Nagasaka>My wife and I are happy when we're working with our crops. <v Toshio Nagasaka>It it's sad that none of our children will follow us. <v Toshio Nagasaka>I don't know what will happen to the land. <v Toshio Suzuki>I decided to meet the rice farmers in California because the rice exporting issue <v Toshio Suzuki>is a source of friction between American and Japan. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] I met Dennis Gallagher, <v Toshio Suzuki>a rice farmer in northern California. <v Dennis Gallagher>How are you?
<v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] His father began rice farming here in a 100 acre field. <v Toshio Suzuki>Now he and Dennis own a twenty five hundred acre rice fields. <v Toshio Suzuki>That is 300 times as large as Tokyo Dome ballpark. <v Toshio Suzuki>When I compared this with the tiny rice fields in Japan, I was certain that Dennis had <v Toshio Suzuki>fulfilled his American dream. <v Toshio Suzuki>This big building that looks like a chemical factory is a dryer. <v Toshio Suzuki>It dries rice and stores it inside. <v Toshio Suzuki>It is 60 feet tall and full of rice. <v Toshio Suzuki>I had never seen so much rice in my life. <v Toshio Suzuki>Japanese people regard rice as a sacred thing. <v Toshio Suzuki>So I was afraid to walk on it. <v Toshio Suzuki>They say that the Gallagher's are Middle-Sized Rice farmers in California, but the field
<v Toshio Suzuki>looked huge to me. <v Toshio Suzuki>I found that the rice here is very different from Japanese rice. <v Toshio Suzuki>The grain is longer and less sticky when cooked. <v Toshio Suzuki>I don't think the Japanese would like this rice. <v Dennis Gallagher>I think we should be able to export some of our rice <v Dennis Gallagher>into Japan. And I think it should happen in that direction. <v Dennis Gallagher>I don't necessarily feel that we need to <v Dennis Gallagher>control the entire Japanese rice market, <v Dennis Gallagher>but just a small niche of it, 5 to 10 percent or something like that, <v Dennis Gallagher>which to me doesn't seem like a whole lot, you know, would would definitely help our <v Dennis Gallagher>economy. And I think it would be advantageous to the Japanese consumer. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] Dennis's father, Bob, told us that Japan must open its rice market. <v Bob Gallagher>Where they have all the capital coming in Japan and nothing, nothing in retaliation. <v Bob Gallagher>And so for, the Japanese government and people, <v Bob Gallagher>they should realize that it's not a one way street.
<v Bob Gallagher>It's got to be a two way street. <v Bob Gallagher>It's got not only United States but throughout the world. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] I met another rice farmer named Tom Jopson, who showed me how his <v Toshio Suzuki>rice was sold in the American market. <v Toshio Suzuki>The rice was packed in bottles and bags and eaten like a vegetable in salad or with <v Toshio Suzuki>steak. It was very different from Japanese steamed rice. <v Toshio Suzuki>I don't believe that American farmers could sell their rice in the Japanese market. <v Toshio Suzuki>Tom also explained the difficulty of pricing American rice for sale in Japan. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking English] How do you sell this rice? <v Tom Jopson>Japanese are very progressive people. <v Tom Jopson>They weren't dumb enough to import rice <v Tom Jopson>from the United States at a higher price than what world market <v Tom Jopson>prices or would that they could buy it from Thailand, they could buy it from Australia <v Tom Jopson>anywhere else in basically the world rather than California at a lower <v Tom Jopson>cost. So why would Japan import rice from the United States?
<v Tom Jopson>At a high price when they get import it at world market price. <v Tom Jopson>That was I could never understand why the American farmers would or California <v Tom Jopson>farmers believe that. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] There was an abandoned house near Thom's rice field. <v Toshio Suzuki>The owner of this house gave up growing rice and moved to Idaho when the price of rice <v Toshio Suzuki>fell suddenly 10 years ago. <v Toshio Suzuki>There are many factors that make the life of the American rice farmer difficult in <v Toshio Suzuki>America. The larger the rice field, the more money farmers must spend on machines, <v Toshio Suzuki>fertilizer and chemicals. The price of rice has remained lower than the farmers expected, <v Toshio Suzuki>and they now face a new problem environmental issues. <v Toshio Suzuki>Rice farmers have been criticized for using chemicals that hurt the environment. <v Toshio Suzuki>Tom is not as anxious to export Rice to Japan. <v Toshio Suzuki>When I told him that the Japanese farmers believed the California rice farmers must be <v Toshio Suzuki>rich. He laughed and shrugged his shoulders.
<v Toshio Suzuki>The old farming machines remain in his garden. <v Toshio Suzuki>They are symbols of the high costs and difficulties of farming life. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking English] If you hear your ?wow?, your daughter would like to marry rice farmer <v Toshio Suzuki>in California? <v Tom Jopson>I tell , tell her no. If she wanted to marry a farmer in California, period, I'd tell her <v Tom Jopson>no. Find some other guy in a different, you know, a line of work. <v Tom Jopson>I don't care what it is. But farming. No. <v Tom Jopson>Stay out of it right now. California. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] He told me that within five years the number of California rice <v Toshio Suzuki>farmers will be cut in half. <v Toshio Suzuki>Most farmers cannot obtain the American dream by growing rice. <v Toshio Suzuki>Perhaps the main frustration of the farmers is their inability to export their rice <v Toshio Suzuki>to Japan. <v Al Austin>[Women speaking Japanese] In the time I spent with the people of Japan, I discovered that <v Al Austin>it's hard to know what the Japanese think about Americans.
<v Al Austin>They obviously do think about us a lot. <v Al Austin>They adopt our fads and styles. <v Al Austin>Japanese schools require six years of English, which they use to advertise <v Al Austin>their businesses and products, sometimes with incomprehensible results. <v Al Austin>Recently, a Japanese business leader suggested that the reason Japan was winning <v Al Austin>the export import war against America was that Americans had <v Al Austin>grown fat and lazy. <v Al Austin>His comment embarrassed the Japanese we talked to. <v Shihoko Ogawa>I don't want American people just think that <v Shihoko Ogawa>Japanese people have this kind of arrogant attitude towards American people <v Shihoko Ogawa>because we don't. It's I'm sorry politicians, you know, <v Shihoko Ogawa>very big headed politicians. <v Shihoko Ogawa>They just say things like that. <v Shihoko Ogawa>I think we admire each other, you know where we can respect <v Shihoko Ogawa>the difference.
<v Shihoko Ogawa>The cultural difference and things like that. <v Shihoko Ogawa>Don't get very hysterical about, <v Shihoko Ogawa>say, Japan bashing or American bashing <v Shihoko Ogawa>issues and things like that. <v Al Austin>In spending time with the people of Japan, not the politicians. <v Al Austin>I saw them facing many of the problems we face in America. <v Al Austin>The success of Japan in becoming a power in world business has come <v Al Austin>with a price. That price is change. <v Al Austin>The old, sometimes comfortable ways are being pushed aside or something new. <v Al Austin>The question is, will it be better? <v Al Austin>The rice farmers, more than any others I met, are paying the price of progress. <v Al Austin>Everything around them is changing and they are powerless to stop those changes. <v Al Austin>Their farms are too small.
<v Al Austin>The land is more valuable for housing or factories. <v Al Austin>Their children want to work in jobs that are easier and pay more money. <v Al Austin>And the cheaper imported rice will make their crops worth less. <v Al Austin>And already hard life looks like it is going to get even harder. <v Al Austin>What I did not find in Japan were many of the problems we now face in America. <v Al Austin>I did not see homeless. <v Al Austin>I did not see unemployed. <v Al Austin>And I did not find hostility toward America. <v Al Austin>To learn all of this, I met with farmers and businessmen, loggers and <v Al Austin>schoolteachers. And of course, I met Toshio Suzuki. <v Toshio Suzuki>[Speaking Japanese] America is a society made up of diverse races and cultures. <v Toshio Suzuki>It is a flexible society that adopts anything for the good of society. <v Toshio Suzuki>I found that people on the West Coast are very interested in countries on the Pacific Rim <v Toshio Suzuki>like Japan and other Asian countries.
<v Toshio Suzuki>American people I met are not angry with the Japanese people use the TV and newspapers <v Toshio Suzuki>in Washington and Tokyo. You made me think that everyone was angry. <v Toshio Suzuki>America has problems such as homelessness, crime and class differences in education. <v Toshio Suzuki>It seems to me that America is losing its confidence. <v Toshio Suzuki>I think the problems of America today could be the problems of Japan tomorrow. <v Toshio Suzuki>Japan is accepting more and more people from other countries, so Japan's homogeneous <v Toshio Suzuki>society has begun to change. I am very concerned with, how Japan <v Toshio Suzuki>and America will cope with their problem. <v Toshio Suzuki>Thank you, ?man?. <v Dennis Gallagher>Yeah, it was nice. I really enjoyed it. <v Dennis Gallagher>It was ?inaudible?. <v Dennis Gallagher>If we can get both countries to work together, maybe this will all work for both of us. <v Dennis Gallagher>[Japanese children chanting]
Program
Trading Attitudes
Producing Organization
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Contributing Organization
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia)
Oregon Public Broadcasting (Portland, Oregon)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip-153-78gf24gz
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Description
Program Description
"Opportunities for ordinary citizens in the United States and ordinary citizens in Japan to learn about each other are rare. While media images and impressions of the two nations are widespread through commercial channels, the reality of basic human experience is often lost in the transmission. And yet it is at this level of everyday experience--raising children, going to work, going shopping -- that the Japanese and American people have the best opportunity to understand each other. "TRADING ATTITUDES takes a unique approach to closing the distance between Japan and America. Through the medium of television, Americans will not only learn how people live in Japan, but also discover what Japanese people find fascinating about life in the United States. Through the interwoven observations of Japanese and American documentary makers, television viewers in both countries will participate in a one-hour cultural exchange program that cuts through common national stereotypes and opens pathways for greater friendship between the people of Japan and the United States. "TRADING ATTITUDES is a story of visions; our vision of the Japanese and theirs of us. It is an approach to telling the story that is unique to the television audiences in both countries, and it should provide meaningful insights into the lives and thoughts of people from both cultures."--1993 Peabody Awards entry form. This program focuses on education, industry, and economy of both Japan and America. American Al Austin visits Japan, shares his personal observations, and interviews farmers, teachers, students, and businessmen. On the other side of the world, Japanese Toshio Suzuki visits America, shares his observations, and interviews Americans of the same professions.
Broadcast Date
1993-08-30
Asset type
Program
Topics
Health
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:56:59.988
Embed Code
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Credits
Producing Organization: Oregon Public Broadcasting
AAPB Contributor Holdings
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia
Identifier: cpb-aacip-e83b9f72fbe (Filename)
Format: U-matic
Duration: 00:55:45
Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB)
Identifier: cpb-aacip-60b77a2ad28 (Filename)
Format: 1 inch videotape
Generation: Master
Duration: 00:55:45
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Citations
Chicago: “Trading Attitudes,” 1993-08-30, The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, Oregon Public Broadcasting, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-153-78gf24gz.
MLA: “Trading Attitudes.” 1993-08-30. The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, Oregon Public Broadcasting, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-153-78gf24gz>.
APA: Trading Attitudes. Boston, MA: The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, Oregon Public Broadcasting, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-153-78gf24gz