TOKYO, JAPAN - Luncheon Meeting with Mr. Seiichi Kondo, Special Assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Commissioner for Cultural Affairs, was held in a seminar room of World Trade Center Tokyo facility on 15th July 2014. Mr. Akira Kojima made an opening address, mentioning that it was a very good timing to invite Mr. Kondo, because diplomacy based on culture is really needed in Japan.

Mr. Kondo said, “In order to exercise influence upon other countries, governments could resort to military, political and economic powers, and for long those powers had been recognized as key factors to determine international politics”. In 2004, Joseph Nye introduced the concept of soft power, which is also influential as hard powers such as military, political and economic powers. Soft power has increased in significance because democracy has expanded geographically and due to the IT revolution.

Although an immediate effect is expected by hard power, that could not last for long. On the other hand, once people are fascinated with soft power, it would not be changed easily.

A difficulty related to soft power is that it is not easy to recognize the substance of it. In order to know what Japan’s soft power is, we need to evaluate typical phenomena as origins of it, such as animated films, respectable behaviors of those who suffered from 3.11 earthquake, Japanese Food booms, Mt. Fuji and so forth. What those phenomena have in common might be a thought admires nature, compassion and values that could not be recognized by modern sciences. He recommended that, “We need to be very careful not to lose Japan’s attractions, try to send our messages properly to other countries, and keep and grow our values and soft power”.

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