Professor Teruhiko Mano begins his March 24 article, "Chinese frozen food and frigid bilateral relations," by stating that he sees problems with the responses from both the Chinese and the Japanese sides in the poisoned-gyoza case. However, it turns out that Mano one-sidedly slams the Chinese side for providing only partial information and for unilaterally investigating the case in the absence of Japanese authorities. The only problem Mano sees on the Japanese side is that "Japan has failed to rebut the results of the Chinese probe at the points where they differ."
It is truly regrettable that professors, who influence generations of students, allow themselves to express such subjective and biased views. Mano writes that "None of the newspaper reports show that Ozawa made any remarks in Beijing that were aimed at protecting our national interests."
Mano was obviously born 100 years too late. In today's globalized world it is not a matter of always optimizing one's own interests. It is a matter of compromising and striking fair deals from which both parties benefit -- from the territorial disputes with China, Russia and Korea to bilateral trade agreements. Japan's behavior of always seeking to unilaterally benefit as much as possible does not create true friendships and is certainly not in Japan's national interest in the long run.