Regarding Kei Horikawa's July 31 letter, "Where are the rewards for effort?": Although I have sympathy for Horikawa's family as I run my own business here, too, I cannot see why Horikawa has to mention China as a reason why his family cannot make a decent living as woodworkers? Are Chinese people buying their own goods here, or is it mostly the Japanese? Obviously it is the Japanese. So, who is to blame?
I think Horikawa should focus on how Japan is run to find the answers rather than blame the country that is keeping Japan afloat by serving as a massive market for Japanese goods and by sending tourists who come here and spend their hard-earned money, thus helping Japanese businesses to make a living.
I cannot help feeling that the tendency here to blame others for problems that are glaringly homemade is not going to make the lives of today's children, the next generation of business people, any easier than life has been for Horikawa's parents.
Horikawa should remember that, in the past, Japan was regarded by many other countries in the same way that China is now. Take the motorcycle industry in my home country, Britain. Was the decimation of that industry at the hands of patent copying, price undercutting and low-paid workforces at Japanese companies Britain's fault or Japan's?
Good luck to Horikawa's parents and others like them, but we should take a good look at the Diet and company boardrooms here in Japan first before blaming China. Countries change and grow. To want things to be like the past, or to not change, is not healthy and won't help Japan face the challenges to come.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.