Japan Cultural Center nurses 15 years of good feeling

Japan Cultural Center nurses 15 years of good feeling

By Ati Nurbaiti

JAKARTA (JP): Big buckets of red and yellow flowers have arrived along with various stalks of green and orange. A few Indonesian women crowd around the door of a classroom in the Japan Cultural Center in the Summitmas Building on Jl. Sudirman.

"I want to get the best ones," states one student of a Japanese flower arrangement class, Ikebana, which is held every Friday.

"I don't care if I'm not talented, what's important is it's fun," says Lila, another student.

Cultural centers are indeed places for fun. They provide an interesting, relaxed exposure to other cultures away from boring school lectures.

But does the common Jakartan lack exposure to things Japanese?

Japanese electronic appliances, vehicles, cuisine and cartoons abound, and Indonesians are constantly reminded to emulate the hard-working Japanese while preserving local traditions. Not everyone likes this.

"Some people cynically ask why we learn everything Japanese," says ikebana teacher Mrs. Aulia MA.

"But we should be free to learn anything from anywhere, including Japan."

The center has been in Jakarta for 15 years, but the man in charge feels that Indonesians still don't know enough about Japan.

"We still need to promote the traditional aspects of Japan here," asserted Ikuo Nishida. Indonesians also often ask about Japanese families and how they live, he added.

The Cultural Center was set up in Japan in 1972 by the Japan Foundation.

Jakarta was the first site picked by the Foundation for an overseas center, it began operating in 1980.

Surely this must have had something to do with the Japanese occupation of 1942-1945, or the 1974 student demonstrations against then Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka?

Nishida insists that "there is no direct relation." Until the 1970s the Japanese, he admits, "placed too much importance in economic relations, and forgot that social and cultural relations are very important in understanding one another."

Jakarta was picked as the first site for cultural centers abroad because of the "very good economic relations" between the two countries, says Nishida.

Yoshiharu Kato, the second secretary at the Embassy of Japan, stressed that Japan has been responding to critics here and in other countries, that "Japanese products are everywhere but their faces are invisible."

Kato says there are still doubts that it was resentment of Japanese investors that led to the 1974 riots, but the incident provided a good lesson in sensitivity.

Ethics

"The Japanese public urged the government to issue codes of ethics to all Japanese companies operating abroad, to provide guidelines in how to respect local customs and religion," Kato said.

Indonesia is now listed number one in Southeast Asia according to the quantity of cultural activities organized by the Center, and number three in the world after the United States and China.

The Japan Foundation spends an average of Rp 11 billion a year for activities in Indonesia, says Nishida.

Last year activities in several cities included packed public exhibitions by Japanese experts on kendo martial arts, origami, gift wrapping and kite making.

With the increasing demand to study the Japanese language, the Center has set up its own language study center.

"Indonesia now ranks fourth in the world in the number of people studying Japanese," notes Nishida, predicting 50,000 students by the end of 1994.

But, because the center's task is to promote cultural exchange, how well do the Japanese know Indonesians?

A few programs indicate the center's efforts. Indonesian films like Tjoet Nya' Dien gained a wide response to the exhilaration of its leading star, Christine Hakim. The rest of the Indonesian Film Festival in 1993 comprised almost 40 films. The center has also enabled the Japanese public to come into direct contact with visiting Indonesian writers, dancers and other artists.

When it comes to a real study of the other's culture, a long time professor of Japan says Indonesians have yet to catch up.

"Once the Japanese show earnest interest, they study a subject thoroughly," says Wiwi Martalogawa who was one of the first Indonesian students to benefit from a scholarship from the Japan Foundation.

She illustrated her point with one of her guests, a nutritionist, who was curious why Indonesians liked rice crackers (kerupuk) so much and eventually succeeded in making them.

Outside the center, many private groups foster Japanese- Indonesian relations. The professor said she has encountered veteran soldiers of World War II, who help locate lost acquaintances among Japanese and Indonesians.

The Ikebana International organization has 20 members in Jakarta. An alumni organization of former students in Japan, set up by students who graduated in the 1950s, also promotes exchanges, especially through the private Dharma Persada University.

The two countries' wish, expressed earlier by delegates to the Japan-Indonesia Forum on Culture in 1993, may well come true: a people-to-people relationship and an exchange of cultures rather than only an exchange of goods.