For the benefit of new participants, especially
from the
outlying districts of Japan, it is important first to respond to their
likely question "What on earth is the country called the Russian Far
East
like?" Here is a brief but insightful presentation on the pristine
nature and
the
peoples of the Pacific shoreline region of the Russian Far East.
International Exchange
Website where People
Can See and Talk to Each Other
LIVE
Has Become a Reality as of December 10, 2005
As many as eight persons, or
groups, can now participate simultaneously, and, if necessary, with the
help of interpreters standing by around
the world,
take the maximum advantage of the latest Information Technology from
after December, 2005-2006 to achieve a truly ubiquitous global
network.
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Wild horses
typical of the Siberian steppe similar
to those used by the Kamakura samurai warriors
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There
is a rising expectation for the launching of a new network of cultural
and economic exchange for the peoples, by the peoples and of the
peoples of Asia at large, individual citizens and NGOs alike interested
in the welfare of themselves and their natural environments. When
talking about an yet unspoiled natural environment, this is it! The
Russian Far East.
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Rivers run
long
and deep here without any sight
of human life as far as you can see from the air
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In
spite of a substantial delay as a result of
the unexpected collapse of a communication satellite project a few
years ago, we have
just managed to launch the long- awaited Subregion #1 project called
"Okhotsk and Japan Sea-Rim Cultural and Economic Exchange" as one of
the 1st
two components of the much larger Pan-Asian Crescent Network stretching
through East Asia, South Asia into the Middle East region. The
Subregion #1 project primarily calls for a city-to-city network
connecting a number of coastal and riverside communities of Japan and
the Russian Far East. (On the Russian urban centers and Japan's
continental
ethnic roots, click into
another page)
Converging
at the
river month , they travel far upstream in search of the spawning ground
for reproduction
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Through
the direct dialogue using a unique multilingual and
multiparty
video conferencing system, the project intends to help nurture a broad
mutual understanding and a deepened tie of friendship primarily between
the two nations, but also not excluding the interested
third-party participants. it is known that the Russian coastal
communities are potential
producers of a variety of seafood products traditionally eaten by the
Japanese consumers.
Besides,
in the Russian Far East, almost all of the commercially harvestable
form
of life, whether fish
or plant life, are not hatchery-released or farmed in
confinement. They are "wild" just like the cherry salmon held up in the
air above, a
great big male cherry salmon chasing the female spawners far upstream.
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A typical
village
in the rural region of the Russian
Far East. They are still not a prominent factor
in pollution and environmental destruction
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I visited this
region on an ecotour from Japan, and
was totally overwhelmed by the pristine beauty of the natural
surroundings. My tour group was also fortunate to stay at a
kindergarten of a village inhabited mostly by Udehe people, s better
known Tungusic tribe said to be related to the later
Jurchens and the
Qidans, and thus distantly to the
Japanese in the northern half of the
Main Island.
Udehe ladies
in
control of the kitchen were in fact
in control of our daily life for the two weeks
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Thus, the ecotour
made
us think about our
own distant
ethnic roots. However,
many such rural villages are a mixed bag insofar as their ethnic
makeups
are concerned, but all quite small and most of them with little modern
utilities such as water and power services. The Udehe ladies above were
the staff of the kindergarten and cooked and took an
excellent care of us, but
we found out that they had no knowledge of being related to
us by sharing blood with the northern Japanese.
A nice
couple of
young boys, one Udehe and the
other Slav, are classmates of the same school
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In fact, they can no
longer maintain a firm grasp of their own language, let alone using it
in
daily conversation. As
the picture to the left shows, the Udehes and the Slavs are well
integrated in most communities, if the native
youngsters still continue to have a much harder time getting steady
employment in or out
of
their own villages.
As globalization makes a rapid stride even in the Northwestern
Pacific, excessive timber cutting and illegal fishing continue to
degrade the natural resource base on which these peoples' livelihood
almost
totally depends. And this, in turn, progressively deprives them of
their ethnic identity, cultures and languages. Here is a
mixed
A typical
log
house for village inhabitants. Racial
integration better balanced than in the U.S.
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group of young people bathing in the early summer afternoon sun
typically reflecting
the ethnic composition of these small rural communities, where they
continue to live and share together in peace.
Well. So much on this, and let us begin the dialogue!
We hope you will find about all
this yourself by talking directly to them using e-mail and video
conferencing. Besides, as I said, your experience will make you
realize, if you are a Japanese, that this is in fact a novel way of
finding and identifying
your own ethnic and cultural roots, and that sharing this awareness of
kinship is going to give these ethnic minorities of Asian origin a
tremendous moral boost in that it will make them feel they can also do
anything
the Japanese can, incidentally including high-quality fish processing.
Apart from our common concern over ecological issues, we are convinced
that these "Russians" who have always been hunters and fishers for
millennia
ought to become the masters of their own destiny in building
their own local fishery business, and with our assistance, produce
seafood products suited for the best of the
Japanese market,
thereby becoming the 'producer' partners in a friendly direct dialogue
with the Japanese consumer' partners across the Seas of Okhotsk and
Japan.
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