Judging from what the cash-rich Chinese have been buying up across Japan the past few years, it would be reasonable to conclude that China has its eyes on the north central prefecture of Niigata as its number one priority.

　　　Five years ago, China successfully obtained a 50-year lease on the port of Rajin, North Korea’s northernmost ice-free port facing the Sea of Japan. This arrangement doesn’t just involve renting port facilities such as piers, however. In fact, it is a contract reminiscent of colonial times, quite unusual in the 21^st century, because it allows China to exercise administrative rights over part of the “Special City” of Rason comprising 200,000 people where the port is located.

　　　China has since built a 60-kilometer (40-mile) major highway linking the port with the China-North Korea border. By obtaining a lease on the highway, China has secured a highway and a port that allow direct access to the Sea of Japan.

　　　Claiming the whole of the East China Sea as its own, China deems it beneficial to its national interests to take advantage of virtually all available Japanese assets – ranging from wealth to technologies to human and natural resources. Now that it has direct access to the Sea of Japan, it would seem only natural for China to view Niigata – located right across the Sea of Japan from Rajin – as its vital stronghold in Japan. That is why Japan – and especially Niigata prefecture for that matter – must exercise maximum caution not to lose this invaluable land and wealth to China’s abnormal expansion drive. And yet, what is actually taking place in Niigata today can only be described as bizzare.

　　　The Chinese government has expressed its desire to purchase a 16,500 square-meter (1.65 hectar) plot of land in the city of Niigata, capital of the prefecture, to build a brand new building to house the Chinese Consulate General. A grade school had formally been located on the site. It also desires to purchase the land on which a recently closed department store now sits, and develop it as the location for a new Chinatown. Having won the support of Mayor Akira Shinoda and his backers, these plans are steadily moving towards fruition. The precise amount of Chinese purchases of land and forests in Japan in recent years is not known, but it is thought to be larger than previously imagined. Despite such circumstances, neither Mayor Shinoda nor the Niigata City Assembly view as problematical the projected sale to China of the precious, spacious plots of land right in the heart of their city.

　　　There is a history worth remembering behind the Niigata episode. In March 2009, the Japanese Foreign Ministry turned down an official Chinese request for permission to set up a Chinese Consulate General in Okinawa. Afterwards, a plan to use Niigata as an alternative site emerged, and the Chinese Consulate General was soon in full operation downtown at the “Toki Messe” Convention Center, which also houses Russian and South Korean consulates general. By July 24 of this year, Chinese Consul General Wang Hua had already approached governor Hirohiko Izumida with a dual proposal during discussions sponsored by the “Niigata Nippo,” an influential local daily – construction of the projected consulate general building as well as the Chinatown project. Governor Izumida readily gave his approval, and on August 11 representatives of the Niigata Central Shopping District Council presented the mayor with a letter requesting his cooperation in the proposed development of the Niigata Chinatown. On September 16, the city of Niigata followed up on the governor’s pledge by launching a survey of the land involved, on the premise that the site of the demolished grade school was ready for sale to the Chinese side.

In the Fair Name of “Urban Revitalization”

　　　In a marked contrast to the negotiations between the city and the Chinese side which have progressed without a hitch, opportunities to explain the project to the local residents by the city have been belated and insufficient. The first explanatory session for the residents, held twice on September 10, attracted a total of only 13 residents mostly because of lackadaisical public relations efforts on the part of the city, according to a member of the city assembly. Subsequently, two additional sessions were held – on September 16 and September 21, respectively. By then, however, the land survey was already underway.

　　　Mayor Shinoda is said to be sure of being elected for his third term as mayor in an election scheduled for November 14. In the event of his win, the Chinatown project is expected to make further progress. Ms Yoko Yamada, one of a few members of the 56-member city assembly opposed to the project, criticizes the mayor and the majority of the city assembly members for having failed to appreciate the genuine concerns and grievances of the residents, and most importantly, for having completely neglected to take into consideration the negative implications of yielding to China a prime piece of property right in the heart of the city purely for monetary reasons. The seeming lack of awareness on the part of the Niigata city assembly of the serious problems involved in the project has quite unexpectedly attracted an irate protest from Takao Mitsuida, a member of the city assembly of Kashiwazaki in Niigata prefecture:

　　　“Because this matter has not just prefectural but national implications which are very serious, needless to say, I dare speak up, although some may think this is none of my business as my city is 100 kilometers (60 miles) away from Niigata. Chinese Consul-General Wang Hua has described the ‘Senkaku incident’ as ‘minor’ (referring to the incident in which a Chinese fishing trawler violated Japanese territorial waters in the East China Sea); however, they specify the islands – and the seas around them – as Chinese territory on the website of the Chinese Consulate General. And yet no one, including Niigata city assembly members, has raised any objections. I am grossly disappointed that none of the assembly members appear to think land transactions of this nature should be approached with more caution. A delegation of Niigata city assembly members even left on August 1 on a five-day tour of China. It’s absolutely no time for such a tour.”

　　　Whatever has become of Niigata’s conservative camp? Granted that the local shopping district is hoping the development project will help revitalize the area’s hard-pressed economy, but can one afford to simply look at the expected economic benefits alone in this case? The city of Niigata is about to commit a blunder – with consequences of major proportions.

　　　The experience of Katsuhiko Umehara, former mayor of Sendai (2005-2009), the capital of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in northern Japan, is worth heeding. Umehara, a former Ministry of International Trade and Industry career bureaucrat turned mayor, was credited with many accomplishments, including: making Sendai the first Japanese city to make all its grade school buildings earthquake-proof; vigorously grappling with the issues involving citizens of Japanese nationality abducted by North Korea (including some Niitaga residents); and giving historical names back to villages and towns that had lost them following mergers. Umehara was simultaneously known as the mayor who blocked China’s grandiose scheme to build a high-rise Chinatown in Sendai. But the decision subsequently put him at loggerheads with the proponents of the project, which constituted a major factor forcing him to forgo his candidacy for a second term. As for why he blocked the Chinatown project, Umehara stresses that he was convinced the project, although given the fine name of “urban revitalization” – a proposition one finds rather difficult to oppose, especially in a struggling local city – will eventually be extremely detrimental not only to the local community but also to Japan itself. Points out Umehara:

　　　“The Chinese side took interest in a big piece of property available for a large scale development project at a prime location near the Sendai railway station – a 1.5 hectare (18,000 square yard) plot mainly comprising land that formerly belonged to Japan Railways. An agreement had been reached between my predecessor, a Chinese investment fund named Zhong Duan Foundation, and a Japanese broker to construct a ten-story “high-rise Chinatown” in one corner of the plot.”

　　　The primary reason for Umehara’s objection was the possibility he saw of giving birth to a Chinatown grossly different in style and concept from those in Kobe and Yokohama which have evolved since the late 19^th century.

　　　“In Yokohama, the Chinese residents who had chosen to settle in Japan created a great Chinatown by making all-out efforts to build a relationship of mutual trust with the local government over a long period of time,” notes Umehara. “However, the project in Sendai was so designed that China would first spend money recklessly to show off its wealth, and then come up with a Chinatown of their own without necessarily being mindful of the sentiments of the local community.”

The Red Sea of “Five Red Star” Flags

　　　Statistics available from the Miyagi prefectural police for the year 2005 show that, of 122 non-Japanese arrested that year, 87 – or more than 70% — happened to be Chinese from the mainland. The high crime rate involving mainland Chinese was another important reason for his objection to the “high-rise Chinatown” project, Umehara admits, adding:

　　　“Even in the Chinatown in Yokohama, which has adapted itself very well to the local surroundings, a serious problem developed in 2007. When a Japanese naval officer was arrested for having leaked sensitive data linked to the high-tech Aegis radar system, his Chinese wife was deported. However, police later found out that she had subsequently been smuggled into Japan and remained hidden for some time in the Yokohama Chinatown.”

　　　China’s expansion into a number of strategic spots around the world has basically begun with the construction of a Chinatown. In 2009 in Vientiane, the capital of Laos with a population of 620,000 and one of Asia’s most impoverished nations, the Chinese government abruptly acquired a large plot of land and created a Chinatown with some 50,000 Chinese residents. No match for the shrewd Chinese, the gentle and tractable Laotians have quite easily been assimilated into the overwhelming Chinese sphere of influence within a relatively short period of time. Meanwhile in Sudan in northeastern Africa, notorious for the massacres of local residents by the government army, China obtained oil resources and lucrative pieces of property in exchange for weapons and economic assistance, creating a mammoth Chinatown now brimming with some 200,000 Chinese.

　　　In Japan, the Chinese now represent the largest foreign community, the number of registered Chinese having reached some 680,000. Due to a national defense mobilization law enacted by China on July 1 of this year which stipulates that overseas Chinese must follow Chinese government instructions in times of emergency, one must be aware that these Chinese living in Japan may one day be compelled to take hostile action against Japan.

　　　How the overseas Chinese will act when that day comes may possibly be surmised from the huge number of often hostile Chinese youths frantically waving the five-star, red Chinese national flag during the Beijin Olympic torch relay held in Nagano in April 2008. The majority of these youths constituted young Chinese men and women studying or working across Japan who were mobilized for the Nagano event.

　　　Land sold off to foreign ownership will never find its way back. However, what is important henceforward is to do everything possible to refuse to yield Japan’s invaluable assets including mountains and forests to foreign countries – especially to China which is out to intimidate its neighbors with Chinese imperialistic hegemonism. Mayor Shinoda of Niigata and the members of the city assembly must be strongly urged to reverse the direction in which they have been moving.

(Translated from “Renaissance Japan” column No. 435 in the November 11 issue of The Weekly Shincho)