Posted 2019/4/21
Six Japanese students in Beijing have come up with a unique way to navigate the minefield of tensions that is Sino-Japanese relations; hugging!
Watanabe Kohei, a Japanese student studying International Relations at Peking University, along with 5 classmates, headed to Wangfujing on April 10 to hug passersby and spread their message of peace and tolerance.
They held up a board that clearly announced their purposes saying ‘China-Japan friendship hugging group’. Over the course of the day they hugged over 200 Chinese people.
Watanabe who lived in China for six years as a child felt acutely aware of the rift between the two countries when he was a law student in Tokyo, saying that there were some ‘biased’ reports in the Japanese media, which he felt to be untrue.
This isn’t his first hugging mission however; in March 2013 he flew over to Shanghai from Japan to do his first ‘Walk for Hugs’ activity: "I wanted to do something real and direct to ease the tensions between the two countries," he said. "In Japan, people would hug each other during festival gatherings to show their happiness. That was how I came up with the idea."
The group has generally gotten a favorable reception from Chinese people with student Zhang Fan commending the group for their proactive attitude.
"Most people talk about the need to ease the tensions but they do nothing… Hugs are simple. But they feel so real."
