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He has spent the better part of his 20s in China, studying, observing and writing about what he sees. Now, Kato Yoshikazu is leaving and he shares his thoughts with Mei Jia in Beijing.
Kato Yoshikazu, renowned Japanese columnist, shares his thoughts before leaving China.
Twenty-eight-year-old Kato Yoshikazu is probably the best-known Japanese columnist in China, on China. But soon, he will be going to the United States, leaving behind all the fame and blame he has accrued over the years. In the last few years, Kato has published more than 1,000 articles and some 20 books in three languages on China. They cover multiple aspects of Chinese society and offer a unique perspective for both Chinese and foreigners.
He also appeared frequently in the media, sharing his views, or coordinating forums and seminars.
Most of his works and speeches are in Chinese, for he’s a fluent Mandarin speaker and writer, who gives no hint that he’s a foreigner when you speak to him on the phone.
But he believes that leaving may let him understand, observe and interpret China even better, from a distance. He says his fate is already bound with China, and he regards China as his second home.
“I was there when China was being watched intensively and when the world was curious to know more about it,” he says. “I was there sending my voice out in Chinese and now, I will try my best to establish myself as a world- level expert on China.
“As a China watcher, I know I will rise if the future of China rises, and I will slide if the country is to slide down.”
Kato says his American plans were forged three years ago, and denies it was in response to the recent furor he raised when he made remarks about the Nanjing Massacre during a public speech in May. After he showed ambiguity on the historical facts of the tragedy, Kato was swarmed by angry Chinese netizens. A scheduled speech at a university was cancelled.
“I take that event as a lesson,” he says thoughtfully at a cafe near his alma mater, Peking University, earlier this month, on the eve of his departure.
“I learned not to be too self- assured, and not to touch the bottom line,” he says. He says he still thinks he emerged the winner, because the experience of being chastised has added to his work and made him both subject and object of his research on how the Chinese think and react.
“I was misunderstood, for I never denied the fact of the massacre,” he says.
Kato says jogging and meditation are two of his best defenses against the depression of down days.
In his next five-year-plan, he lists running and the realizing of his childhood dream of becoming an accomplished athlete as priorities. But even higher up the list, he wants to consolidate his studies on China.
Kato grew from a foreign student to an expert on China with authority with The Third Eye, one of his most influential columns, which appears on the Financial Times Chinese Website and lasted seven years. The column’s editor Wang Fang says Kato is among their most productive columnists.
“He contributes a mirror-like reflection for Chinese readers from the point of a foreigner who’s deeply rooted in China,” Wang says.
Kato doesn’t see his accumulating influence in China as a success, and he would rather call it “maturity”.
“I’ve made working hard a fixed status of my life. I’ll never be satisfied with myself, I could do even better,” he says.
Kato was born the eldest son in a financially disadvantaged family in Izu. After he had finished with the suffering and distress of paying back debts and raising his younger siblings, he arrived in Beijing in 2003. He knew no one, spoke no Chinese and had no money.
“I knew nothing about the country except its huge population, Chairman Mao and the phrase hello,” he says, adding that he has long hoped to become a United Nations officer.
Despite his English fluency as a part-time translator in high school to help out his family, he chose China because “I couldn’t afford countries like the US, and I was here because people speak one of the six UN official languages”.
He got his bachelor’s and master’s degree on international relations from Peking University. Soon, he was active in social work and spoke on TV representing Japanese students in China.
“I deeply remember two images of Kato. He was jogging on campus in extremely colorful outfits, and going to class in a formal suit among a class dressed in casual clothes,” says Yang Hui, a Guangdong-based media worker who was also Kato’s classmate in Peking University.
“The girls in class were mad about Kato, who was doing real work, and getting involved in high level social activities,” Yang says. “And he impressed us with his Chinese fluency.”
Kato says he has been a faithful reader of the People’s Daily, and he also watched the national news bulletins every day. They helped him learn the language and were also barometers of the country’s political climate.
“I benefited a lot from them in the range of my writing, and I also got to know the rules of the game.”
Kato has a habit of taking notes in a foreign language, and feels that to learn effectively, you have to read, communicate, travel and meet people.
In his future days as a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School, he will tell stories of real and brave Chinese people seen through his eyes, and he will also continue to tell his Chinese readers how he sees the Western world.
“I will remain a third party, and a bridge,” he says.
Kato says he’ll probably miss traffic jams, Weiming Lake at Peking University and Beijing hutong — but he leaves with no regrets. “I’ve tried my best at things I can do, and I don’t expect to accomplish things I can’t,” he says.