It’s strange feeling for me to hear there are people who want to live in Japan from the other parts of the world. To be honest, from my eyes it’s hard to find nice aspects enough to encourage people to live in Japan coming far away across the ocean.

Probably there are not many who actually want to come in Japan to live, but the fact that there are even some wishing to live here amazes me enough.

When I was a child or very young, friends around me had dreams to live overseas by pointing out Japan’s faults one by one. They often said ” Japan is too quiet and group minded. America is good because personality is admitted importantly”. Maybe their insight was correct. Japan has been often criticized like no individual country, or too quiet country with no personal opinions. And this character of Japanese is still the same.

But today, the people who want to live here often say ” My country is too arrogant with strong individualism” ” I prefer harmonized country like Japan”.

Ummmmm, both my Japanese friends view and the foreigners’ view to Japan are telling the same thing. So Japan has not changed, nor the USA either. Point is that which nature we like better.

If some people really want to live in Japan, I think it means value of life for people might have changed over recent hard time. we can’t find the best answer about this. Human feeling changes from time to time. I also wanted to go abroad to study or for business, and when I did so, I noticed my nature matches Japanese way of life rather than Western’s. Now I’m comfortable being in Japan with THE harmonized society with less stimulation among people.

Internet media might have helped to create new Japan lovers, but they again might be back soon to their own country after certain period of time in Japan with final judgement of their heavenly places.

However, even if there were some the misunderstandings, it’s nice to welcome more people to Japan. They will know more about Japan and the real understanding could be possible only through the personal contact.

This is not directed by Hayao Miyazaki, but it’s truly a Ghibli flavor work with a lot of love and color in the movie.

Arrietty is directed by a member of Ghibli, Hiromasa Yonebayashi with story planned by Hayao Miyazaki and the producer, Toshio Suzuki.

Some works of Studio Ghibli, such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, or Ponyo in the Cliff, were also carried into American theaters, however, Arrietty would be the biggest theater promotion ever for Studio Ghibli.

Actually, Hayao Miyazaki says that overseas success is a kind of bonus for them because Ghibli firstly didn’t expect any success or worldwide fans in the world.  In that sense, no matter how the theater numbers are more or less, Hayao Miyazaki would be pleased with the fact of this release.

Animation environment is not so easy for workers of production in Japan.  To live, they need constant success in Japan first of all.  Studio Ghibli is no exception.  But the hard competition in the animation market of Japan consequently grows the quality of works and real animators.  Under less competition,  it’s surely impossible to keep such high level of entertainment.

Fans in Japan also know that.  We fans don’t care much if the works of Japan are successful in other countries.  It’s a pleasure if world fans know the works of Japan.  Moreover, we would be pleased if animators give us better things than we’ve ever enjoyed.

Anyway, I hope Studio Ghibli would keep on producing that high quality job enough to bring us more joy.