No Borders in Fundamental Human Nature:
We are All the Same Human Beings
Our presentation title is “No Borders!” Of course we aren’t talking about cup
noodles, but talking about “There are no natural borders built into human nature”.
Borders are only learned or imposed by society.

We are all in the same boat and inessence we are all the same human beings.
Do you feel comfortable living in Japan?
people coming from other countries?

Yes, we do! Then, how about foreign

Or people who are somehow different from us?

Do they feel comfortable in Japan like we do?
We three had a great chance to go study English in Melbourne last year.

It wasonly a three-week study tour, but we’ve learned a big lesson that we would never havebeen able to learn in a normal Japanese life. That is, fundamental nature is the same.
So we are essentially the same whatever nationality we are, whatever color our skin is,whatever religion we follow.

This is what we have strongly realized from living inAustralia for three weeks, staying with local families and studying in the multiculturalclasses at Victoria University.
Walking in the downtown streets of Melbourne, we saw various people of different
colors, languages, and appearances all blended in with the atmosphere.

They looked

as if they knew each other. For instance, when you went shopping to a local grocery
store and paid for your purchase at a cash desk, you were probably greeted with thewords like “Hello” or “Good day” or even “How are you?”“Oh very well, thank you.” or “Great”.

Then the shopper replies like

It’s like a conversation exchanged between

friends.

We were surprised to see this casual scene.

Japan.

I’ll give you one more example that’s even more surprising. My host family

took me dinner one night.

This is unthinkable here in

Then all of a sudden my host brother broke into a

conversation with the customers sitting at the next table. He invited me to join them.
I joined them with puzzlement.

I was completely mind-boggled.

I could never thinkof starting an instant conversation with some one or some people just because they are
sitting right next to me.
in Australia.
Australia.

Can you imagine that?

However this is possible and normal

My fellow presenters had the same experience as mine during the stay inWhen we came back from Australia, we began to recognize that there are invisible
and unspoken borders around us, or we subconsciously differentiate people and thingsin our daily life back here in Japan.
Let me ask you a question.

Do you never ever hesitate to offer help right awaywhen you happen to se a stranger obviously lost in a street?
person is someone that we know.

Of course we don’t if theBut how many of you go up to the stranger

unhesitatingly to help him or her? Here is where the glass wall exists.
I came across a similar situation myself in Melbourne.

On the very first day I

started to go to the ESL program by train I was very nervous and almost frightened
because I was on my own in a place where I couldn’t communicate well. However thatworry of mine disappeared quickly thanks to a kind lady who invited me to take a seatnext to her.

She talked to me as if I was a friend of hers, and even helped me read themap to get to the school.

She loudly asked the passengers around if anyone knew thatschool.

Then more surprisingly, a man in the train came forward to say “I know thatschool.

I could take you there.” He actually took me to the school guiding me aroundthe city on the way.
enough.

I was more than happy, and couldn’t express my appreciation

I may sound a little naïve, following a stranger without any worry of

kidnapping or being taken advantage of in some way.

However, this kindness comessubconsciously from the bottom from their nature.

They don’t think they did

something special to help me like that.

In Japan we would hesitate offer help r evenavoid getting involved in such a situation.

Why does this difference occur?

We think

that people in Australia think they are all in the same bout, and they are the same
human beings.

So there no natural borders built into human natures.

Australia is a multi-national and multi-cultural country.

They’ve got to listen toeach other and understand each other to keep the country going.

But before that, thepeople there already have a mental outlook that all the people in the world are the same,
more directly speaking, they are aware of the essence of being human from thebeginning.
Walking in the streets around the school in Melbourne, we got the feeling that weblended in with the atmosphere, and we were part of the scene.

It was such a nicefeeling, and we three all thought that we could live anywhere in the world if we arefirmly aware of the importance of being honest, open-minded and attentive as a person.
When we three came back to Japan, we realized that we can’t carry on like in Australia.
This is because there are invisible social controls imposed by the society.

For instance,

we are expected to keep a certain distance between us in Japan, so we don’t talk to aneighbor on a bus or a train, let alone hold a conversation with him or her.

We would

like to say strongly, “Don’t be shy.” Go help and lend a helping hand when you see
someone in trouble.

Put your feet into others’ shoes.

If we are willing to listen toother people, keep our mind wide open and accept different points of view, we could getalong with each other wherever we are in the world because we are the same humanbeings.
In summary, we understand our experience in Melbourne, Australia was limited
because we went to only one country and stayed only three weeks.

But Australia is amulti-national and multi-cultural country where many different nationals co-exist
harmoniously, so we believe that our experience gave us a very valuable and positive
lesson of the essence of being the same human beings.

We should be able to feel andlive as we did in Australia as long as we are open-minded and attentive, and remove theglass walls built into the Japanese society.

As one movie or one song can move people

in the world, it shows that we have the same sentiment and heart.

It’s like technology

as well. If we are open-minded, let in new ideas and give them time to develop, they
will be benefits for everyone.
We strongly hope, or rather, we mean to make the change.

What we can do islimited as a single person, but we can still make the change. We will make efforts tomake this change happen in Japan because “We are the same humans.
borders in fundamental human nature!”

We have no