Mr.Yoshinobu Aoki

What is most attractive about the United States, for me, is its racial and cultural diversity. In some ways, it shows a microcosm of our planet Earth. Japan has been constantly declining for the past few decades, but we can learn some important lessons about our future direction from their experiences. This is because the United States is the nation that has been struggling the most to achieve the great goal of overcoming all their racial differences to become one as humans. My family has also hosted 13 people from Walla Walla as a part of the exchange program between our two cities. Astonished by the vast difference in cultures, my children ended up living in Paris, Beijing and the United States. There are countless international problems such as global warming, pandemics, poverty and nuclear weapons, which all must be solved through a global effort. In Japan, we also face many problems such as economic stagnation and ridiculously old-fashioned education. We need to work together to solve these problems by overcoming racial and cultural differences. I think we should rethink and tackle the realities that we face now through exchange with America.