A chance to score cultural exchange

GOOOOAAALLLLLLL !!! The celebratory cry of commentators will be heard throughout the globe in the on going month-long World Cup games.

The timing of this sporting event couldn't be more prefect. Tensions are mounting in the Middle East and terrorism still clouds the global atmosphere with fear. But when the two teams meet in the final on June 30, all attention will focus on the Japanese city of Yokohama, where more than 70,000 football fans and millions of television viewers will watch every movement of the ball.

Frivolities aside, it is interesting to note how modern football developed from schools in mid 19th century England and became the most popular sport in the world, to the extent of the World Cup finals being hosted jointly by two Asian tigers -- Japan and South Korea.

According to Joseph Yap, a Public Affairs Executive at the Asia Europe Foundation in Singapore, credit for importing modern football into Japan goes to a Lt. Cmdr. Douglas of the Royal Navy and his colleagues. According to an official J. League history The Daily Yomiuri reports that Douglas was an instructor at the naval academy in Tokyo and began teaching football as a recreational activity in 1873.

Thus began the trend that led to the inaugural season of the J. League being kicked off in 1993 with 59, 626 fans watching the opening match between Verdy Kawasaki and Yokohama Marinos at the National Stadium in Tokyo.

However, the Europeans are not the only exporters of sporting culture. Trevor Leggett, an Englishman who spent much time in India and Japan, became the most senior non-Japanese judo wrestler in the world. Leggett, a teacher of yoga and a top shogi player was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon by Emperor Showa in recognition of his services to cross-cultural relations between east and West in 1984.

Today, almost two decades later, the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) -- an organisation with the mission of "bringing together the peoples of Asia and Europe", also champions Leggett's work of promoting Asia-Europe relations. This year, it celebrates its fifth year of promoting ties and understanding between the continents.

Since inception in 1997, ASEF has completed more than 120 projects encompassing a scope as wide as the distances it covers. From human rights seminars, forestry management workshops, paintings competitions to editors’ roundtables and lectures on the European Monetary Union, thousands of participants have exchanged experience between the two continents.

"A Gender Agenda: Asia-Europe Dialogue," co-organised by ASEF and the Japan Centre for International Exchange, was held recently in Chiba Prefecture of Japan. Yoriku Meguro, Professor of Sociology at Sophia University and the representatives of Japan to the UN Commission on the status of women, chaired the steering committee of the conference.

In her overview, she wrote, " A distinct outcome of the conference was a sense of appreciation among the participants for the impact of face-to-face communication and exchange of experiences in each country and region".

While ASEF works on actively promoting relations, plans are underway for more solid bridges to be built between, specifically, between Europe and Japan. In December, a set of concrete cooperative initiatives across the whole range of relations was adopted at the EU-Japan Summit in Brussels.

Titled "Shaping our Common Future," the action plan for EU-Japan Cooperation has the objectives of promoting peace and security, strengthening economic trade partnership, coping with global and societal challenge and bringing together people and cultures.

Apart from cooperation at the policy and economic level, the EU-Japan action plan places emphasis on exchanges on the level of civil societies.

"The diversity of cultures is a source of spiritual richness, and bringing people together helps promote mutual respect and peaceful coexistence," she said.

During the 15th EU-Japan Journalists' Conference held recently, where this scribe was also participated as an observer during this scribe’s visit to Japan for meeting at the JAITI Foundation and meeting with the Mayors of the various cities of Japan and many more programmes, Ambassador Ove Juul Jugensen, head of the delegation of the European Commission in Japan, remarked that alongside bilateral concerns, Japan and the EU share common goals or even "work in progress" over a arrange of concerns.

From peace and security in East Timor and Afghanistan, to the full integration of China and India into globalise exchange.

Many of the outstanding global issues today, particularly those involving conflict and distrust, stem from a lack of understanding and communication between the parties concerned.

Usually, failure to understand the cultures and heritage of another country or continent leads to fear, misconception and, in some extreme cases, even conflict.

With the Asia-Europe Foundation, the EU-Japan action plan and all other such initiatives working toward the goal of promoting and understanding, Japanese and Europeans alike, should be glad to get together, share a beer and hope that World Cup -- the world's biggest sporting event will bring an opportunity in the exchange of cultures among the humanity of the world.

The World Cup festival definitely will showcase the uniqueness of Korean and Japanese culture and will provide venues for people around the world to share in the excitement of the month-long soccer tournament, involving 32 countries from around the world.

Industrial value, influence and contents of the culture market have changed. The concept of World Cup cultural festivities has been a combination of not only the Koreanism and Japaneism but as a Universalism. Pure art and traditional culture will be presented in balance with popular art and modern culture. Each city hosting a World Cup match will focus on art, history and culture. Besides many remarkable events an introduction of "Soccer Trains" and "Art Metros" decorated with various soccer images and pictures are also running in the subways which hopes to promote sampling of World Cup artworks.

The opening ceremony of the World Cup at the Seoul Stadium where around 64,000 spectators were inside and millions of people watched TV around the globe viewed the various arts, culture of Asia.