Hideyuki Hoshiya: Determined to be a lifetime envoy for Sino-Japanese exchange

Hideyuki Hoshiya (second from left) pictured with his school mates at the Beijing Language and Culture University; the first from right was Xu Jingbo, currently a Professor at the Center for Japanese Studies, Fudan University

However, Hideyuki Hoshiya tried very hard to adjust and soon accommodated himself to life in Beijing and travelled all around to know more about the history and culture of China. He made a lot of good friends during that period. Moreover, he contributed an article to the People's Daily titled My Hometown, which was published soon after he returned to Japan. It was said this was the first foreign-authored article published by the People's Daily.

In December 1979, the Japanese Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira delivered a speech at the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Hall in which he said, "The whole of Japan will provide assistance to the economic development of China and promote Sino-Japanese cooperation among enterprises, citizens and universities and so on. Even if China and Japan might go through a lot of ordeals in the 21th century, the two countries can still go hand in hand in the future, given the context of a two-thousand year history of friendly Sino-Japanese exchange." Hideyuki Hoshiya felt enthused upon hearing these words and thus determined his life purpose—Sino-Japanese exchange. It can be said that Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira's speech in Beijing had determined the direction of Hideyuki Hoshiya's life.

A witness of Pudong and Baosteel's development in the new era of Sino-Japanese exchange

Hideyuki Hoshiya was soon dispatched to Tianjin to head the Tianjin Office of Mitsui & Co. As the head of the Tianjin Office, Hideyuki Hoshiya was concerned about the plant construction of the first phase of the Baosteel project. He came to the construction site of the No.1 blast furnace of the steel plant and was moved by the enthusiasm of the people involved in the Sino-Japanese cooperation project. He was then sure about the coming of a new era of Sino-Japanese exchange.

After Nippon Steel helped build the steel plant for Baosteel and passed on their advanced steel manufacturing techniques to Baosteel, they also needed a Japanese integrated commercial firm to handle distribution. In 1990, Hideyuki Hoshiya received a special order from the management of Mitsui & Co to establish a business cooperation system with Baosteel and propose a strategic cooperation solution to them. He then traveled to Shanghai on a monthly basis for negotiations. In 1991, a Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement was signed between Mitsui & Co and Baosteel. According to the agreement, the two sides would carry out talents exchange and hold specialized seminars on the market economy to promote trade and investment as well as cadre exchange.

In 1995, Hideyuki Hoshiya was dispatched to Shanghai again as General Manager of Mitsui & Co Shanghai Ltd. He and his family thus moved to Shanghai and resided in Hongqiao Villa. They employed a housekeeper so that his wife and her Japanese friends could shop and have fun together. The Hongqiao branch of the Shanghai Japanese School was close to their home so that his kids could go to school conveniently and there was no bullying in the school. His family soon accommodated themselves into the life in Shanghai and became fans of the city.

Compared with his earlier visits, Hideyuki Hoshiya felt that Shanghai's lifestyle had completely changed. Metro Line 1 had started operation and the city was also building an expressway network. Many modern high-rise buildings had emerged and there was a rich variety of commodities in the commercial streets. The sales clerks were now all smiling. The clothes people wore were much more colorful than the dull and uniform Zhongshan suits. Shanghai had formed its own fashion and the gap between Shanghai and Tokyo was being narrowed. Hideyuki Hoshiya felt quite astonished at the speed of development in Shanghai.