Nader Sammouri Osaka

The COVID-19 pandemic and how it has been managed in Japan, and the Arab world varies drastically, unveiling a chasm that some scholars believe can be bridged through enhanced relations with Japan.

Aya Jazaierly, a Lebanese with a PhD graduate from Tokyo University expressed her opinion about what Japan and the MENA region can learn from each other especially amidst the coronavirus.

Jazaierly elaborated stating that Arab countries can learn the culture of working together as a team and as a nation from Japan. On the other hand, Japan can benefit from the constant exchange and fluid dialogue which happen between Arab countries where things are not static or rigid but rather more interchangeable.

“That is why I wager in strengthening relationships with Japan, so that an exchange of benefits is fortified,” says Habib Al Badawi, Professor of Modern History and Japanese studies at the Lebanese University.

There is plenty of talent with a fierce passion for skill-improvement in Arab countries which Japan needs as a country lacking youth and being dominated by a vast ageing society. Arab countries are also rich in natural resources which is scarce in Japan and could be traded with the tech resources that is relatively absent in Arab countries. 

Al Badawi also added that “Artificial intelligence or AI could help with viruses like COVID in abundant ways like tracking, assisting doctors and nurses, unveiling micro-structures, assisting in the development of vaccines by identifying human cells, discontinuing false information spread, all which Japan is relatively successful at because of its early involvement with AI technologies.”

When pointing the spotlight to the MENA region and comparing it with Japan, it is important to highlight lessons both regions can learn from one another.

“The way the crisis was handled differs from one Arab country to the next. In the UAE and Qatar for example, governments were very keen on testing and following up on the spreading of the virus. Both countries are also very proactive when it comes to vaccination during the current period. In Japan, the government has only issued advisory non-compulsory measures to its society, also PCR testing was very much limited leading to a certain obscurity of the whole spreading matter,” Jazaierly told Arab News Japan.

Jazaierly continued saying: “Unlike Japanese culture which is very much attached to its traditions, in the Arab culture it is very hard to identify what is Arab; Arab nations are somehow separated and there is more of an Egyptian culture or Emirati culture and in other words an identity for every Arab country rather than the Arab culture as a whole, and thus every Arab country dealt with COVID in a very different way making it hard to put them in one category.”

Al Badawi shared with Arab News Japan that countries in the MENA region can be categorized into those who are dealing well with the abrupt virus, like the Emirates, Kuwait, KSA, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and employing their financial means and technical capabilities to do so.

On the other hand, the second category is formed by other MENA countries which underestimated the virus and didn’t have the scientific ability to deal with it.

“Second category countries put all their hope in elite countries producing the vaccines so that they can consume the solution,” Al Badawi said.

He highlighted that it wasn’t due to an absence of scientific talent but rather that Arab intellects opt to operate outside of their nations due to an undervaluing of their talent and skill and instead choose to relocate abroad– citing Lebanon as an example of a diaspora, where most of its people reside outside of its country.

Al Badawi ended by stressing the importance of ensuring a sense of community, especially at a time when a virus acts as an invisible tie binding all nations and drawing them into one fight.

Jazaierly concluded that this pandemic has unveiled several bureaucratic and managerial defects that exist in every country on a governmental and political level. It also emphasized how interconnected the world is and how invisible factors can penetrate borders.