The Chat of Ambassador
The number of Japanese Residents in Belgium was 5677 in 2012 (No.27)
20th of August 2013
According to a survey conducted by the Embassy of Japan on the number of Japanese residents in Belgium, there were 5677 Japanese residents on October 1st, 2012, which is an increase of 342 people compared to the year before. I am very glad that the number of Japanese residents, which has been declining for the past 10 years, has begun to increase again. The main reason for the increase is the more than 6% rise in the number of people related to private companies, but the number of Japanese members companies in the Nihonjikai has decreased, so the situation is not quite clear. Looking at the Japanese residents per region, about half of them are living in Brussels (especially in Oudergem where the Japanese School is located). Except for Oudergem, there are only three locations with more than 100 Japanese residents: Antwerp (290 people), Kraainem (170 people, located east of Brussels and south of Zaventem Airport) and Leuven (157 people). Many Japanese companies are concentrated in all of these locations. By the way, in addition to “long-term residents”, the Embassy’s survey also classified “permanent residents” and 422 people fall under this category. In terms of gender, the majority of “permanent residents” are women (320), presumably Japanese women that married Belgians. Come to think of it, more than half of the students in the Japanese Saturday School are children from international marriages, so their mothers might be these “female permanent residents”…
< Kortrijk and the Golden Spurs >
Kortrijk (70.000 inhabitants) is located about 90 km southwest of Brussels and is one of Flanders’ central cities. It takes one hour to get there if using the highway. There is a modern building called the “Kortrijk 1302 Museum” in the heart of this town, which is in strange contrast with the surrounding streets reminiscent of medieval times. On July 11th, I attended the “national day” event of Flanders region, hosted by Jan PEUMANS, President of the Flemish Parliament, and I learned that July 11th is designated as the anniversary of the “Battle of the Golden Spurs” that took place on July 11th in Kortrijk mainly. The “Kortrijk 1302 Museum” commemorates this battle. On this day in 1302, the Count of Flanders revolted against the oppression of the King of France with the support of farmers and workers and defeated against all odds the overwhelmingly superior French King’s army (cavalry fitted with golden spurs) by a collective strategy of a common people’s army. This “incident” overthrew the feudal order of medieval Europe and spread immediately to other regions. It has been therefore evaluated as an event that became a turning point in history by paving the way for the establishment of the rights of the middle class. In addition, this battle became the background against which the Count of Flanders got closer to England, so we may say that the battle triggered the Hundred Years War between England and France later. Then, in the late 19th century, the Battle of the Golden Spurs, which stood for the independence of Flanders against the French rule, got a new meaning in the sense that it became an iconic incident in the collective opposition of Flanders against Wallonia. The truth of the history seems to be distorted. However, the brochure and the short film of the Museum introduce these historical changes objectively, presenting a very balanced content. Furthermore, there is a wooden statue of a beautiful girl in medieval dress in the museum. This girl is the daughter of the Count of Flanders, Philippina. She was blamed by the King of France for being engaged to the Crown Prince of England at the age of 7. The King tricked her into coming to France where the girl was held hostage in order for her father to be released and she was imprisoned for a long time at the Louvre in Paris. It is not certain where she went after that, but it is said that she was poisoned at the age of 20 (as a lesson for the Count of Flanders who continued his resistance to France). My heart aches when I think about the unfortunate life of the girl at the mercy of history.
< The Completely Renovated Mercator Museum >
Everyone in Japan knows about the “Mercator projection”, but surprisingly not many people know that Gerard Mercator was Belgian. He was born in 1512 in a small village called Rupelmonde on the outskirts of Sint-Niklaas (60km northwest of Brussels). He had a strong interest in making maps and in 1541 he produced the first world map at the age of 29. Last May, I paid a visit to Sint-Niklaas and visited the “Mercator Museum”, which had just been completely renovated in the beginning of this year. The museum was opened originally in 1962, but it was not easy (financially as well) to collect posthumously Mercator’s works that were scattered all over the world. The new museum is equipped with state-of-the-art digital video devices and large TV panels. The idea to tell the story of Mercator by using real actors (more than 10) to impersonate the historical figures of those days was very interesting. By the way, looking at the world map of 1541, Europe and the African continent are depicted fairly accurate, but the depiction of East Asia and the American West Coast in particular is rough. The island that is supposed to be Japan is just a solitary oval drawn in the middle of an ocean that might be the Pacific Ocean. The Korean Peninsula is not depicted at all. Somehow Japan seems just added to conclude that there is an island called Zipangu in the sea east of China, based on the memoirs of Marco Polo about the East. However, in the “Atlas” of 1585, both the Korean Peninsula and the “Japanese Archipelago” are depicted, probably based on the informations on East Asia that were widely spread in Europe by Jesuit missionaries. As a souvenir, I received a 350-page majestic atlas from Ward Bohé, the director of the museum. It is a replica of Mercator’s “Atlas” and it will be my treasure.
< The Destiny of Leopold II’s Three Daughters >
The second King of Belgium, Leopold II, who reigned from 1865 to 1906, seems to be popular among Belgians even today. He is known as the man who colonized Congo in Africa and who built with the wealth derived from there many of the large buildings that exist today in Belgium, changing the Brussels cityscape by a proactive urban planning. His reign coincides almost with that of the Meiji Emperor and to us Japanese the image of the two men overlaps quite lot. Now, about Leopold II, since his eldest son who was supposed to inherit the throne died young, his younger brother Albert I became the third King. For the royal line of succession of the same king, in contrast to the glamorous image of the period of his reign, it feels as if there is an interruption in the direct lineage. However, each of the three daughters of Leopold II (the Princesses) married with European royalty and nobility of which the bloodlines are linked to today. As it is not well known that the lives of the daughters were full of difficulties, I will touch upon that here.
Leopold II’s eldest daughter, Princess Louise, was married to Prince Philippe of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, which is the home of the Belgian Royal Family, and she had one boy and one girl. However, their marriage did not work out well because of the free and uncontrolled character of Princess Louise and her extravagant lifestyle, and when she became the mistress of a Croatian, an “incident” occurred. The Croatian lover was arrested and Princess Louise was placed under house arrest for 7 years. She divorced Prince Philippe and the Princess who lived in want started a trial against the Belgian government after her father’s death, insisting on her inheritance rights. In the meantime World War I broke out, property was confiscated and her wish to return to Belgium did not come true. She died in Germany.
The second daughter married Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary at the age of 15 and had one daughter. However, tormented by the Crown Prince’s infidelity, the marriage turned cold. Then, in 1889, an earth-shattering event happened in the woods on the outskirts of Vienna where the Crown Prince carried out a suicide pact with his young mistress Marie Vetsera (17 years old at the time) (This incident has been turned into a movie several time as the story of Mayerling). 11 years after this incident, the Princess remarried a Hungarian nobleman. After that, she got involved in various business projects, but she failed repeatedly and together with her sister, Princess Louise, started a trial concerning their inheritance rights of Leopold II. At the end of World War II, her country of residence, Hungary, was invaded by Soviet troops and she died in the monastery where she had taken refuge.
And then there is the third daughter, Princess Clementine. She was born three years after the death of the Crown Prince, so the king had hoped for a boy and was very disappointed. Bad luck followed her thus from her starting point in life. When she was 19, the eldest son of the King’s younger brother, the man she was promised to marry, died suddenly and after that the Princess remained single until she was 38 years old. Her marriage partner was Victor Napoleon, a grandchild of Napoleon Bonaparte’s youngest brother, who was in exile in Brussels. She had one boy and one girl. After the death of her husband, she participated in many charity works and she passed away in 1955, in Nice in the south of France, at the age of 83 (her two children died respectively in 1996 and 1997).