The author, 66, is former ambassador to Korea and France, and currently a special visiting professor at Aoyama Gakuin University and a committee member of the Asahi Shimbun Asia Network.

"What is globalization?"

This apparently simple question, in fact, is the title of a comic book published by a Mexican. The book is designed, from the point of a commoner, to ridicule capitalists, politicians and international agencies who are manipulating surging waves of globalization.

Capital from the United States, Europe and Japan began flowing into Mexico rapidly from around 1994, when the country became a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). While the number of visitors, both tourists and businessmen, to Mexico increased sharply, tremendous numbers of Mexican workers migrated to North America. As a result, Mexico has been "North-Americanized" while, at the same time, the United States of America has become "Latin-Americanized."

In such a situation, the wave of globalization has begun to pose new problems in Mexico and adjoining Latin-American countries. They stem from the impact of the economic strength of Asian countries.

Chinese products, for instance, are penetrating into Mexico and other Latin American countries directly or by way of the United States. The volume of made-in-China sports shoes imported by Mexico via the United States is such that they could easily more than fill a soccer stadium.

Investment from the Chinese mainland and by overseas Chinese in natural resources in Argentina and Brazil is quietly but steadily occurring. Aggressive investment by South Koreans is also becoming more conspicuous. When Chinese President Hu Jintao made a tour of Latin American countries in mid-September, South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun visited Mexico and Chile at almost the identical time.

Latin American countries have long been aligned with the United States and Europe, while being opposed at times to them, and experienced a process of resistance and assimilation. However, for the first time in history, they have begun to become seriously aware of the "strangers" of Asia, particularly East Asia. This is because this relates to the issue of the identities of Latin American countries.

Latin America was the site for constructing a dreamland by Europeans who colonized the land by invading and destroying civilization of "Indio" (Central and South American Indians) and settled there. The countries became independent while yearning for European culture. The Latin American countries had to thereafter face a strong political and economic impact from the United States and experience historical movements and activities that struck them intermittedly. As a result, the Latin Americans were irresistibly driven to find their own "strangers" in their own society. Two Nobel laureates of Latin America used the word "solitude" in titles of their literary works. They were Gabriel Garcia Marquez of Colombia in his novel, "One Hundred Years of Solitude," and Octavio Paz of Mexico in his essay, "The Labyrinth of Solitude." Why is it that a word such as "solitude" had to be uttered from the mouths of people of such blithe character as Latin-Americans? That is because "strangers" that are indispensable for distinguishing themselves from others are found not only in other countries and areas but also within.

Turning our eyes to Asia, we can find that East Asia is in a different sense in solitude. For instance, Japan, while being attached to the "West," cannot give up Asia and stands alone between the East and West. South Korea, while economically becoming part of the sphere centered around the neighboring country of China, is attached politically and militarily to the U.S.-Japan camp. China, for its part, is also isolated in Asia because of its enormous scale and for historical reasons. In the international community, China is, as a matter of course, in a position distant from other countries because of its political system. Identification of East Asia will therefore remain superficial until the countries of the region scrutinize internal "strangers."

If East Asian countries are to have a close look at themselves, Latin America could act as a point of reference in view of its complex composition of races and faults in histories, and its particular relationship with North America.

It may, therefore, be high time for East Asian nations (Japan, South Korea and China, or perhaps Singapore) to have 6-nation joint governmental and private sector talks with three Latin American countries (Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, for instance) to discuss ways of promoting economic and cultural exchanges between the two regions. Japan probably should take the initiative in making such a proposal.

If Latin America has been in solitude for 100 years, East Asia has been in solitude for 1,000 years. Solitary nations probably should have occasions to open up and exchange views.