A young Japanese man has been traveling three years through Asia distributing 'free hugs for peace' in an initiative to bring people together, His videos have registered more than 1.5 million views on Youtube.
Koichi Kuwabara, 29, began his adventure just after graduating from university and has since toured South Korea, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan giving hugs to all passers-by who come to claim their 'Free Hugs for Peace'.
His videos recorded on the streets of Seoul, Beijing and Taipei, in addition to those on Youtube, have more than 5,300 followers on Facebook and about 3,000 on Twitter.
Kuwabara's aim is that neighbouring countries "set aside their political problems and the hatred and contempt among them" because despite their differences "all Asians have much in common", he said.
"That we do not agree on some territorial issues does not mean we cannot be friends. We are all equal. I would like the people to realise that by watching my videos," Kuwabara explained.
Following his trek, Kuwabara returned to Japan to work temporarily at Disneyland Tokyo before embarking on new journeys.
Kuwabara said,he dreamed of "Asian people uniting someday" and believed that "South Koreans or Chinese getting along well is much more fun than hating each other".
His plans are to continue distributing hugs throughout the East Asian countries next year, and even extend his trips to the rest of the world if he saves enough money.
Japanese, Chinese and South Korean media have reported on Kuwabara's initiative and have praised it in the present context of tense relations among the major Asian countries because of territorial disputes or the consequences of Japan's aggression during the World war II.
Because of these conflicts, nearly half of Japanese, or 47 percent, have an "unfavourable image" of their South Korean neighbors, while the vast majority of the latter, or 77 percent have a bad impression of the Japanese, according to an opinion survey conducted last year.
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