Javi Lavandeira has lived in Japan for 16 years. His passion for computers, specifically the MSX, drove him to learn Japanese, especially when they stopped making the machines in Europe and all the manuals came in the language. He travelled to Japan attracted by the MSX and stayed there for love, although the latter didn't last long. He's experienced the procés, Catalonia's moves towards independence, from a distance, and his Catalanist feelings have mutated from being pro-union to pro-independence. On his Twitter account, he gives full support to the Committees for Defence of the Republic and says, firmly, that the independence process has become known around the world, at least in as far as what his Japanese friends tell him.
What do they know in Japan about the procés?
Everything changed on [referendum day] 1st October. Initially, some news stories came out about independence, but nothing important. It was following the referendum and a special program from the channel TV Tokyo (called Future Century Zipangu) that they started talking about it more. They've talked about the topic on a couple of TV programs, it's been features in newspapers, online newspapers... Every time that something happens to do with Germany or the exiled politicians they report on it. Maybe not on the TV, but certainly in the newspapers, on the web.
The Japanese are informed about the topic. Two or three years ago, when I would say to someone: "I'm Catalan", I had to explain what and where Catalonia is. No longer, now they already know what Catalonia is and what's happening with Spain.
Some weeks ago you sent the following tweet...
Hoy un amigo japonés me presenta a uno de sus amigos. Pregunta que de dónde soy y respondo que soy catalán, esperándome tener que explicar dónde está Catalunya.
— Javi Lavandeira #JoSócCDR (@javilm) 29 de abril de 2018
En vez de eso, me contesta que es una vergüenza lo que España nos está haciendo.
Toma internacionalización.
Translation: Today, a Japanese friend introduced me to one of his friends. He asked where I'm from and I responded that I'm Catalan, expecting to have to explain where Catalonia is. Instead of that, he replied that it's disgrace what Spain is doing to us. How's that for internationalisation?
Yes, yes, and it surprised me, because he was someone who I had never seen and I was thinking: "now I'll have to explain everything" but it turned out that no [I didn't have to]. "It's a pity what Spain is doing to you," he said.
And what do they think of part of Catalonia wanting independence?
They think that if the Catalan people want to stop being part of Spain, they have to be allowed to decide that and, if they want independence, they have to be allowed to do it. That's what my Japanese friends say, they don't understand why Spain is putting up such resistance and such violence.
They think that if the Catalan people want to stop being part of Spain, they have to be allowed to decide
And you yourself, what do you think?
What I think is that there's no turning back. Looking at social media, the news... it's very clear to me that reconciliation is not possible with everything the [Spanish] government has done to spread fake news... all this anti-Catalan feeling and the Spanish population, which believes everything, and all this hatred against the Catalans... If they now say they're firing this [Catalan] government and are putting in place another more open to the Catalan situation, I wouldn't trust it.
Have you always supported independence?
Initially, no. I'm from a Spanish-speaking family: my mother's from Andalusia and my father, Galicia. When I was living in Catalonia, the situation was fine for me. We had all the freedom we wanted and I wasn't an independence supporter... one of my group of friends was, but the others weren't. I thought: why change if the situation isn't so bad? But there comes a moment when you see everything the Spanish state is doing and... pff, although it's not easy to achieve independence, it's better than staying.
This group of friends you're talking about, have they also moved towards supporting independence?
Almost all of them (he laughs).
Almost all my friends have become independence supporters
And what does your family think of the independence movement?
Oof, my mother is anti-independence. We had a fight because she shared a news story on Facebook from an online newspaper which is favourable towards the Spanish government and I wanted to explain to her that it wasn't true, that the newspaper was anti-Catalan and she believed it all. We didn't speak for a short time.
Do you come back often? Are you planning to return?
The last time I was in Catalonia was in 2014, to register to be able to vote on 9th November [in the unofficial 2014 independence referendum], and since then I haven't been back. I've already told my family that if in the end Catalonia doesn't become independent, I'll never return to Spain again. That would mean that the far-right and anti-Catalan feelings had won. I've made up my mind: I don't want to go back if we don't become independent.