Do Attorneys & Mediators need Emotional Intelligence?

The story made headlines around the world last year. Crisis deepens as apology plea rebuffed. Relations between China and Japan were at their lowest point in decades with reports the neighbors were just about on a war footing. Reports that saw $US178 billion wiped off the stock market. Both sides were said to be “talking past each other”. Why? You ask, what had brought these two super powers to the brink of war? Were major untapped oil reserves at stake? Was a strategic land grab involved? A spy scandal perhaps? Nothing so simple. The world was on the edge of its seat because of the emotions triggered by a controversial visit to a cemetery. Japan’s Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi had paid due respect at the Yasukuni Shrine where his country’s war dead are buried and in the process created the major diplomatic incident with China. In this part of the world bitter memories linger of World War 11. From the Chinese perspective, Japanese aggression caused tens of millions of deaths and ...  more