Japan: A ReinterpretationThe Japanese are in the process of re-creating themselves--an endeavor they have undertaken at intervals throughout history, always prompted by a combination of domestic and global forces. In this landmark book, Patrick Smith asserts that a variety of forces--the achievement of material affluence, the Cold War's end, and the death of Emperor Hirohito--are now spurring Japan once again toward a fundamental redefinition of itself. As Smith argues, this requires of the West an equally thorough reevaluation of the picture we have held of Japan over the past half-century. He reveals how economic overdevelopment conceals profound political, social, and psychological under-development. And by refocusing on "internal history" and the Japanese character, Smith offers a new framework for understanding Japan and the Japanese as they really are. The Japanese, he says, are now seeking to alter the very thing we believe distinguishes them: the relationship between the individual and society. Timely, measured, and authoritative, this book illuminates a new Japan, a nation preparing to drop the mask it holds up to the West and to steer a course of its own in the world. Jacket image: The Great Wave of Kanagawa, from 36 Views of Mount Fuji (detail) by Katsushika Hokusai. Private collection. |
From inside the book
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Page 48
... individual . To achieve shutai - sei was to leave behind all the old conventions : the enveloping mutual duties ... individual : the self as a private , independent being . The other was social : the free individual who also understood ...
... individual . To achieve shutai - sei was to leave behind all the old conventions : the enveloping mutual duties ... individual : the self as a private , independent being . The other was social : the free individual who also understood ...
Page 49
... individual liberty , and individual liberty is impossible to sustain without a democratic context . The debate over shutai - sei collapsed in the late 1940s . The new demo- cratic human type never appeared , a casualty of the reverse ...
... individual liberty , and individual liberty is impossible to sustain without a democratic context . The debate over shutai - sei collapsed in the late 1940s . The new demo- cratic human type never appeared , a casualty of the reverse ...
Page 60
... individuals who could cultivate no individual values . The contradiction made modern Japan what it is today — a place of immense but unrealizable dreams , relentless competi- tion , and near - universal frustration . No matter how ...
... individuals who could cultivate no individual values . The contradiction made modern Japan what it is today — a place of immense but unrealizable dreams , relentless competi- tion , and near - universal frustration . No matter how ...
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accepted American appeared arrived asked became become began begin building called century considered constitution corporate course culture democratic described early economic emperor enter essential explained face feel finally followed foreign half Hirohito human hundred idea imperial important individual industrial Japan Japanese kind known late later learned less Liberal live look matter mean Meiji military modern named nationalists nature never official once ordinary past period political postwar problem produced published question remains rest samurai scholars seemed simply social society spirit term things thought thousand tion Tokyo told took tradition true turned understand University village wanted West Western women wrote York young