Japonia i Zachód – spotkania w globalnej wiosce

Abstract

Japan and the West – Meetings in the Global VillageJapan is one of the most fascinating economic powers in the world. Over the whole of its history, even in the strong isolationist periods, it has imported foreign ideas which were later adjusted to suit its own needs and developed in compliance with its own views. At the beginning, Japan’s main mentor was China, often through the countries of the Korean Peninsula, but the West started to take China’s place as the culturally dominant Alien, the basic supplier of goods. The Japanese became aware that they would probably be unable to chase away the western barbarians and, under the circumstances, they should start to learn from them. “Japan would pass away, turn empty, waste, colourless; it would turn cunning and rich”. But will it indeed be so? “The world is a global village” – the sentence that was once a daring statement is now a cliche, and it is no longer amazing that we get into contact with people from the other hemisphere or that so many students enrol in programmes connected with distant civilizations. Japan is among the countries whose names frequently appear in the surrounding reality and sound less and less exotic.