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This open access book includes forty-one chapters about foreign
observers’ discourses on Japan. These include a wide range of
perspectives from the travelogues of curious visitors to academic
theses by scholars, which offer us a broad spectrum of contents,
reflecting a variety of attitudes toward Japan. The works were
written during the period from the 1850s to the 1980s, a timespan
during which Japan became, in stages, more open to the outside
world after a long isolation under the Tokugawa shogunate. From the
perspective of “Japanology,†one can discern three distinct
periods of rising interest in the country from abroad. The
first tide of such interest came shortly after the opening of
Japan, when various foreign travelers, including those who could
not be included in this book, came over and wrote down their
impressions of the country—which was, for them, a land of mystery
and mystique, which had just opened its doors to them. The second
wave arose at the beginning of the twentieth century, just after
the Russo-Japanese War, when Japan again generated a remarkable
surge of interest as a “miracle†in Asia that had pulled off
the wondrous feat of defeating a white superpower. The third wave
was more recent, which took place from the late 1960s to the 1980s,
a period of high economic growth when the “miracle†of
Japan’s remarkable economic recovery from the defeat of World War
II attracted enthusiastic and curious attention from the outside
world once again. It is not the intention of this book to directly
highlight such historical transitions, but these forty-two
brilliant mirrors (forty-one chapters, including forty-two
discourses), even when looked in casually, provide us with
unexpected insights and various perspectives. Â ShÅichi
Saeki (1922–2016) was Professor Emeritus, the University of
Tokyo. TÅru Haga (1931–2020) was Professor Emeritus,
International Research Center for Japanese Studies.Â
This open access book includes forty-one chapters about foreign
observers’ discourses on Japan. These include a wide range of
perspectives from the travelogues of curious visitors to academic
theses by scholars, which offer us a broad spectrum of contents,
reflecting a variety of attitudes toward Japan. The works were
written during the period from the 1850s to the 1980s, a timespan
during which Japan became, in stages, more open to the outside
world after a long isolation under the Tokugawa shogunate. From the
perspective of “Japanology,†one can discern three distinct
periods of rising interest in the country from abroad. The
first tide of such interest came shortly after the opening of
Japan, when various foreign travelers, including those who could
not be included in this book, came over and wrote down their
impressions of the country—which was, for them, a land of mystery
and mystique, which had just opened its doors to them. The second
wave arose at the beginning of the twentieth century, just after
the Russo-Japanese War, when Japan again generated a remarkable
surge of interest as a “miracle†in Asia that had pulled off
the wondrous feat of defeating a white superpower. The third wave
was more recent, which took place from the late 1960s to the 1980s,
a period of high economic growth when the “miracle†of
Japan’s remarkable economic recovery from the defeat of World War
II attracted enthusiastic and curious attention from the outside
world once again. It is not the intention of this book to directly
highlight such historical transitions, but these forty-two
brilliant mirrors (forty-one chapters, including forty-two
discourses), even when looked in casually, provide us with
unexpected insights and various perspectives. Â ShÅichi
Saeki (1922–2016) was Professor Emeritus, the University of
Tokyo. TÅru Haga (1931–2020) was Professor Emeritus,
International Research Center for Japanese Studies.Â
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