Nature and the Japanese (the last chapter only)
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Japanese version

　　　　　　　　　　　11."Asia" as an Illusion
　Lastly, I'd like to write about the position of Japan in the world.
　From the end of Edo era until now, various kinds of theory of the Japanese have been written by both Japanese and foreign persons. I hear such a thing is hardly seen in other countries. Why have so many theories of the Japanese been written and read? Mr. Funabiki Takeo explains as this.
　It's because of our anxiety of identity. We achieved modernization solely among non-Western countries at the age of imperialism and also have run ahead of them after that, yet we know of course we are not Westerners, and we can't but ask ourselves who on earth we are. ("The Reconsideration of 'The Theories of the Japanese'")
　I think that's true. And the reason why many Westerners wrote their theories of the Japanese would be just reversely their interest and curiosity about Japan which is an Oriental country but seems a little different from the other Oriental countries. And so, where on earth is Japan situated from civilizational and cultural viewpoint, and which country in the world is the nearest to Japan for example? As Prof. Funabiki doesn't mention about it clearly, I express my view. -- Japan is Japan, solely forming the Japan civilizational zone, and if I force myself to give the name of the country nearest to Japan, it would be Britain or Germany.
　Nowadays Hamasaki Ayumi has got many eager fans in the Western countries and the concert tickets of Dir en grey are sold out instantly in Europe. Hollywood remakes Japanese movies one after another and the TV program of Puffy is a boom among American children. And it's needless to say how widely Japanese mangas, animations and games are accepted in the Western countries. But such things hardly happen in the case of other non-Western countries. I've never heard that the culture of non-Western countries except Japan has got a great boom in the Western countries. On the other hand, the number of the Japanese people who adore Western culture are by far larger than those who adore non-Western culture such as Chinese, Korean or Indian one. (All the Gibri animations have been set in Europe or Japan.) How should we interprete such phenomena? It's the most natural to interprete that Japanese culture and civilization have had many characteristics in common with Western culture and civilization since old days, isn't it?
　“An Ecological View of Civilization History", written by Umesao Tadao in 1967 explains this point clearly, and I agree with the Umesao theory basically. Affection for nature, scientific curiosity, respect for truth, elaboration, purity, excellent sense of beauty, originality, tradition of making things, fair play spirit -- the both civilizations have these characteristics in common for example, while they are hardly found among the Chinese and the Koreans. Japan is closer to the Western European countries than to China and Korea from the viewpoint of culture and civilization. And I should add that the terms,“Asia” and “the Orient” are really inappropriate and were the origin of great misunderstanding.
　The European countries have the common factors of the white race and Christianity. It's not unnatural to think that Africa, North America, Latin America are the civilizational zones respectively. But how about Asia? For example, do Iraq people think they are similar to Chinese people? Do Indian people think they have some common characteristics with Russian people? “Asia" and“the Orient”are the place names that European people called the area outside Europe in the Eurasian Continent, and the naming was really incorrect and unreasonable from the first. We should stop using such place names. The area called as Asia now is divided into five main civilizational zones -- Russia, Islam, India, China and Japan, according to the Umesao theory. This is by far clear.
　I like Japan as a whole, though I have some unsatisfactoriness and complaint about Japanese national character. And viewing over the world, I think without doubt that Japan is a country that has first-rate history, culture, nature and people. I hope this country will develop more wonderfully in the future, without being eaten away by evil China.


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