Japan and the West: The Perception Gap

This book first published in 1998 containes the work of Six members of the Centre for Japanese Research (CJR) an area unit of the Institute for Asian Research at the University of British Columbia. They were motivated by the fact that after over a century of cultural economic and political interaction between the two regions mutual misunderstandings or perception gaps remain deep and wide and by the belief that highlighting these differences as they manifest in diverse areas and manners might potentially contribute to a better understanding if not an immediate narrowing of the gaps. The six essays that follow are the products of such group efforts. Three authors are Westerners and the remaining three are Japanese by origin. By speciality they represent modern Japanese literature cultural anthropology art history political science economics and geography.