Aoki, Tamotsu: Der Japandiskurs im historischen Wandel: Zur Kultur und Identität einer Nation. Aus dem japanischen Original übersetzt von Stephan Biedermann, Robert Horres, Marc Löhr und Annette Schad-Seifert (Aoki, Tamotsu: The Historical Change of the Japan Discourse: Culture and Identity of a Nation (German translation from the Japanese))

The strong interest that Japan’s rapid economic development has aroused, is in part due to the process of modernization the country has undergone, which, in the opinion of numerous observers, has come about in a form different from that of the West. Subsequently, both in Japan, as well as abroad, a number of scientific and popular expository approaches, seeking to establish the reason for Japan’s rapid rise, have been developed: the so-called “Japan discourse.”

This work by the cultural anthropologist Aoki Tamotsu, born in 1938, which is now available in German translation, attempts to analytically trace the development of this discourse, distinguishing itself as it does, by its controversial opinions. Precisely because the European picture of Japan is largely determined by publications forming part of this selfsame “Japan discourse,” an overview of the discourse, and its historical classification, has long been awaited; all the more so since the widespread Western criticism of Japan, even to the point of “Japan bashing,” is all too often based on pseudo-convictions, originating from the “Japan discourse.”