Japanstudien 15

Volume 15 of the DIJ yearbook Japanstudien was published in December 2003. Its focus topic is “Misunderstandings in the Encounter with Japan.” The aim was to analyze the appearance as well as the solution and consequences of misunderstandings in the encounter with Japan. The underlying assumption was that both in the encounter between Japan and other countries, and within Japan herself, different forms of perception, thinking, feeling, and behavior may collide and that an erroneous perception of the message and its contextual signals can thus lead to misunderstandings. The volume includes seven articles on the focus topic – apart from the introduction -, which can be grouped into the following four thematic blocks: discourses of self-representation, discourses in history, cases from communication and encounter, and micro- and macroeconomic aspects. In addition, the volume includes two miscellaneous articles and reviews of eight books.