Suchergebnisse

Das Bild Europas in Japan.

Themen: Bekanntheitsgrad von ASEAN, EG und UN; Charakterisierung der
Europäischen Gemeinschaft als politische, ökonomische Vereinigung oder
Handelsunion; Vergleich der Größe der Population der EG mit den USA;
Vergleich des Lebensstandards der EG-Bürger mit dem der Japaner;
Vergleich des japanischen Handelsvolumens mit der EG und den
Vereinigten Staaten; Kenntnis der EG-Mitgliedsländer; Kenntnis des
Projekts ´Europa 92´; erwartete Auswirkungen dieses Projekts auf die
Beziehungen zwischen Japan und Westeuropa; Begrüßung einer engeren
Kooperation zwischen der EG und Japan in den Bereichen Kultur,
technische Forschung, Energie, politische Kooperation, Umwelt und
Handel; präferierte Medien (Fernsehnachrichten, Seminare,
Veröffentlichungen usw.) über Europa; wichtigste Themen für eine
vermehrte Information über Vorgänge in der EG; wichtigste
Informationsquellen über die Europäische Gemeinschaft; Beurteilung der
Vereinigten Staaten, der Europäischen Gemeinschaft und der
ASEAN-Mitglieder als faire Handelspartner.

Demographie: Alter; Geschlecht; Schulbildung; Berufstätigkeit;
Haushaltseinkommen; Ortsgröße.

Abstract It has long been recognized that Japanese modern society, policy and economy exhibit some very distinct characteristics, a distinct mode of structuration of modern institutions and organizations which are structured in ways radically different from those which have developed in other —especially Western— societies. Such differences are not just local variations. They pertain to the very basic ways in which the various modern institutional arenas are regulated, defined, and the broader social and cultural contexts in which they operate.The common denominator of these characteristics is a very high level of structural differentiation. mobility, openness and dynamics grounded in conceptions of service to social contexts, ideally (as promulgated in the Meiji ideology) to the national community. Neither the emphasis on equality nor the strong emphasis on achievement were grounded in any conception of principled transcendentally oriented individuality or of transcendental legitimation of different functional (e.g. political or economic) activities.Such a rather strong structural similarity, together with a distinct institutional dynamics. can be identified in comparing Japan and Western Europe already in the premodern period, when there were only but minimal contacts between them.The analysis in a comparative framework of this unusual combination is of central importance for the understanding of Japanese modernity and in the following pages I would like to present some preliminary steps for such analysis.

Two traditional approaches to the study of Japan in the West—comparison and a focus on connections—both fundamentally regard Japanese culture as a distinct entity. A less essentialist and more fruitful approach might be to see Japanese culture as the product of responses to global developments and conjunctures that the West has also been subjected to. Classical modernization theory, the multiple modernities approach, and, more recently, the Great Divergence debate have each in their own way situated Japan within global history, although they have usually been accompanied by presumptions about the West's importance for Japan, while at the same time removing Japan from its Asian context. Resituating Japan in its Asian context from a transcultural perspective yields unexpected insights. One example is the role of Islam in Japan, a topic that, although almost entirely unexplored, is closely bound to modern Japanese political history.