One of the nations fast rising up my List of Respect is Japan. What a fantastic people, a truly dynamic, hardy and determined race. The only nation to be atom bombed. Japan, synonymous with innovation, design, 'just-in-time' theories of mass production (first developed by Ford of the United States but seized upon and adopted by the emerging Phoenix of Japan in the 1950s). At the risk of sounding old-fashioned and stereotypical Japanese values through the ages have meant stoicism, patience, community, respect, dedication, appreciation of the natural state of order and dare we say it, honour.
Recently I have been wrestling with Alex Kerr's Dogs and Demons: The Downfall of Modern Japan. It is an angry book dealing in part with the idea that in its unrelenting economic drive forward the nation has sacrificed many formerly cherished ideals and aspects of the native culture. Another shadow cast over my optimism came from an elderly former Vice President of a certain Mazda plant who expressed his belief that Japan was on the way down due to the lack of motivation amongst contemporary young people. Having never seen hardship, having been born into times of plenty they were lazy said he. He struck me as a man of sound judgement, and long experience having been both a university professor and responsible for thousands of employees in his company days. So have I got it wrong about Japan?
Japan first experimented with foreign flavours of the western variety from the sixteenth century onwards, most notably in the form of Portuguese and Dutch sailors and missionaries. There is of course the wonderful story from that period of the Englishman William Adams who, arriving in Japan shipwrecked and half dead, survived execution, learned the language, became counselor to the Shogun, was granted lands and eventually obtained samurai status. The embodiment of 'going native'! The 1600s saw rivalry in Japan between Dutch, Portuguese and English trade interests and a widespread effort by our old friends the Jesuits to convert every man and his dog. The Japanese regarded these first curious gaijin (outsiders) with a mixture of bemusement and wariness. However, as the extent of the ambition of the European powers and the cult of Catholicism became increasingly apparent to successive shoguns, Japan moved towards a form of isolationism. The sakoku (''closed country'') period would last for the next two and a half centuries with foreigners excluded by law until the fellow who first planted the first US flag on Key West in 1822 made his entrance. He wanted to speak to the Japanese. About trade.
