Keizo Nagatani and David W. Edgington
April 1998, Avebury

Six members of the Centre for Japanese Research (CJR), an area unit of the Institute for Asian Research at the University of British Columbia, came together in 1989 to work on a common theme of sponsorship of the Japan Foundation. 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 contained in this volume 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.