Japan is widely regarded as having a unique culture and a strong national identity. Paradoxically, however, many basic elements of Japanese culture are not originally Japanese. Since the beginning of its history, Japan has been one of the world's major importers of foreign cultures. Its culture was thoroughly 'hybrid' long before that word became fashionable in contemporary global studies. But this does not mean that Japan's culture lacks originality. The Japanese have always made strikingly original contributions, even improvements, to whatever they imported. Even more significantly, the 'hybridity' of their culture produced ongoing tensions that served as a kind of creative dynamo for Japanese writers, artists, and intellectuals. This book explores the fundamental creative tension between the native and the foreign in many areas of Japanese culture, from politics and religion to art and literature - a tension also often interpreted as between tradition and modernity.

This collection brings together themes in East Asian history, diplomacy, culture and politics written by J. E. Hoare since the early 1970s. His writings derive from his training as a historian, from his time as a Research Analyst in the British Foreign Office from 1969-2003, and from his experiences as a diplomat in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), the People's Republic of China, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). The writings selected for this volume include academic papers, book reviews and some quasi-journalistic articles which reflect both historical research and analysis of current events and issues. The wide-ranging content speaks to the author's specialist fields of interest including diplomacy, biography, extraterritoriality and architecture on which he has published extensively.

Throughout his academic career Louis Cullen's main research interest has been foreign trade - originally that of England, Ireland and France, but from the mid-1990s, his focus turned to Japanese history resulting in his critically acclaimed A history of Japan 1582-1941: Internal and External Worlds. Subsequently, he concentrated on the analysis of archival sources and of the problems they pose for the interpretation of Japanese history: papers on some of these themes and their associated statistical dimensions have appeared in Nichibunken's Japan Review and are republished here together with a collection of other papers including interpreting Tokugawa history and the knowledge and the use of Japanese by the Dutch on Dejima island.

Considered a doyen of Meiji studies, particularly in the field of the newspaper press in Japan, former journalist Jim Huffman. and H. Orth Hirt Professor of History [Emeritus] at Wittenberg University, was recently honoured (2017) with the Distinguished Service Award by the Association of Asian Studies (AAS), marking his outstanding scholarship and service in the field of Asian studies. Huffman is the author of eight acclaimed books, including Creating a Public: People and Press in Meiji Japan, A Yankee in Meiji Japan: The Crusading Journalist Edward H. House, Japan: A History in Documents and most recently Down and Out in Late Meiji Japan. Supported by an introductory mini memoir, this collection of Huffman's writings comprises thirty journal papers and scholarly essays, thematically structured under (1) Media, (2) Society, Culture and Environment, and (3) Democracy, Government and Nationalism. Part 4 offers a selection from his portfolio of book reviews. The Rise and Evolution of Meiji Japan provides a valuable one-stop access to the scholarship of Jim Huffman that both complements and enhances his existing published works.

Supported by a number of high-profile case studies, this volume offers a comprehensive exploration of Japanese-German economic relations through the whole of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries. It also offers clarification on the structure and processes of the world economy in the same period. Drawing on both unpublished discussion papers as well as previously published essays, the reader will find much of interest in the wide-ranging scholarship contained in this work, structured as follows: Part I, Japanese-German Business Relations; Part II, Trajectory of Japanese-German Business Relations; Part III, The Japanese and European Business and Economies. A Foreword by Yuzawa Takeshi, Professor Emeritus, Gakushuin University, Tokyo, evaluates the relevance and significance of Professor Kudo's lifetime research and scholarship in the context of German-Japanese relations.