(The Tokyo Colloquium, The Yomiuri Shimbun, 3-4 October 1985)
My first real contact with Japan goes back to 1968 when, as as Assistant Director general of UNESCO, in charge of the Social Sciences and Culture, I had the honor of organizing in Tokyo and Kyoto a Symposium on the interactions between Japanese and Western cultures, on the occasion of the Centenary of the Meiji Revolution. The participants were of a high caliber and the meeting was a stimulating exercise of "NIHONJIN-RON" (discourses on the Japanese people). Among the Japanese personalities present there were people such as Kenzo Tange, Maekawa, Mishima, Maeda, Yoshiu Nomura, Mitsuo Nakamura, Naoya Uchimura, and Sei Ito.
I was so impressed by the dynamism of Japanese culture and so excited intellectually by the discussions that I began to speak and act like an "expert" on Japan after the second day of the meeting. I remember very well a sound advice of Robert Guillain, who was then correspondent of LE MONDE in Tokyo. He told me : "You will never feel that you understand Japan so well as you do today but on condition that you do not come on other visits. With each visit your grasp of Japan will dwindle and you may one day discover that they are limits to how much you can really know about Japan."
This is my eight visit so my pretensions about the knowledge of Japan have not yet completely disappeared otherwise I would not have had the arrogance of choosing to speak on such an authentically Japanese theme which is almost a national sport with a growing number of foreign fans. The "NIHONJIN-RON" is an exercise of introspection where the mirror is as important as what is being reflected. The succinct note of Professor Hidetoshi KATO on the "Merits and Demerits of NIHONJIN-RON" deals with three aspects : the genealogy, the background, and the future. My remarks will be limited to the future perspectives of "NIHONJIN-RON".
Taking the risk of being mistaken and looking forward to being corrected I would like to establish a distinction between the old "NIHONJIN-RON" and the new one which is in the making and which might prevail in the future. The former one was a product of the Meiji era and of the desire to "open" the horizons of Japan as well as an expression of doubt about the readiness of the World (i.e. the Western world) to deal with Japan on an equal footing. It was therefore marked by introversion, a combination of self-confidence and insecurity, superficial forms of mimetism and a great preoccupation about the "image" of Japan.The Japanese were thus the first people to use an ethnological approach in the understanding of their own society by having recourse to an external vision and exogenous values.
The "NIHONJIN-RON" has of course both merits and demerits as has been pointed out by other speakers in this session. For my part I believe that it has had a positive and dynamic cultural role over the last hundred years. I think however that this phase is more or less over and that a "NEW NIHONJIN-RON" (NNR)is in the making.
The Japan of 1985 is a Japan in a creative transition to the
21st Century. It is undergoing very strong mutations at the level
of its socio-cultural values. This does not necessarily imply the
discarding of some of the basic traditions although it cannot but
lead to important cultural transformations to face and solve the
challenges which the preceding culture has brought about
particularly in the scientific and technological spheres.
The old "NIHONJIN-RON" was dominated by a prevailing
negative perception of Japan by the World (especially in the
West) where as the "NNR" will have to deal with
oversimplified and overpositive views, all over the globe, about
the post-industrial Japan.
In an article published in the French newspaper LE MONDE, on 17 July 1985 on the occasion of Prime Minister Nakosone, Philippe Pons starts out by asking the readers "are not you tired of all the platitudes which are being hammered at you about the Japanese?... Does not the idea that the Japanese may be living differently from what we are being told ever cross your mind ?"
A question which is not totally irrelevant when trying to foresee the evolution of the "NNR" is "what is the feedback effect of these external deformed views on the Japanese assessment of Japan?".
1985 has been a record year for the number of special issues of newspapers and magazines devoted to Japan the content of which can not but have some impact on the Japanese views about Japan- were it only the temptation and danger of over self-confidence.
Having put this question for the sake of provoking some answers during the discussion which is to follow, let me get back to the "NNR". What is likely to distinguish this New Nihonjin-Ron from the old one ? Here are a few considerations which may come into play :
1. A greater preoccupation about the future of Japan and a questioning as to how long it will be able to maintain itself in the position which it has attained in the world;
2. An ever increasing role will be played by the vision which
the Japanese have of the world as an intrinsic part of their
vision of themselves;
3. The study of Japan, of the Japanese people and of the
Japanese language will develop extensively and will no longer be
limited to a few scholars, diplomats, financiers and writers in
search of "exotic" topics;
4. The age structure of the Japanese population at the end of the Century - in the Year 2000, 16% of the population will be above 60 years of age as compared with 10% in 1985 - only Sweden will have as high a figure;
5. Strong mutations and even ruptures at the level of Japanese socio-cultural values which will induce important changes in the model of development of Japan;
6. Political and socio-cultural developments in Asia, especially South-East Asia and China;
7. The relations of Japan with the Third World which will represent over 80% of the population of the globe;
8. A set of important questions affecting politico-cultural identity are likely to arise :
- will Japan aspire to a greater integration, at all levels, within the select Western club of highly industrialized countries ?
- will its history and value system incline it toward more cohesion with its Asian partners on a new footing ?
- will it go as far as to share some of the perceptions and visions of the group of countries now known as "developing" countries ?
- will it even go as far as to envisage a gradual
socio-cultural delinking from the West in order to preserve and
sustain its authenticity ?
There are of course many other factors concerning strategic, geopolitical,military, economic, scientific and cultural developments which one could cite within this context. As the time allowed is short let me concentrate just on one factor: the relations of Japan with the Third World and as a component of the "NNR".
As someone from the Third World and who comes from a country which in Arabic is called the "Extreme West", I really feel that I am in the "Extreme East" each time I come to Japan. I have fought for years, in writings and debates, the notion that Japan was a good "imitator" of Western technology. I have done so not for the sheer love of Japan but because what is at stake is that no given culture has a monopoly of technology in space and in time.
The achievements of Japan are first and foremost the product of Japanese history, creativity, imagination and hard work. Japan has thus paved the road for other non-western countries by proving that scientific progress and technological breakthroughs are not linked to specific cultural genes. They are, just like cultural and artistic achievements, the result of human intelligence and sensitivity. This is the message which the Third World is getting when it looks at Japan.
But what are the signals which Japan is receiving when it considers the place and role of the Third World? What is its vision of the role and place of this developing world in its own frame of thinking? How much of this vision is determined by the perception of the "West" as transmitted through the latter's media. How much does Japan identify itself with the "North" when it comes to relations with the "South" even beyond international economic and financial questions?
These questions are being asked by many people from the Third World and it is not easy to find ready answers beyond a few expressions of sympathy with the plight of the poorer countries within the "South". The "New Nihonjin-Ron" will not be able to avoid introducing the relations of Japan of the Third World in its equation. It will sooner or later pay as much attention to what this part of the World thinks of Japan as it did for several decades about Western opinions. It is not a question of aid or charity or even compassion. It is first and foremost a cultural matter and one of mental attitudes.
This is why I am personally convinced that the next decade will witness a major change in the Japanese vision of the Third World were it only because the totality of the remaining South-East Asian countries are part of that Third World- not to speak of China which considers itself as belonging to the "South" and even organized in Beijing, in 1983, the first South-South conference.
The "NNR" will necessarily imply a reexamination of the criteria of self-evaluation in function of external changes. Those changes are in the making and the sooner they are anticipated the better off will we all be.
There is no doubt that the "Nihonjin-Ron", in spite of some shortcomings such as the encouragement of introversion, has played a positive role in Japanese development. It may even make a greater contribution in the years to come if the Japanese are able to make the necessary adjustments to integrate the future in the "Nihonjin-Ron" as they have already successfully done in other fields such as technology.
In the final analysis, the most positive aspect of the "Nihonjin-Rom" is that it is a permanent process of questioning whereby nothing is ever taken for granted. This is why it is both a source of pride and modesty simultaneously as well as an excellent antidote against arrogance.
The "Nihonjin-Ron" is one of the by-products of the Meiji Revolution and of the opening of Japan on the World. That world however was essentially the Western World. The "New Nihonjin-Ron" will also result from another opening on the world but this time it will be the whole World.
* This text was published in the Yomiuri Daily
(English) and in the Yomiuri Shimbun (Japanese) during the
first week of October 1985 as well as in a book (Japanese)
containing the proceedings of the Colloquium (Tokyo, 1986).
© 
Genève 1996. Webeditor