ABSTRACT
Most would agree that during the course of modernization the Japanese have successfully assimilated the material culture of the West, absorbing Western science, technology, art, and education with relative ease. With some exceptions, many Western figures who appear in modern Japanese fiction belong to either the 'ugly' or the 'beautiful' category. Historical events such as the Tokugawa isolation policy and World War II have also influenced Japanese attitudes, and in present-day Japan, where there are almost 3,000 Japanese to every 'white person', the milieu is particularly conducive to fantasized images of Westerners. If authors can use Japanese unfamiliarity to create hideous monsters of Westerners, they can also use it to make foreigners into romantic dreams. A general perception that anything, human or inhuman, might go on in the mind of a large Westerner is a rich source of literature for the creation of monsters in Western form.
