Introduction

More than a century and a half after Japonisme first swept the salons of Europe, Japan, far more so than other more populous countries of “the Orient,” still provides Western media with an endless supply of exotic and enticing images. Recent movies such as Kill Bill, The Last Samurai, Lost in Translation and Japanese Story have presented viewers with a repertoire of familiar characters – from samurai, yakuza, geisha and ninja, to the more quotidian salaryman. These movies, populated by all our favorite Japanese characters, seem so very satisfying (and credible) because they offer, as Edward Said points out, “a world elsewhere, apart from the ordinary attachments, sentiments, and values of our world in the West” (1995: 190).