ABSTRACT
If pressed to define exactly what the term ‘West’ means in Japanese par-
lance, one is faced with considerable difficulty. It is a blanket term that
covers everything European and American, whereby the latter more often
than not is taken to be the pivotal representative of the ‘West’. ‘East’ comes
up almost naturally for people in the ‘West’ as the opposite term to ‘West’,
but in Japan it is, I believe, more often ‘Japan’ that functions as the opposite
term to ‘West’. While ‘West’ is a fuzzy term that does not allow one to
pinpoint either a definite geographical area or its population, ‘Japan’ offers at least the appearance of a term that applies to a clearly defined geo-
graphical area and population. I say ‘appearance’ because there can be
moments when it becomes difficult unmistakably to define the term ‘Japan’
and as a consequence also the term ‘West’. A small episode might serve to
illustrate what I am trying to say.
