Introduction

On three occasions the direction of Japanese history has been modified significantly by external influences: the first was the arrival of Buddhism, initially from Korea and then from China; the second was the first influx of western ideas in the sixteenth century; and the third, still going on, is the period of cultural exchange with the West which followed the Meiji restoration in 1868. The first and third of these are reflected in the ideas of the thinkers considered in this section.