ABSTRACT
To say that the Japanese are romantic-imaginative, sentimental, individualistic, passionate!-might earn one strange glances in much of the world. The Japanese word roman (from the English "romance") symbolizes the emotional, the grand, the epic; the taste of heroism, fantastic adventure, and the melancholy; passionate love, personal struggle, and eternal longing. Yet many Westerners see Japan as a cold, calculating land of anti ike workers, brutal efficiency, and overwhelming bureaucracy. Students are seen as oppressed slaves to their studies, pounded down like nails until their imaginations and individuality are crushed, or until they are driven to suicide. World War II gave us the image of the fierce samurai warrior in his kamikaze plane, fanatic to the point of suicide. Japanese social culture is often seen as blanketed under stifling layers of politeness and formality, characterized by endless bowing. I Finally, it is often assumed that Japan cannot produce anything original on its own-that perhaps even culture with a "romantic" flavor is simply borrowed from the West.
