What we have learned in fifty years

Abstract

If you come to London where I live and work, you will encounter a lot of Japan. Not the kind of Japan represented by Mitsuis, Mitsubishis, Sumitomos, Nomuras, Toyotas or Nissans, but the Japan represented by Hokusai, Unkei, Kabuki, Edo fireworks, and even by Karaoke. If you watched BBC television programs at weekends, you would have seen the movies produced by Juzo Itami, Nagisa Oshima and Yasujiro Ozu. Or you would have heard such prominent Japanese as the late Yukio Mishima or contemporary architect Arata Isozaki speak. When the sumo wrestlers held their tournament in London early last month some 2.5 million British people watched the match on television. These are all part of the Japan Festival events which started in August and will end in February of next year. However, I may be misleading you if I say that Japanese companies are totally nonexistent in the Japan Festival events. On the contrary, it is the Japanese business community that is sponsoring the Japan Festival. Over 60 Japanese companies including Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sumitomo, Nomura etc., donated some 10 million pounds or 16 million dollars to mount the Japan Festival. Then, what is the Japan Festival? And why Japan now? Officials of the Japan Festival say that the Festival was designed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the formulation of the Japan Society of Great Britain. They also say that it is to respond to the desire of British people who want to know the deep background of economic prosperity which Japan has achieved in the last forty-plus years. This sounds quite reasonable. But anybody who knows that the year 1991 is the 50th year since 1941 instinctively understands something else. That is the desire on the part of