Mari Suvanto

Images of Japan and the Japanese: the Representations of the Japanese Culture in the Popular Literature Targeted at the Western World in the 1980s - 1990s Mari Suvanto

Japan has been a popular topic for at least the last three decades. The Japanese Economical Miracle awoke a real boom in the Western literature at the end of 1970s, and in the 1980s. The Japanese Miracle became a fashionable topic in the Western world. A great amount of of studies, books and articles was available for those who wanted to learn about the Japanese Miracle. The aim of this book is to examine images of Japan and the Japanese in the Western world" on the basis of the popular literature targeted at Western audience during the big boom. The material analyzed in this book can be divided into two categories: travel and business. What kind of images were created on the basis of the literature of the business world tourism and etiquette & communication? This book shows the timeless image of the Japanese: they are a people with great contradictions; they are different unique and they have an ability to combine the new and the old in a great harmony. However this book tells also much more about the image of Japan and the Japanese. There is always something new to learn about this nation."