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Article: Japanophobia: The Myth of the Invincible Japanese.
- Article from:
- Reason
- Article date:
- November 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Reason Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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EVER SINCE MATTHEW PERRY'S first contact with Japan almost 150 years ago, the United States has been remarkably ambivalent toward the Land of the Rising Sun. As Japan has adapted and mastered elements of Western civilization ranging from wearing tuxedos to manufacturing high-tech consumer goods, we have been at turns flattered and fearful.
Over the past 25 years or so, as Japan emerged as the most ferocious--and ostensibly unstoppable--Asian economic tiger, Americans have been particularly edgy on commercial grounds, worded that the Japanese shred U.S. businesses like so much raw meat. James Fallows's Looking at the Sun and Bill Emmott's Japanophobia represent the ...