It is a wide-spread notion and well-known fact that today Japan is to be counted among the countries which are industrially most advanced. In the light of our history, we have in front of us the image of Japan which is at the same time traditional and "westernized", ambivalent and ambiguous in its Western type façade and its content that is closely tied up with its history. The lack of an adequate answer on the part of Western world to the many questions about the "Japanese phenomenon" has caused, and still causes, huge, and at time irretrievable, errors of appraisal. Such errors may be a threat to the relations of the Western world with the nation with which we are dealing.
