Two different semiotic frameworks for viewing Japan

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, I would like to examine, within a semiotic framework, two contrasting views of the contemporary culture of Japan – which is still relatively little-known outside its own shores. First, there is the outsider’s view, according to which Japan is firmly situated in the “Far East”. This is the usual interpretant of subject-sign Japan, which is taken to refer – as its object-sign – to all that is different from the “West”: language, culture, society, manners, et cetera. In other words, this is Japan still masquerading as the “Mysterious East”. The second view of Japan is that of insiders: mostly ethnic Japanese – but with nearly 3 million residents of different ethnicities. Beginning in the mid-1800s, Japan set out to modernise itself. By the mid Meiji Period (1887), the government had adopted the slogan Datsu-A, Nyû-Ô, literally ‘Get out of Asia/embrace Europe’. As a result, in many areas (health care and longevity, income distribution, education, public safety, public and personal cleanliness, social politeness, respect for the law, architectural technology, precision manufacturing, and cuisine), Japan is in a league of its own. The object-signs of this newer Japan are all non-Asian aspects of Japanese culture. Their interpretant is the “Far West”.