Learning Modern Philosophy from a Different Angle: Comparing the Consistent and the Non-Consistent — Modern Philosophy Learned Through a Comparison of Japanese and Western Cultures: Neo-Japonism, Neo-Art Nouveau, and the Qi and Ether Filling the Gaps of Heart, Spirit, and Sensibility — From the Opposition of Logos and Non-Logos

Learning Modern Philosophy from a Different Angle: Comparing the Consistent and the Non-Consistent — Modern Philosophy Learned Through a Comparison of Japanese and Western Cultures: Neo-Japonism, Neo-Art Nouveau, and the Qi and Ether Filling the Gaps of Heart, Spirit, and Sensibility — From the Opposition of Logos and Non-Logos The most important aspects of learning modern philosophy are post-structuralist relativism and metacognition. These are easy to learn. The concept in modern philosophy that is likely difficult to learn is structuralism. The priority for learning this may be lower than the former, but without understanding it, one cannot expect concreteness or practicality. Relativism and metacognition are like ideals or idealism, so their catchphrases are simple. For example, taking the French Revolution, people feel they understand concepts like "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (and Patriotism)" just by hearing the words. However, implementing these requires a very high level of practical processing and a thorough knowledge of the system's limitations. To begin with, trying to realize liberty or equality involves not just a level of practical effort, but inherent contradictions and paradoxes that cause system errors. And since these contradictions and paradoxes are essential and cannot be removed, one must operate liberty and equality with that knowledge. Unfortunately, there are many people and cases where this is unknown, which tends to be a source of confusion in the world. As an activity to spread modern philosophy, I thought that understanding, accepting, and enlightening people about structuralism, which seems difficult to grasp, is the hardest but most necessary task. Another pillar is the dissemination of post-structuralist relativism, but this is easy. It is easy, but many people belong to ideological lineages that find it hard to accept. So, my mission is to have them know it even if they don't accept it, and to establish a common literacy in society as needed. This is the same as the Buddhist concepts of Emptiness (Sunyata) and the Middle Way, so it is also acceptable to propagate Buddhism not as a religion but as a philosophy. Furthermore, rigorous structuralism is best represented by modern mathematics, so this approach is also recommended for science-oriented people who like mathematical foundations. The learning approach of studying substantive structuralism in modern philosophy can be boring and repetitive. As with anything, if you want to learn something, it is definitely better to have various approaches. Even if you don't understand or feel rejection with one approach, you might learn the subject happily with another approach, or something that didn't click with other methods might click. However, it is better not only to study modern philosophy with this approach but also to view modern philosophy from many different perspectives. The contrast can be from any angle, aspect, viewpoint, or cross-section. It is good for modern philosophy to direct this attitude of being able to view and think in various ways, not only toward other subjects but also toward modern philosophy itself without exception. Therefore, here I will try to discuss the world by dividing it into "consistent things" and "non-consistent things" using modern philosophy. "Consistent" could be called "Logos-like" or "Rational," and there are many other ways to say it, but for now, I will try to explain a method of analyzing the world through modern philosophy using this perspective. Consistent Things and Non-Consistent Things "Non-consistent things" is a roundabout expression. A question might arise: "Why not just say 'contradictory things'?" That might be fine, but then it would feel like the world is closed within the category of "contradiction." By saying "non-consistent things," we can include contradictory things as well as various other unknown things that have nothing to do with contradiction or consistency. This is a world that does not easily accept the Law of Excluded Middle. For example, India in the time of the Buddha was what Jaspers called the Axial Age, where various thoughts bloomed in profusion, just like in Ancient Greece or China during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. In India, too, there were the Hundred Schools of Thought and the Contention of a Hundred Schools, so various thoughts appeared. In that era, or in the era of Sectarian Buddhism after Buddhism split fundamentally and into branches, expressions like "neither-nor" or "double negation" appeared frequently. However, they can be evaluated in that they were conscious of and familiar with the characteristic of simplification by the Law of Excluded Middle. If the expressions "consistent things" and "non-consistent things" are unfamiliar or sound harsh, I will also use expressions like "Logos-like things" and "Non-Logos-like things (Rhetorical things)" in parallel. The Malady of Western Modernity: "Losing the Heart" When thinking about what Western modernity is or what modernization is, it might be good to look at societies in the process of modernization. Since we should use first-class materials, let's take Dostoevsky, a candidate for the world's greatest literature, and his literary works as examples. Dostoevsky's novels can be described in a word as the conflict between the modern and the non-modern. To understand this area, just reading Dostoevsky's novels directly is insufficient, so it is good to read commentaries on Dostoevsky's novels (for example, "Solving the Mystery of Crime and Punishment" or "Solving the Mystery of The Brothers Karamazov") published by various people. Bakhtin's theories on carnival and polyphony are also famous. In Dostoevsky's novels, people obsessed with ideologies appear. It could be Raskolnikov in "Crime and Punishment," Stavrogin in "Demons," Ivan in "The Brothers Karamazov," or even Prince Myshkin in "The Idiot." It is a theme of the modern era that humans stained by a certain kind of ideology become inhuman. Even now, there are politicians, critics, and commentators whose facial expressions have changed from before. They probably have various circumstances, but some may be people who have been possessed by ideology and lost their humanity, or something like a soft "heart." You often see people about whom you feel, "They weren't like this when they were young or before." I think there are some close to you as well. Difference between Japan and the Western Sphere as Civilization and Culture If we express the difference between Japanese culture and Western culture in one word, it is the difference between: "A culture that pushes the heart vs. A culture that suppresses the heart." Of course, it cannot be easily divided, nor should it be. Japanese culture has TPOs (Time, Place, Occasion) where the heart is suppressed, and Western culture has TPOs where the heart is pushed. But roughly speaking, these tendencies exist in the substratum. Japanese people do it somewhat unconsciously, so they are somewhat natural; Western culture does it consciously, so it is somewhat artificial. Japan is a culture that accepts and follows what is felt at the moment and the emotions that well up. Western culture is a culture where the consciousness and principles prohibiting that are always working at the base. If we simplify and create an image, the result is that the inner self of Japanese people is in a state filled with what they felt and emotions that welled up. On the other hand, in Western culture, even if one senses something or an emotion wells up, if it touches a prohibited matter, it becomes a culture of suppressing, silencing, or pretending it doesn't exist. This may not be at the level of OS or BIOS, but at the level of electronic circuit design, or possibly even at the hardware level. Assuming Japanese people have been isolated from the outside world on an island nation for about 2,000 years and have undergone genetic mutations and natural selection in a unique environment, there might be differences from the outside world at the brain level, or at the DNA level governing ontogeny of brain morphology, although perhaps not as much as between Neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens. Looking at animal domestication, domestication experiments, or selective breeding of living things, we know that changes appear in a relatively short period. Someone once stated an observation that in the past, children between white and black people left descendants, but children between white and Japanese people, or black and Japanese people, did not continue their lineage. Since this was a personal observation from decades ago, it might be different now. There Were Various Issues, and the Era When Japanese and Westerners Couldn't Blend Was Long Perhaps from after the Meiji Restoration until the 2020s, compared to the present in 2025, older Japanese people somewhat felt incompatible with people from the Western cultural sphere. Understanding and empathy might have deepened or spread at the grassroots level, but in terms of being widely realized socially or visualized, it was still lacking. However, from around after COVID, it seems that the acceptance of Japanese culture by the Western cultural sphere has exploded, even from the perspective of us dull older generations. At least for Japanese people born around the 1970s, many likely felt that Japan and Japanese people were solitary and unique in the world, and that it was difficult to understand outsiders or foreigners. Of course, there has never been a lack of interaction between both worlds. From the perspective of Western society's demand for Japan, there was Japonism and Art Nouveau at the end of the 19th century, the post-war Zen boom, the export of Japanese products during the Cold War, the export of Japanese anime, the export of games, and the export of otaku culture and underground internet culture. Looking at it that way, Japan has been exporting various things, but the current Japan boom is larger in scale than in the past, and as the biggest difference, the barriers of mentality seem to have lowered significantly. Japan has historically been treated separately and has been solitary, for better or worse: praised by missionaries, subject to the Yellow Peril, discriminated against, subject to theories of Japanese uniqueness, theories of Japan as Galapagos, or theories that Japan is the 8th civilization. However, recently, it seems that the world is actively understanding Japan. Why Is Acceptance Possible Even Though the Basic Design Philosophy Is Different? I emphasized earlier that the OS or DNA is different between the Western cultural sphere and Japan. Setting that aside, since there are also differences due to acquired cultural factors, the concept of Western Logocentrism, which was directly popular in modern thought, is helpful as a reference. Logos is "Logic" in English, but in other words, it can be called Symbol (Language) Centrism, or Ideology Centrism. Since it means logic, it seems to aim for truth/falsehood, correctness, or justice. However, recent logic does not necessarily deal only with truth/falsehood or non-contradiction, and strictly speaking, rigorous logic of truth/falsehood in the modern sense of symbolic logic has only existed for about 100 years. Moreover, except for experts, almost no one can use it. This means that in any era, the world is remarkably illogical; the world functions without the logic of truth/falsehood, non-contradiction, consistency, or coherence (though if one considers the Lost 30 Years or mass starvation in the communist bloc as problems, one could say it is hardly functioning well). If the Japanese heart is filled with fluffy things like momentary flashes, sensory sensibilities, welling emotions, and affects, the heart of a person in Western culture has ideologies like God and articles scattered about, and the gaps are a vacuum. It becomes a vacuum because internal and external systems are working to prohibit emotions such as empathy or a sense of presence toward objects other than thinking of the One God. This includes the prohibition of idolatry, the rule not to recognize gods other than the One God (one must not feel holiness or sanctity), and the idea that since God is the Creator and other things are creations, one must not hold special feelings toward creations. Besides religion, there used to be, and perhaps still is, a way of explaining this through the psychology of pastoralism and nomads. It is a prohibition against empathizing with livestock. Unlike pets, livestock are killed, sold, eaten, and parts of their corpses are used in daily life. If one did the same thing with pets or humans, it would be quite problematic in modern society, and even in the past when humanitarianism was thinner than today. One may pray to God, but imaging Him is metaphysical; even if done in the head, it is merely abstract representation or conceptualization—in short, mere imagination. It is disrespectful to think that oneself who thought or prayed approaches something holy just because one prayed to God or thought about God. God must be absolute and transcendent, and everything else, including oneself and humans, is just things and clods of earth. This distinction is an absolute rule. Otherwise, it violates the oneness and divinity of the One God. If one does this constantly in one's head or in society, the mind becomes materialistic. Setting aside thinking about God, one becomes a materialist regarding other things. Marx, whose grandfather was a Jewish rabbi but whose family converted around his father's generation during the history of modern Jewish liberation from the ghetto and assimilation into modernity, was not only materialistic, but fundamentalist Biblicalism also becomes materialistic. Sometimes, there is a hypothesis that even God is Deistic—a creator of the system but does not interfere with humans, leaving it to the system. There are likely many Westerners who, even if they are atheistic or indifferent to God, tentatively believe in God through Deistic thinking. Even without Marx bringing up materialism, Judaism and Protestantism are fundamentally materialistic. On the other hand, Catholicism allows idolatry and may have parts closer to Japanese people within the Biblical cultural sphere. Therefore, when Christians after the Reformation or Jews released from the ghetto after the civil revolutions have influence, they become very contrasting, or depending on the view, opposing to Japanese people. Western Culture Is Materialistic and Simultaneously Ideological Let's define logicized ideas as ideology. It is not necessarily verbalized or symbolized, nor is it strictly made into binary logic of truth and falsehood, but let's define ideology as a coherent set of ways of thinking created with that orientation. Defining it this way, ideology represents the content and type of Logos. There are various ideologies in the world. If ideology is Logos, it somewhat orients toward non-contradiction. It can be said that ideology forms the hard part of what we call humanity or sociality. Our world is constructed by various ideologies. Politics, law, institutions, religion, ethics, morality, science, technology, industry, art, fine arts, music, literature—anything is fine, but they often have suffixes like -system, -ism, -law, -rule, -teaching, -theory, or -logic. There may be opinions that literature and fine arts are not ideologies or Logos. This is because such things do not necessarily orient toward non-contradiction. If ideology orients toward non-contradiction and is a "consistent thing," then these might be called "non-consistent things." Researching non-consistent things is very difficult. Consistent things can use powerful tools like logic and mathematical foundations. Recently, there seems to be logic that deals with contradictory things. To list a few quickly: paraconsistent logic, dialetheism, relevance logic, many-valued logic, non-monotonic logic, paracomplete logic, knowledge-based extensions, fuzzy logic, etc. Science-oriented people and thinking are indeed amazing, but they deal with thinking that handles truth/falsehood or correctness, not sensibility, emotion, or volition. In that sense, thinking, and the consistent things it deals with, are easy to handle. Well, emotions and volition may have contradictions or conflicts, but let's put that aside. Here, we treat those things not as consistent things but as non-consistent things. The World Tends to Be Constituted with Non-Contradictory Things as Protagonists Both the human mind and the world tend to be constituted with non-contradictory things, or things orienting toward non-contradiction, as protagonists. Is it because they are close to truth and justice? The Bible also adopted Greek thought, and with the opening phrase of the Gospel of Luke, "In the beginning was the Word," it boldly declared, "God is Logos." This must feel very strange to Japanese people. Western civilization, which has the Bible and Classical Greece as its OS, tries to constitute or analyze the world with Logos. Since individual Logos is ideology, Logocentrism is also Ideology-centrism. Logos values consistency, coherence, and non-contradiction, so ideology is also something hard. It is truth, justice, and authority. Therefore, in Rabbinic Judaism, Biblical scholars like the Pharisees were powerful, and when Jesus spoke like "one having authority," he was bashed. This Logocentrism (Ideology-centrism) and Materialism are one feature of the Western cultural sphere seen from Japanese eyes. Why Heresy Became Mainstream in Japan I wrote that Western civilization has materialism and ideology-centrism in its framework, but of course, that is not all. There are also non-materialistic and non-ideological elements. In any case, both people and the human world consist of both consistent things and non-consistent things. Non-consistent things include contradictory things and various miscellaneous things that should not be viewed from the perspective of contradiction in the first place. There are scenes where fine arts, literature, and entertainment become protagonists, but the hard adult society is designed with ideology as its framework. Well, humans are not so clean or perfect, and being worldly-wise, there are various dirty parts and corruption, but those adult parts might be hard, yet perhaps we can put them into non-consistent things. It is a convenient trick when dividing into two cases: treating "things that are not X" collectively as a jumbled junk box. By the way, just because it is words does not mean Logos ≈ Logic. There is also something called Rhetoric (Rhetorike). Translated as the art of persuasion, oratory, or sophistry, it is the usage of words that does not question the means to guide the opponent to the objective, regardless of the truth or correctness of the content. This is also constructed with words. And words and symbols do not only deal with logic and rhetoric. For example, in grammar, there is Mood. For example, indicative mood, imperative mood, indirect mood (subjunctive, conjunctive), etc. Logic is described in declarative sentences of the indicative mood. Rhetoric might use all of them. However, words and symbols do not only deal with logic and rhetoric. They deal with dirty jokes, jokes, shouts, exclamations, groans, screams, babbling, and indescribably many other things. Among such things, there may be consistent things and non-consistent things, but there are many ways to use words and symbols that do not deal with logic or rhetoric. This means that the set of words includes not only Logos and Rhetoric but also various other things. Logos includes that meaning, but it is often expressed in words. It is called Écriture for written language and Discours for spoken language. Écriture and Discours include non-Logos things, so they do not overlap clearly. Words are symbols and signs. Recently, emojis have been codified just like characters. In the case of the alphabet, it used to be called ASCII code, but now it feels like emoji codes have been newly added to character codes. In that sense, Derrida calls it semiology or critique of metaphysics, Barthes calls it text theory, and Foucault calls it archaeology of knowledge or genealogy. Here, I will discuss symbols and language by roughly cutting them into consistent things and non-consistent things. Discourse and Others; Within Discourse, Ideology and Others Inside the human head, there are discursive things and other things. Lacan called discursive things the Symbolic. It is impossible that there are only words inside the human head. There are representations (images), sensory and sensible things, emotional things, volitional and desiderative things, and various things other than discourse. Also, within discourse, there are types of Logos like ideology, there is rhetoric, dirty jokes, jokes, shouts, exclamations, groans, screams, babbling—anything is fine, but symbols and words express various things. Among them, the protagonist in people and society is ideology, which we take as the representative of consistent things. And we lump together words other than ideology and things that form the spirit but are not words as non-consistent things, collecting all other miscellaneous things other than consistent things. Then, after all, the protagonist in people and the human world has long been ideology, and other miscellaneous things were supporting roles. However, in Japan, or even in the West, the ideology carried by authority and power reverses with the "others." There are cases where the miscellaneous things called "others" become the protagonist and ideology becomes the supporting role. Or rather, that becomes the dominant way of thinking in certain scenes in Japan. A characteristic of Japan is that Western heresy has become orthodoxy; for example, the core of Western thought, which is not to empathize with or project onto objects, is rather prioritized in Japan—projection onto objects, empathy, putting one's heart into things, and feeling are considered primary, whether in Japanese pathos, logos, or mute silence. This seems to be attracting attention worldwide recently. The worldview we feel is "Japanese" might be made up of "Signs/Presence (Non-Logos)" filling the gaps of Western "Construction (Logos)," or sometimes things that are Logos-like but considered absurd or heretical by the political orthodoxy of society. Roughly speaking, the world can be divided into "Logos-like things" and "Non-Logos-like things." Logos-like things are things that have names, have outlines, and are called "-ism," "-law," "-theory," or "-logic," such as laws, institutions, religious doctrines, scientific theories, and ideologies. They have various forms, but in a word, they can be said to have the suffix Logos (-logy). On the other hand, what fills the space between them is Non-Logos-like things. Things that have been called atmosphere, Ether, Tao (Way), Void, Mood, Field, etc. They are like a medium that fills, permeates, and occupies the "gaps" of Logos. Gestalt's Rubin's Vase consists of the schema: Figure = Logos (Institutions, Theories) Ground = Non-Logos (Field, Atmosphere) The successors of Biblical culture + Ancient Greek culture and Japan form a contrast: Visible things = Logos-like = Figure = West Invisible things = Non-Logos-like = Ground = Japan To give just two concrete examples: Example 1: Law/Contract vs. Atmosphere/Tacit Understanding Example 2: Logical Argument vs. "Field" created by Sentence-final particles, Onomatopoeia, Honorifics Logos-like Things and Non-Logos-like Things Filling the Gaps The world is divided into two. Logos-like things and Non-Logos-like things. Logos-like things have form, so they are easy to understand and stand out. The West, in the lineage of "Bible + Greek Philosophy," has thoroughly polished Logos = Figure. Theological systems, legal philosophy, modern science, contract theory... all are activities of "giving firm outlines with words." On the other hand, Japan can be said to be a cultural sphere that has thickly nurtured the side of "Non-Logos = Ground." "Atmosphere" rather than clear assertion, "Atmosphere of the place" rather than logic, "Breathing in unison (A-Un no Kokyu)" rather than contracts. Typical examples are sentence-final particles, onomatopoeia, and honorifics. These things, in terms of linguistic classification, include various things; for example, honorifics themselves include voice (active, passive, middle) and mood (direct, indirect (subjunctive, conjunctive), imperative), so if there are honorifics, one can omit the subject, the object of the subject, the speaker, the interlocutor, and the atmosphere of the place (by the way, in recent Japanese grammar in compulsory education, it is divided into respectful language, humble language, polite language, courteous language, and beautification language. Older generations might have read reference books explaining courteous language and beautification language as respectful-style honorifics). Sentence-final particles "ne, yo, sa, kana" adjust the temperature and distance of the place, not the information itself. Onomatopoeia expresses the fineness of the sensation filling the gaps of Logos, like "kachi (click)," "fuwatto (fluffy)," or "jinwari (gradually warm)." Honorifics are a device that launches a field of relationship regarding "who is treating whom and how," even if the subject or object is omitted. Seen this way, it can be said that the Japanese language and culture have long been handling the side of the "Ground" surrounding the Logos-like Figure—the Non-Logos layer—meticulously. Non-Logos-like things could be called atmosphere, Ether, Tao (Way), or Void in between. Like those, they are a medium filling the gaps, permeating and filling places where there is no Logos. In that sense, let's look at the world dualistically, or binarily, as a dualism without a vacuum. Dividing into two is the extreme of simplification, so it is easy to understand. The world is made of conspicuous things and things filling the space between conspicuous things, but since the things filling the space are full, they are conversely hard to be conscious of. However, a shift in viewpoint is possible. Like Rubin's Vase in Gestalt psychology, if you get used to it or train, you can invert Figure and Ground. Successors of Biblical Culture + Ancient Greek Culture and Japan There are cultures that ran wild with visible things, conspicuous things, Logos-like things, and things like the Figure in Gestalt psychology. This is Western thought rooted in Biblical culture + Ancient Greek culture. On the other hand, there are cultural spheres that continued to emphasize invisible things, inconspicuous things, Non-Logos-like things, and things like the Ground in Gestalt psychology. Roughly speaking, these are parts that can be called characteristics of Japan. Western thought is like the protagonist; it stands out and is recognized, so it is given proper names. Japanese culture is expressed by attaching negative words like "others in general" or "non-~," but there is no need to think badly just because negative prefixes or "non-" are attached to words. Rather, it can take all the rest. Also, this way of dividing is convenient in mathematical case analysis. Therefore, there is no need to have a bad image of "Non-~" or "Not ~." If you invert Figure and Ground like Rubin's Vase in Gestalt psychology and make this side the protagonist and that side the mob, you can acquire a completely different worldview. "From Periphery to Orthodoxy": This is like Christianity, which made the Ancient Roman Emperor sigh, "O Galilean, thou hast conquered," and in Japan, the largest sect of Buddhism is Pure Land Buddhism, which can be said to be a heresy from traditional orthodox Buddhism. This finances time; from the periphery called the past to the present, and in the future, it increases explosively in a compound, exponential manner. Is the World Beginning to Accept Japan? There are various ways to think about why the Japan boom is happening. However, one cause is likely that the inside of Japanese people's heads and the inside of people's heads in the Western cultural sphere have come much closer. As for what is happening, there are various analyses, but here I will try one explanation based on the context of this text. The inside of a Japanese person's head is filled with "heart." In this case, "heart" is not limited to empathy for humans but is a sensation felt toward non-human, non-biological things, sometimes not only objects but concepts, or emotional things welling up from the heart. Such things are often neither Logos, words, nor ideology. They are often not consistent things but rather non-consistent things, and many other miscellaneous things. Far from being non-contradictory, they do not even require consistency, coherence, invariance, singularity, uniqueness, identity, or homeostasis. They are not protagonists but things like air, environment, background, or field. In Quantum Field Theory, which is relatively advanced physics, the Field is omnipresent and is like a matrix from which elementary particles arise, like Ether filling spacetime universally. Seen from the Field, elementary particles are things that generate and annihilate from it or interact with other types of fields and elementary particles; if omnipresent things like the Field appear as background, then elementary particles are exactly the protagonists. In this case, elementary particles are ideologies, and the Field is other miscellaneous Non-Consistent things; far from standing out, their existence might not even be noticed, just as air, water, and safety are free and their existence is not consciously recognized. Economically speaking, far from having "scarcity," they exist infinitely. Infinity and Zero do not become protagonists but become somewhat special characters like scenery or singularities. Hasn't the Western cultural sphere stopped denying this Field, or Heart, that Japanese people cherished? As I wrote earlier, in pure Biblicalism of the Western cultural sphere or ways of thinking that inherited parts of the Ancient Greek tradition, it was a world of Materialism where putting one's heart into anything other than God was not allowed. I don't think such things have disappeared from the Western cultural sphere, and since it was a tradition that lasted for about 1,000 years, it won't disappear immediately. However, it can be said to be a tradition of only about 1,000 years, and pre-Christian Europe might have been a society that retained an ancient layer of culture with high affinity to current Japan. Regarding the relative view of Christianity, haven't people with a background in Western thought culture become able to view themselves relatively through novels like "Sophie's World," which became a global bestseller decades ago, and various other historical and transitional assumptions? On the other hand, Japan originally has ideological things too. Or rather, if there is a human group or society that is human, has culture, and has language, no matter how small, isn't it impossible for it not to have ideological things? It is the bone and acts like a skeleton. In this case, it is interesting that Western civilization is accepting Japanese culture not just as exoticism but with empathy. However, perhaps many on the Japanese side have also understood or acquired quite materialistic ways of thinking, respect for monotheistic things, and the exclusion rules of heart, or sensibility and emotion. During the post-war high economic growth period (or perhaps even before that, depending on the view), there was an aspect of converting Japanese-ness into money, and even in the subsequent Lost 30 Years, under the American unipolar hegemony, Neo-liberalism and Globalism (some call it International Financial Capitalism) were powerful. Those who survived and succeeded were often people in finance, consulting, ventures, startups, and management who had somewhat psychopathic traits capable of separating heart from thought/action. So, the old-fashioned Japanese heart and tradition have weakened considerably, and Japanese expressions and the mentality of Western people accepting them may have become closer. Also, as another aspect, the demand for Japan might be seen as the expansion of "Otaku culture," or a deep, bottomless swamp-like passion transcending monetary rationality, to general people, so it might be riding the wave of conservative reaction against Globalism and Neo-liberalism.