Superhuman Japan: knowledge, nation and culture in US-Japan relations

In: Routledge contemporary Japan series, 40

Abstract

This book examines the imaginative narratives that shaped the attitudes of Americans (and others) toward Japan. Focusing on cultural aspects of economic nationalism and US-Japan relations during the trade war Marie Thorsten uses examples from public discourse, film, documentaries, novels, acts of racism and comparison of international education assessments to examine the way in which Japan has been constituted in a global political gaze as an economic hegemon. In times of heightened rivalry, we often try to find superior ""others"" so that we can motivate ourselves against an imagine.