It’s good to see you posting on this topic, I have to book mark this website. Keep up the good work.

thanks, by the way, Studio Ghibli's next film will be on screen next spring!
it's name is "借りぐらしのアリエッティ(karigurashi no arietty)", an adaptation of Mary Norton's "the Borrowers".

i can't wait!

my take on the spreading of (popular) civilization as a positive force in that it’s only positive if it’s two-way. If one civilisation just subsumes another, then something has been lost, whereas if both cultures can take and benefit from each other, then the relationship is not only reciprocally positive but interactive. So, for instance, Japan’s multiethnic interaction with the West (pre- and post-war) has been two-way to a moderate extent: Japan has not just followed Western technologies and customs (e.g. garments, school systems), it’s kept on its own to a reasonable grade and has actually developed on Western technologies, while Western countries have absorbed constituents of Japanese civilization into their own in turn. Other, less well-off countries and peoples have to some degree wasted their separate culture to Westernization, without very much if any of aforesaid culture going into that of the West (this is in all likelihood true for sections of Africa, for example).

ummmmm..... really interesting!

Japanese are really good at a spirit of unity...because we have lived in unique society.
This, far east island has been closed for more than 200 years.

I believe that we can find some clue to solve today's problem in the world...