The process of modernisation and industrialisation, along with the import of external ideas that swept through Japan after its opening in the 1860s, substantially changed the face of the country. Yet many of the themes, beliefs, ideas and modes of behaviour that developed and controlled life over the hundreds of years before then continue to be of relevance. This ongoing presence of centuries-old ways of thinking, behaving and going about everyday life, like a web of tentacles reaching into everyone’s lives, is an integral part of life in Japan. The two streams, the new superimposed on the … [Read more...]