The Japanese juxtaposition

Abstract

Taking its starting point from the distinction between axial and non-axial civilization, the article focuses on the peculiar aspects of the Japanese process of modernization, which has its roots in a historical experience in which the notions of hybridity and crossing were unsuitable. In fact, what we see in Japan is not the encounter and mixture of different and heterogeneous aspects, although there is hardly anything original or pure in it. There is a sort of Japanese uniqueness, that cannot be found in a specific content, but in a general attitude that consists of a sort of deconstruction of any type of content. This process enables one thing to be put next to another without leading to conflict, even if originally the two may have been antithetical. Therefore, juxtaposition is the notion that best explains the type of procedure employed by the Japanese when they deal with something that does not come from their culture.