This is the eighth of a 10-part series on contemporary Japan.
Japanese people are known for their openness to the abrasive opinions of foreigners. There are not many countries that would welcome or allow, as Japan does, foreign commentators, some of them as basely misinformed as they are highly opinionated, to deride their populace for one trait or another on national television. Whether it be by virtue of deep-seated tolerance or giddy masochism -- or both -- the Japanese are wondrously open to outside judgment.
In the 1980s, I had the good fortune of being able to appear regularly on a radio program that was broadcast across the country. The host was an affable and incisive critic who made me feel very much at home. There was a single instance, however, when his hackles visibly rose and he said on the air, "I'm afraid that you are very wrong about that, Mr. Pulvers." No other statement of mine about the nature of life in Japan had hit his nationalistic nerve as had this one.