LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Some 10 years ago, a Japanese student at an institute in Bologna where I was a visiting professor produced an essay in which he wrote "because Japan has a unique culture, it is misunderstood and discriminated against by other countries."
"If you were 75," I told him, "I would not be too alarmed, but you are 25. That you should be writing such gibberish at your age is truly alarming."
Every nation has a "unique culture," be it Belgium or Togo. Perhaps Japan's distinction, I said, is that because of its deeply held belief of having a so-called unique culture and thereby being on another planet, "it creates misunderstanding and ostracizes itself from other nations."