Japan's image has experienced numerous transmutations. The book covers the metamorphosis from Japan's image of a feudal, exotic and romantic land inhabited by Madam Butterflies, to its sudden emergence as a geopolitical power following its defeat of Russia in 1905. More was to come. In the 1930s and 40s the image of the kamikaze vividly illustrated the fanaticism and barbarity associated with Japan in World War II. With the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Japan rejoined the international community as a friend and ally of the US. The next transmutation came in the 1980s when the Japanese economy appeared to be functioning on anabolic steroids and its continued ascent to take over the US was predicted. "Japanese management" became more than a science, almost a religion, among business schools and consultancies. Today there are two images: one is conveyed through manga, karaoke and the global fashion for sushi; the other is of an economically and demographically declining nation. Will this image correspond to Japan's swan song or are there more transmutations on the way? One constant in Japanese history and the image it has projected has been the country's constant ability to surprise.

Just as a person contrives a style, the purpose of which is integration and the effect of which is presentation, so a nation collectively projects an appearance, a "national" style. Such styles are made of many layers. The deepest layer is composed of the immutable and the traditional. Nearer the surface floats fashion, changeable but sometimes more abiding. And frothing on the surface is fad. By definition a fad is novel and appears from outside. Fads must have instant appeal and do not have a long shelf life. In Japan, an assortment of islands, the outside is often the quality that defines the inside. Japan has a history of chasing fads and fashion. Since the 19th century, foreign products have been welcomed in, from the cult for "squeaky shoes" in the mid-19th century to the current fad for virtual reality girlfriends. Japan s mandate was that, having been opened late, it had to hurry to catch up. Fads provide both a social distraction and a sense of cohesion, indicating not only foreign importation but also native adaptation. The Image Factory is both an investigation into fads, fashions and style such as US Army surplus uniforms, "pachinko," mutating hair colors and an appreciation of their inherent meanings. The Japanese have seized upon fads and fashion as an arm of enterprise to a much greater extent than elsewhere in the world. Ephemerality has been put to work, the transient has become industrialized, and the results are highly conspicuous."

Japan has been a popular topic for at least the last three decades. The Japanese Economical Miracle awoke a real boom in the Western literature at the end of 1970s, and in the 1980s. The Japanese Miracle became a fashionable topic in the Western world. A great amount of of studies, books and articles was available for those who wanted to learn about the Japanese Miracle. The aim of this book is to examine "images of Japan and the Japanese in the Western world" on the basis of the popular literature targeted at Western audience during the big boom. The material analyzed in this book can be divided into two categories: travel and business. What kind of images were created on the basis of the literature of the business world, tourism and etiquette & communication? This book shows the timeless image of the Japanese: they are a people with great contradictions; they are different, unique and they have an ability to combine the new and the old in a great harmony. However this book tells also much more about the image of Japan and the Japanese. There is always something new to learn about this nation.

Recent research in business strategy suggests that corporate reputations are a valuable strategic asset for every company. Good reputations have been shown to help firms attain and sustain superior financial performance in their industry. This book outlines how high-status companies become corporate super brands, and it present managers with a framework to proactively enhance their corporation's desired reputation. While many books concentrate on advertising or corporate identity as the primary tools for reputation enhancement, this book provides a more expansive and realistic picture of what it takes to build a corporate super brand. One of its key contributions is that it emphasizes the roles of customer value and organizational culture in the reputation-building process and exposes the limitations of corporate advertising, sponsorships, and minor corporate identity change. Drawing on more than fifteen years of academic research, executive seminars, and consulting experience, Grahame Dowling suggests ways to improve the corporate reputations that different groups of stakeholders hold of your company. He also describes how to avoid many of the traps that catch unwary managers who try to improve their company's desired reputation.

An exceptional and gritty portrait of Japan and its people by the renowned Magnum street photographer Bruce Gilden.

In 2009 I took a 2001calendar that I had bought and had been saving. It was printed in Italy on linen paper. The full color illustrations were of Japanese woodcuts created in the 1800's. I also had coffee table books I had been collecting that were full of old black and white photographs from the early 1900's. I searched through the books of photographs cutting out selected photographs and pasted them into the woodcut illustrations. I found images of buildings to include in each. In the end I saw them as snapshots people took as souvenirs, or memoirs, of their adventures. I titled each to covey this notion. Then I created a story to go with each image. I started with January, and the story grew one month at a time. I hope you enjoy my little fantasy that I have constructed with paper, paste, scissors and words.

The traditional Japanese house is universally admired for its clean lines, intricate joinery, and unparalleled woodworking. The authors of this elegant volume, Peggy Landers Rao and Len Brackett, show how a classic Japanese- style house can be built to offer the warmth and comfort that modern homeowners require. Len Brackett, rigorously trained in traditional architecture in Kyoto, has spent decades adapting the ancient Japanese design aesthetic to Western needs. He builds traditional live-on-the-floor houses, as well as versions that accommodate furniture. Both types provide the essential features expected in today's new homes - central heating, insulation, weather stripping, thermal glazing, streamlined kitchens, computerized lighting systems, and the latest electronics. The book's primary focus is on a single guesthouse in California, but pictures of other adaptations of the traditional Japanese house in America exemplify various points. Architects will find reference charts of the prescribed set of proportions and dimensions normally passed down through a strict system of apprenticeship. anticipating shrinkage of various woods. A remarkable tool used to lay out precise joints is described in detail. Various sources are given for materials, including where to find a contemporary version of the distinctive, traditional earthen plaster.

This groundbreaking book examines how the notion of “the object” was transformed in Japanese experimental art during a time of rapid social, economic, and environmental change. Reviving the legacies of the historical avant-garde, Japanese artists and intellectuals of the 1960s formulated an aesthetics of disaffection through which they sought to address the stalemate of political and aesthetic representation. Ignacio A. Adriasola Muñoz draws from psychoanalytic theories of melancholia to examine the implications of such an approach, tracing a genealogy of disaffection within modernist discourse. By examining the discursive practices of artists working across a wide range of media, and through a close analysis of artwork, philosophical debates, artist theories, and critical accounts, Adriasola Muñoz shows how negativity became an efficacious means of addressing politics as a source for the creative act of undoing. In examining ideas of the object advanced by artists and intellectuals both in writing and as part of their artwork, this book brings discussions in critical art history to bear on the study of art in Japan. It will be of interest to art historians specializing in modernism, the international avant-garde, Japanese art, and the history of photography.