important. According to his theory, the oldest unit in human history is the "race" - a culturally united community. On the other hand, socialism, capitalism and liberalism are only about 100 years old. The number of cultures or races depends on how each are reckoned, but he estimates approximately 3,000 cultures exist. A different ethnic group supposedly organizes each of today's politically unified societies. That is to say a nation is maintained by a group of people sharing the same culture. If one race, in a self-determined manner, wants to be politically independent, there are no grounds for refuting it. This may possibly lead to an increase in the number of nations up to 3,000, similar to the growth from 50 to 190 since the war. It seems to me that such diversification of culture or of the world is achieved as if it had been desired.
Technically, we have been able to see the earth as a whole since the 1960s in terms of vision, viewpoint and standpoint.
Watching it from space in 1961, Gagarin expressed his impression: "The earth is blue." Since then, several Japanese astronauts, such as Mr. Mamoru Mohri and Ms. Chiaki Mukai, have experienced space travel. Now we can see the earth objectively from space. This is globalization, or I should say global viewing. Incidentally, what is the earth?
It's the very place we are living. It's a planet full of circulating blue water. The sea covers seventy percent of the earth's surface, with five continents, such as America, Eurasia and Australia, occupying the rest. These continents are basically huge islands. Global viewing has enabled us, for the first time, to acknowledge that we live in a connection of islands. In the time of Marco Polo, people used to believe that water of the Noachian deluge might or must be falling down from the edge of the earth. But now is the age when we can see the earth as it is from a global viewpoint.
Now, where should Japan start, or what role should Japanese culture play in the world? In addition to learning from our heritage, which I suggested before, we should pay attention to this fact: having modeled itself after Maritime Asia for modernization, Japan adopted a culture which was regarded as ideal by Europeans. It is not surprising that Asia, including Japan, went after the west. As a matter of fact, however, it is not widely known that Japanese culture influenced by other Asian countries, was admired by the West. When Japan put an end to its isolationism, things Japanese, such as garden cities mentioned before, woodblock prints and ukiyoe, were introduced to France, Germany and England. In those days, impressionism was prospering in France. One of the impressionists, Claude Monet, produced a garden by planting flowers, making a pond of lotuses and building a bridge over it. Where on earth did he get such an idea of gardening? It was the image 0f the Japanese garden that he longed to reproduce. As proof of it, the bridge was arched, which is a characteristic of Japanese bridges. He painted pictures for the sake of earning more money for gardening and flower planting. Furthermore, he made many prints of his ideal garden and displayed them in his house. We have such an aesthetic sense in our culture, but unfortunately we are unaware of it.
The world is now facing two problems that European-style globalization has brought about; one is a large gap between the rich and the poor, and the other is the destruction of the natural environment in accordance with frontier reclamation.
Socialism, aiming to reduce the gap, has collapsed. As for the destruction of the natural environment, recycling has never been seriously taken in the world except by one country - Japan. Therefore, if we repeat our past custom, we can probably restore Japan from a global point of view.
Let me explain it in simpler terms. Japan stretches from Hokkaido, a sub-arctic region in the north, to Okinawa, a subtropical region, in the south. In short, the country of small islands seems to be a miniature of the earth; it is blessed with an environment in which arctic and tropical nature coexist. Utilizing this variety of nature, or gardening in other words, will enable us to make Japan a country with a different city view from cold places to the warm. Since Japan consists of 6,800 islands, it can be called "The Garden Islands". "The Garden Islands" lie in the far north of the world's most island-concentrated area which extends down to the Philippines, Indonesia and even Australia in the south. If the Japanese realize that the earth is a network of such islands and succeeds in making their islands the most beautiful, Japan will surely be admired by other nations. Out of the 3,000 cultures mentioned before, some are "attracters" and others are "attractees". I think it appropriate to consider the former category as "civilizations". The definition of civilization depends on the person, while that of culture cal be scholarly fixed as a lifestyle. On that account, "attracters", such as the Pax-Britannica accomplished by the British Empire of the Anglo-Saxon, deserve to be called civilizations.
From this point of view, I think Japan, in preparation for the 21st century, is facing an issue whether or not its culture can be an "attracter". Looking back on Japanese history, I believe there is a good chance for Japanese culture to become a
