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Japan's very interesting. Some people think it copies things. I don't think that anymore. I think what they do is reinvent things. They will get something that's already been invented and study it until they thoroughly understand it. In some cases, they understand it better than the original inventor.

My observation is that after one hundred and twenty years of modernisation since the opening of the country, present-day Japan is split between two opposite poles of ambiguity.

I think that the Japanese culture is one of the very few cultures left that is its own entity. They're just so traditional and so specific in their ways. It's kind of untouched, it's not Americanized.

I speak of the old Japan, because out of the ashes of the old Japan there has risen a new Japan.

It is impossible to remain indifferent to Japanese culture. It is a different civilisation where all you have learnt must be forgotten. It is a great intellectual challenge and a gorgeous sensual experience.

I love Japan. I love the collision of the modern and ancient worlds coming together in that place. It's so high-tech and cool.

Japan is very cosmopolitan - it values its origins, but a world view hovers above this narrow perspective. The interest of the Japanese in their folk culture is transcendental.

The Japanese are great at inventing complex systems of rules, and not so great at explaining those rules to foreign visitors.

The Japanese keenly learned from Western civilisation in a bid to modernize and preserve the nation.

The Japanese people are usually very prudent, even when they are convinced change is necessary.