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Americans are somehow obsessed with her, and something about me hit a spot with people in 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'm just very obsessed with Japanese stuff in general.

People talk about Japanese kids as being inward-looking. But my experience is that if you offer them an opportunity, they'll take it.

I think I was a Japanese schoolgirl in another life. That's how much I love Hello Kitty.

I think that American people really know how to pursue fun, they really know how to have a good time. Japanese are somewhat more reserved than Americans, so I'm jealous.

I took Japanese in high school. I'm Chinese, though, and I just fell in love with the language and the culture.

The Japanese have a strong tendency to suppress their own feelings. That's the Japanese character. They kill their own emotions.

Japanese women have always loved my films, even when no one else did. Ever since I made 'Maurice' in the 1980s, I've been getting hundreds of letter from Japanese girls. They definitely have a special place in my heart.

One must learn, if one is to see the beauty in Japan, to like an extraordinarily restrained and delicate loveliness.