Japan in a peep box: a perfect miniature world in which the past is preserved and ever unchanging. A world that presents itself to the beholder as a harmonious natural landscape of Fuji-san, gardens, temples and geisha. However, a new image appears in the peep box: one of modernity; composed of topoi as high technology, mega-cities, destruction of nature, emotional indifference, social isolation, etc. While the distortion of the well-preserved harmonious image of a traditional Japan is experienced as fracture and rupture, it also confirms and feeds a meta-stereotype: Japan is different and – in its difference – is incomprehensible for ‘the others‘. Or is it?

覗き箱の中の日本：過去が保存され、不変の完璧なミニチュア世界。しかし、その覗き箱の中には新しいイメージが現れます。それはハイテク、メガシティ、感情的無関心、社会的孤立、自殺、性的倒錯などのトポスで構成された現代性の一つです。保存状態の良い伝統的日本の調和あるイメージの歪みは、破壊や断絶として経験される一方で、メタステレオタイプを確固たるものとし、それを助長することにもなります。日本は異質であり、その異質さゆえに「他者」には理解できない。果たしてそうなのでしょうか？

 

 

 

Are we talking about ‘The Other Japan’ from a Japanese point of view, or a Western point of view? What is being portrayed abroad? And what is being portrayed in the country itself? That was the thing I was struggling with.
– Ha Ly Do

Maybe there is no such thing as the “other” Japan, maybe it’s just the “unknown” Japan that we have yet to discover…
– Arno Ceriez

To me there is no “other” Japan, there only is Japan. It’s a complex union of many layers and colours.
– Brecht van der Meulen

For me the “other” Japan is the “real” Japan, the actual people, their lives, and the Japan beyond the touristic and stereotypical views we have of the country.
– Delphine De Ronne

 

Perhaps these images emphasise that it’s not just a question of right wing vs. left wing politics… but that they rather show the spectrum of ideas about what safety, security and community means.
– Sarah Bijlsma

 

In my pictures, I hope I can awaken a bit of curiosity in the audience, for Japan and its people, and for what their stories could be.
– Delphine de Ronne