The Dignity of the Nation
The Dignity of a State (国家の品格 Kokka no Hinkaku) (ISBN 4106101416) (also translated The Dignity of a Nation, The Dignity of Nations) is a book by the famous Japanese essayist and mathematician Masahiko Fujiwara. Since its publication in November 2005, sales of the bestselling book have exceeded two million copies in Japan. It was based on a 2005 lecture The Future of Japan and the Future of the Japanese People.[1] A bilingual version (ISBN 4896845684) translated by Giles Murray was published in Japan in May 2007 by IBC Publishing under the English title The Dignity of the Nation.
The book criticizes the emphasis on Western logic in Japanese society and calls for a return to what is described as ancient Japanese virtues. Masahiko Fujiwara stands against globalism and claims that it is a method employed by the United States to attain world domination in our post-Cold War setting. Other disputes are directed against the market economy, which Fujiwara claims is widening the economic gap between the wealthy and impoverished in Japan and that this economic system has been slowly eroding the supposed egalitarianism in postwar Japan.
Fujiwara states that Japan is "the only civilization of emotion and shape" in the world. He claims that the Japanese meaning of nationhood has been lost amidst the forces of Americanization and internationalization. Social ruin has been brought upon by the notions of "reform", "logic", and "rationality". The book touches on topics that range from national language and democracy to the samurai spirit.