From: Arthur Alexander, Japan Economic Institute
This note is to alert people that ABC-TV Nightline will be airing a program on
Monday, April 15, 1996, 11:30 PM EST on research on American images of Japan.
JEI collaborated on this project for the Japanese government. The principal
investigator, Dr. Robert Deutsch (with a background in psychology and
anthropology), will describe the findings from 18 focus groups in six cities
across the country plus an analysis of 25 years of prime-time evening network
news related to Japan. Although I do not know just what shape Ted Koppel will
give to the finished program, one of the important themes that Bob Deutsch has
tried to emphasize is that U.S. views about Japan are tightly bound up with
views that Americans have about themselves and America. At the same time, some
of the constant refrains we heard do not differ substantially from what
investigators like Sheila Johnson wrote about 20 years ago.
JEI will be publishing a description of this research in May. Subscribe now to
get your copy. In my personal view, this is one of the most important research
efforts in which I have been involved in my research career; it begins to get
at
the issue of what is behind the emotionalism that affects U.S.-Japan relation
s
in a generally negative way. Perhaps the answers to this question are obvious
to
many people, but I preferred a more systematic attempt to answer the question
.