Summary:

Olavi K. Fält, Does foreign have a border? Finnishness and Japaneseness under the pressure of globalization in Finland in the 1990s

This presentation examines the image of Japan in Finland in the 1990s specifically from the viewpoint of whether the foreign culture was any longer truly foreign in the increasingly globalized world. The question is examined by analyzing features of the image that can be interpreted as factors which unite the Finnish and Japanese cultural identities. Globalization is understood to mean a continuous increase in worldwide mutual dependence and community. Articles about Japan which appeared in 1994 and 1998 in Aamulehti, the independent nationally significant Tampere newspaper that was known as an organ of the Coalition Party until 1992, are used as source material. The material is comprehensively comprised of articles ranging from editorials to news.

As a result of globalization, toward the end of the decade the image of Japan and Japaneseness had gotten so many elements from Western culture that in conjunction with Finland it was even possible to speak of a similarity in which the borders had become fragmented, different parts of which had migrated to locations that seemed arbitrary. For this reason the feelings of foreignness and unity traveled hand in hand, so much so that in places it was already difficult to differentiate between them. It was so foreign, yet at the same time so familiar.

Thus, the image of Japan conveyed by Aamulehti reflected the significant impact of globalization. Most important is to observe how Finnishness and Japaneseness were even more closely linked to each other. The positive images that reflected the similarity of the foreign culture also reinforced the identity of the culture considered to be Finnish, so as a result of globalization cultural foreignness had become even more a part of the culture considered as one’s own. According to the definition of globalization, mutual unity and dependence had increased so much that foreignness actually could not be experienced in the image of Japan as anything other than one’s own foreignness.