Japan und die Vielfalt kultureller Programme der Moderne

Abstract

Japan is the only successful modernization of a non Axial-Civilisation. The development starting with the Meiji-restauration shows characteristics of a modernity which considerably differs from the typical form of modernity in Western European societies. Obviously there is not just one modernity but a diversity of cultural programmes of modernity, whose specific fonnation has its roots in the special conditions of the modemizing societies and the specific way they digest the moclernity affecting them.