The aikido term ma ai, which means "space harmony" ("ai" is Chinese for "love," and it translates into Japanese as harmonious connection) refers to the optimal distance point, where you're close enough to connect well and far enough to enjoy your own space.
My parents never understood me; they were Japanese.
As an American man of the 1990s writing about a Japanese woman of the 1930s, I needed to cross three cultural divides - man to woman, American to Japanese, and present to past.
The Japanese have hit the shores like dead fish. They're just like dead fish washing up on the shores.
There is a Japanese proverb that literally goes 'Raise the sail with your stronger hand,' meaning you must go after the opportunities that arise in life that you are best equipped to do.
Japanese people have a funny habit of abbreviating names.
The greatest problem in Japanese politics over the last two decades is that we put off what needed to be done. We have to overcome that.
In a way, 'Sin City''s designed to be paced somewhere between an American comic book and Japanese manga. Working in black and white, I realized that the eye is less patient, and you have to make your point, and sometimes repeat it. Slowing things down is harder in black and white, because there isn't as much for the eye to enjoy.
The Japanese were ready to surrender, and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing.
Japanese people tend to be much better adjusted to the notion of work, any kind of work, as honorable.
Western clothes are our everyday wardrobe. But I do not think that it makes much of a difference anymore whether you are Japanese or American or European.
As the interned American citizens of Japanese descent learned, the Bill of Rights provided them with little protection when it was needed.
When a population saves a lot, the funds are invested outside the country as well as inside. If the Japanese invest in the United States, it pushes their exchange rate down and makes their manufacturing more competitive.
If we don't do it, somebody else will. The Chinese, the Europeans and the Japanese all have the goal of going to the moon. Certainly we don't want to wake up and see that they have a base there before we do.
Old Japanese saying, live scorpion in pants makes life interesting.
Japanese is sort of a hobby of mine, and I can get around Japan with ease.
I admire the abstract expressionists and pop artists so right now I'm referencing American '60s art and at the same time referencing Japanese manga culture.
When this war is over, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell!
Japanese traditional architecture is created based on these conditions. This is the reason you have a very high degree of connection between the outside and inside in architecture.
I go to Chinese Christian community. Jesus looks Chinese. I go to Japanese Christian community. Jesus looks Japanese. I go to Brazilian Christian community. Jesus looks Brazilian. How come in America Jesus looks white?