Abstract
Up to now, we Japanese have accepted and developed almost every kind of advanced medical treatments vigorously. On the other hand, Japanese seem to hesitate about introducing "Brain Death". The reason why we do so lies on difference of paradigms (intellectual frameworks) between the logic of Western thought and Japanese mental climate. At first, then I place modern Western medicine in the history of introducing foreign cultures in Japan. And I consider the relation between newly-developed medical treatments and introduced Western medicine that has been accepted as a practical study, a technique or a kind of natural science in Japan. Next, I refer to the <village community> consciousness that has been formed and succeeded within village communities existing in almost every period and place in Japan. And I would like to summarize the relation between a Japanese paradigm, a Japanese view of human being that are shown by the <village community> consciousness, and logics of "Brain Death" that may be derived from Western intellectual and religious traditions.
