Abstract
This article focuses on a project of inviting American journalists by the Japanese government in 1930. The Japanese government invited eighteen Americans, primarily magazine writers and their family members for a two-month visit to Japan. The government expected the Americans to introduce a positive image of Japan to their audience back home. As part of the government's economic policy after the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, officials aimed to increase inbound tourism to Japan to gain more foreign currency and develop a stronger international relationship with Western countries. Japan viewed the US as its primary target because of the growing number of American visitors to Japan, which at the time was second only to China. One of the purposes of inviting the American writers was to present Japan as an attractive tourist destination that had an advanced level of modernization as well as a traditional culture. However, the writers experienced the tour in a way that did not conform to the Japanese expectations. This article examines the gap between the presentation by the Japanese government and the way in which it was represented by one of the invited writers, Ellery Sedgwick, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Monthly. It highlights that Sedgwick depicted Japan not as an advanced modern country, but as a deeply traditional society. The article shows that Sedgwick did not necessarily respond to the purpose of the project intended by the Japanese government, and instead reinforced the image of traditional Japanese characteristics. In particular, the article draws upon Caren Kaplan’s theory in analyzing the discourse of tourism in Sedgwick’s writing.
