Many people still think Japan is inscrutable. It's a cliche reinforced on the Japanese side by another cliche that says Japan is "unique," and which is further reinforced by the tendency to explain cultural aspects as if they were museum exhibits. Much of NHK's English language content falls into this realm. Another common method of explication is using contrast. On the local NHK series "Japan Cool," young people from various countries talk about specific aspects of Japan by comparing them to things in their own cultures, and since most people nowadays are brought up to respect "differences" they take things as they are rather than impose their values on them. That sounds like common courtesy, but only if you believe that your values aren't universal.

During the last week of January, NHK ran a series on its BS-Hi channel called "Tokyo Modern" consisting of documentaries about Japan directed by non-Japanese filmmakers. Though there was little stylistic overlap among the films, each approached its subject from an inquisitive frame of mind. NHK, which helped fund the films, wanted Japanese viewers to see how foreigners see Japan, but they were less notable for explaining how Japan is different than they were for pointing out how everyone operates by the same set of life standards.

Sometimes the insight on display was the product of an attitude that embodies another cliche, that of the brash Westerner. Veteran BBC documentarian Sean McAllister's "Japan: A Story of Love and Hate" (which NHK retitled with the milder "Naoki") won two awards at the 2009 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. McAllister's film is not set in Tokyo but rather in Yamagata, where he focuses on a 56-year-old former student activist and company owner who lost everything in the postbubble economic collapse and now barely makes a living as a part-time postal employee.