Understanding Japan and the Japanese was never meant to be easy. This is especially true for the Japanese attitude to foreigners -- at times exclusivist and at other times extremely open. There is an answer to the seeming contradiction, but it requires outsiders to accept that the Japanese might have a value system just as valid as their own -- something many find hard to accept.

Back in the 1970s, when Canberra was determinedly trying to understand the nation that was suddenly supporting Australia's economy with large food and raw materials purchases, it gave the well-known author Hal Porter a generous cultural grant to travel around Japan and discover its people.

In his subsequent book, "The Actors," Porter describes the Japanese as a robotic people quite incapable of expressing genuine sentiment -- a surprising conclusion for anyone who has seen the animated faces of the Japanese crowds as they head home from work on a Friday evening.