Number One Passport

Julian Loose

  • Rising Sun by Michael Crichton
    Century, 364 pp, £14.99, June 1992, ISBN 7 126 65320 4
  • Off Centre: Power and Culture Relations between Japan and the United States by Masao Miyoshi
    Harvard, 289 pp, £22.95, December 1992, ISBN 0 674 63175 7
  • Underground in Japan by Rey Ventura
    Cape, 204 pp, £7.99, April 1992, ISBN 0 224 03550 9

The Japanese language seems designed for the speaker who wants to deceive. In Japanese, the verb is always placed at the end of a sentence, a syntax that can be artfully manipulated. It permits the speaker to monitor the reactions of others present and, at the very last moment, insert the verb ... The Japanese language, in effect, allows him to speak from both sides of ‘his mouth at the same time. On learning Japanese, St Francis Xavier, the 16th-century Jesuit, called it “The devil’s tongue”.’

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