Personal exchanges
What does it mean to experience a different culture? Learning a language, stepping foot on foreign land and living amid different customs. There are new discoveries every day, and one's outlook and way of thinking change. In addition, one begins to see new aspects of their own country's culture. The modern relationships between Japan and France are an accumulation of the experiences of the many individuals who have come and gone between the two countries. This is not just the intercourse of systems and cultures, but the individuals who bring about new views of Japan (France) by experiencing France (Japan), or the people who decided to remain and live in another country after taking a trip there, and the people who had a major impact of the culture of the other country. This article looks at the individuals who have blazed important paths in the history of Japanese and French cultural exchanges.
