Definitions HQ

Japan (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a place of decentered geography, non-subjectivity and elaborate surfaces without depth.

Japan (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a semiotic system, an exercise to experience cultural difference on an abstract level.

Japan (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a country in which the labor of a gift is in in the packaging, and thereby the object loses its existence, becomes a mirage: from envelope to envelope, the signified flees, and when you finally have it, it appears insignificant, laughable, vile. The package is not empty, but emptied: to find the object which is in the package or the signified which is in the sign is to discard it.

Japan (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠where all fabricated objects have three features: precise, mobile, and empty — empty in that every citizen in the street has some sort of bundle - package, such, sack, valise, linen wrapping — an empty sign, energetically protected, vigorously transported, as if the finish, the framing, the hallucinatory outline of the Japanese object is destined to a generalized transport.

Japan (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠where a bow is not a sign of humility but a pure graphic exchange: two bodies inscribing a greeting that salutes no one in particular.