"It may be that Japan is only a speck on a world map drawn by Europeans, but the country consisting of a chain of islands has played and is still playing an important part because of its situation lying east of the continent in the Pacific Ocean. From a cultural point of view Japan is an eastward limit of penetration, and a treasure-house, so to speak, in the history of world civilization. Another important thing is that Japan stands out as the first country in Asia which adopted modern mechanical civilization and carried it to the Asiatic Continent."