| Summary: | This paper focuses on the deconstruction of the Western tourist gaze on Japan, defining the tourist gaze not only as the set of expectations described by Urry, but also as exemplary of the construction of the Other’s identity. The analysis of tourist literature (guide-books, catalogues etc.) in different languages as well as the results of a field research show that, although clearly related to the more general definition of Japan(-ness) in the West, the tourists’ gaze also shows a relationship with domestic tourism and Nihonjinron myths. At the same time, although often repeating well known myths (e.g. the uniqueness of the Japanese soul), the tourist image of Japan is also constructed on a set of dichotomies, such as ultra-modern and archaic, familiar and impenetrable, East and West. Differently from when observed in other contexts (e.g. in the construction of national identity) these dichotomies are intentionally left unresolved, for marketing, evocative and other reasons, showing features that provide a striking parallel to Foucault’s definition of heterotopia and heterochrony.
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