Nathan Gardels - The US and Japanese economies may be the most intertwined of any in history. We drive the same cars, watch the same VCRs and fly in the same airplanes. Yet, our conceptions of time and space differ radically. Time is structured with a beginning, Genesis, and an end. It is an unfolding story given meaning by a transcendent God, progressing along a straight line from the past into the future without repetition.
Time advances from the familiar past to a new and unfamiliar moment.
In the Exodus, a choice is made to leave slavery behind and continue forward to a new, clearly defined goal, The Promised Land. In the Japanese tradition, time has no beginning and no end, only infinity and repetition. Time is a succession of events extending from the present. The whole continuous thread of history is not broken down into parts and periods. Defined only by the present moment and the vague mists of infinity, time does not lend itself to structure.