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Showcasing moments of convergence between the German and Japanese cultures towards common points of interest over the last one hundred fifty years, the chapters in this book cover such topics as culture, diplomacy, geography, history, law, literature, philosophy, politics, and sports. From the creation of two similar modern nation-states, to the aggressive struggle for national supremacy and subsequent total defeat in 1945, the necessity of coping with their earlier militarism and parallel economic miracles in the postwar era, Germans and Japanese look back on a remarkably similar past.

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Introduction: Joanne Miyang Cho, Lee M. Roberts, and Christian W. Spang

Part I. Ambivalent Partners in Modernization

1. The Myth of the "Familiar Germany": German-Japanese Relationships in the Meiji Period Reexamined
Toru Takenaka

2. Karl von Eisendecher and Japan: Transnational Encounters and the Diplomacy of Imperialism

Sven Saaler

3. Count Hermann Keyserling´s View of Japan: A Nation of Consummate Imitators

Joanne Miyang Cho

4. Western Criticism of an Occidental East: A German View of the Modernization of Japanese Literature, 1900-1945

Lee M. Roberts

Part II. Transnational Partners between Two World Wars

5. When Jiu-jitsu was German: Japanese Martial Arts in German Sport - and Körperkultur , 1905-1933

Sarah Panzer

6. Anna and Siegfried Berliner: Two Academic Bridge Builders between Germany and Japan

Hans K. Rode and Christian W. Spang

7. The Expansion of Activities of the German East Asiatic Society (OAG) during the Nazi Era

Christian W. Spang

8. Japanese Ambivalence towards Jewish Exiles in Japan

Thomas Pekar
Part III. Post-World War II Affinity: Pariah Nations?

9. The Nuremberg and Tokyo IMT Trials: A Comparative Analysis

David M. Crowe
10. A "Penologic Program" for Japanese and German War Criminals, 1945-1958

Franziska Seraphim

11. German-Japanese Relations after the Second World War
Rolf-Harald Wippich

12. Peace, Business, and Classical Culture: The Relationship Between the German Democratic Republic and Japan

Volker Stanzel
13. Transnational Communicability: German-Japanese Literature by Yoko Tawada

Birgit Maier-Katkin and Lee M. Roberts

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"This volume surveys key moments in Japanese-German relations from the midnineteenth to the late twentieth century with richly informed materials from a variety of perspectives. ... reviewer highly recommends this book to students and scholars interested in emerging fields of transnational studies and Asian German studies. The volume ... prepares a readership for more specialized studies that may eventually develop compelling methodologies and concepts for the booming field of global history based on the archive of Asian German Studies." (Chunjie Zhang, Monatshefte, Vol. 109 (3), 2017)
"Transnational Encounters between Germany and Japan: Perceptions of Partnership in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries is an anthology of scholarly essays by diverse authors discussing intersections and common themes between German and Japanese cultures over the past one hundred and fifty years. ... An index enhances this erudite, meticulously researched and presented compilation, highly recommended especially for college library World History or International Studies collections." (Mid West Book Review Library Bookwatch, midwestbookreview.com, February, 2016)

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