In the closing years of the 19th century, the Japanese decided they should modernize economically without culturally westernizing, and they succeeded. Following de-colonization, Africans also pursued the goal of achieving economic modernization without cultural westernization. To some extent, however, Africa became westernized culturally, but failed to attain economic modernization. How can we explain Africa’s failure and Japan’s success? The book addresses these issues from a variety of perspectives also in relation to economic interactions between Africa and Japan and Africa’s place in Japan’s diplomacy and academic discourse.