Mr. Nosaka, he said, became "a divine figure" among Japanese intellectuals in the 1950's and 60's.

Lehmann named his toy after the city of Masuyama, a gathering place for Japanese intellectuals in the 1920's.

Worse, Japanese intellectuals - especially those with memories of the crimes Japan committed - feel they have no right to criticize China for its cultural policy.

A Japanese intellectual says that Japan has prospered because of the useful illusion that "all Japanese are connected by blood."

His death, at a time when the US Occupation of Japan was already underway, deeply upset Japanese intellectuals.

At this time, due to the influence of the Russian Revolution, Japanese intellectuals were also examining social issues and socialist thought.

Like many other Japanese intellectuals of his generation, he deplores both his country's militarist past and what he sees as its acquiescent present.

According to Buruma, Fukuzawa "was one of the first - and still uncommon - examples of an independent Japanese intellectual."

Japanese intellectuals, teachers and spritual leaders, he advised, have a responsibility to speak out more forcefully, not only on anti-Semitism but also on human-rights issues in general.

It soon became one of Japan's foremost general-interest magazines, and has been cited as having a profound influence on several Japanese intellectuals.