Pacific Forum’s PacNets continue to stimulate constructive thoughts, and Grant Newsham’s latest (PacNet #20) continues that tradition. Newsham’s suggestion that Americans should be paying more attention to broader Japanese thinking than only in the narrow thrust of what appears to be strengthening nationalist sentiments of a ruling class is right on target. As a former diplomat concerned with "Public Diplomacy" aspects of Japan’s relations with the US, I share his sentiment that we have lost contact with the wider culture.