Bruno Taut had been in Japan for barely four weeks in 1933 when he was commissioned by Meiji Shobo Publishers to write a book about his impressions. "Nippon Seen Through European Eyes" became an instant success in Japan in the 1930s. Even the paperback edition published in 1991 has seen 17 editions to [...] his arrival, the prominent architect from Germany, whose reputation preceded him, had given numerous lectures, visited art and cultural monuments, and met all the important architects of "modernism". With them he discussed problems of Japanese modernization and industrialization. His outside view as an expert was in demand. The original manuscript, virtually unknown outside Japan, remained in the Japanese publisher's archives and now appears in German for the first time. The critical edition adopts the visual concept of the Japanese edition, which was also developed by Taut himself. In the book, he describes Japan, which was still unknown in detail at the time, as a European. He advises the modernizing Japanese society to preserve, reconsider, and reevaluate traditional skills and knowledge; on the other hand, he clearly rejects an uncritical adoption of "Western" patterns.