  If we hear Hegelian echoes in these formulations, we should also note Nishida’s difference from Hegel: the formation of the “world-historical” world does not imply a hierarchy of cultures evolving as forms of increasing rationality; and it is exemplified in the everyday, as Nishida says, not the exceptional. Nishida’s global world seems more open to a genuine pluralism of cultures, world religions and national identities. Each can retain its uniqueness but to do so each must become self-aware by becoming aware of the plurality, by relativizing or negating itself. This self-negation creates the space in which true intercultural encounter can take place. Nishida implies that the proper relation between cultures is parallel to that between “I and Thou.” In simpler language: “A true world culture will be formed only by various cultures preserving their own respective viewpoints, but simultaneously developing themselves through global mediation” (NKZ VII, pp. 452–3).