If I had to go for 1 knife it would probably be a global - readily available, lovely balance and less of a faff than proper Japanese (I love the faff, most of the time)
I hated global handles (v slippy when hands wet or sweaty and wrong shape for me) and found the balance a bit off actually. Settled on tojiro after walking into nisbets and testing all there knives. Found most of the German shapes quite big, heavy and cumbersome.
If I had to go for 1 knife it would probably be a global - readily available, lovely balance and less of a faff than proper Japanese (I love the faff, most of the time)