>>44 Dumbass,

I am in awe of your superior reasoning. I find your ideas fascinating and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

>>Japan is a liberal, democratic country, with an increasingly globalized culture.

BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA, stop it, I can't breathe!

Despite what the Marine colonel in Full Metal Jacket said to Private Joker, it is not now, nor has it ever been the case that "inside every gook is an American trying to get out." Their society is not based on the same ideas as ours is. No two societies are based on the same assumptions. Not even blood-and-soil nationalism, which used to be the universal fundamental basis for all social organizations larger than a single tribe, remains universal in the 21st Century. The Japanese are NOT Americans who speak some crazy moon language. It is a child's mistake to assume that everyone you can see is, despite surface appearances, exactly like you in every other way, right down to viewing the world exactly as you do and seeing you exactly as you see him.

Japan is a culture so different from the US that it is hard to say where to start. They are NOT Yankees in funny hats, any more than Egyptians or Hindus or Brazilians are.

But here's a starting place. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debito_Arudou