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RE: Top 4 Persistent Illusions about the 25-Year-Long Recession (Notes from Under the Tatami Mats–14 … My Adventures in Japan)
Very great analysis here @majes.tytyty. Japan ought to open its borders to accommodate foreigners to drive it. But I guess they are reluctant because they are a conservative society.
PS: I saw that this round was well booked. Glad you caught the right train, at the right time, for for the right reason.
Thanks. It's not only that Japan is conservative; it's that it was closed off from external influence for 200 years, and that resulted in the country being more ethnocentric than most other countries.
Yes, there was a long line-up at the "ticket booth," but I squeezed my way thru just in time.
Hahaha a good squeeze, it was. Well done sir. Good to learn this incredible fact about Japan. I didn't know that the border closure lasted for two whopping centuries.
Yep, that was the heyday of the Samurai. The emperor remained the figurehead, but the samurai controlled their various domains, and, by extension, the entire country.
During those 2 centuries, no Japanese were allowed to go abroad. And only a few foreigners (mostly Dutch, and I believe some Portuguese) were allowed to alight onto one tiny Japanese island near Nagasaki.
Finally, in 1853-54, the US sent a "diplomatic / military" expedition (read "THREATENING MILITARY) to Japan in order to force the country to open. It did.
(If the US action sounds familiar, that's because it has become familiar. All too familiar for many countries.)
These are quite interesting revelations. While the US approach is a gunboat diplomacy, at least it opened Japan.