Top 4 Reasons to Bash Japan or Otherwise Lord it Over the Nation and its People (Notes from Under the Tatami Mats–54 … My Adventures in Japan)

They resorted to excoriating the country – usually with no basis or for entirely spurious reasons.

I arrived in Japan at the peak of the bubble in the late 1980s. As Japan’s real estate prices and stock valuations skyrocketed, the economies of the other developed countries looked lame in comparison.  

If you can’t beat ‘em, bash ‘em

In the West, one of the most common responses to Japan’s dizzying growth was to simply bash Japan – to criticize the country for any and all reasons. Since the other countries could neither compete with Japan nor blow up as massive a bubble, they resorted to excoriating the country – usually with no basis or for entirely spurious reasons.   

Fortunately, the massive bubble burst by 1990. And the bashing soon stopped.      _{(Image source)}

A bit of haughtiness, a bit of humility, a bit of humor

As for reason #1 ("There's no need to bow and scrape; we won the war"), I’ll let my friend Steven S himself explain, as follows: 

“The comment was directed at a drunken Brad, who was berating a certain young kid who was medically deaf and could not understand Brad. After I mentioned to Brad that the kid was in fact handicapped, Brad spent the next few minutes bowing and apologizing so profusely that I finally told him to knock it off – stating that, after all, there was no need to bow and scrape, as we had won the war.”  
_{(Explanation slightly paraphrased by @majes.tytyty)}

Within the space of a few moments, the situation shifted from haughtiness to humility to humor.

And rest assured that, while in Japan, we learned not only how to be humble, but also to laugh at ourselves.      _{(Image source)}

   Introduction to – “Notes from Under the Tatami Mats”  _{(right-click on title)}

Top 3 Rates of Interest Paid on Savings Accounts at Japanese Banks

Top 4 Curry Restaurants in Japan

Top 4 Restaurants in Japan (other than curry)

... and more

Links to my Other Series …

      Introduction – "Intro to Vocab-ability"   _{(right-click on title)}
      Guide – "Guide to Entries"   _{(right-click on title)}
      Index– "Index" to all Chapters and Sections   _{(right-click on title)}

      Lou Reed – "Anthology of Memorable Lyrics, Part 1"   _{(right-click on title)}
      Lou Reed – "Anthology of Memorable Lyrics, Part 2"   _{(right-click on title)}

_{Images sourced from Google Images, unless otherwise indicated or unless my own.}