Dating thread

[loramin]

Originally Posted by shovelquest [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

*preserves their own culture and customs.

Xenaphobic:

Japan is a complex place. On the one hand you're right: they've embraced Western culture (to an almost fetishistic level).

But at the same time, while they see Western stuff as fun, there's a strong undercurrent of "everything not-Japanese is inferior". Remember history: the pro-Western stuff comes from our relations post-WWII ... but Japan was xenophobic for hundreds of years before. Blue Eyed Samurai wasn't (all) fiction: Japan banned all foreigners for hundreds of years (except for one ship a year so they knew what was happening). And don't even get me started on what they've done to other Asian countries (eg. to China in WWII), because some of it makes the Nazis look good.

A country doesn't go from a crazy xenophobic "we're going to conquer all the other inferior races" to Sesame Street overnight, and so their culture today still has some serious xenophobia. It's why their immigration policy is so strict, even though the whole country is aging and they desperately need new blood: they fear the country being "diluted" by foreign blood.