To think japan and uk have so much in common?

[Valeriane]

I have never been to Japan so 100% open to posters correcting me/adding things! But the other day I was thinking it's funny, the two seem to actually have a lot in common

Driving on the left
Love of tea and codified ceremonies/rituals around tea
Island nations
Big former empires
Hardcore monarchies
A strange contrast between a tightly buttoned aspect on one hand, and then eccentricity and subcultures on the other
Big importance placed on social niceties and possibly repression
Love of whiskey and whiskey making culture
Feeling separate to the rest of their continent (is this true for Japan?)
Very densely populated
Important in developing trains (steam, bullet)
Love of fancy dress/costume

No. Japan - riven with sexism, a nation of housewives.

All that awful damage they did to British soldiers in the war, totally different attitudes to many topics, hari kari back in the day and a fair bit more racism than UK

Their day-to-day use of technology is years, if not decades, ahead of us, which is why productivity and living standards are on a different planet.

I'm really not sure about this. I live in Tokyo and various institutions regularly try to fax me

All that damage they did to British soldiers in the war? Along with NZ, Australian, South African, American. . . so Allied soldiers, then. . .

Lets not get started on what they did to Korean Women. . .

Not only Korean women, Indonesian, Chinese, Australian, Dutch….

@AdmiralCain

Lot's of differences but I strongly agree with OP. England and Japan are regarded as Honourable societies on the world stage

I don't know which world stage you strut, but this is one of the most deluded things I've read for a while. It would certainly come as a surprise to anyone dealing with the UK government over the Northern Ireland protocol or Brexit generally.

Have you never heard of 'Perfidious Albion'?

I've never thought of them as similar. Finland and Japan would perhaps have more in common.

I don't know which world stage you strut, but this is one of the most deluded things I've read for a while. It would certainly come as a surprise to anyone dealing with the UK government over the Northern Ireland protocol or Brexit generally.

Thank God I'm not the only one. . .

Yeah I'd go to Japan and have a rethink once you witness their social expectations, mannerisms, women's role in society etc

@MondayYogurt

In some respects we align, more than say Portugal and Japan

It's unfortunate that you chose this particular comparator because Portugal and Japan have much closer historical links than you might think, probably much more so than UK and Japan. The Portuguese were the first acknowledged westerners to visit Japan and for a while its traders were Japan's link to the outside world, from China all the way back to Europe.

The Portuguese brought slaves from Japan back to Portugal, where they were valued much more highly than African ones. Each nation introduced various foreign things to each other and their languages adopted words from the other's; Portuguese had the western world's first Japanese dictionary, published in 1603. The Portuguese founded the city of Nagasaki in 1571. Even the quintessentially Japanese tempura is actually Portuguese in origin.

Uk & Japan are not comparable, other than being islands

I would like to visit Japan & I've looked at various places to visit. Perhaps once all the covid restrictions have ended.

Culturally & historically an interesting place

I anticipate that modern Japan is interesting too

Plenty to read about

PS:
National Japanese drink is Sake