Yes, a couple of years ago for graduation I spent 2 weeks in Japan. And I made several friends over there whom I still keep in touch with. I also study Japanese culture and I have several Japanese friends who live here now whom lived most of their lives in Japan. They enlight me almost everyday with new things about japanese culture and how things are done.
All I'm saying is, it's not as it once was before. The only reason Japan is such a power house now is because of Western civilization's influence on them. They wouldn't have cars today nor would they have any kind of electronic device without western industrialization of Japan.
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Originally Posted by ProfessorS
I'm not comparing Japanese nationalism to malignant racism or slavery)
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hmm...
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Originally Posted by ProfessorS
They refer to all foreigners as "gaijin", which is an insult and not unlike a white person calling a black person a "nigger".
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I'd say the offensive nature of the world 'nigger' is held on a very high pedestal compared to 'gaijin.' It's safe to say that the older Japanese people still hold a grudge and evident stubborness towards foreigners because Foreigners are the ones that changed their way of life. You may say the way of the samurai is still prevalent, because the older generation hold on to their traditions with a firm grasp. As seen in The Last Samurai... they were very religious about their traditional ways and held on strong to keep Japan from modernizing. Their conviction for their traditional culture was steadfast. Today, you see that in the old generation. The youth is changing Japan however and things are a lot more open. US and European bands from afar are heralded in Japan now, and the iPod is widely used now in Japan.
Although the first games weren't from Japan.... it was Nintendo that came out as the pioneer in video games. And so the videogame industry has been widely dominated by the japanese market. So in all honestly, Microsoft never had a chance in Japan.