>had almost nothing in common with European civilizations
>spent most of its history completely isolated from everyone else
>shoguns got paranoid about Portuguese traders/missionaries and kicked them out along with the Christian converts
>went full autarky for centuries until America showed up and forced them to open their ports
>modernized absurdly fast, beat Russia, suddenly became the new eastern power
>bombed Pearl Harbor
>still shares practically nothing with Western culture, language, or customs
why were Westerners so obsessed with Japan in the first place? if it were China or some random islamic shithole nobody would’ve given a damn
