[gaijin]

What a fantastic post!

Agreed with EVERYTHING you wrote (very well), except for:

When they buy fighter aircraft from us, they modify the aeronautics and send suggestions back to the US manufacturers for improvement.

Alas, the great majority of JASDF a/c are not purchased off-the-shelf, though that is what I would prefer:

Most are licensed produced, generally to a higher quality than the American originals. More and more they are co-developed, a process that involves MUCH more transfer of know-how. I agree with your notation of their habit of suggesting improvements --they are amazing manufacturers, improvers, and increasingly, innovators.

I love Japan in a BILLION ways, but I'm not sure we want to make Japan into an aerospace competitor, and I don't think such measured reservations constitute "Japan-bashing".

Both presuppose that they were both at one time OURS in some sense to lose or abandon --I richly contest that.

I find a great many Western people arrive in Japan, see the technology and living standard, deeming it somehow WESTERN. Well, there is hip-hop, there are movies, yes. Maybe those are western.

But for anyone who really spends time there, there are a bazillion ways in which Japan is not only different, but maybe the OPPOSITE --that escapes the casual visitor.

I think there are people whose livelihood is tied up in minimizing change in Japan as lackeys of their Establishment and that is a role unhelpful not only to the outside world, but ultimately to Japan herself.

[gaijin]

Prestowitz wrote Trading Places in 1988, almost THIRTY years ago —and it’s STILL being trundled out as a SCARY HOB-GOBLIN..?!

Good God, ahahhahah..!

Oh sure, Japan is baaaaarely getting by, and will collapse into a million pieces if Orange-Face spouts off a bit.

Guess colleges aren’t the only cross-eyed, dialogue-fearing entities clutching for their beloved SAFE-SPACES, heh..?

RIDICULOUS.

Guess everything would be better if elite Toudai ‘crats decided EVERYTHING for everyone and the yucky VOTERS (bitter lemon face, here) in both countries would just go to hell, huh..?

[poconopundit]

...for anyone who really spends time [in Japan], there are a bazillion ways in which Japan is not only different, but maybe the OPPOSITE --that escapes the casual visitor.

Hey gaijin, would love to hear your observations on a few of things that are OPPOSITE about Japan.  That would start a very interesting discussion.

Let me offer a couple and invite you and other Japan lovers to chime in.

• The typical American bar is typically a large, noisy sports bart.  A Japanese bar is often very small, conducive to conversation, and is decorated like a living room.
  
  
• At an American restaurant you are treated to a wide variety of dishes and you kind of park yourself at that place.  In Japan, restaurants often specialize in one dish -- could be tempura, noodles, grilled fish.&nsbp; And often the Japanese will explore 2 or 3 eating places in an evening.