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I have thought the same many times before. One part of the reason why is that Japan, since the Meiji administration, has been actively creating myths about the

I have thought the same many times before. One part of the reason why is that Japan, since the Meiji administration, has been actively creating myths about the "unique uniqueness" of Japanese culture, i.e. that Japan is not just unique like all countries and cultures are unique, but "uniquely unique" - beating all other cultures at being unique. Which of course is just an attempt to disguise the idea that Japanese culture is superior to all others to make it more easily digestible. The effort of the Japanese government to project soft power through the "cool Japan" initiative (Anime, Manga, J-Pop, games, etc.) seems to work wonders on Americans, but a little less so on Europeans. There's a great book that puts the hype around "everything Japan" in perspective: "Japan - A Reinterpretation" (ISBN 97806797451120)

imtringued 5y ago
The obvious problem with nationalism is that everyone is supposed to have their own nation that uniquely suits them, including the people that you are excluding from your own nation. This gets exceptionally contradictory when taken to the extreme. E.g. Nazis trying to build an Aryan state, while simultaneously acquiring "Lebensraum", knowing that they are also acquiring people from other nationalities, which then have to be deported into another nation state whose nationalist people become angry. Of course this came with the twist that Jews are a nationless race and therefore should be incinerated. It's the same thing with the refugee crisis. Nationalists in Lybia deport non-Lybians to Europe who end up as refugees there and then the local nationalists become angry and deport them somewhere else. It's a never ending shell game.