re: #244 The Major

Japan has always been historically xenophobic, so this isn’t that far of a stretch -at the same time Japan’s population growth has been running negative for quite a while with no signs of it getting any better as their lost decade continues unabated….

Those aren’t really the issues, though. Some Japanese are insular, but many are not. Some pine for the days of semi-divine emperor whose distant ancestor was Amaterasu’s grandson, but many do not. The economy won’t be back to 10% ever again (probably), but it has been doing ok in the last few years.

The problem is that those who understand what led to imperial ambition and emperor-worship and what it would mean again are dying off. If you can manipulate enough young Japanese to believe in Japanese exceptionalism (and there are plenty already), they can cow others into staying silent. Japan won’t be the same kind of threat it was before with the rise of China, but it could become the kind of country you think it already is.