Japan

• Because (almost) everyone in Japan belongs to the same ethnic group, is there no concept of ethnicity to begin with?
  • Japanese people find it unnatural to have a label different from nationality.

Techniques for Intellectual Production

• Since there are occasional comparisons with the West, we can also learn about the differences between post-war Japan and the rest of the world.
  • It provides a somewhat neutral analysis without the hindsight bias.
  • It seems like a time when Japanese culture and systems were more unique than they are now.
    • It makes me think that it was a time when the world was not as homogenized as it is today.
  • There were many instances where books would say “In (that time’s) Japan, it was XX, but in the West, it was YY,” and it often applied to modern-day Japan as well.