| @Peanut Japan isn't a Western country. It's a developed country, and many people often confuse the concepts, but "Western" implies cultural and historical ties that Japan really doesn't share - "Western" is a mix of Greco-Roman, Germanic, and Christian philosophical influences that emerged from Dark Age Europe, which followed the historical sequence of the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Age of Exploration, the Enlightenment, and the rise of the nation-state defined by representative government, capitalism, and secularism. Non-Western countries experienced some of these elements but not all of them and not at the same time. |