RSSmartyrdom works indeed
specially in the big sister age.
although those who are not martyred, better sell their cloaks and get a sword,
-or a whip for them moneychangers at least.
(just so our numbers don’t eventually thin out too much)
Japan started to commit the mistakes of the western Europeans, and their industrial threat reached a limit anyway; so they do not seem threatening anymore. and the US has learned to deal with them instead of competing – or rather, both choose to focus on mutual rival China. and in general, Japan’s foreign policy follows the western establishment.
not to mention, the Japanese have become quite culturally loved in the west, not just anime but in general. the Chinese may have cut back on some numbers in this regard, though recently, and i’d argue they still don’t have the glamor of the samurais and geishas. on the other hand, some Chinese and Indian immigrants have helped the US keep up with Japan’s tech to some degree – however, even then i’d argue the US would have the advantage with less immigrants, due to size/wealth/universities advantage. then again, for how long these advantages will pan out… will it be China who eventually ceases to look at us like a threat, and not the other way around… and how good will this be, i don’t know…
but yeah, on foreign policy, save a minority, most of the US public just consumes what is told to it by the elites, it dares not look to the outside world. on the other hand, this posture at least makes most of the public less willing of war abroad. but then again, if pushed to war, the public also shows that it does not push back much – perhaps at the voting booth, but otherwise we are still in Afghanistan, in spite our best efforts to vote ourselves out of there, while the border suffers…