Why do the Japanese has such a bad reputation for playing hard ball, standing alone and being inflexible during international negotiations?
There is no Japanese, or even Japanese English, translation for the expression “win-win”. In Japan, people are divided into kachi-gumi and make-gumi: the tribes of winners and losers.
Why do foreigners find the banzai so scary?
Why would an Asian tourist want to come to Japan on holiday?
Why didn’t the American occupation of Iraq work out like the American occupation of Japan?
Why are the Japanese so uninterested in Russia, despite it being their only (mainly) European neighbour?
Vodka not being popular is the biggest surprise for me, and pirosiki is about the only food that has made an impact. Russia does not exactly provide the designer goods and air of elegance that Britain, France or Italy have in the Japanese imagination- which could also explain less interest in Germany and Spain than those three. Having a tradition of cheap Russians for hire starting with White Russian prostitutes flocking to Japan, being their main regional political rivals for about 100 years and having been the first European country to be beaten by Asians (Japan) in 1905 probably didn’t increase the level of respect very much- especially the last one,