Japan is in a sense a "western" nation because if it were not for the west, Japan would not be the democratic, economic powerhouse, and prosperous
nation we see today. Also I'm rather disheartened by the Japanese people on this thread completely rejecting any idea of them being westernized at all. Lets take a look at some history shall we?
Japan began an offical policy of modernization in 1868, From the 1700's on up they translation many european treatsies on various topics including but not limited to medicine, astronomy, philosophy, etc. In 1811 Japan made a government agency called the "Institute for the Investigation of Barbarian Books." It is unwise to think that Japan became this way on her own. The education system was set up on western models, Armies were trained with Western Tactics and instructors in the late 1800's. The first "democracy" of Japan was set up on the prussian model. Moderization was set up on western models. This is just pure and utter fact and history. The leaders of this time period saw the necessity to modernize and I believe it was a logical decesion on their part. Also after WWII democracy was set up by the USA in Japan.
I'm not trying to say all of Japans success is because of the west. Japan (and Germany as well) did absolutely splendid jobs rebuilding themselves after WWII. I'm just saying without western Influence we probably wouldn't see the same Japan that we see today. Also keep in note Japan has a long history of culture and idea borrowing. It was pretty much a steady thing throughout their entire history (in bc times it was China).
"Is Japan a western nation?" This is hard to discern. i'm not sure if i would define it as a western country but most definitly a westernized country
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