Quote Originally Posted by yukio_neko^_o
The odd thing is, and I have no idea about the fireworks, maybe it's nothing--- I do know that my girlfriend is shocked to often find out that things that something exists in the United States, let alone the fact that it was actually invented there.
Don't tell me. My life in Japan was a succession of meeting people surprised at everything I said about "outside Japan", as if they had just discovered that there was an outside world, and that not everything in Japan was uniquely Japanese and made in Japan. It reminds me of the book Wild Swans, by Jung Chang, where the author explains that during the dark Maoist years of China, the starving population was told that the world outside China was decadent, immoral and living in abject poverty, and that China was the apex of civilization. It's not as extreme, but I do feel that the Japanese government, schools and media are trying to give the people that image that Japan is the apex of civilization, and anything outside is decadent or barabarian.

I don't see that same attention given to outsiders in Japan. I'm sure that some people would care, I think that governments and people are two distinct entities, so I think people would find things outside of Japan fascinating, so I don't say, the Japaense people do not care for outside influence--- but I think, overall it is an effect of society as a whole.
In a free and democratic country, the government and media should be two clearly distinct things. So how comes that Japanese TV and newspapers try to "hide" what happens around the world ?