Is Japan a Western country ?

[A ke bono kane kotto]

geographicaly Eastern
calturely Eastern

Eastern like Russia, or Eastern like Australia ?

politicaly neutral

Do you mean apolitical ?

A lot of people think 'white' when they think western but I would argue that Jamacia or Spain or Mexico is considered western by many people. Hell, some people even consider Cuba to be 'one of the group'.

Spain => definitely (one of the founding nation of Western culture)
Mexico => maybe a bit
Jamaica => in your dreams ! I'd say that Japan is more Western(ized) than Jamaica.
Cuba => definitely more Western than Jamaica or Mexico. Normal, more people of European descent (not only Spanish but also French).

It's almost like a community of similar peoples. In a 'western' country we tend to share close ties and histories with other western countries, our languages are similar and often latin based...it's hard to explain but you know when someone is western. I've been around lot's of people from all parts of the world and there's always a sense of alikeness with other western people (even if they don't speak the same language) that I find very hard to find with people from, say China or Japan.

I agree with that.