Ask HN: Why is Japan so insular?

The country is very self-contained and seems uninterested mostly in integrating culturally with others, as if it's unnecessary. Famously they were isolated for hundreds of years by force. Sure they have regional differences within their nation, and sure folks from other cultures live, work, integrate and become part of Japan, sort of...but... homogenous monoculture comes to mind, too. I don't think this aspect of the Japanese psyche is in dispute...what I'm curious about is: why is Japan like that?

"We don't need anyone else, we are complete unto ourselves, we are better than others"-- is it ? "It's just how we do things? No one will understand us?" -- is it? Is this a unique thing or are other cultures very much the same in their insularity just less well known for it?

Strangely I don't think Japanese people will take offence at my question.

I've lived in East Asia (but mostly the Sinosphere) for 10 years, so I have a fair understanding of that culture, but pretty much zero in-depth about other East Asian cultures. I'm very curious

They are literally an island nation

There are probably lots of reasons.

For one, monoculture can develop when a culture looks backward in a convergent way, developing "the" story of itself, and deriving lessons and forward-facing stances therefrom. This itself was a strong tradition in Japanese culture for what, over a thousand years? It's still very obviously a valued practice in Japan.

Even the cultural trauma narratives have legend-style stories to them, which is interesting in lots of ways but by definition very closed off in others.

The same traits can be observed in organizational culture in general, for example in high-demand (of their membership) religions and certain businesses.

If you combine this with things like geographic isolation (the island excuse gets thrown around a lot), specific cultural movements, a couple of well-timed typhoons, etc., the additional isolation effect has throughout time been able to seal out new perspectives and recirculate more of the previous ones.

A lot of specific and very beautiful refinements can thrive in these kind of circumstances though, so it's not all bad news.

Just some thoughts.

Agree with that. From the limited experience i have with Turkey, they are very unique and independent. I like that about them, they're very much their own country. Interesting place, mix of Asia and West.

Many cultures hold on to tradition because it's like rappelling down a cliff. Rappel too fast and you're in free fall. Keep it controlled and you won't descend into crazy untested ideas. America didn't keep its traditional values which is why we lack so much of the decency the Japanese show. As a small stupid example: In Japan you can leave a vending machine out in the middle of nowhere unattended (except for restocking) and it won't get stolen from or destroyed. In America it wouldn't last a day unfortunately.