Japan and the UK
The two island countries at both the ends of the Eurasian Continent, Japan and the UK, have the royal families.
As the UK faces the continental Europe, Japan faces the Asian continent including the Korean Peninsula, the mainland China, etc. Civilization came to Great Britain through the continental Europe just like civilization came to Japan from ancient China.
However, though the UK needed to venture into the world through oceans to enrich living of the British partly because the nature of Great Britain was not so rich, Japanese did not find such a need, since the nature of the Japanese archipelago was rich enough to sustain a level of civilized life. Indeed the UK is a northern country but Japan is situated mainly in the Temperature Zone, though it faces Siberia over the Sea of Japan.
There are many differences in characteristics between the tow nations, but there are also some common features. And one of them is conservatism in terms of a monarchical system. While the mainland Europe and China have experienced revolution many times, both Japan and the UK have avoided drastic revolution at least on the permanent basis.
Even in terms of religion, there are some similar features. The English church is independent of the Vatican, while Japan has its unique shinto religion and its version of Buddhism.
And, as Japan has been a critical challenge to China especially in the modern history, the UK might be regarded as such by other continental European nations. So, it might be natural that the English people do not like to be completely absorbed by the EU, since the Japanese people feel so different from the Chinese people.
And, it is good for other peoples in the world that they can avoid facing the too strong unified western Europe or the too strong league of Japan and China. Even American political leaders would not like to deal with such powerful entities.
So, the world is well balance with Japan and the UK being reasonably separated from the continent each faces.
http://hanadayori2004.blog115.fc2.com/blog-entry-141.html
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