Thread by @Noahpinion

1/I have to say, though royalty is generally a silly institution, I'm very happy to see Americans paying some attention to the Japanese royal succession.

bloomberg.com/news/features/…

2/Inevitably, a bit of this attention is just to say "OMG Japan is turning fascist", which for the record I think is completely wrong:

https://twitter.com/nick_kapur/status/1112703951646937088

3/But I think most of the attention is positive. Americans are really starting to care about Japan more, and to feel more of a "special relationship" with that country.

That's a very good thing IMO.

4/Traditionally, Americans have looked at Britain (and, to a lesser extent, France) as their "parent" civilization - a source of ideas, institutions, pop culture, and collective myth.

I've always argued that we should see Japan in a similar way.

5/There are few institutions that we explicitly modeled off of Japanese ones (usually the transfer went in the other direction).

But there are many things we could NOW learn from Japan.

For example, how to build dense, livable cities.

https://twitter.com/SFyimby/status/1049488247657615360

6/Or how to build good rail systems, which is closely related.

expatior.com/the-best-railw…

7/I've also argued that there's lots we could learn from Japan's education system.

theatlantic.com/education/arch…

8/And I think Japan's health care system could be the best model for our own.

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

9/Japanese lifestyle habits and public policies also tend to encourage good health.

indiatimes.com/health/healthy…

10/I also believe that we should take more cultural elements from Japan.

And of course, this is happening to some extent, with the large and growing popularity of Japanese pop culture (cartoons, video games, comics, etc.).

spectator.co.uk/2015/01/how-ja…

11/Why has America been slow to look to Japan for examples on how to improve its own institutions?

The obvious reason is race. Japanese exceptionalism in urbanism, health, etc. was often assumed to be some sort of racial superpower, rather than the result of good institutions.

12/Japan, unlike Britain, has not been a major source of American population, thanks to the racist immigration restrictions of the past.

But some Asian Americans look to Japan as a source of inspiration, even if their own ancestors are not from there. And that bodes well.

13/It's my hope that in the years to come, America will develop a "special relationship" with Japan similar to what we've typically had with Britain.

Obsessing over an imperial succession might be a sign that this is starting to happen!

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