Hierarchy

One reason Japanese society is so cohesive, even as the rest of the developed nations suffer identity crises en masse, is that the society has a built in respect for authority. You defer to your superiors generally unquestioningly, even if you disagree; the word 'gambare' is used to mean 'endurance', often in respect to putting up with your boss. (This is why I have such trouble with my idiotic boss; he took to the new environment with great enthusiasm and now tries to instill a similar meekness amongst his non-Japanese employees too.)

The hierarchy has endured here because it is so entrenched, and I'd argue that at least in part that is due to the structure of the language. English places the individual before the institution; "I work for X bank" and so on. Japanese is reversed: "Mitubishi no shain desu" - Mitsubishi-possessive-employee-am. It's found elsewhere, too; you say your family name first, the line of your descent, and then your first name, the individual expression of something larger. I don't know much linguistics, but generally, the most important parts of a sentence come first. By giving primacy to the family, the employers, you subordinate the self into a greater whole. It must lend such strength and meaning to their lives, to feel like the whole is greater than the individual, meaning and also perhaps a form of terror about being scrutinised on a daily basis.

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While contemporary Japanese society appears remarkably cohesive, genetically, culturally and ideologically and hence gives the appearance of a tradition dating back millenia, it's not the case at all. Feudalism endured in Japan right up until the Meiji Restoration, in the late 19th century. Prior to that, Japan was torn apart and put back together by a succession of shoguns and emperors. It even possessed a well developed caste system. The lowest rung on the caste ladder was occupied by the burakumin, the people who killed animals and performed the dirty necessities. They were segregated and avoided, and even today indirect discrimination against them continues and for a foreigner to bring up the topic is very rude.

Then came the Meiji Restoration and then later the militarist buildup and the brief, bloody empire of the Rising Sun; Japan threw off its self-imposed isolation and went out to conquer its neighbours because the Europe countries had already acquired themselves nice pieces of the Earth and Japan wanted in on that too. Now, Japanese society appears homogenous, the feudal system vanquished by the American occupation and the shock of a chosen people being defeated. I think perhaps this homogeneity came about because when Japan at last had to open itself to the rest of the world, the Japanese united against a common foe, as in every sci-fi movie. The internal squabbles became meaningless when confronted by a world of marked difference.

Geography is crucially important to culture. Both Japan and England are islands. Islands breed isolation and superiority. But both countries broke out of their islands and went and conquered those they saw as lesser; the British harnessed Darwinism to put themselves at the head of the myriad races, as natural superiors and the Japanese did too; the Rape of Nanking, the atrocities in occupied Korea are still remembered bitterly today. The recent riots in China and the war of words between Japan and Korea over a few contested islands testify to that.

It reminds me of Life, The Universe and Everything, the third Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. In short, the planet Krikkit was a peaceful place, hidden from the rest of the galaxy by a dust cloud until a spaceship crashlanded and shocked them from their complacency. They built their own spaceships and went out a-plundering. Their complete lack of contact with other cultures made it possible for them to make them subhuman, conceptually, and I think that maybe that's why both England and Japan did what they did.