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I believe a lot of this is due to the US occupation of Japan after WWII which turned Japan in a democracy and gave it laws modeled after the American New Deal. More info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Japan#Outcomes_of...

Japan may be geographically close to lots of places, but culturally, they're not close to anywhere.

That's a very good point. I made that statement out of my perceived, and very naive, "closeness" to other cultures.

Read up on Japanese history and come to your own conclusions. It is a unique country unlike any other in the world.