‘Beyond the Galapagos Syndrome’: Mapping the Future of UK-Japan Economic Cooperation Luke Cavanaugh (ed.), Olivia Bisbee, Owain Cooke, Kezzie Florin-Sefton, Elizabeth Steel
For many years, the cultures of Japan and the UK were seen as too fundamentally different to facilitate cooperation. For instance, the cultural foundations of both nations’ economic models were seen as wholly different, with the UK economy being perceived as market driven and detached from socio-cultural life, and the Japanese economy being historically governed by more socially oriented principles, such as the aforementioned ‘zaibatsu’.20 In addition to the collapse of these cultural divides, there are other factors which appear to make the UK and Japan sufficiently culturally compatible to facilitate future cooperation. For example, both Japan and the UK have comparable national identities as small island nations, which are culturally similar to the nearby continental landmass (China and Europe respectively) with large aspects of British culture being derived from Roman-Greco influence in Europe and the Confucian ways of the Sino-Sphere being transferred from China to Japan.21 Crucially, both Japan and the UK work hard to distance themselves from their derivative roots – for instance, both nations have royal families and associated traditions and customs which stretch back over years, which marks them out as distinct. Kornicki, Best and Cortazzi’s book on the British Royal and Japanese Imperial Relations documents the diplomatic significance of the relationship between the two royal families, as both a point of similarity, and a point of diplomatic closeness.22 This similar cultural factor places Britain and Japan in a unique position to understand the other's world status, and thus cooperate in a mutually beneficial way. These similarities are not new – however, in light of Japan’s recent receptiveness to international cooperation, these cultural
20
Alan McFarlane, Japan Through the Looking Glass, (Profile Books 2008) Martha Peraki and Catherine Vougiouklaki, ‘How has Greek influenced the English language’ (British Council, 18 May 2015), < https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/23/japan-immigration-policy-xenophobia-migration/ > accessed 27/08/2021 // Jeffrey A. Bader ‘China’s Role in East Asia: Now and the Future’ (Brookings, 6 September 2005) < https://www.brookings.edu/on-the-record/chinas-role-in-east-asia-now-and-the-future/> accessed 27/08/2021 22 Peter Kornicki, Anthony Best and Hugh Cortazzi, British royal and Japanese imperial relations, 1868-2018: 150 years of association, engagement, and celebration, (Renaissance Books, 2019) 21
13
