yeah japan is sometimes part of "the west" but it's not western. i mentioned in another comment that this is perhaps an opposite to the latam situation.
being "western" and 3 bucks will buy you a cup of coffee
it just doesn't matter and I think it's sus to worry about it. the only reason anybody cares about how "western" they are is to position themselves as better than someone else for the purposes of exploiting them. or, maybe to try to assuage bad feelings from being in a low hierarchical rung themselves and excluded from the imperial core. still not a good look.
I'd also argue Japan is more "western" than, say, Colombia in most cultural ways too. Full internalization of Western art, music, and most importantly political and governance structures, which are sort of a superficial veneer in most of Latam.
yeah japan is sometimes part of "the west" but it's not western. i mentioned in another comment that this is perhaps an opposite to the latam situation.
being "western" and 3 bucks will buy you a cup of coffee
it just doesn't matter and I think it's sus to worry about it. the only reason anybody cares about how "western" they are is to position themselves as better than someone else for the purposes of exploiting them. or, maybe to try to assuage bad feelings from being in a low hierarchical rung themselves and excluded from the imperial core. still not a good look.
I'd also argue Japan is more "western" than, say, Colombia in most cultural ways too. Full internalization of Western art, music, and most importantly political and governance structures, which are sort of a superficial veneer in most of Latam.