Japan

Ian Buruma (in Year Zero, 2013) - In [1945] Germany, at least, the Nazis could be blamed for everything. The Japanese, lacking their own version of the Nazi Party, blamed their catastrophe on “the militarists,” and, by extension, on anyone associated with the armed forces. This was also the view promoted in postwar U.S. propaganda, faithfully echoed in the Japanese press.

John Hooper - When foreigners look around for a country with which to compare Italy, they usually light on Spain, or maybe France or Portugal, where the cultures are actually very different. No one ever mentions Japan. Yet it has often struck me that il piacere di stare insieme is one of several things that link the Italians to the Japanese. Both put a high value on the appearance of things. The Japanese, like the Italians, have a recent history of wielding an economic power that far exceeded their influence on the world stage. Both have traditionally had a high level of savings. Both have a tendency to form anticompetitive, cartel-like structures and partly for that reason have engendered seemingly indestructible organized-crime syndicates.* Japan, like Italy, is highly seismic. And both are long, narrow countries where the vast majority of the population is crammed into river valleys and narrow strips of land along the coast. You have only to look at the hinterland of Naples or the near endless conurbation that follows the Po to the sea to realize how accustomed Italians are to living cheek by jowl.

Jesper Koll (Head of research at JPMorgan in Tokyo) - Rule number one, never underestimate the ability and the willingness of Japanese people to suffer together, and number two, never underestimate the ability and the willingness of politicians to ensure that rule one applies.