Japanese Confucianism is more horizontal. A child's allegiance is to the state, not the father. To more 'democratic' cultures this brings to mind a child reporting unpatriotic behavior to the thought police. Many foreigners resident in Japan express dismay at the Japanese family unit.

About autumn 1993 I was walking with another JET in 仙台; about to enter the 書店街 from a side street. He expressed disappointment at the Japanese. On that occasion and others, I suggested that Japan was a great place to raise a child. I'm not alone. Parents of my daughter's Australian 靭本町保育園 classmate purposefully moved to Japan to have their child.

Ostensibly close knit, the Japanese family unit can seem very cold, particularly to Americans who wear their hearts on their sleeve.

in search of a seizure

State Shintoism is an American invention. Perhaps the only worthy thing Americans have ever done, and ever will do, in Japan. MacArthur was an avid royalist. (In Japanese, a woman is female first, and then royal. A princess is royal first and then female.) State Shintoism split cemeteries from shrines, as occurred at the meeting location of my local Practical Ethics Society. Historically, the Emperor led the church, Buddhist and Shinto. Splitting the two gave, arguably, the single greatest flourishing of Buddhist empowerment the world will ever see.