Editorial article:

The World Map

It's interesting how living in Japan makes you perceive the world atlas differently. You get the feeling that North America is actually very close to you, and countries such as South Korea or China are very far, and Europe is somewhere "over there", even more far. Many Japanese feel that presence of China separates Europe from Asia, and that it's somewhat troublesome to "get over it".

The influence of United States is very important point I think, because the America is so much present in Japanese life and culture. Still, it is true that Japanese customs and people's habits resemble more Asian countries than West. Still people feel that United States is just accross the sea, while the mountaineous region of China and both of the Koreas are somewhat far away and inaccessible.

Japanese World Map shows Japan in the center. To the West is China and Europe and to the East is America. And big area of this map is the Pacific Ocean. Often I hear people describing the vast Ocean to the west makes Japan "open" to the influence from America, while the area to the East is somewhat difficult to cross. Although the sea has protected Japan from invasion from another countries through the centuries, it seems that the sea seems also lacking some kind of a psychological barrier.

Often Japanese describe that it's difficult to imagine living in a country which shares directly a borderline with neighboring country. The Pacific Ocean has a big importance for Japanese.

The ocean itself, is of course empty. There are no convenience stores or tall buildings. In Japanese world map, Japan seems surprisingly isolated, almost lonely, and the rest of the world seems out of reach.

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