My image of British and Australians

You can’t base your opinion of Britain on the film My Fair Lady. For one thing it was made over forty years ago and for another its set in the 19th century. It would be like me basing my opinion of Japan on the movie Akira.

Every country in the world has a class system of some sort whether it is called that or not.

There must be at least a hundred different accents & dialects of English in the United Kingdom, the vast majority of which have nothing to do with class. A person in Cardiff (Wales) is going to speak with a different accent to someone born in the London (England). And within each of those cities people will speak with different accents in different parts of the city. In the vast majority of cases the accent will have nothing to do with class or if it does it is coincidence.

Oh and you’re wrong about the UK not having much exposure to foreigners – it was conquered enough times and there was the Empire which covered two thirds of the globe. It wasn’t as isolationist as Japan was.

As a British citizen living in Japan, you’re definitely right that British people are more openly class-conscious than many other nations. A couple of thoughts I had reading through your comments:

“I do not understand why people speak with different accents in different parts of London”

Part of this is class-based, but not all of it. In any case, while British people identify with their class very closely from a psychological point of view, the working class in the UK tend to be fiercely proud of their background and have no desire to be absorbed into the middle class. Class in Britain is based far more on perceptions and upbringing than on work and money since discrimination based on class prejudice has in practice come down dramatically since the end of the war. To summarise, being “working class” is not necessarily undesirable for many people, and certainly not as much of a barrier to a successful life or career as it might seem.

Secondly, the Japanese education system teaches a kind of “standard Japanese” which perhaps has the effect of creating a more or less uniform pronunciation style within a region (correct me if I’m wrong, but there are still huge differences in dialect from region to region). This is supported by the media, which presents “NHK Japanese” as a national standard. In Britain, many people felt concerned that such a situation would result in the erosion of cherished local culture in favour of a London-centric standard. As a result, even though 90% of Britons go to state schools, they take a relaxed approach to spoken English and even the BBC now has a policy of including presenters and newsreaders with a variety of regional accents. The variations in dialect are a point of local or class pride and are a point of identification for communities. It’s a different attitude to Japan but it’s not based on prejudice.

Where class asserts itself is in the greater opportunities afforded to those who have access to money and employment connections. In this way, some aspects of the old class system can still be powerful (going to the right school etc.) but you’ll find that this is just as pronounced in the United States, it’s just that people are less psychologically conscious of class and less likely to self-identify according to it.

I just found this blog, I really like it and look forward to reading more of your posts but….

You’re making making presumptions about British culture based on the film “My Fair Lady”?

Wow!!!!

Lets put this in perspective, you are basing your opinion about the British on an American film staring a Belgian.

Seriously, at no time while watching the song and dance spectacular did it occur to you that maybe, just maybe this film does not represent every day life in London.

“It seems that some Australians dream to go to England and live and work there”

that`s logical,australia was a british colony (it is still in commonwealth ) and people tend sometimes to return to their roots

Again with the generalising. We don’t dream of going to England. And the whole ‘roots’ idea is ridiculous. Australia is multicultural. Sure the English threw some prisoners here, but since that time the mass of imigration has come from predominantly NON English countries. Melbourne is the third largest Greek city from what I repeatedly here…

Sure, we might like to visit England and look around, but no more than any other country.

And the only reason we’re still in the Commonwealth is because our last PM was a bastard. HE didn’t want a Republic so he framed a confusing question for our constitutional referendum. Now Aust. Constitutional Law needs a 66% majority from my memory, as well as something to do with a majority across all states, in order for a refendum to succeed. But when the Prime Minister asks a question that has several subquestions attached to it, nobody really had a clue what they were doing.

Nevermind. Australia will eventually move away from England in my opinion. What connection do we really have? She visits how often? What power does she have, or influence? Not much anymore. It only seems natural that Australia will continue to separate from England, as it has been doing for a fair while now.

You’re a tosser.

As for “It seems that some Australians dream to go to England and live and work there and are not proud of being Australian.” I am very proud of being an Aussie and wouldn’t choose to live anywhere else. I have absolutely no interest in going to the snobby land of GB. My home is Australia and it will always be.

I always knew you Japs were a little crazy.

Nowadays in England I would say that the class barrier is nearly gone, and that most classes get along with each other, at least up in Liverpool and the north. What we do have is a divide between the North and the South, we look down on the South for being Posh and just for being from down south, the same goes for them they look down on us, for being North and viewing us as common. In Liverpool we look down on a place called Southport because they don’t like to be a part of us and for their snobbery the same way they think they’re better than us. But the thing to remember is that not everyone is like the steriotype that is associated with them. I have a friend best friend from Southport and my other best friend came from London and has a London accent. I think Londoners have different accents from the old class separation such as rich people going to one school and poor people to another.

Generally us and Austrailians get along, in fact I would think I’m safe to say we see Austrailians as being like ourselves even if they do take the mick out of us, they share a lot of our slang and we have a connection, we share the same view of America, I do I think America and Americans are Arrgant and Ignorant and I don’t like the way they throw there weight around. I don’t think we share the same connection as we do with Aussies, we see them as being full of themselves where as aussies being down to earth. Although again I have an American penpal who is very nice.

I also have to say that we had a great trading with China and Liverpool has a very old and big Chinese community. So we have mixed and I don’t need to mention about the countless invasions we’ve had.

I have to admit I do judge Americans before I’ve met them, If I see one I think they’re the steriotype or if I hear one, even in my own country, but what I always keep in mind to help me is that we they might not be like that and not to judge one person against a mass of people.

Hi, I came across this blog by chance, and just wanted to say that the different accents and dialects in the UK are not the result of discrimination. In fact, most people here in the UK appreciate the fact that people from different classes and areas of the UK speak differently, and many people are actually proud of their particular accent. There are even programs going here that aim to preserve accents that are diappearing!

Yes, accents can be used as a stick to beat people with, but that is beause they’re distinctive. Maybe in Japan there are no real language differences, but surely if someone, say, dresses differently or has an odd hobby, then someone will decide to be a snob and use it against them. It’s no different. All over the world there are people who will look down their nose at people for how they look or where they come from, or how much money their parents have. It is no worse in Britain than it is anywhere else.

I admit the UK is class conscious, but that’s because a lot of people here are obsessed with putting everyone and everything in a box. Many Brits seem to need to group people- and that means class, race, gender, sexuality… there’s a word for everything a person can possibly be.

I remember when I saw the start of My Fair Lady. I was disgusted too- but not at the cockney woman using her dialect, but at the man prancing around, saying how horrible it was that not everyone spoke English like he did. He came across to me as a very arrogant and narrow-minded person who thought that anything he didn’t do was wrong.

It’s just a cultural difference. Brits have lots of regional accents; Japanese have few. Brits are OK with their various accents and don’t see it as a problem; Japanese are OK with having few changes in dialect. Neither country is right or wrong, it’s just the way it is. They’re different countries, and therefore have different cultures.

And Britain has always had immgrants- normally other races came in during invasions. Many people from the North, for example, are actually descended from Danish and Norweigian people who invaded centuries ago. In the 1800′s we had Irish come here to get away from the potato famine. In the 1950′s we had Jamaicans come over to fill the gaps in the work force. Now we have a lot of people from Asia and Eastern Europe who come for either asylum or job opportunities.

Australian do not look down on Americans, we just find many Americans annoying. There just seems to be this feeling that Americans have an air superiority. Not too mention the over the top patriot stance. It’s always “U.S.A, U.S.A, U.S.A” Don’t get me wrong I have no prblem with national pride, but Americans seem to shove it in your face constantly?

I know that Australia has a long way to come, before it overcomes certain prejudices, but does not every nation?

Also the reason Australians travel to the UK, is because many Australians still have cultural ties with the UK, working in the UK is a lot easier than any other country if you have an English/UK background. Don’t forget that anglo-saxon people still make up the majority in Australia. I think if you visited London you would see most Australian are very proud to be Australian.

By the way I am not your typical Aussie, my parents are Indian and I was born in Australia, but I still have a strong sense of what it is to be Australian, and sometimes even think characters like the Crocodile Hunter don’t really portray the real Australia.

You seem to be speaking as if the UK is behind Japan in a society sense… The class system, no longer exsists, just like in Japan.

The poll in The Guardian’s article is one of perceptions and confirms that British people are likely to self-identify according to class.

I’ve lived in Japan for a little under eight years now and there are obviously differences between Japan and Britain (as well as innumerably similarities). Japan has a smaller gap between rich and poor than the U.K. (although the U.K. has a smaller gap than the United States), and Japanese people are far less conscious of class. In fact, in my experience many Japanese don’t like the concept even being discussed in relation to Japanese society. If I was pushed to make a generalisation, I’d say that Japanese people are often very proud of the cultural traits that unite them as a people, with Japan’s “homogeneity” often considered a point of pride. British people are often very proud of the traits that separate them from others, with class often a strong point of identification. In practice, I think Japan is far less homogeneous than its image and Britain is probably far less culturally stratified than its people think. To summarise, the difference is far more about how people see themselves, which is an important factor in a society, but you’d need to go into more easily measurable factors, particularly economics, if you want to make any kind of useful comparison between class mobility in any two given countries.

>Dudesworthy
“…like Japan, where rigid government control has apparently stamped out all regional accents.”

There are radical differences in accent between different parts of Japan. Someone with a strong Aomori dialect would be almost unintelligible to someone from Kagoshima. Okinawa retains both its own distinct dialect of Japanese as well as its own language and culture from before the Ryukyu Islands were formally annexed in 1879. The Ainu people, mostly living in Hokkaido, similarly retain a cultural identity and language distinct from mainstream Japanese society.

“…you can’t even become a citizen unless you have Japanese ancestry.”

You can become a citizen after living in Japan for a certain number of years (not sure exactly how many). It’s very similar to the U.K.’s policy on naturalisation.

“Lower class” is not a standard phrase in English. “Working class” is, and as I’ve said several times (although you have yet to address or acknowledge it), it is a label that people are happy to self-identify under. There are a lot of extremely rich people who came from a working class background, and they will still identify themselves as “working class” because they are proud of their roots.

Your Canadian friend’s comment is simplistic and a huge generalisation, but there’s a seed of truth in it. Britain is a small country with a large population and high living costs. People who are already wealthy have typically been able to secure the best education for their children and thus there is a huge advantage to coming from a rich family. The option of emigrating to Canada or Australia for a new start has been attractive for a lot of people, certainly.

There is a problem with class mobility (as there is to a greater extent in the United States) where growing numbers of people at the very bottom of the socio-economic scale are trapped by debt, bad education and low expectations from their parents and peers. This is not unique to Britain though and it is a problem inherent in modern capitalist societies, including the USA and France.

I don’t think any of your examples point to Britain being any more discriminatory a society than most places. In fact I think you’re barking up the wrong tree entirely by clinging to this idea of class discrimination. Schools in Britain (and I would imagine most countries) are constantly drilling home the message of anti-discrimination, which seems a no-brainer to me. You’re mixing up the idea of traditional privileged classes, such as the Japanese or British aristocracy, with contemporary class issues. Class nowadays is mostly defined by economic factors, which ensure that the rich get access to the best education and contacts. It’s not just the Emperor’s family in Japan who are privileged: it’s also the families of top executives of Sony, Mori Construction, Uniqlo, Matsumoto Kiyoshi, Toyota, Idemitsu, Ito Yokado, etc. These kids get to go to the best private schools, get easy passes into the top universities, and get the best contacts for the top jobs when they finish their education. This isn’t a matter of historically rooted social discrimination, this is a basic function of capitalism, i.e. wealth accrues to the wealthy.

Class discrimination is more or less a thing of the past in the UK as the kinds of people who discriminate have immigration to make a fuss about. Though, you might get the odd jokes about the north and south of UK. I do agree that the English tend to look down on the U.S but that most likely do to the media always referring to us as practically American and don’t forget that there is around 60 million people in the UK and a large part of them are from other countries with different view on the USA. But if I was to ask a person in the street now ‘what they thought of American’ most would say “Ignorant, self-centered, evangelical and a tad exocentric”. plus from a personal point of view its a bit annoying seing the english language being messed about by them and Japan following suit (ie: Color instead of Colour etc…) but thats about it really for me as i think every country has its good and bad people.

I think people replying to this blog are confusing the issue somewhat.

In reality there is no longer a “lower class” in the UK in the way it is shown in “My Fair Lady”.

Virtually everyone here is middle class, most people live comfortable lives, with enough money for food, heating, and non essentials, everyone gets a proper education, and they also get time off from work as standard and often go on holidays overseas.

The fundamental problem here with your link to the Guardian is that in Britain it is considered cool to be working class (lower class) whilst in Japan it sounds as though its more of a derogatory term.

Here the Working Class is associated with a strong willed, hard working, no nonsence outlook on life, the backbone people of the country, the ones who keep it going, the “salt of the earth”

I’ve looked into the standard of life in Japan before, all these British people who claim to be working class in the UK make more money, and work FAR less hours than the average Japanese person.

The Upper Class certainly still exists, but makes up a very small percentage of the UK population, these people have pretty much no effect on people’s way of life anymore, they’re just left to enjoy their money and play around with their horses, and honestly nobody really takes any notice of them anymore at all.

On the other notes –

You are simply incorrect about the ethnic state of the UK, the UK is easily one of the most diverse countries in the whole of Europe, if not the most diverse.

The reasons for this are -

The UK is much easier than the other European countries to move to and get a job, which means that huge amounts of immigrants travel here to find work.

The UK has a long history of being invaded by other countries, the Romans, the French, the Germans, and the Scandinavian countries all invaded and settled with the native people in the early history of the country.

The UK also had a very big empire at one stage which reached accross the world, most countries which were previously in the Empire are now part of the Commonwealth, and are afforded more rights to live here, due to these rights, as well as shared heritage we have an extremely high number of Indians, Pakistanis, Zimbabweans, and Jamaicans living here.

The previous section also helps to answer one of your other questions.

One of the reasons why there is so many different accents in the UK is because its such an ethnically divere place, for instance, there’s a fairly common accent in London used by young people which is literally a cross between the London accent, and a Jamaican accent, there were so many people of Jamaican descent in those areas that new accents developed.

So basically in the UK we have differences in accent depending on where we live (just like Japan) but we also have the “proper accent” which is only really used by upper class people and rarely heard, and accents based on the ethnic diversity of the country.

I’ve been to Asia a fair bit and know several Asians, admittedly mostly Chinese and Koreans but I’ve been to Japan and I have to say that race and class matter way more Asians, particularly Chinese and Koreans, than to westerners. Class means something slightly different there, it just means money whereas in England it means education, job and upbringing. Nonetheless, money and class matter way more to them and that leads on to arranged marriages and someone’s richness being considered a positive personality trait on a par with good looks, the latter also much more important to Asians, and superior to intelligence or wit. I don’t want to tar Japan with the same brush but I would imagine it’s a pan-sinic culture thing. I would say that guardian article is a much better example of evidence that British are hypersensitive to class and social mobility, making it similar to something like racism. I’ve noticed this sensitivity when I’ve been with Chinese people. I love the way in China you can shout at and insult the staff and complain about poor service, in England you can’t and I’ve seen the astonished looks of waitresses at their treatment by their Chinese patrons in London. In other words there is poor social mobility in East Asia and England, but in England it’s considered a problem whereas it isn’t in Asia.

To go back to the 13th century expulsion of Jews is not accurate on the one hand because it happened 800 years ago and also it was happening all over Europe at the time so is not a good marker of xenophobia, also Britain is not that far from Europe. In fact, Britain is more ethnically diverse than most other countries and has the most mixed race relationships in the world.

In my experience and in the media Asians are the most racist people around. Race is important to Asians and I am very lucky to be white in China. It doesn’t matter what colour your skin is in Europe but in Asia if you’re black then they can openly not employ you for being black, there is the pervasive AIDS stereotype, they think you smell, plus you get looked down upon for being from a poor country whereas in China you get looked up to just for being white. But the most virulent racism is reserved for their neighbours; Japanese hate Chinese, Chinese hate Japanese and Koreans hate everyone. It’s not like playful rivalry between European countries, in China there are anti-Japanese marches and lynch mobs on the Nanjing Massacre anniversary and in Korean elementary schools they have exhibitions on why Japan is evil. This is a pan-Asian thing too and, I think, based on the culture and development of a racial nation state. Despite the political differences between the systems, Japan, S.Korea, N.Korea and China all have political systems based on race, particularly Korea and maybe not China, perhaps not race but a strong nationalist ideology in which jingoism, or patriotism, is important. All believe they are inherently superior to their neighbours and all are way less cosmopolitan than the countries of N. and S.America, Australia, Europe or S.Africa. Also, after the Second World War Germany and Japan were forced to become liberal democracies and Germany has turned into a very progressive, liberal country that embodies European left wing values. Japan, despite the occupation, is a relatively authoritarian democracy where the same political party remain in power for a long time, you still have execution and you still have strong ideas of Japaneseness that have been forced out of Germany. For these reasons, on both racism and class barriers, I think Blighty and Oz are more progressive.

“The U.K. is an island country, which did not have a lot of chances to have many foreigners in the past!
Derp

Celts
Romans
Britons
Saxons
Normans
Vikings
Germans
Spaniards

Nope, none of them ever settled/had lots of wars wars with Britain.

Also:
The empire never caused generations of mass-emigration to the U.K, and thus I was never born. What a surprise to me!

Quite a skewed view, but refreshing for a Japanese person to speak so frankly of their (somewhat ill-informed) opinions.
I respect such an opinion and have no great prejudices towards any people; However I do harbour a distaste for the ill-informed. One must realise that obtaining ones views from second source information and 1960s American musicals is rather an ignorant way of collecting an opinion of another culture. Especially from an ex-colony of that culture that still holds popularised stereotypes of “the cockney whelp” or the “stupid toff”. From one who has lived in both America and Japan, and who has very good friends in both countries, realise that you’re in the ‘old west’ and our culture and values are quite disparitive to our American cousins, let alone to Japanese people.
Thank you

I just wanted to say that your comments about Australians looking down on Americans are quite ridiculous. If we are going to be making generalisations, I would say that Australians see Americans as alies and friends before anything else. You are correct in saying that Australians will often make negative comments regarding American culture and people, however rarely is it ‘looking down on Americans’.
Australian people are quick to criticise and question and are usually the first to criticise their own country and government.
You do not understand the modern Australian mindset and sense of humor. You obviously know nothing about Australian history and the White Australia policy.
This post is completely uninformed. As an Australian who had been living in Japan for the past two years I feel embarrassed reading this.

That is a huge generalization about the whole of the Australian continent! What do your base your conclusions on? For the record, I’m an Australian woman who has been happily married for the past 25 years to a Tamil (Sri Lankan) man. We have a daughter. My sister and her husband adopted their daughter from Indonesia and the whole family adore her just as much as they love my daughter abd the other children in our mixed-race families.
Alison

Some very black and white views here.
Actually some observations are very well stated but to large extent non factual.

My own opinion? Us English are now picking our friends very wisely, never has there been stronger and closer links between Japan and the UK, you will see a lot more of this in the next decade due to common interests and free trade agreements.

I laughed at your warming to the UK regarding the class system! You will find the class system died somewhere around 1940, just when Britain needed to move on.

By the way, there is a massive miss-conception that Japan is, shall I say, lukewarm to foreigners? I can honestly say that after visiting many times nothing can be further from the truth.
Kind hearts, hospitality and respect is what you receive when visiting Japan.

Oh my. First I think I need to correct your education. Japan did not win the war against China, it had two nukes dropped on it and was forced to abandon any military action, and was subsequently conquered by Americans, who mantain a presence in the Pacific even now. Japan also never colonized Korea, it is a completely seperate entity. In fact, most evidence says the Japanese people were originally Korean immigrants some thousands of years ago. Okay, thats done.

Secondly, your whole perception of other countries seems to be based on the idea that Japan has a perfect class system. It does not. Remember that not so long ago Japan was an tyrannical empire. Today’s government is just an attempt at remedying the mistakes of the past, and laws and regulations will only be revised again and again to adapt to changes and fit around the views of the population. The same is true of America, the UK, Australia, and every country.

As far as discrimination against blacks, I feel that is a generational thing. I am British, so I can’t speak for the other countries, but here it is mostly the older generations that are prejudiced against other races. As time goes on it will be phased out, and hostility forgotten. It is much like Japanese feelings toward China and Korea.

I hope I didn’t offend you, I just wanted to get a point across.

As an Australian who grew up in Darwin and Sydney from the 1950s, I would agree with your assessment that “some” Australians look down on Americans. I agree that quite a few do as Australia has long been unapologetically Euro-centric. My history class as a 14year old consisted of English history: the war of the Roses, the Tudors, etc. It was like civilization began in England. In 3 years of history we never left the “old country” except when the French or whoever invaded England. (We did not even cover Aussie history once in 3 years!) The teacher was always upset that I seemed uninterested in his classes. The amazing thing to me was that nobody else thought the same. The class was full of the school’s elite students – now they are all doctors, dentists, lawyers – and they lapped it all up. My family in the 1970s owned a newsagency- know that term? It’s a store that sells newspapers & magazines. The magazines then were full of features of the royal family.Aussie women loved these articles. Another amazing example I can recall is when the movie Amadeus came out in the mid-1980s. My colleague complained that the actor playing Mozart spoke with an “American accent”. The others listening nodded in agreement while I silently shook my head. Having a British actor and accent would make no difference as Mozart never spoke English anyway!

Forgive the other Aussies who disagreed with you – like those in my examples above, they are not even aware of their in-built bias.

But for them to deny racism in Australia after the Sydney race riots (more like a civil war) at the beaches just several years back is just stupid. More personally, I am a professor at a Japanese university and I am ashamed to have to try to help when my students complain of having eggs or bottles thrown at them when studying abroad in Cairns, Surfers Paradise & Hobart. It is not black Aussies who are throwing these things -yes, you guessed it, the white Aussies. Aussies are proud to boast how their life expectancies are 2nd only to Japan’s (79 for men & 84 for women). What they don’t talk about is how aborigines living in the very same country only live to 59 (men) and 65 (women). What do all those Aussies arguing about the benefits of “multiculturalism” have to say now?

The White Australia Policy is no longer official, but sadly, it has not gone away.

Hi,
I’m from England, Liverpool and I was very surprised when I read this as most of your views on Britain aren’t true. My father was brought up working class, but now he is very much middle class. I myself am working class . I think that the isn’t that much of a class dived any more .My impression of Japan was that classes where divided but obviously I was wrong as you seem to be so annoyed of the UK. As for the accent thing I attend an all girls quite posh school and to be honest some of the very posh girls have a stronger accent then me. I think accents are more about where your from rather then class. And my fair lady is a old film, so yeah the probably was more of an accent divide but not anymore…

I have always been fascinated by Japanese culture and one thing I have discovered through talking to Japanese people that when White or black people go to Japan they are stared at. I found this very odd because In the U.K it is very normal to see people of all diffrent races. So if anything I think this shows that England is more of an accepting socity then Japan.

Hi Japaneseview, I’m English.

The article in the Guardian was written by Julian Glover, speechwriter for (now Conservative Prime Minister), David Cameron. It’s his job to attack the Labour regime, a regime which stands for social progress, and he doesn’t even do that very well! The article is all about people’s perceptions of their own class and has very little, if any, factual content regarding social mobility. Mr. Glover throws around worthless statistics: 53%; 55%; 47%… hardly anything shocking there! Social mobility is what you’re struggling to understand when reading about British (or possibly only English, which is fine), culture, and watching films set in Edwardian England. The same news article could have been written by a socialist, using the very same statistics, and put in a positive light, e.g: “Those who percieve themselves as working class have dropped by two percent in only ten years! That rate of change over a century ((since the time of the events in the fictitious My Fair Lady to now)), equates to one fifth of the entire popoulous!”
I consider myself more conservative than socialist, and still I can see right through such sensationalist news stories.

As many British (not Canadian, American, or otherwise), people have stated here, in Britain, class is not a barrier anymore, it’s a matter of pride, most prominently for high-achieving people from the working class. One can be born into a poor family and still have access to free medical care, libraries, full schooling and university – every opportunity needed to reach a high-paying job, high standard of living, higher ‘class’ for their children.

From what I’ve read here and elsewhere, it seems that both Britain and Japan are mostly egalitarian societies, we just approach it from different angles. In Japan, APPARENTLY, class is not an issue beause it’s simply not discussed. To do so is considered discrimination. If that’s true then that’s fine, that’s your custom. In Britain, we achieve egalitarianism actually by discussing class, not keeping it a secret but dealing with it and encouraging equal opportunities.

I appreciate your interest in British culture above all else discussed here and I don’t think it’s wrong to PARTIALLY inform your views of a culture with critical works of art produced by that culture. My Fair Lady is a good example with which to inform your HISTORY of Britain.
And please don’t be disconcerted by Dudesworthy’s reactionary comments, it’s also not wrong for you to ask questions about unfamiliar cultures! We are very friendly and welcoming people over here!

I realise this thread was originally posted four years ago, but I came here as a result of searching for ‘japanese view england’, and read all the way to the bottom, so I’m sure many Asians, British, Aussies and others will!

All the best