In terms of the mentality of their respective average citizens, it may not be easy to find two countries that are so different from each other as Israel and Japan. Their sociocultural differences may be characterized by such pairs of terms as directness vs. indirectness, rudeness vs. politeness, informality vs. formality, to name just a few. But these two countries also have some positive things in common; for example, they are probably the only mature democracies in Asia, and important contributors to the advancement of the world's science and technology. Recently I have noticed one more commonality between Israel and Japan, but unfortunately, it's a negative one which has nothing to do with them.
Israel and Japan have been put to a series of attempts by their respective haters to demonize them. Israel has been accused by a group of rogue countries, mostly on the basis of religious hatred, and sometimes even by the whole world, including some of the otherwise civilized and fair countries in Western Europe. Japan has been harassed by a pair of no less rogue "brother" countries - let's call the older and younger "brothers" X and Y respectively - that keep distorting and even fabricating history not only about Japan but also about themselves.
Though Israel seems to be hated by more countries than Japan is, I'm not sure anymore if the latter is in a less bad situation, as the harassment it has been absorbing is rather subtle, mainly because Y has been considered erroneously as a civilized country. Fortunately, the whole world has started to witness how "courageous" it is in its incessant attempts to depict Japan as the enemy of the humankind, while it doesn't stop copying many things Japanese, including karate, kendo, sushi, etc., and doesn't even feel ashamed to claim that they are of Y's origin.
Actually, I feel really sorry for Y's citizens, as Y has been X's dependency for about one thousand years, so it has no glorious history to teach its children at school. Instead, it hasn't had no choice but to fabricate its own history and demonize Japan, which actually civilized it. What does Japan get in return? Normal countries wouldn't stop thanking it, but instead, Y keeps accusing Japan and asking for monetary compensations. Because of Y's false accusations I've started learning about Y and its history; quite surprisingly, the more I know Y, the more disappointed I am with it. To the best of my knowledge, it's the only country in the whole world whose very existence is based on a series of lies. Even those countries that hate Israel have something to be proud of about themselves.
I have to "confess" that as far as I'm concerned, I don't know any better farce than a body called the *nited *ations, which was founded on noble causes but has been "hijacked" in the meanwhile by rogue countries, including X and Y. Its Human Rights Council is a real shame to humanity. I think both Israel and Japan, together with the United States, the United Kingdom and other civilized countries, should abandon this defunct organization and establish a kind of new "exclusive club" whose membership will be checked rigorously.
I'd like to conclude this rant of mine by saying that there is one thing that Japan should learn from Israel. It shouldn't remain silent when it's accused falsely. As an old cliché says, offense is the best defense.
