For Japanese people, the United Kingdom is a strange kind of country: there are an unusual number of things about it that already feel familiar.
Even without ever seriously studying Britain, people in Japan encounter pieces of it through school, television, music, football, films and books.
Names like Oxford and Cambridge are also widely known in Japan.
Even people who know little about the universities themselves often have a general image of them as very old and prestigious British institutions.
The British royal family is familiar too.
For many years, Queen Elizabeth II was so well known that simply saying “the Queen” was enough for many Japanese people to picture her.
Princess Diana was especially popular in Japan.
Even people with little interest in British politics often knew her face and the story of her life. At least in my own memory, it is difficult to think of many foreign royals who became so widely known and felt so familiar to people in Japan.
The present royal family is known too, but Elizabeth II and Diana seem to occupy a slightly different place in Japanese memory.
There is also the long-standing image of the “British gentleman.”
A well-cut suit, good manners, emotional restraint, intelligence, slightly dry humor and perhaps even an umbrella.
It is obviously a stereotype, but it is one that has survived in Japan for a remarkably long time.
Many Japanese people have also discovered Britain through football.
Shinji Kagawa played for Manchester United. Shinji Okazaki was part of Leicester City’s extraordinary Premier League title-winning team. Wataru Endo also played for Liverpool.
Following Japanese players has introduced many fans to Premier League clubs and to cities across England.
For me, however, one particularly memorable example is Shunsuke Nakamura.
Nakamura achieved great success with Celtic in Scotland.
For Japanese fans who followed him, Celtic was not simply “a British club.” Glasgow, Scotland and even Celtic’s supporters became much more concrete and familiar.
It also revealed something that the Japanese word Igirisu can easily hide: inside what Japanese people casually call “Britain,” Scotland is clearly not the same thing as England.
Perhaps Igirisu is almost too convenient a word.
British music has had an equally large influence.
From the Beatles to the Rolling Stones, Queen, David Bowie, Oasis and Ed Sheeran, British music has continued to enter Japan across generations.
People are not necessarily listening because they want to learn about British culture.
They may simply listen to music and, without really noticing it, end up knowing a large number of British songs.
A lot of British culture seems to enter Japan in exactly that way.
Stories are similar.
Sherlock Holmes is extremely well known in Japan, and Harry Potter was also a huge success.
Through novels, mysteries, fantasy and film, many people develop an image of “British scenery” without ever visiting the country: London streets, old houses, schools and green countryside.
Tea is another strong association.
Afternoon tea, fine teacups and elegant hotel lounges all fit easily into the Japanese image of Britain.
When it comes to food, fish and chips is probably the best-known British dish.
At the same time, the stereotype that “British food is not very good” is also deeply established in Japan.
Whether that reputation is fair is another question. It is still slightly amusing that a country admired for its history, literature, music, universities and royal family can suddenly become the subject of jokes when food enters the conversation.
There is, however, another British connection hidden inside something Japanese people eat all the time: curry.
Curry rice is now completely ordinary Japanese food.
Its deeper roots lie in India, of course, but the modern style of curry that developed in Japan came through British influence before evolving in its own Japanese direction.
So even an everyday plate of curry contains an old connection with Britain.
Britain also appears again and again in history classes.
The Industrial Revolution, the British Empire and Britain’s role as one of the great powers that shaped the modern world all make it a major presence in Japanese education as well as popular culture.
Thinking about all of this, Britain does not seem to be simply “a foreign country with many famous things.”
Universities, the royal family, football, music, novels, films, tea, curry and world history all enter Japanese life through completely different doors.
And when Japanese people finally stop and ask themselves what they actually know about Britain, they may notice something slightly strange.
Britain had already entered their lives long before they consciously started thinking about it.
