ii (iyi in Turkish, but with the same pronunciation as the Japanese いい) means good in both languages
Subjects are usually left out of sentences
One of the words for teacher is sometimes used as an all round honorific (in Turkish, Hodja and in Japanese 先生- sensei)
A nationalist education that with a confused reaction to the nation’s previous incarnations (the Ottoman Empire and both Tokugawa shogunate and prewar Japan) due to standing up against the West but ultimately losing and having diametrically opposed to the modern state
A secular state where most people vaguely follow the leading traditional religion(s)
Visitors often comment on the mix of modern/traditional and Western/Eastern American allies
Nominal allies of their closest neighbours (Greece and Korea) due to alliance with Americans, but actually make life as difficult as they can for each other, for example over some uninhabited islands they both claim
Towns usually built somewhere flat, unlike Spanish or Italian hill towns
Changes in the writing system make it almost impossible for people to read ancient texts
The political head was also the religious leader (Sultan was head of Sunni Islam and pre-war Emperor was the head of Shinto) Tea
Nihonjinron quote of the day « Quote Japan said,
March 18, 2008 at 10:53 pm
[...] not Japan but Turkey, but sooooo easily could be a quote about Japan. See Random Similarities Between Japan and Turkey on JapanExplained for [...]
Jude said,
August 3, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Some authorities on the Japanese language and Japan claim Japanese and Turkish stem from the same language family; the altaic languages.