I received the following question from a new BT reader this afternoon. He asked: "Why do you find Japan so fascinating?" My quick reply to the question is: "I find Japanese history and culture fascinating, the Japanese interesting (from a sociological point-of-view) and life in Japan, as a case study of a nation trying to gain respect in the international a.k.a. multicultural world order. The new BT'er also asked: "Why don't you focus on Africa instead of Japan?" Well, here comes the long answer!