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Phrase: In a vacuum
Japan is a country and an island chain that often appears to exist in a vacuum.
The people speak a unique language not spoken anywhere else and are seldom deeply interested in overseas affairs.
Unfortunately, this is a significant issue because absolutely everything that occurs in remote corners of the world has an effect here.
Operating or existing in a vacuum means being isolated from or outside of external influences.
The Japanese often refer to Japan as experiencing Galapagos Syndrome, but nothing could be further from the truth.
If the US dollar becomes stronger, beef prices in Japan will rise.
When Russia invades Ukraine, the cost of gasoline and wheat increases.
Japan does not exist in a vacuum.
It exists as all other countries exist – as members of a global community.
When forests burn in British Columbia, Canada, the cost of building a new home in Shimane rises.
There is no vacuum, only a highly complex set of connections.
Yet many Japanese still want to believe that they live in a vacuum, what some teachers call Japanland, where we are unaffected by the world outside.
Let me leave you with a final example of how we do not live in a vacuum here in Japan.
Tonight a Japanese mother in northern Japan will cook supper for her family.
In December, a Ukrainian child will die in a Russian missile strike.
One directly causes the other.
You see, the gas the mother cooks with comes from Sakhalin Island.
When that gas is paid for, the Russian government will use the money to make weapons.
No country and no one on this earth exists in a vacuum.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 60.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.