🇯🇵🤝🇺🇸 There's a lot of reasons for this mutual respect and affection. 1. Japan has an absolutely beautiful culture, one greatly admired by most Americans for its traditional values, refinement, and underlying martial/meritocratic foundation. It has been a fierce ally through thick and thin for 80 years. Every time I see the cherry blossoms return each spring here in DC, I say a small prayer of thanks for Japan's steadfast friendship. 2. As a practical matter, Japan became a critical ally for the U.S. in the post-WW2 fight against communism. The permanent U.S. military presence in Japan that began immediately following WW2 expanded during the Korean War, and has enabled both countries to stand as a bulwark against communist aggression in the region. 3. Japan was, and remains, a technological and manufacturing powerhouse that understands the American marketplace and how to work within our peculiar version of capitalism. Innovations like the Toyota Production System, colocation of manufacturing operations, and transfer of expertise have anchored the natural affinity between our nations in mutual cooperation and economic success. 4. Japan loves baseball, cowboy culture, and American whiskey, but has indigenized them while putting new and interesting twists on them. The U.S. loves martial arts, sporty cars, and kaiju films, while similarly indigenizing them. In all cases, the domestication process retained a sincere affection for the mother culture's "pure" version, and we celebrate the cross-pollination as value-added. This is due to the massive number of Japanese and American nationals who have lived in the other country, and built deep bonds while there. 5. Beneath all of this are the two cultures' warrior ethoses, which are highly compatible—sacrifice as a virtue, stoic embrace of service, individual bravery without pursuit of glory, ferocity in the fight, and respect for an opponent who fights with honor. 6. Bigger picture, the Japanese are an incredibly polite, respectful, and curious culture. The U.S. is similarly so, but in a rougher and less refined way. The Japanese are phenomenal guests and hosts alike, and downright decent human beings, welcoming Americans into their lives as we are without pretension or arrogance. Contrast this with the U.S.' relationship to most of Europe, whose elites openly sneer at the enthusiastic and extroverted Americans as gauche and ignorant. TL;DR—The Japanese and American cultures are naturally compatible, we've been through some shit together, have deeply intertwined and mutually reinforcing economies, we've had extensive cultural transfer through people over many years, and we embrace our differences as paths to understanding rather than barriers to friendship.