Japan and Korea - Attractiveness to Europeans

Yep.
Though in the west people assume Edo Japan was stupid in deciding to close itself off and it just stayed stagnant and stuck in the medieval period until America forced it to open, in Japan it is regarded as a golden age of prosperity. During the Edo period Japan advanced a hell of a lot.
They developed very proficient pre-industrial pseudo-capitalist systems and Tokyo/Yedo developed into the biggest city in the world in the 18th century.

Peasants before it and workers after it probably didn't like it too much. I recall how people from the Ryukas put lots of their savings into a jointly held sugar company which was promptly confiscated and given to a mainland noble family. And how most of the main companies in Japan today are still held by descendants of the Lords of the South. Probably was pretty miserable in the meantime for most everyone, as the Tokugawa stole land from their own allies and kept deposing the Emperors, as well as keeping people in a state of wasteful spending with deliberately draining ceremonies and by banning nobles and samurai form getting alternative professions,
 
Peasants before it and workers after it probably didn't like it too much. I recall how people from the Ryukas put lots of their savings into a jointly held sugar company which was promptly confiscated and given to a mainland noble family. And how most of the main companies in Japan today are still held by descendants of the Lords of the South. Probably was pretty miserable in the meantime for most everyone, as the Tokugawa stole land from their own allies and kept deposing the Emperors, as well as keeping people in a state of wasteful spending with deliberately draining ceremonies and by banning nobles and samurai form getting alternative professions,

Well, it is an image painted with rose tinted specs. They forget about the disease and suffering and other shit that is standard order of the day with pre-20th century civilization. Kind of like Tolkein with his pining for pre-industrial England.
Or anyone really when they bitch about how things were better back in the day.
 
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