yoyo
Banned
Tibetans and Chinese had contact since the Qin Dynasty and yet did not sinicize. I'm thinking that Japan evolved along the lines of the Philippines in not adopting chinese culture despite close proximity. Philippines was very close to south china but did not sinicize since there was no maritime sinified state it can form ties with. Japan had ties with Baekje, and without a kingdom like baekje it would hard for Japan to adopt chinese culture as other states were land focused and less inclined to provide aid. Southern wasn't occupied but northern korea was, with North korea occupying the south.That's... a great simplification? Sure we don't know a lot about prehistoric Japan, but there is records of Sinic contact since the Wei dynasty and mentions of Wa people on China that would eventually come back and spread whatever they learned in China, Japan wasn't so isolationist as commonly portrayed.
Korea (South) would disagree.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Commanderies_of_Han