250 years of US history, seen from Japan

The United States turns 250 this year, which sounds both very old and somehow still quite young at the same time.

What I always find interesting, living in Japan, is how that timeline overlaps in slightly unexpected ways.

When the US was founded in 1776, Japan was deep in the Edo period. Closed off, stable, and not particularly interested in what was happening across the ocean. For a while, the two countries mostly existed side by side.

And then Commodore Perry showed up in 1853.

Black ships, a very direct request to open up, and suddenly things moved quickly. What followed was not just the opening of Japan, but the beginning of a relationship that has evolved into something that now feels completely normal.

That is the part that still surprises me.

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