I don't know what the policy of bumping old threads up here is, but since this one was already bumped, I'll reply =D

I don't know if the US is in their 'ohh shiny' phase, really. I come from Australia, and here there are very few true patriots. There are a fair few racists (mostly against Asians), and we may seem patriotic at sporting events (who doesn't?), but you rarely see many Australians touting Australia as the world's best country, yet we're even younger than the US. Haha, in fact, among the younger generation, it's common to hear how 'shit' (the word of the generation here) Australia is.

Maybe part of the non-patriotic nature of the Japanese comes from the fact that they're taught to be humble about it? If you start talking about how good Japan is, you'll look too boastful, which is a no-no.

That said, though, the Japanese emperor is still supposedly a descendant of the gods, which seems to trump George Washington's cherry tree story.

Australia did never go through the "we are independent" phase.
It rather "eased out" from a country ruled by the crown rather than declaring independence going through an bloody struggle, i think this has something to do with it.
I think it is rather an seed from GB, it's own thing and independent but never had a moment where it became something "new" in a sense of breaking fully with it's GB cultural roots as fully as the USA did.

Japanese aren't patriotic at all! That's why so many of them LOVE TRAVELING! They always want to see Germany, France, USA, Italy and so on
They think USA is the coolest country on Earth....
Ask any of them where they want to travel and you'll hear, France, Germany... etc.

however it depends from the person

I do not think patriotism has anything to do with how you regard other countries, or thinking that your country is the best.

IT is quite healthy to look at other countries and find if there are better solutions one can learn from.

Second is, how do you define patriotism, and what do you consider expressing it?

The way it is done in the US for example usually is for my opinion over the top for example, the athem before every sport event and so on makes it a little bit... i do not know.. cheap.

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