On July 24, Queen Elizabeth II accepted Theresa May's resignation and appointed Boris Johnson as prime minister of the United Kingdom. Johnson, the hardline Brexiteer, seems adamant in trying to leave the European Union, even without any agreement, by Oct. 31. I wish him a good luck in making his dream come true.
I say so because the British, like the Japanese, do not essentially belong to the continent. Our ancestors may have come from the opposite side of the straits that divide our small islands and the huge continents. We may have some domestic discrepancies but our cultures have been and will continue to be maritime.
I have been telling my British and continental European friends that Japan and the U.K. share similar national strategies: namely, to maintain the balance of power on the continent, to keep healthy distance from continental affairs and, finally, to secure sea lines of communication to maximize our national interests.