Here is an example. An American friend of mine was surprised by
the huge property owned by the Imperial family in the very heart of Tokyo, and
asked me why Japanese people do not protest against that. In fact, that is a
legitimate question I had never thought about until he mentioned it.
Similarly, it is still a bit of a surprise to me that members of
the U.K House of Lords are not elected officials, and one can become a member
of it only from introduction from another member (please correct me if I
misunderstand.) I cannot imagine a situation that the Japanese House of
Councilors would operate that way.
Exposure to an environment makes one gradually numb about conventions in
that environment even if they look totally strange to others. That is why a
third party point of view is important because otherwise questions are never
questioned, and a common sense does not prevail.
