How heart-warming it is to see the total and utter lack of confidence His Majesty's Loyal Opposition holds in the spirit of Japan and her people - heart-warming for Japan's enemies, that is.
I shall never understand the hypocrisy of you Matsui-esque isolationists: you claim to be patriots, true believers in the superiority of the Japanese people and her ways and customs, yet you have no faith in the superiority of these very concepts which you hold to be superior to face the challenges which present themselves. We couldn't trade or interact with the Nanban, or build factories, said the isolationists, because the inferior Nanban will corrupt our superior Japanese culture with their primitive and barbaric ways. Japanese culture proved to be far more resilient than those cowardly defeatists suggested, and today we stand as one of the most prestigious nations on Earth. We couldn't import modern weapons, said the isolationists, because cowardly western technology would diminish the strength of bushido and leave us weaker in the long term. Bushido alone didn't save us from the British, but in conjunction with those same "cowardly" weapons it has helped to forge Japan as one of the strongest nations on Earth.
Today those same defeatist isolationists say that Japan's mighty economy is too weak to compete with those of other, punier, powers; I find their cowardice and lack of faith insulting.
-- Hosokawa-dono.