On Thu, 07 Oct 2004 19:28:09 -0500, "John W." <worthj1970@yahoo.com>
wrote:


>Note that the above site also mentions that Japan got their rail system 
>from the UK, and that enforced the previous samurai behavior. Somehow 
>the notion that the British rail system is more efficient is... interesting.

At the time the first rails were laid in Japan (1872), Britain had the
most advanced rail system in the world.

Remember, too, that many of Japan's early capital warships were
constructed in British shipyards (the last one, the battlecruiser
Kongo, was launched in 1913) and that the IJN based many of its
practices on those found in Royal Navy.