Derek Smallsbury wrote:

> > "British" and "Japanese" are races?

Kaz replied:

> I think they merely refer to those who inhabit in the islands, not race.

I think there is a difference in the way the two terms are applied. For
instance, it makes perfectly good sense to talk of "Black British", but you
are unlikely to hear anyone referring to "Black Japanese". Also, there's
general agreement that "British" applies to people of different origins
(mainly Celtic and Anglo-Saxon, with bits of Frankish, Jute, Viking, Norman,
etc., thrown in), whereas, although archaelogical and other evidence shows
that the same is true of the term "Japanese", that fact is so buried in
prehistory that many people don't really take it into account and there are
even those who deny (or attempt to deny) that it *is* a fact.

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com