In English the concept of 'Kuni' is clearly divided by three words.
The word 'country' is 'Kuni' as land, the word 'nation' is 'Kuni' as people and the word 'state' is 'Kuni' as a system.
The three words are flexibly chosen dependant upon which 'Kuni' is thought or told.

It is the same in music; for example, the famous Bob Dylan's song "This land is my land, this land is your land from California to the New York Island ---" clearly senses 'America as a country, land'.

Except for such a case as writing a special book or particularly discussing a state argument (by the way, a state has a similar feeling of constitution), the word of 'Kuni' is used considerably vaguely in Japan.

Even though the Right activists shout "Patriotism only is life", cultured people admonish "Cherish your own kuni", or the incumbent prime minister determine that let's establish a beautiful kuni, Japan, and; finally, urgently publish a book titled 'Towards a beautiful kuni' as his political vision, whatever kuni they are mentioning, a country, nation or state?

Or, the kuni includes all of them? If so, in case that we look to Japan from the global point of view, it looks very vague or greedy. It is my honest impression that they are making a rough estimate.

Looking at the fact that any particular argument does not go up in Japan in spite of discussing the kuni of Japan with such a rough estimate, Japanese people may not feel any resistance to observing the history, present condition and future of kuni with a rough estimate.

This matter may have much to do with the historical facts, 'Japan wa invaded only twice, which I wrote in the previous blog. Probably because Japan has not experienced such crises as ancient Jewish or contemporary Palestinian lost their country, the Armenian nation in Ottoman Turk's evening or the Jewish nation during the World War II were terribly exterminated, or Japanese state collapsed after the defeat in the Pacific War or East German state collapsed after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Japanese people may be indifferent about thinking or discussing kuni with a rough estimation.

That crisis after the defeat in the Pacific War was the second invasion; however, as 2000 or more years passed by since the first invasion by Jimmu, Japanese people neither disputed thoroughly nor set up steady countermeasures against the third invasion or the invasions continuing many times with which they might meet from that time, and they sought sanctuary in under the umbrella of the Japan and United States security pact waiting the time passing as a transient unfortunate occurrence.

The problems regarding kuni should be considered classifying a country, nation and state properly, and it should be discussed and carried into action how to harmonise and unify them. Otherwise, Japan may self-collapse by the invasion from the inside.

The attached photograph is young Bob Dylan when he was singing the feeling of a country, and Joan Baez is beside him.