Japanese culture was initially based on Chinese one. It adapted everything from script to the government system (including emperors). Later on, as Japaneses were mostly isolated on their islands, differences started accumulating, but the basic idea was the same.
Yes. And it's interesting do see what else dictators offer to their nations. Mostly, it's the paradigm of internal and external enemies, and they use similar clichés in different countries. What's even more interesting, some of such clichés are used in democratic countries. For example, modern Greeks mostly believe that they have so much problems not due to the structure of their economy, total corruption, ineffective public expenses and so on, but due to greedy European bankers who want to rob them. Exactly the same cliché is exploited in Russia and Venezuela that feature real autocratic leaders and totalitarian governments.
Simple folk love simple answers. Give them those answers, and you can control them, at least temporarily.
It's doubtful. In such situations, providing people have more or less free choice, they tend to believe more to local leaders who use the same rhetorics. It's the devil you know as opposed to those wannabe dictators who live in a far away place. Usually a centralized system in a country divided by a civil war, for example, is built using big armies and brute force ignoring opinions of people.
