People who are close to one another in some ways can still hate one another's guts. For example - there are more members of religious places in Japan than there are people. With many being both Buddhist and Shinto (the latter religion primarily of Chinese origin). Kanji is also IIRC of Chinese origin. Still - I get the impression there is no love lost between the Japanese and the Chinese (or the Koreans for that matter).

It's kind of like the middle east. There are no dietary requirements closer to Jewish Kosher than Muslim Halal - but that doesn't exactly make Jews and Muslims good buddies.

OTOH - doesn't mean that we can't enjoy the food - or have chefs in the countries we're talking about who learn to cook delicious versions of it. Good food/eats often transcend a lot of fault lines among people IMO. Robyn