Hi, Sara. It’s always nice to see you here and you come to mind more than you might think. I’ve wondered for instance how your language acquisition is going.

Also, as friends have travelled back and forth to/ from Japan and shared their experiences, overwhelmingly positive, I think about your own experience. Also, I have a first generation Japanese American sister-in-law who is probably the dearest member in our family. Anyway, I digress!

About the subject of empathy, I wonder if it can be explained from my pov which is based on a Biblical understanding of the soul, understood to be made up of the mind, the emotions, and the will.
This model suggests the mind (and what it’s fed) as the source for our emotions (excepting influence of chemicals and hormones), and how we then act follows. So there would be a significant difference in the contents of the mind according to its “food”.

Biblical Scripture specifically addresses the human condition and much of that is easily understood as empathetic. Other religions also emphasize the human condition in a moralistic way.

Other issues that occupy the mind of people may have different emphases and offer different outcomes. I don’t believe that people are born to be empathetic. Any two year old is living proof of that.
So, it seems to me obvious that it is, like many other emotions, a
learned behavior.

I noticed in my family with some pretty tough German ancestors, though decent and even kind at times, there was no noticeable empathy. Perhaps it served as a survival skill in their day. By the same token, I know those who are very aware of empathy, but it seemingly isn’t sufficient to move from their minds to their hearts.
FWIW