Broadly, feudalism was a system for structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour. However European feudalism differs from Japanese feudalism, which existed independently at the same time, in that European feudalism centres around reciprocity, the idea that the lord of a region would provide protection for his serfs while the serfs would supply the lord with food and labor. Thus the relation is seen as 'reciprocal'. See Japanese feudalism.