The People of Japan and Japanese Culture
Discussion
In a recent game against England at Wembley, visiting Japanese football fans were filmed tidying up their section. Japan won the game, but Japanese supporters have long been admired globally for cleaning up after matches, regardless of the result.
Another story was that of a toll system outage which triggered a moment of truth. The technical glitch let thousands of drivers pass without paying. Over 24,000 people still paid their tolls voluntarily. This incident demonstrated the strength of Japan’s high-trust society and the public's deep sense of responsibility.
The brother of a friend married a Japanese woman and now lives there; the stories of Japanese culture are often a subject of discussion (my mate has been to visit his brother and sister-in-law a couple of times since the wedding) and there's a lot to admire about Japanese culture by his account.
Another story was that of a toll system outage which triggered a moment of truth. The technical glitch let thousands of drivers pass without paying. Over 24,000 people still paid their tolls voluntarily. This incident demonstrated the strength of Japan’s high-trust society and the public's deep sense of responsibility.
The brother of a friend married a Japanese woman and now lives there; the stories of Japanese culture are often a subject of discussion (my mate has been to visit his brother and sister-in-law a couple of times since the wedding) and there's a lot to admire about Japanese culture by his account.
mikebradford said:
TUS373 said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
There are many great things about Japanese culture, but some very disturbing things seem to have been normalised. It's not all wonderful by a long way.
You cannot stop at that. You have to tell us now!
Was tempted to add this as a but!
My cousin is out there and married with a kid. He's happy enough to never want to come home. I went in 2015 and loved it. He lived in Tokyo and it was fun when he was younger, it was very busy and it did grain on him eventually so he moved to somewhere more rural and he's feeling much better. Peaceful and Tokyo only an hour away on a train. Every country has it's issues but it does lots of things right. It was really clean in comparison to here. Very few bins as the culture was to take it home and recycle it. Front doors were rarely locked.
JimmyConwayNW said:
Are there any negatives out there?
I think things are improving, but there was a big thing about salarymen having to take their bosses out drinking, and being forced to work ridiculous hours over long periods.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karoshi
Japan also looks to be well behind on equality in work.
There are also issues with some host and hostess bars effectively being slavery.
Edited by Sporky on Monday 6th April 11:32
A couple of years back I replaced the windscreen on a Japanese imported A6 Avant; a very well-specced car, low mileage and very clean. A couple of months later I had to remove the windscreen in another imported car (and A5) and that too was super clean, unmolested and well specced.
Not so long after, I met a chap who'd bought an E60 M5. That too, despite the older age was a very nice car and even had laminated glass all around, a rare feature, especially on an M5. IN a continued theme of Japanese import cars, another windscreen replacement came in for another Audi, this time an A4.
Based on the remarkable condition of those cars, I am now considering one myself and rather than picking one and ordering it, I'd love to go there and enjoy a couple of weeks doing it!
Not so long after, I met a chap who'd bought an E60 M5. That too, despite the older age was a very nice car and even had laminated glass all around, a rare feature, especially on an M5. IN a continued theme of Japanese import cars, another windscreen replacement came in for another Audi, this time an A4.
Based on the remarkable condition of those cars, I am now considering one myself and rather than picking one and ordering it, I'd love to go there and enjoy a couple of weeks doing it!
I spent the entirety of November 2024 in Japan for my 50th birthday and absolutely loved the place. The food, the colours, the repect for each other and for their environment in terms of not littering. Everything seems to organised and despite Tokyo having so many people, it's very easy to get around. However the culture does have some things that I find slightly disturbing. The overt sexualisation of young women, even girls. I also found the childish themes (cartoon characters with enormous eyes, fluffy stuffed animals everywhere, bizarre slapstick TV) a little OTT even though I knew it would be the case before going. And yet, they have a serious crisis with an aging population and not enough young people to replace them leading to deserted towns and villages. It appears that young Japanese people have very little interest in having a family. Perhaps the over sexualisation of young women, adults who don't grow out of childish things, and the overwork that has been ingrained in the culture are all factors contributing to this.
We in the UK have gone for multiculturalism in a big way (whether you think that's a good or a bad thing is an aside) but Japan is very much the opposite and has a very homogenous population without many immigrants. Pretty much the only foreigners I saw who weren't tourists were working in late night convenience stores.
It's still by far the most enticing place I hgave ever been and I can't wait to go back and explore some more? Would I want to live there? I would love to spend a couple of years in Japan but I'm not certain I'd want to be there for the rest of my life.
Thread on my Japan trip (with photos) here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
We in the UK have gone for multiculturalism in a big way (whether you think that's a good or a bad thing is an aside) but Japan is very much the opposite and has a very homogenous population without many immigrants. Pretty much the only foreigners I saw who weren't tourists were working in late night convenience stores.
It's still by far the most enticing place I hgave ever been and I can't wait to go back and explore some more? Would I want to live there? I would love to spend a couple of years in Japan but I'm not certain I'd want to be there for the rest of my life.
Thread on my Japan trip (with photos) here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Badda said:
I love the civilised nature of the Japanese. It makes us look like utter morons in comparison.
They have their issues though, but so do all cultures.
This is the partial tourist view of things, filtered by how you understand the world to work based on your own culture.They have their issues though, but so do all cultures.
There are all sorts of things that have been done historically by Japan and things that are still done today that are based on an utterly different moral code to the one you probably exist by.
It's far from all sweetness and light, it's just very very different and most people remain utterly ignorant of how different it is.
Glassman said:
mikebradford said:
TUS373 said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
There are many great things about Japanese culture, but some very disturbing things seem to have been normalised. It's not all wonderful by a long way.
You cannot stop at that. You have to tell us now!Was tempted to add this as a but!
Japan is a fascinating country and culture.
No, it's certainly not perfect, but living in a homogeneous, high-trust, high-respect society has its benefits. Sometimes it's the small things that matter, like a lack of litter, or not having to listen to someone else's phone conversation (or their music) on public transport.
The pixelation thing is weird, though.
No, it's certainly not perfect, but living in a homogeneous, high-trust, high-respect society has its benefits. Sometimes it's the small things that matter, like a lack of litter, or not having to listen to someone else's phone conversation (or their music) on public transport.
The pixelation thing is weird, though.
TUS373 said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
There are many great things about Japanese culture, but some very disturbing things seem to have been normalised. It's not all wonderful by a long way.
You cannot stop at that. You have to tell us now!The shameless sexualisation of schoolgirls. All schoolgirls travel around Tokyo wearing the same uniform, long white socks, short tartan skirt, white blouse and blazer. Which would be odd but ok but, outside large shops and restaurants in Tokyo, you'll find young women in their 20's trying to temp you in, wearing the same gear. Go into any chemist and you'll find rails of faux school uniforms sold to Japanese women to dress up for their men. It's all very dark.
Japanese games shows. Unlike Jeremy Beadle and his harmless pranks, the Japanese pranks consist of fooling people into thinking they are actually about to die a horrible death, filming it, and playing it to a huge TV audience for their delight.
There's a national love affair with watching people completely broken and humiliated, sobbing and begging for mercy. Or traumatised by the near death experience they've been fooled into thinking they've had.
They really haven't moved on much from their WW2 POW camps.
On the other hand, leave a wallet full of cash on a park bench, and 6 hours later it'll either still be there, or been handed in to a local police station without a yen missing.
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