just got back from japan. omg wow.

[TheBlueHoney]

What a country! I saw much right there compared to Britain. 100x better infrastructure, friendlier people, safer street, luxury amazing looking roads, most well behaved children I've ever seen, modesty, people dress well, public transport etiquette, quality of food and healthy population, fantastic healthcare, longest life expectancy, lowest infant mortality, prices/affordability about same as London but get way more for your money everything better quality and no tipping culture, public bathrooms accessible everywhere and so clean and modern with built in tech. I could go on and on.

I visited 8 cities in Japan and everywhere there was a version of menu in English. I kept mainly to city center and more touristy areas, but never had an issue with figuring out what I was ordering. Majority of small eateries serve just one type of food - so they only have ramen or only soba noodles or only tempura.

At the World Cup their fans stay behind in stadiums and clean up to ensure it was as clean as when they arrived.

Nobody else does this.

Remember during a post match analysis on the BBC and Lineker, looking over his shoulder, commented on this as it was happening.

No wonder Japan is so clean.

Russia is another place you'd be surprised to be so clean. I follow a vlogger from Russia who walks the streets and there is no litter anywhere (Moscow and St Petersburg are spotless). Don't know if it's some legacy of communism but they take collective responsibility to keep things clean.

Did you enquire about their immigration policy? They do not accept refugees and asylum seekers. They are incredibly racist. Sorry, but it is true. They think anyone not Japanese is beneath them.

We had 2 female Japanese women (separately) stay at my parents house when they used to run this. One woman was quite modern, had Japanese friends living in London. The other was lovely but very immature and naive and after she left us she returned to Japan via Paris and she’d been in hospital. We were never quite sure what happened she emailed or wrote to us and I think she was attacked in Paris. She’d gone by train and got a taxi to see Winnie the Pooh location and got lost in the woods there.

I’ve got a south Korean friend who lived in London for 13 years and loved it, I think some of these countries you’re expected to marry early and have kids. She was well is lovely but a bit naive too. Maybe her experience is similar to Japan.

I haven't been, I know it's got lots of good things going for it, but what about the coercive control and about authoritarian politics, abc generally heavily regulated. Hierarchical and sex discrimination is abysmal. As I said it has lots of good, but let's not get carried away and hold it up there as a shining light, because it's got as many problems as many other countries.

Is that tourists or immigrants? They seemed to love England the ones who visited our house from Japan.

The suicide rate in 2023 was 50% higher per 100,000 people in Japan than in the UK. So I suspect life there is not as wonderful as it may seem.

Op next time you have a great holiday maybe put it in the holiday section.
😂😂

Getting citizenship is vv difficult. There are 3rd generation Korean immigrants who still aren't eligible for Japanese citizenship.

The history of how Japan treated Korea/koreans is awful. Thousands live in Japan but are treated as second class.

No. And can people please stop repeating these myths?

Getting citizenship in Japan is actually not that difficult for long-term residents (the main barrier is actually that you have to give up your other nationality as dual nationality is not recognized yet for over-22s). If they do change the law to allow dual nationality for adults (which I am hoping might become allowed at some point), I'll definitely take Japanese nationality myself.

All zainichi kankokujin (=people with Korean ancestry who are born and raised in Japan) are eligible for Japanese citizenship and the majority of people with such roots have now taken Japanese nationality or are likely to do so in the future. It's an easy process for them to take Japanese nationality, mostly just a matter of doing some paperwork.

The hold-outs who have continued to remain either stateless or with South Korean nationality (Note) are mostly older people, and middle-aged people with elderly parents who would be upset if their adult kids took Japanese nationality, but who will mostly do so as soon as their parents die. In the meantime, the hold-outs have a status called "special permanent residency" which basically gives them the same rights as citizens except not being able to vote. Those who identify as North Korean also get a travel document from the Japanese government which can be used in the same way as a passport when travelling (because they are technically stateless).
(Note) People who identify as "North Korean" in Japan are legally stateless as the North Korean government does not recognize them as North Koreans. Only a minority of people with Korean ancestry in Japan have South Korean nationality - it's generally been the North which has predominated.

Japan does have a history of some shameful discrimination towards the zainichi in previous times, but similar things can be found in the histories of most countries if you look back over the 19th and 20th centuries. It's largely fading into the past now, because most zainichi are largely assimilated anyway and because Korean culture is so popular among younger Japanese. It's no longer this embarassing secret to have Korean ancestry.

It's a fascinating country. You need a proper understanding of their cultural history to understand their values which they still display strongly.

Was reading about Lolita culture a while back. The fashion stems from Victorian Britain (Alice in Wonderland in particular) when the Japanese opened up to the West in the late 19th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland#Adaptations_and_influence

Think that's why Japan always seemed more modern than China as it became westernized while China did not (the latter also had a purge of western stuff when the likes of Jane Austen were removed).

Really high rape and domestic violence rates too, but as that’s behind closed doors most of the time and only impacts women, no one cares of course. There’s also the levels of misogyny, for example, girls regularly being cheated out of university placements.

Japan has a lot going for it, but it’s not all good, just like the rest of the world.

Yes.
It stems from self discipline, taught from very early age.
It's worse here than it used to be in former Communist Czechoslovakia.
Cannot wait to get rid of certain humans to go back again, after 25 years.
☹️

This seems absolutely crazy! To actually have to dye hair black as a child to be accepted in school?

Immigrant 'blonde' children would look very strange with black dyed hair and the outgrowth of roots would be a pain.

There was a thread a little while ago from an OP who had married a Japanese man and had gone to live in Japan with her MiL. She very quickly found that she was regarded as ‘Gaijin’ which means foreigners of non-East Asian ethnicities, and that Western culture means nothing to the Japanese.

When she fell pregnant she realised how much influence her MiL would have over the childs’ upbringing, as an elder, and also how Japanese culture meant that her DH wouldn’t go against his mothers’ wishes to support her. In anything. I think the moral of the story is that Japan is a lovely country to visit. But do your research if you intend to live there. Especially if you’re female, because the culture is inherently misogynistic.

I heard of the Osaka case and it was appallingly racist.

None of the countless families with teenagers that I know have ever been subjected to this kind of thing, however (thankfully).

Yes. 50% higher than the UK 's last year. And apparently particularly high for men, who kill themselves because of the culture of expecting overwork from employees.

Conformity basically? Think I'd find it stifling. Would live to visit though.

This is absolutely barmy.

Love the decisions the Japanese made after the 2nd world war, owing to never have another army and change the entire social structure.

I'm not sure it was so much a 'decision' as something forced on them as a defeated nation lying in ruins and occupied by the Americans.

The Japanese have never acknowledged, much less apologised for, the many war crimes they committed in the war and during the Japanese empire. This is still the cause of much resentment in China, Korea and elsewhere in Asia.

The UK will be a better country if we could incorporate some of the Japanese things:

No eating in public transport
No littering or smoking on top of you
Picking up after ourselves and pets
Not loud talking or music in public transport
Better cleaning on streets, public transport, stations.
No steering a people
Better personal cleanliness

Basically more respect for themselves, other people and the environment

We obviously prize clean and organised over anything else according to this thread. I’ve always wanted to go but reading the articles linked I’m going off it.

I think the moral of the story is that Japan is a lovely country to visit. But do your research if you intend to live there. Especially if you’re female, because the culture is inherently misogynistic
Doing your research of you are marrying someone from a different culture should be badic common sense and not exclusive to Japan.

Japan has apologized many times
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan

I'm often slightly awed by how people visit countries where they don't speak a word of the native language and are still able to enjoy their trip. Japan especially has one of the most complex languages in the world. How did you all manage to get around and function whilst there? Any problems paying for things, ordering in restaurants etc?