Aibu .. To ask about Japan and the Japanese culture?

[MrsLaurac]

Good morning,

WIBU to ask everybody about everything Japanese and their culture?

I am always really fascinated to hear or read about Japan and often spend time reading a random fact about Japan which turns into googling things the article mentions and spending hours reading things up.

I'm wondering from perhaps your first hand experience of living there or being Japanese whether you could share some interesting information about the fasinating country?

Thanks.

The birth rate was high after the war, but very low in 1966.

This is because it was Chinese year of the horse, and elemental fire year. Girls born under the fire horse are supposed to be very bad marriage prospects, and have trouble finding husbands. Therefore few people wanted to have babies that year - even if not superstitious themselves, they might find few people wanting to marry their daughters.

The next such year is 2026, and it will be interesting to see how much of that superstition remains.

They have constant beef with the Koreans over several issues, but most prominently over the 'comfort women', women who were used as prostitutes during the Japanese occupation of Korea/second world war.

The Japanese government will apologise, then a few days later say something about how it's not that big a deal and the Koreans should get over it.

Most Japanese people are also pretty ignorant about what happened in the second world war/occupation. It's not even taught in schools.

Doesn't make them terribly popular in Korea.

Not to shit on Japan, lovely people generally, and Japanese food is delicious.

Ds is over there at the moment for a year at uni - he’s having a marvellous time.

They have little water noise machines next to the toilets to people don't need to hear you pee. I always liked that.

They have meetings about meetings and can often be very inefficient.

They don't tend to question authority and just accept what they are told. An example of this - in the school I was teaching in, it was mid winter and it was freezing and the heating wasn't on. I was sat at my desk in hat and gloves. The Japanese teachers had those warmer things in their pockets and attached to their lower backs. No one would ask for the heating to be switched on. When I asked you would have thought I had committed some sort of crime.

Kids talking amongst themselves all through the lesson isn't an issue and is allowed.

I enjoyed my time there but it wasn't the easiest year of my life.

They have constant beef with the Koreans over several issues, but most prominently over the 'comfort women',

And also the issue that a large number of the casualties at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were Korean forced labourers, but Japan refused to accord them the same treatment that Japanese survivors were given. That wasn't resolved until the early 2000s. Not coincidentally, the exhibits at the Hiroshima peace museum went from "as we were innocently minding our own business the USA for no apparent reason spent a lot of money to attack a peace-loving country which never harmed anyone" to something slightly, but not greatly, more nuanced (it does now mention Nanking and Pearl Harbour, for example). I went to Hiroshima a few times over the relevant period, and the changes were fascinating.

The first time I told my colleagues in Tokyo that I was going to Hiroshima for the weekend, they assumed it was to see the floating temple. As one of the more internationally-aware guys said, for most adults their school history stopped in 1936 and didn't start again until 1955. In between, some bad stuff happened, we don't talk about it. That's very different from Germany, where not only is it not "don't mention the war", at times it's hard to get them to stop talking about it.

Where has your interest in Japan come from OP?

I was never that bothered about the place, but found myself living there for just over a year in my 20s (andcame to love it!) I taught English to a range of people - little kids, teens, adults.

I had a stereotype that the kids would be well behaved in lessons - the teens weren't too bad. But the under-10s were really disruptive!

I loved my time in Japan :) beautiful country! People work really hard - but there is a lot of inefficiency and meetings (not too dissimilar to the uk workplace then!)

What I found strange was cigarettes in vending machines on every street! Alcohol and coffee in vending machines at train stations and on streets! Porn mags in vending machines on the street!!!

And quite worrying - a LOT of sexualisation of school girls.

That said, everyone I met there was lovely. We all worked hard. It is a polite respectful hardworking country.

I would have stayed in Japan, but for two things - the sexualisation of girls (which I would not have wanted my future children growing up around), and that although i had many friends, they always saw me as their 'western' friend - almost a trophy. We never got passed this and I don't think we would have. Which is sad!

I got used to the food! A lot is delicious! But a lot is just not for me :) In thinking octopus is blue oil stuff (yuk!!), and Nato (apparently it's nice if you can get over the smell!!! But I never could!)

At the end of the day - people are people! Japanese people are the same as any other people on the planet :) trying to get through this life, provide for our kids, and feel content.

whata A lot of similarities to Korea but thankfully not the sexualisation of school girls, that doesn't seem to be a big thing here. (Although who knows, really, most Koreans are very private about sex.)

Kids are a nightmare here until middle school. Sweet but talking during class is definitely not a big deal, nor is being what we would consider incredibly rude. I found it quite hard to deal with when I taught.

I've definitely met a lot of people who wanted me as their trophy western friend, but I have a couple of decent Korean friends too who definitely don't think of me like that (and a Korean husband too, who loves nato and keeps quantities of it in our freezer. Not into it AT ALL.)

roobie again, the not switching heating on and stuff is very similar to Korea. I wouldn't say it's exactly about not questioning authority so much as not wanting to be seen as the one who does so. A very slight difference. But then, Koreans and Japanese people can be quite different on such points so who knows really. So much stuff here is a mystery to me, still.