# Is Japan really all that? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 6, 2018, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043 "2018-11-06T00:00:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/61 "2018-11-07T18:36:54Z")
All that and a bag of [oddly flavored chips](https://soranews24.com/2017/04/10/amazing-pringles-flavours-exist-in-japan/). ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/62 "2018-11-07T19:47:27Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > That is a bit of an inaccurate generalization–large Japanese cities are crowded, but rural areas of Japan are [emptying](http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-population-snap-story.html) [out](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/11/japan-rural-schools-dwindling-students). What you are saying is like visiting New York City and thinking that you now have a grasp of Montana, too. Sure, you can find rural or remote areas in just about any country, but I was more directly comparing Japan to Sweden. There are 15 cities in Japan that are bigger than Stockholm. But even mid-sized cities in Japan (500k people) feel crowded and noisy to me. My visits to Japan have not been limited to Tokyo area. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/63 "2018-11-07T22:57:08Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > My impression from everything I’ve seen and read is that they have a very orderly society In my 20 or so trip to Japan, I will agree that this is the case. People will queue up to board a train or enter a store and nobody cuts the line or bucks the system. I have even been walking in Tokyo at 2AM with zero traffic and people will still stop and wait for the crosswalk light. People in Japan follow rules as a group much better than the US or other countries I have been in. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/64 "2018-11-08T00:30:30Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > …well I wouldn’t say I was kicked out - just asked when I was leaving (in a very gruff manner:p) In the sticks, but at a resort hotel. Wierd stuff happens often but hardly ever happens when I’m with someone who looks Japanese. Been here for 23 years so far, so I have a lot of data, I think. That happened to me during my training week in Nagoya, and later during my first week in tiny Takaoka. The gruff voice is just the way some people talk. In my cases, the staff was asking because they wanted to know when I would be leaving the room because they meticulously cleaned it every day and, since I was trying to sleep late and deal with jet lag, I was messing up their cleaning schedule. :smack: I don’t know why they were afraid to clean my room with me present but, then again, I’ve never been present when US or Korean hotel staff cleaned my room, either. > [@xizor](#): > > In my 20 or so trip to Japan, I will agree that this is the case. People will queue up to board a train or enter a store and nobody cuts the line or bucks the system. I have even been walking in Tokyo at 2AM with zero traffic and people will still stop and wait for the crosswalk light. People in Japan follow rules as a group much better than the US or other countries I have been in. Funny, but I was just mentioning this to a colleague yesterday: Sometimes kids are so short that a driver can’t see the top of their heads in front of the hood of their car. At some point eons ago, the Japanese started teaching kids in pre- and elementary school to raise one hand when crossing the street so their little hands might be visible to a driver when they pass close in front of a car. When I was in Japan, I used to see grown adults at 2AM crossing the street with on hand raised – adherence to training just doesn’t seem to fade, even when the rationale is outgrown! 😃 > [@asahi](#): > > And as I said, I knew Western females …who had their panties stolen from their clothes lines. It happened. Yeah, it happens and it’s a problem. In the mid-90’s I dealt with a lot of complaints from ladies whose undergarments were stolen from the community laundry machines. I was managing a dorm in Cincinnati. It’s not exclusive to Japan. :mad: –G! ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/65 "2018-11-08T00:44:49Z")
> [@Grestarian](#): > > The gruff voice is just the way some people talk. Thanks for explaining that. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/66 "2018-11-08T01:27:33Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > All that and a bag of [oddly flavored chips](https://soranews24.com/2017/04/10/amazing-pringles-flavours-exist-in-japan/). And [Kit Kats](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_Kats_in_Japan#Varieties). ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/67 "2018-11-08T02:48:39Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > And [Kit Kats](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_Kats_in_Japan#Varieties). Don’t know about used panties, but I do know that you can get kit kat varieties in the vending machines - and a variety of canned coffees and energy drinks. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/68 "2018-11-08T03:04:10Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > People in Japan follow rules as a group much better than the US or other countries I have been in. When skiing in Hokkaido I observed Japanese skiing lessons and they were almost comical in comparison to US lessons. All the skiers wore numbered bibs, and instructions were called out on loud speakers as they progressed in an orderly file down the hill. I can’t imagine using that type of teaching in the States. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/69 "2018-11-08T03:59:26Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > [Plenty of black people in Japan can tell us about that.](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=black+in+japan) I find the sense of proportion of things can often be hard to grasp correctly trying to fill in for personal experience by looking at the internet. The general theme I understand, but for the specifics I’ll just stick with I don’t know. I didn’t say that unaware there would be video’s on the internet about it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/70 "2018-11-08T04:13:15Z")
[Japan can be a boaring place](https://soranews24.com/2018/11/07/think-you-had-a-rough-commute-japanese-salaryman-gets-jumped-by-wild-boar-on-way-to-work%e3%80%90vid%e3%80%91/). ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2018, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/71 "2018-11-09T02:26:13Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Japan is awesome, and it sucks. Just like most countries. There were a number of similar posts, but I just grabbed this one. There are certain characteristics of Japan, and like other places there are both advantages and disadvantages which come along. For example, as someone posted, Japan is a very orderly society. It’s really great when you want to go somewhere on the train, because the train runs on time. Restaurants serve the food you order because they keep sufficient quantities of the necessary ingredients and get reliable deliveries from supplies (not the case here in Taiwan). Et cetra. But there are also the downsides to that. As the head office of my former company would point out, they are completely anal about things American customers don’t care about. Japanese society often maintains its cohesiveness by ostracizing a select few. Bullying is a serious problem in schools, and we have friends who were forced to move so their child could go to a new school to escape the treatment. > [@asahi](#): > > True, but they have dudes who flip out and murder people with knives and sarin gas at subway stations. That being said, those are kind of extraordinary events - unlike school, church, or workplace shootings. The former is an example of someone flipping out and murdering people, the latter was an premediated act of terror. Double checking my memory against wiki, since 1990, in Japan there have been three acts of flipping out and murdering people with knives. Actually, the deadliest of them was a former worker breaking into a care center for mentally disabled patients and murdering them in their sleep. So, two or acts. If you want to go all the way back to 1980 there was another random attack on a bus by someone pouring gas on people. This is only shocking if there is a belief that Japan is somehow a Shangra La where crime is zero, rather than someplace where crime is low, but still occurs. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Doesn’t Japan have vending machines where you can buy (used?) panties? Nope. Urban legend. I’ve done extensive searching online in Japanese for any kind of information about this, and no. In the early 1990s, there were some skeevy shops which sold high school girl’s underwear but they were quickly shut down with heath regulations which prohibited the sale of used underwear. There are some UFO catcher type games which sell new panties, but they aren’t in train stations and such. Most Japanese are not widely repressed sexually. Most seem quoite reasonable about. I saw for more sexual hangups among Mormons. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2018, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/72 "2018-11-09T02:58:46Z")
> **[27 Nanking Massacre Photos That Reveal One Of History's Very Worst Atrocities](https://allthatsinteresting.com/rape-of-nanking-massacre)** > > It's one of modern history's worst atrocities, and its deniers cannot explain away photos like these. The Japanese, unlike the Germans, refuse to accept responsibility for their war crimes and make necessary cultural changes. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2018, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/73 "2018-11-09T04:15:12Z")
Shintoism is still very militaristic. Follow Isejingu on Instagram and you will see that military officers lead all official processions. I’m guessing not many people know that. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2018, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/74 "2018-11-09T04:20:13Z")
> [@PookahMacPhellimey](#): > > And the men…aren’t?\* > > \*Yes, I know there are some cultural factors at play making Japanese women attractive to some westerners and making Asian men somehow less appealing (there are OkCupid Stats and all), but I still find this kind of remark a little objectifying. I’m not attracted to men. Having said that supposedly the best looking men are in the scandanavian region. But I’ve heard some middle eastern nations produce a lot of attractive men too. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2018, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/75 "2018-11-09T04:49:53Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > I can’t count the number of posts I find on social media about the wonders of Japan and all the little things that are so great about it. Is it really true or am I missing something? The wife and I have both spent time in Japan, separately and together, and cannot wait to go again. It’s our favorite place. I strongly urge you to visit. EDIT: Seen a lot of things for sale in vending machines in Japan, but panties, used or otherwise, are not one of them. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2018, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/76 "2018-11-09T05:55:24Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > [27 Rape Of Nanking Photos And Facts That Reveal Its True Horrors](https://allthatsinteresting.com/rape-of-nanking-massacre) > > The Japanese, unlike the Germans, refuse to accept responsibility for their war crimes and make necessary cultural changes. I did a rather long explanation concerning this and how the German actions were driven by the Allies at the end of the war, as well as noting the differences between th eJapanese and German situations. I certainly hope this thread doesn’t become bogged down in that debate. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2018, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/77 "2018-11-09T06:06:45Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > [27 Rape Of Nanking Photos And Facts That Reveal Its True Horrors](https://allthatsinteresting.com/rape-of-nanking-massacre) > > The Japanese, unlike the Germans, refuse to accept responsibility for their war crimes and make necessary cultural changes. There’s some truth to this, but it’s also more complex. ---
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2018, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/78 "2018-11-09T17:15:36Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > Yup. I lived there for 25 years. > > And the short answer is : > > Whatever you want it to be. 'Bout sums it up. Yup, I lived there. I don’t think we coincided. Yes, there are a lot of gajins there. Some who look like they just washed up and have nowhere else to go. Lots of the English teachers were like that. Amazing, yes, banal, too. It’s certainly safe, the culture is against violence, but don’t push your luck in a bar run by the yakuza. Women can get harassed, mainly by gropers on the subway. Sexual harassment at work? Seems to be the niorm in Asia and some other places. As for whether it is like the descriptions, it depends which ones you are reading. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2018, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/79 "2018-11-09T23:05:47Z")
[According to Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-love-machine/) real used schoolgirl panty vending machines did once exist, but were outlawed. [Fake used panty machines](https://www.techinasia.com/japan-used-panty-vending-machines-fact-fiction) exist today (but mention that they are fake only in Japanese.) So a little more complex than just urban legend. (If fake used panties aren’t your thing, a [fake love letter](https://soranews24.com/2017/05/06/only-in-japan-handwritten-love-letters-from-high-school-girls-now-available-in-crank-machines/) may be more your speed.) (A good movie that touches on the [burasera](https://www.google.com/search?q=Burasera+shops&oq=Burasera+shops&aqs=heirloom-srp..) industry is [_Bounce Ko Gals_](http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/bounce-ko-gals/), [available on Youtube](https://youtube.com/watch?v=BpO4W-fNJmY).) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043/80 "2018-11-10T02:19:55Z")
> [@Grestarian](#): > > In my cases, the staff was asking because they wanted to know when I would be leaving the room because they meticulously cleaned it every day and, since I was trying to sleep late and deal with jet lag, I was messing up their cleaning schedule. There was one hotel I stayed at in Kyoto where they flat out told us that we had to be out of the hotel between certain hours in order to accommodate the cleaning schedule. I came back early one day because my knee was hurting from lots of walking, and had to spend an hour in the lobby reading. Lucky for me there was a beer vending machine in the lobby, so it wasn’t particularly onerous. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-really-all-that/824043.md?page=5)