# Is Japan the worst highly developed country to live in? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 14, 2021, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329 "2021-11-14T13:29:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2021, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/81 "2021-11-18T15:46:38Z")
I would say that China is the worst developed country to live in, assuming you think they are ‘developed’. They have a similar, crazy work schedule (they call it 996…you work 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week…and even that is probably an understatement), but they have a bunch of additional stresses ranging from horrible environmental conditions (air quality, water quality and scarcity, poor quality control and adulteration of basic products and staples, etc etc), really ridiculous housing availability (this is also the case in Japan, but the Chinese take this to a whole other level), access to quality healthcare and, of course, all of that totalitarian rule stuff with censorship…and these things are only touching on the tip of the iceberg. ---
**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 18, 2021, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/82 "2021-11-18T19:01:35Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > Define “useless” and “hyperbolic,” preferably without an overlap. Creative definitions could be entertaining. I never said “useless”, I said “have little use”. Would it satisfy you if I ammended that to “tracked and registered items are less casually usable stolen than items that aren’t”? ---
**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 18, 2021, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/83 "2021-11-18T19:11:16Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > The justice system is another issue. There was this interesting story a few months back. > **[Oita woman loses lawsuit and pays damages without ever knowing she’d been sued](https://soranews24.com/2021/02/13/oita-woman-loses-lawsuit-and-pays-damages-without-ever-knowing-shed-been-sued/)** > > A frightening case of using the legal system to commit robbery. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/84 "2021-11-19T01:22:01Z")
These “scare for yuks” videos show up all the time on my TikTok For You Playlist (please don’t judge me, I get them probably because I watch them all the way through). Some are from Japan, while others are copies from around the world. ---
**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/85 "2021-11-19T01:36:02Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I’ve never been to Japan, but I think I would find the _kawaii_ culture oppressive. This is one of those things that is exported because it is different, not because it is mainstream. You really do not encounter kawaii culture everywhere you go, or even most places you go in Japan. It is there, but it is not as omnipresent as you may have been led to believe. `//i\\` ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/86 "2021-11-19T03:10:22Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > > [@gkster](#): > > > > Natural disasters happen everywhere. > > Not everywhere. Take Finland, where there are none, mostly due to geography and geology. I’m sure there are other places like that, too. The dominant geohazards in Finland are **avalanches, landslides, storm surges and winter storms** (Schmidt-Thomé, and Kallio 2006). [https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.459.1899&rep=rep1&type=pdf#:~:text=The%20dominant%20geohazards%20in%20Finland,hilly%20areas%20in%20northern%20Finland](https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.459.1899&rep=rep1&type=pdf#:~:text=The%20dominant%20geohazards%20in%20Finland,hilly%20areas%20in%20northern%20Finland). **Winter floods** are expected to become more common in Southern and Central Finland > **[River floods in Finland](https://www.climatechangepost.com/finland/river-floods/)** > > Suomen muuttuvassa ilmastossa. Kaikki ilmastonmuutoksesta, heikkouksia ja sopeutumisstrategioita kaikissa Euroopan maissa. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/87 "2021-11-19T03:58:04Z")
Key word here: “Natural disaster”, which is so far away from Finland’s puny “avalanches”, “landslides”, storm surges, winter storms, and river floods that it’s laughable. Sometimes some people’s forest lots suffer timber losses, and sometimes some people’s basements get wet. Once in a blue moon a house moves a little, cracking the foundation, etc. etc. If the geohazards of Finland are disasters, the word has lost all meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/88 "2021-11-19T08:52:21Z")
There’s also the thing how the whole country freezes over for six months and the sun disappears. Just because it happens every year doesn’t make it any less horrible. I think most people would call it a natural disaster it if happened where they lived. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/89 "2021-11-19T11:53:30Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > There was this interesting story a few months back You can game the legal system anywhere in the world, so I don’t think this case is due to any fundamental flaw in the Japanese legal system. And just like in this case, justice should usually, eventually, prevail. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/90 "2021-11-19T13:53:53Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > In short, my son LOVED every aspect of Japan - EXCEPT Tokyo. I begged off a few jobs offered because it would have meant I would have to move to Tokyo. I don’t like it there. Difficult to explain why. ---
**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 19, 2021, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/91 "2021-11-19T14:15:41Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > The justice system is another issue. Lawyers in Japan have exactly zero power over police to protect their clients. They are not like western lawyers - don’t ever make that mistaken presumption. Also, judges are trained by the public prosecutors!!! and are picked straight from school, not appointed after years of service in the law. For the public prosecutors, taking a suspect to trial and not winning is a career harming event. So you have to be sure of a win. What can be surer than a confession? Nothing right? So they sweat you out for a confession, holding you indefinitely. Oh yes. The justice system. It’s hard to see how a system could be designed to be less fair to defendants. However, one point not generally given as much press is that in certain cases, such as where the outcome is less certain, the prosecutors will pressure the victims to withdraw the complaint, while simultaneously pressuring the suspect to pay compensation to the victim. Other areas where crime is clearly ignored include the yakuza and illegal gambling, which traditionally overlapped, although I’ve read that the police have made headway recently. Even without any involvement by the yakuza, pachiko is illegal gambling but ignored by the authorities. While verifying information, I discovered that Japanese pachiko income as of 2017 was larger than the combined gambling revenues of Macau, Las Vegas and Singapore. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/92 "2021-11-20T08:39:15Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > I discovered that Japanese pachiko income as of 2017 was larger than the combined gambling revenues of Macau, Las Vegas and Singapore Wow. I think the city I live in (Ashiya) is the only city in Japan that bans pachinko parlours. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/93 "2021-11-20T15:25:21Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > the prosecutors will pressure the victims to withdraw the complaint, while simultaneously pressuring the suspect to pay compensation to the victim. I know it goes on but the lawyer in me finds that repellant. Do you need a judge or should you just let the police decide everything. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/94 "2021-11-20T16:01:50Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I’m sure Americans as well find some German cultural traditions weird (Schlager, maybe? Though I find that weird too). Shlager, the music, or _mensur_? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/95 "2021-11-20T16:15:01Z")
I meant the music, but Mensur sure also is strange. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/96 "2021-11-20T16:36:03Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > Even without any involvement by the yakuza, pachiko is illegal gambling but ignored by the authorities. While verifying information, I discovered that Japanese pachiko income as of 2017 was larger than the combined gambling revenues of Macau, Las Vegas and Singapore. Are you saying that yakuza are not involved, or that their involvement is just another layer on top of the illegal gambling aspect? And by the way, do pachinko parlors still give out their “prizes” from a window on the alley out back? ---
**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 21, 2021, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/97 "2021-11-21T02:33:57Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > I begged off a few jobs offered because it would have meant I would have to move to Tokyo. I don’t like it there. Difficult to explain why. Interesting, because I really loved Tokyo. There were things about Tokyo that I didn’t like, of course, but I others which made up for it. I like the people there. I was in sales for more than 20 years and I just liked it. I think it was because I started my professional life there, so I got used to the people in Tokyo. Nothing wrong with Kansai or other areas, but I lived and mostly worked in Kanto. > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Are you saying that yakuza are not involved, or that their involvement is just another layer on top of the illegal gambling aspect? And by the way, do pachinko parlors still give out their “prizes” from a window on the alley out back? Unfortunately, I really don’t know how much the yakuza is involved now. I didn’t phrase that as well as I should have. I have read that they aren’t as involved as before, but I didn’t want to sound definitive because I don’t really know. Yeah, they are still giving out the little prizes which get redeemed in the back alley. For people who don’t know, there are only a few forms of legal gambling, and pachinko isn’t on the list. They get by that by allowing people to redeem their winnings in prizes such as pens and coincidently there will be a tiny shop around the corner which purchases these prizes. Amazing how that works. It’s so obvious so there must be some sort of “official” unspoken policy of ignoring it, which is an easy way for organized crime to fill the void. > [@Isamu](#): > > I know it goes on but the lawyer in me finds that repellant. Do you need a judge or should you just let the police decide everything. Like anything else, power corrupts and there needs to be checks on power. Without having impartial judges, then there are no real checks on the police and prosecutors, other than the whims of the tabloids. Now for my soapbox rant. I think in general, people aren’t good at understanding “others,” people who aren’t in their same group, and tend to simplify and generalize far too much, even among others in the same country, let along another nationality and radically different culture. Japan is not some monolithic culture and having known _one_ Japanese person, even having been married to person, for example, doesn’t make one an expert. Even having lived in Japan doesn’t necessarily give a great deal of depth in understanding. I first came to Japan as a Mormon missionary and lived there for 16 months. Missionaries passed along stories of what Japanese were like, even though they aren’t necessarily accurate. Likewise, many foreigners will mostly hang out with other foreigners and don’t really associate that much with the locals. That’s common everywhere, I think. My Japanese friends at my university mostly hung out with other Japanese, or with Japanese speakers such as me. This thread isn’t as bad as others I’ve seen, but it’s something which does annoy me. /rant ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/98 "2021-11-22T19:58:34Z")
Based on the many Japanese documentaries I’ve seen, it seems the country does have a problem with _kaiju_ destroying cities every so often. I marvel the resilience of the people to bear through it and their construction industry for rebuilding so quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2023, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-japan-the-worst-highly-developed-country-to-live-in/954329/99 "2023-02-18T15:08:12Z")
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