I worked in Japan at UBS for 2.5 years. It was not a dystopian hellhole.
Salarymen make up something like 40% of the work force. Their professonal lives and commutes can suck. But then again, I’ve worked at several global 100 companies, and there is no real work life balance beyond lip service. Try working for Amazon as a salary man with pre-covid commutes of at least an hour in the hellish Seattle traffic with the privlidge of paying for your parking. It’s not all that unlike the life of a Japanese salaryman. Less required drinking, which has declined massively in Japan since the peak of the bubble in 1989.
All I know is that one of the streamers I follow moved there after vacationing there twice. He and his wife (it was easier for them to get in if they married) just felt at home there.
Of course, as streamers, they don’t do the salaryman type of jobs. Still, they seemed to have met a lot of great people who were enjoying their life. They even had their own special bar after just their first visit, where they felt like family, despite having to work through the language barrier. (They are, of course, learning Japanese now.)
Wow, what a strange thread. My best friend lives in Tokyo with his Japanese wife and I’ve visited them many times and explored large parts of Tokyo. I find Tokyo to be extremely livable and Japanese people happy and friendly there and it is by far the cleanest and safest place I’ve ever been. Young children ride the subway unaccompanied to school every day without trouble, I couldn’t imagine such a thing in the US.
That reminds me. The streamer loves the lack of theft there. He said he would never leave his bike unattended back in Toronto (where he used to live). And the bikes he’s talking about are pretty fancy motorized bikes that cost him a decent amount.
He’s also mentioned the kids, but specifically them walking around together, while looking quite young.
Also, there’s the one time a kid called him Santa. (He had a beard, but it’s not white.)
I doubt Japan could be the worst highly developed country to live in. I chose to live in it for over 25 years, so far. I left Australia behind because I was bored of it. I haven’t got bored of Japan yet, even remotely, but other factors are making me think of moving on again. I can fully recommend it though.
Certainly no shortage of earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis, but lots of countries have these things. it doesn’t mean they are not nice places.
Yes, Japan is short on arable land, with the result that they import about 60% of their calories. This is a somewhat precarious strategic position to be in, but it doesn’t mean Japan is not a nice place.
They are also a net energy importer, but this likewise doesn’t mean it’s not a nice place.
Mountains, cliffs & bare rock is the rest? You may be surprised to learn that some people like those kinds of landscape features. You also seem to imply that there are no cities and towns, just farmland, mountains, cliffs & bare rock. But there are cities and towns, and they’re nice places to be - clean, litter-free, outstanding public transportation, crazy-good food, and low-crime.
Japan’s got its pros and cons. There are a number of foreigners who visit, fall in love with the place, and end up living there for the long term. Sounds like you won’t be one of them, and that’s fine, but it doesn’t mean the people who think it’s a nice place are wrong.
Excuse my sarcasm, but the reason there is less theft (and less crime in general) in Japan is because there is much more widespread buy-in to the social contract. In other words, because people think it is wrong.
It is why cars are not stolen casually, resold casually, and dirven casually much in the US, and are mostly done by serious criminals. If there was no attempt to keep a record of who owns a car, you would see a lot more of the stolen.
If your thesis is that “registration” is the principal explanation for the lack of crime in Japan, how about comparing crime statistics between the U.S. and Japan for crimes where registration requirements are similar in both countries (or not relevant to the type of crime)?
Okay. Given that this isn’t my thesis, I will not be doing this.
I was simply pointing out a fact: in Japan, every bicycle is supposed to be registered and have a registration sticker, and police can demand to see proof of ownership from anyone with a bicycle at any time.
just wondering if the OP has ever visited Japan. Certainly our visits to Tokyo didn’t land us in the middle of a dystopian hellscape littered with the bodies of salarymen who had committed suicide because of their shameful failure to work themselves to death, unless you count “shopping for jazz LPs in Kanda-Jinbouchou” as some kind of horrifying nightmare only endured by the Japanese people.
Japan has a reputation for having a low crime rate, so much so that it is not uncommon for people to leave their bicycles unlocked when parked on the street or in parking garages. But despite the belief of many that leaving a bicycle is unsafe Japan does have bicycle thieves and hundreds of thousands of bicycles are reported stolen each year.
In 2013, according to police statistics, 305,033 bicycles were reported stolen. Osaka had the highest rate of bicycle theft with 4.65 bicycles stolen per 1000 residents, followed by Tokyo and Saitama.