I highly recommend Matt Walker’s book “Why We Sleep.” Fascinating, informative, and a bit scary.
Semi Hijack- I know this an odd and very subjective question. I ask it sincerely- is Japanese pop culture weirder than average or do they just export a higher percentage of weirdness? OTTOMH a dating video game featuring Colonel Sanders comes to mind.
Come to think of it, I have many more questions about Japan and it would probably help if somebody started an ‘Ask Me About Japan’ thread.
Gosh, someone made a tangental comment in a dope thread. That’s gotta be the first time that has ever happened.
I don’t presume myself important enough that I expect anyone to be intimate with my posting history, or bothered that someone isn’t, but so many of my posts here have been pro some aspects of Japanese culture (lots of otaku culture but also a long-term interest in pre-modern Japanese folklore, especially as compiled by Yanagita Kuino and in some Japanese art/craftworks such as netsuke and ukiyo-e, for example) that I have had concerns about coming across as a weeabu. I am the last person here who would be making that argument.
Yes, they are weirder indeed.
I’ve lately been watching Girls in Panzers (a Japanese anime about girls driving WWII tanks) for laughs. You sure wouldn’t find something like that in the West.
Avoid the one with the bird poo!
You might, but it would be for humorous effect. The awesome thing about Japanese weirdness is that it is so sincere.
I would think that every country harbors people with weird interests. Japan is one of the few countries to have a large and wealthy enough population to have enough people willing to pay for weird media to make the production of that media profitable. For much of anime, broadcasting it is basically just advertising for Blu-ray and merchandising sales. (Anime releases are expensive in Japan.)
I haven’t heard of this before, but that’s a parody game commissioned by KFC. So it is advertising.
I don’t think they’re weirder, just different. For example, from my German perspective, I find American pro-wrestling to be totally bizarre, and I could name other American cultural phenomena that I also find very weird. I’m sure Americans as well find some German cultural traditions weird (Schlager, maybe? Though I find that weird too). Each country has its own cultural idiosyncrasies.
funny you should mention pro wrestling which japan takes waayy more seriously than America and other places…
Something that hasn’t been covered is concerning career women. Things have been slowly changing, but in most fields, it’s impossible for most women to really get ahead. One of the problems is the long hours that many corporate jobs require and it’s very difficult for working mothers to put in those kinds of hours.
Japanese people who spend high school and college essentially lose their “Japaneseness,” and don’t regain it when they return back to Japan.
I have had such friends and they no longer fit into the culture. It seems harder for them to live in Japan than it for foreigners because we can be excused for our strange thinking. I was just talking about that this recently with a friend. She went to America in 10th grade, then went to college there and worked for several years. She’s in her 50s now and has very few “real Japanese” friends. She mostly talks to other returnees or foreigners.
I have left my bag on the train a few times. Once when I first working there, I left it on the rack above the seat, and it included one month’s pay, all in cash.
OTOH, on our last trip, I left my backpack on the train (try making transfers with two kids and multiple assortments of bags in tow) and immediately realized it. We rushed to the office and they found the train within five or ten minutes but the bag was gone. A few days later it showed up on another train on a completely different line, minus the cash (but at least with my ID and such).
That is changing. When I was first there EVERYTHING was cash. No checks and few places took credit cards. Companies paid salaries in cash, which lead to this infamous incident.
Something that does happen in Japan is that things often lag other countries, but the change is often over a shorter period of time.
Define “useless” and “hyperbolic,” preferably without an overlap. Creative definitions could be entertaining.
I saw this in another topic very recently but isn’t the lack of crime in Japan due to how their court system works? Iirc someone said that Japan’s courts have a 99% conviction rate and you can be held for six months to a year without a warrant. Basically they sweat you out to get a conviction.
There isn’t a a lack of crime in Japan. To the contrary there is plenty of crime in Japan. What there is are very low levels of serious criminal violence, very low levels of vandalism, very low levels of causing a commotion. Plus most people would return a lost wallet, with the cash still in it. Most.
On the flip slide, Japan has massive institutional criminal white collar fraud issues. You will never read about them because it is in no one’s interest to divulge them. Japan has massive sexual crime issues that you will never read about because they don’t get reported because the police make it difficult for victims to file complaints. (See the Shiori Ito case, you will smack your head against a wall). Human trafficking, another big problem. Mostly unreported.
As opposed to the totally normal Wendy’s tabletop role-playing game, Feast of Legends?
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.
Speaking of different cultures: There was that one Japanese television show where, just for yuks, the host would walk up behind someone and then give a piercing yell. It was considered especially humorous if the victim were poised on the edge of a dock - etc - and then jumped off.
Also consider sumo wrestling. Some years ago a mathematician did a statistical study on the top sumo matches and concluded that there was a high degree of certainty the matches were fixed. It near caused a national crisis! (Source: Freakonomics)
USA isn’t the greatest example to compare to, why not compare to France where most people work for 7 hours or 35 workweeks? That should be the example to follow, for people to have time for their mental health, for their family, for their non-work tasks, friends and so on, not to consider 6 hours of sleep and a morning to evening job normal…in the 21st century.
Because the question was whether or not Japan is a “dystopian hellhole” based on some example metrics. Based on personal experience, one of them seemed a bit… less than hellholeish… so I looked it up. The question isn’t really “Do people in Country X get more sleep than the people in Japan”, it’s “Is Japan a dystopian hellhole as indicated at least partially by these hours of sleep?”
My son recently took an extended trip to Japan with several friends, visiting another friend who lived and worked there. In short, my son LOVED every aspect of Japan - EXCEPT Tokyo. I wonder how many countries have significant differences between their major metropolis and the rest of the country.
Very recently someone was opining to me about the social and achievement pressures in S Korea, suggesting it was an unpleasant place - but I have zero personal experience/knowledge.
Years ago, I met a young man from Marseilles, who was visiting a college buddy of mine; the Frenchman had lived with my buddy’s family as an exchange student in high school. We were talking about national stereotypes, and the “obnoxious Frenchman” trope came up. He said, “Oh, no, that’s just Parisians. We hate them, too.”
I’ve never been to Japan, but I think I would find the kawaii culture oppressive.