32 Facts That Prove Japan Is Unlike Any Other Country

From the beginning of June to mid-July, Japan enters the rainy season, tsuyu. Then, no one is seen without carrying an umbrella. But the wet umbrellas can make a mess when you take them indoors, and it’s extra baggage you have to carry, so the Japanese have a solution for this inconvenience. Stands for umbrellas are very common; they stand outside buildings and it can be even required that you leave your umbrella there. Many hotels, sports centers, and government offices even provide brolly lockers so you don't have to worry that someone will take it.

To get the cube shape, the watermelons are grown in boxes and they take the shape of the containers. The idea came so that it would be easier to store them in the fridge and easier to cut without them rolling around. Although the cube watermelons were meant to be more practical, now they are essentially ornamental and it’s not an everyday fruit as it can cost up to $100.

Phones can carry even more bacteria than a toilet seat and we are constantly touching them or bringing them to our faces. That is why the Japanese thought it would be a good idea to have phone disinfecting wipes in bathroom stalls. These were installed in Tokyo's Narita International Airport. The dispensers dubbed ‘toilet paper for smartphones’ were set to remain in place until March 15, 2017.

Many restaurants in Japan will attract their customers by displaying examples of their delicious food in their windows. But those mouth-watering dishes most probably are made of plastic. The food replicas cost more than the dishes themselves, but they last for a long time and don’t lose their tasty appearance. Previously, the fake food was made out of wax, but currently non-biodegradable polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is used.

You will notice a common trend through this list that Japanese are quite obsessed with keeping everything clean, to the point that they have separate slippers dedicated solely for the bathroom. These slippers are worn to the toilet only, because even if you can’t see the germs, that doesn’t mean that they are not there and you wouldn’t want to spread them throughout your whole house.

In some Japanese urinals, there are mini games installed, controlled by a player’s urine stream. The urinal is installed with pressure sensors and the screen with the game is mounted on the wall. The purpose of the Sega Toylet games was to encourage urinal users to be more accurate in public bathrooms and leave them less messy.

In Japan, the traditional meal for Christmas is KFC. It is estimated that every year, 3.6 million Japanese families chose fried chicken from this American fast food brand. There are several origin stories as to how the idea was born to make eating KFC a Christmas tradition, but what is for sure is that the campaign started in 1974 and it was successful.

In most of the cities in Japan, when you are facing a staircase or an escalator, you walk up or down the left side. There is also such a thing as escalator etiquette that you don’t stand in the middle, but on the side instead. Usually you stand on the left side and leave the right side for people who hurry and walk up and down the excavator. However, recently, many subway stations banned walking on escalators.

Japan has unique places to eat, like maid cafés or other themed restaurants. One of the most unusual places is a tiny food bar, Mr. Kanso, which serves 300 different kinds of canned foods from all over the world. There is no chef, no menu, no kitchen or waiters, and the prices vary depending on how rare the canned food is. You can find canned egg omelet, bacon with potatoes, rice, tuna, Japanese curry, or egg cakes.

More adult diapers are sold in Japan than baby diapers. The reason for this is that the population is getting old—almost a third of Japanese people are over 65 years old. Also, the birth rates are low: the birth rate in 2020 was 7.301 births per 1000 people, which is 1.3 percent less than in 2019. For comparison, the birth rate in the US in 2020 was 11.990 births per 1000 people, which is 0.09 percent more than in 2019.

In most crowded outdoor areas in Tokyo, it is prohibited to smoke and there are designated areas for that. In April of last year, a law prohibiting smoking indoors came into full effect. Exceptions apply to private homes, hotel rooms for smokers, and cigar bars. Smoking is also prohibited in such public closed spaces like trains, buses, and airplanes, but there are some trains that have designated smoking passenger wagons.

The first permanent maid cafe was opened in the Akihabara area in Tokyo in March 2001. These types of cafes are predominantly found in Japan. They have a unique service system. The waitresses are dressed in maid costumes, which usually are based upon French maids, and act as servants for their masters and mistresses. They have some distinctive rituals, such as greeting customers with "Welcome home, Master (Mistress, My lady)!" Although people go to maid cafes for the experience, you can find menus that are similar to ordinary cafes. However, maids will decorate a customer’s order with cute pictures or sayings.