Many people dream about leaving the place where they were born or currently live and pursuing a life abroad. Usually, such dreams involve not some random country, but one that seemingly calls to a person's heart.
For many people, this place is Japan. They have a nice image of it in their mind as a country that is seemingly perfect. Yet, reality is never so ideal — and foreigners who live in Japan can attest to that. So, let's dive in and see what kind of critique they have for this place and whether it still remains your dream country after this.
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#1
I work with Japanese businesses, and the thing that infuriates me the most:
Nobody will disagree with you in a meeting. Even if you’re wildly wrong and about to make a huge mistake. Even if it’ll wreck their business. Even if it’s an objectively terrible idea.
If you have a meeting coming up with 30 people in it, you need to have AT LEAST 30 1-on-1s ahead of time in order to get everyone’s true thoughts. And you cannot mention any other 1-on-1s: if you say “oh I met with Bob and he said XYZ”, then you’ve missed out on getting any kind of real opinion out of the person you’re meeting with. They will Shut. Down.
*Terrified* of disagreement.
Nobody will disagree with you in a meeting. Even if you’re wildly wrong and about to make a huge mistake. Even if it’ll wreck their business. Even if it’s an objectively terrible idea.
If you have a meeting coming up with 30 people in it, you need to have AT LEAST 30 1-on-1s ahead of time in order to get everyone’s true thoughts. And you cannot mention any other 1-on-1s: if you say “oh I met with Bob and he said XYZ”, then you’ve missed out on getting any kind of real opinion out of the person you’re meeting with. They will Shut. Down.
*Terrified* of disagreement.
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36points
#2
Japan doesn't protect a lot of basic civil rights very well. You can be discriminated against for disabilities in employment and even in healthcare choices. If you end up in a lawsuit, the court is extremely reluctant to make a judgement and will try to force an agreement even when the case should be clearly in favor of one side. If you're charged with a crime you will be convicted. But, not all crimes are charged, so if you're the victim of a crime and the police and prosecutor don't want to take the case to court (for fear of being in the tiny percentage that aren't convicted), the perpetrator will go free.
28points
#3
My buddy is Vietnamese and grew up in Southern California then moved to Japan for work.
He always felt SoCal was a little racist but it was nothing like Japan.
In Japan, Vietnamese are often uneducated immigrant workers, and are seen as the lowest class. My buddies Japanese wasn’t amazing, it was his third language. And he dressed like a California skater.
He would be refused service at restaurants, not allowed into stores, and called “boat trash”.
He eventually learned to dress in expensive suits and only speak English. Playing up his Americaness.
He still had an old woman ask, “who taught a dummy like you English.” 😅.
He always felt SoCal was a little racist but it was nothing like Japan.
In Japan, Vietnamese are often uneducated immigrant workers, and are seen as the lowest class. My buddies Japanese wasn’t amazing, it was his third language. And he dressed like a California skater.
He would be refused service at restaurants, not allowed into stores, and called “boat trash”.
He eventually learned to dress in expensive suits and only speak English. Playing up his Americaness.
He still had an old woman ask, “who taught a dummy like you English.” 😅.
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26points
Japan is a dream destination for many people. The reasons behind it are various. Some feel invited by the country because of its hospitality, others because of tourist attractions, cuisine, or culture. You know, each person who dreams about visiting or living in Japan has something that motivates this desire.
Some people even take it too far and make it their whole personality. Such a person can be called a Japanophile or 親日 (shinnichi) in Japanese. It’s a strong interest in Japanese culture, history, and people.
#4
Japan can do things 3 ways: amazingly well, antiquated or absolutely weird/creepy.
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24points
#5
Not my story but a schoolfriend of mine who was obsessed with Japan all his life basically achieved his dream and moved over there, married a Japanese woman and got a job with bandai namco. After 10 years he practically fled the country (with his wife) and had almost nothing but bad things to say. He says it's basically impossible to be truly accepted as a foreigner, the work culture is beyond insane, and the police and government have a frightening level of power. He highly recommends it as a holiday destination. But not to live.
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24points
#6
I've lived in Japan for 12 years (and counting).
Deep relationships are hard to come by. People don't often ask inquisitive questions for the sake of protecting someone's privacy. A big negative of that is most relationships are very surface-level. In addition to this, people usually don't hangout at each other's houses. All gatherings and meetings must be planned well in advance and things feel more like "events" rather than casual get togethers.
Ultimately the lack of deep connections where you really get to know people is hard. People are so good at putting on an outward face and covering up their true selves.
Deep relationships are hard to come by. People don't often ask inquisitive questions for the sake of protecting someone's privacy. A big negative of that is most relationships are very surface-level. In addition to this, people usually don't hangout at each other's houses. All gatherings and meetings must be planned well in advance and things feel more like "events" rather than casual get togethers.
Ultimately the lack of deep connections where you really get to know people is hard. People are so good at putting on an outward face and covering up their true selves.
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22points
The thing is that it borders on fascination and fetishization. For some, it might be just an interest in a foreign culture and things related to it, but for others, when it evolves to things along the lines of “I only date Japanese people” and things like that, it becomes not only fetishization, but cultural appropriation too.
Essentially, people who have an unhealthy obsession with Japan usually reduce it to stereotypes.
They imagine the country and culture as an exotic and otherworldly place, something that looks and feels exactly as it does in manga, movies, anime, and other media exported from there.
#7
I lived in rural Japan for a year as an assistant language teacher.
A downside nobody talks about... How about not treating roads / sidewalks in winter? I didn't have a car, and relied on getting around by bike and on foot. The first time it started melting and refreezing, it was a total s******w. Everything was covered in a half inch of ice. I fell a lot, despite being Minnesotan. When I was in Sapporo one time, I took a taxi and was making small talk with the driver about how the roads were so icy. He assured me it was totally safe, and immediately after that as he tried to stop at a red light he wildly fish-tailed back and forth due to the ice. We both laughed about it!
Seriously though- For a country with so many elderly folks who could easily break a bone in a fall, I don't understand the logic behind this.
Bonus fun facts: In small towns, folks are much more likely to smile, wave, and say hi. Nearly everyone, including at work, was also very accepting of my forearm tattoo.
A downside nobody talks about... How about not treating roads / sidewalks in winter? I didn't have a car, and relied on getting around by bike and on foot. The first time it started melting and refreezing, it was a total s******w. Everything was covered in a half inch of ice. I fell a lot, despite being Minnesotan. When I was in Sapporo one time, I took a taxi and was making small talk with the driver about how the roads were so icy. He assured me it was totally safe, and immediately after that as he tried to stop at a red light he wildly fish-tailed back and forth due to the ice. We both laughed about it!
Seriously though- For a country with so many elderly folks who could easily break a bone in a fall, I don't understand the logic behind this.
Bonus fun facts: In small towns, folks are much more likely to smile, wave, and say hi. Nearly everyone, including at work, was also very accepting of my forearm tattoo.
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22points
#8
The salary. Even adjusted for cost of living it’s low. Best year of my life, and I learned a lot, but man was it a pain to budget at times.
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21points
#9
The constant subtle exclusion gets to you after a while. Been here 6 years and still get the wow your chopstick skills are amazing! comments. Like yeah Karen I've been eating three meals a day here I think I've figured out how to hold two sticks together by now.
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21points
Non-Japanese people who live in that country can attest to this idea. For examples of their thoughts, you can look into our list today – it’s full of downsides that people find living in Japan. And there are quite enough of them, from having a hard time making deep connections and feeling subtly excluded from things, to racism, to not being protected by basic civil rights.
#10
Theres this lady on tiktok that does a video series about what its like being a foreigner in japan, shes a teacher and she had gotten a summer job at one point, apparently they made her apologize for leaving and tried to force her to stay and apparently some companies will try to sabotage your next job. also theres an issue with women living on the first floor of apartment buildings, idk if its regional or not but dryers are not something that she had access to so they hang dry their laundry and the landlord warned her about young men stealing panties from her little patio if she was living on the first floor.
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18points
#11
School kids spend all their time at school and don’t get to spend much time with their dads. My barber in Japan had a young son. Once he was telling me how his son was about to start school and he was having his last camping trip with him. I asked him why he couldn’t do that in school holidays. Apparently, kids go to school for 6 days of the week, and during the holidays they are expected to do school activities. He said his son would be tied up with school stuff until he graduated high school.
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18points
#12
Something that does come up but I feel like most people don't internalize is just how xenophobic Japanese natives are. As a culture they never really left behind the "We are beacons of civilization and everyone else are barbarians" mindset.
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16points
When you look at things from this perspective, the bubble of a perfect country bursts, and you realize that reality always catches up in one shape or another. A lot of these downsides depend on what people surround you in Japan, what kind of social bubbles you're in, where you live; it isn’t that every single one of them applies the second you step foot over the border.
#13
It is so futuristic in a way but also so behind to anything bureaucratic or anything relating to paperwork.No online system, no chance to go in person, just mail. And GOD FORBID you mail to the wrong person or even the department, they will mail back to do it again with the right addresses. It can be maddening.
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15points
#14
I've lived in japan for four years, working in a japanese company. Two answers:
1. Timezone is terrible. In summer, it's light before 4 am and gets dark at 6 pm. The whole country should move the clocks an hour back.
2. Reverse culture shock. When i go back to the UK, I sometimes catch myself thinking my friends and family are self-centered, loud, and can't "read the air". By british standards they are absolutely none of these things, but japan's emphasis on harmony and indirect communication has started rubbing off on me. Worried this could get worse the longer I stay.
1. Timezone is terrible. In summer, it's light before 4 am and gets dark at 6 pm. The whole country should move the clocks an hour back.
2. Reverse culture shock. When i go back to the UK, I sometimes catch myself thinking my friends and family are self-centered, loud, and can't "read the air". By british standards they are absolutely none of these things, but japan's emphasis on harmony and indirect communication has started rubbing off on me. Worried this could get worse the longer I stay.
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15points
#15
There's a ton of inconveniences that are still in place because of a Scooby Doo villain level attack 30 years ago. Some of them are well known (lack of trash cans), but the most annoying one for me is the lack of ventilation in bathrooms. If you sweat any more than a Japanese person, you will ALWAYS come out of the bathroom looking like you just fought a mythical creature.
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15points
Similarly, it isn’t as much of a hell on Earth as it might start looking like after reading a list like this – just like any other place, Japan has its pros and cons. It always depends on a person to figure out which cons they can survive and which ones are crossing their line.
Have you ever visited Japan? What was your impression of it? Would you like to live there? Share all the answers and additional thoughts in the comments!
#16
The big one. If you weren't born in Japan and are 100% Japanese, then you will NEVER be accepted. Foreign worker... OK. Foreign military... OK. Foreign student... OK. Casual traveler... OK. You'll mostly be treated cordially. But even if you have lived there for decades, speak the language fluently, know all the social nuance, you still will never be accepted as one of their own. EVER.
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15points
#17
We went on honeymoon a few years ago. When we went to Kyoto, we did a tour of the Geiko quarter with an American who’d lived there for years. Really nice guy, he gave some interesting insight into living in Japan as a foreigner.
Two things stood out: he gets told in a daily basis “you speak such good Japanese” which seems like a compliment until you realise it’s actually a way of Othering. The other thing was homosexuality is treated more as an offence against one’s family, in that “how will you provide the next generation?!?”. Apparently, there’s an element of sure, you can have s*x with other guys, but you better get married to a woman.
Two things stood out: he gets told in a daily basis “you speak such good Japanese” which seems like a compliment until you realise it’s actually a way of Othering. The other thing was homosexuality is treated more as an offence against one’s family, in that “how will you provide the next generation?!?”. Apparently, there’s an element of sure, you can have s*x with other guys, but you better get married to a woman.
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15points
#18
People think that Japanese people are so perfectly polite and respectful. Then they learn Japanese. I’ve been in far more confrontations with Japanese people than I have with Americans. Over the stupidest little s**t, mostly. Japanese people, on average, are quite conservative, and they hold themselves and others to extremely high standards.
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15points
#19
Hanko stamps.
God forbid you ever forget to bring that thing with you when visiting a bank etc.
Japan is either amazingly advanced in the 2090s, or ridiculously outdated and stuck in the 1890s.
Flexibility is not a thing,.
God forbid you ever forget to bring that thing with you when visiting a bank etc.
Japan is either amazingly advanced in the 2090s, or ridiculously outdated and stuck in the 1890s.
Flexibility is not a thing,.
14points
#20
That in many aspects where the Japanese seem way ahead of other countries it's because they are comically behind everyone else in some aspect.
Japan did not have the "credit card culture" North America and Europe have, so THAT'S the reason Japanese cell phones got "tap to pay" in the late 90s. Those phones were linked to something like a PayPal account that had to be manually topped-up, in cash, at a convenience store. So not as easy as it looked.
The lack of credit cards also often meant paying in cash. Japanese people wanting first class airline tickets thought nothing of gong to a bank, withdrawing $15,000 in cash, and taking it to the nearest JAL office to buy tickets in person, rather than online.
Faxing may still live on in Japan, and if it's dead, it's somewhat recent. It was also common for Japanese bosses to look at every fax that came in, so no making fun of your boss via fax.
I know their IT is generally way behind the US. A few years ago it wasn't uncommon to see Windows 98 in offices still.
Japan did not have the "credit card culture" North America and Europe have, so THAT'S the reason Japanese cell phones got "tap to pay" in the late 90s. Those phones were linked to something like a PayPal account that had to be manually topped-up, in cash, at a convenience store. So not as easy as it looked.
The lack of credit cards also often meant paying in cash. Japanese people wanting first class airline tickets thought nothing of gong to a bank, withdrawing $15,000 in cash, and taking it to the nearest JAL office to buy tickets in person, rather than online.
Faxing may still live on in Japan, and if it's dead, it's somewhat recent. It was also common for Japanese bosses to look at every fax that came in, so no making fun of your boss via fax.
I know their IT is generally way behind the US. A few years ago it wasn't uncommon to see Windows 98 in offices still.
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13points