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(The classic example being unwilling to tolerate guest workers, as I mentioned in reply to annother commenter).
I didn't mean the entire culture should cease to exist, hence taking pains to point out positive things too.
(They're more health oriented for example -- can't get a healthy meal in an American 7/11 unless you count the weight loss from a pack of cigs for breakfast)
Anime
Anime can be a legitimate form of art - Akira was great for example.
OTOH, I went to a maid cafè in Akihabara and got so thoroughly unnerved I think I hurt their feelings when I exclaimed “this is too weird I gotta go” and went to an actual arcade.
It’s sad the radio shack style electronics stores are closing and all that seems left in that area is… that.
Hilarious.
> It's a lovely place to visit but I cannot understand why the HN crowd idolizes it when there's a lot of places in SE Asia that have less toxic attitudes about immigrants and women.
We must all share your values or perish? Anything short of them is unfathomable to you? And you have a deep understanding of 130m people because you've stepped foot in the country?
My friend, it is you who are the toxic bigot.
Japan is perishing because of the values it currently has. Pseudo-feudal society that imitates the samurai-ruled commoners who must sacrifice their lives for one zaibatsu or the other, never-ending work in which they must karoshi themselves out for the 'ganbare' principle, extreme xenophobia that even afflicts Japanese that move from one region to another, leave aside immigrants.
You definitely don't have to share his values. His values may not even be suitable for you. But you definitely must stop having the current values that you have since they are literally eradicating your society in an a case that has not been ever seen in modern age before.
As far as I know no country including the depopulating Western European countries face the demographic crisis that Japan faces. Its a crisis at a totally different level.
Why would you subtract the effects of immigration. Immigration is how a lot of countries are getting out of the stranglehold in the first place.
And Japan cant even do immigration. That's the problem. Within at most 2 generations, those European immigrants' descendants will become integrated enough to their European countries - as it happened in countries that started getting immigrants much before others. For Spanish speaking countries, its much better - immigrants just fit into the society immediately - partly because a precedent/format already pre-existing, partly because Latin countries are pretty social and swiftly integrate anyone.
Compared to those, Japan is in an extremely worse position not only due to the lingering presence of the feudal society, but also xenophobia, overwork culture and various other factors
Also, it's not meaningful to say "France is doing worse except for the immigrants", because the immigrants are there for good and they're having children, taking jobs, paying taxes, etc, which changes the equation for everybody else as well.
There it is, mask off.
I'm not Japanese but since we are making assumptions I could guess that you are a "progressive" American or from certain parts of the "Western World".
Should I be so inclined I could enumerate the many problems the west has and its own current obvious decline. Ironically you yourselves are the very source of the doomer memes.
I could further declare that your country is obviously perishing because of the wrongfully adopted woke values currently in vogue and that you must repent and adopt sharia law.
Of course that would be a monumentally stupid and outright fascist take on things as it is really not my place to dictate to other cultures that their values are wrong and they must adopt mine or suffer immensely.
If I don't gel with a society rather than sanctimoniously preaching I simply steer clear. I hope you have the good sense to leave the Japanese people alone offline.
Regardless of the problems in the US, neither the US nor any other country on the planet is facing a crisis like Japan. Not even the Western European countries that have a depopulation problem. The crisis in Japan is at a level that has never been seen since the start of early modern age.
> I hope you have the good sense to leave the Japanese people alone offline.
Its hard to interpret what that even means. This is a social studies topic in which people are discussing a major phenomenon. People cant stop discussing sciences for the fear of a certain demographic not wanting them discussing it.
I'm guessing you haven't followed what's been happening in eastern Europe the last few decades very closely? For example, Bulgaria has already lost about 30% of it's population since 1988 and is predicted to lose much more in the coming years.
Im aware of the different demographic situations in different regions. Bulgaria and parts of Eastern Europe's depopulations are not due to endemic factors like Japan's, but due to effects of Eu which cause the youth to move to other countries for jobs and settle there. Japan does not have such a situation. It is depopulation solely out of declining birth rates.
Half-Croat here. We have the same issue, but at least the EU is throwing money around across the board to lift up standards of living in order to curb emigration, and it's not just money either, it's as well enforcing at least a basic code of conduct for politicians. A large part that drives young people away is endemic corruption, and the metrics for that have improved virtually everywhere in the EU except Poland, Hungary and sadly Slovenia.
I’d have more sympathy if they were actually productively using those long hours…
Famously, they rejected similar sort of persons in the 16th century and closed all entry to foreigners. Let me assure you they'll successfully sort out their issues without your input.
I’m not Swedish and despite being a former altar server haven’t been to a Catholic mass in years.
I would call it more xenophobia than racism - even if you move to a new region from another, more accepted region, you still seem to be seen as an outsider for a while. Even while moving in between local neighborhoods. Such concepts exist in other countries too, but Japan seems to be on an extreme level.
Coupled with the extreme amounts of strict social norms that everyone must adhere to, its no surprise that even Japanese youth themselves are alienated from literally life in Japan itself, leave aside immigrants.
I read that in their new plan for attracting immigrants, the new Japanese government was planning to use a sufficiently depopulated region to put only immigrants there so that they wouldnt be put off by the xenophobia/racism that plagues the Japanese society.
What's necessary seems to be a total overhaul of the Japanese society that seems to have stuck in a rehashed medieval feudalism led by pseudo-samurai. The zaibatsu system that the US occupation fostered in order to use Japan as an agent in the region elevated former local mafia and gangs as well as established, formerly-feudal family owned companies to global stage. They still keep the feudal traits they had at the start of the 20th century. All of these strict norms, totally-hierarchical caste society, segregation, the commoners having to sacrifice themselves for one company or the other etc seem to stem from that origin.
Thanks for pointing this out, to be fair it can be a thing in the USA too but more an urban / rural divide - can’t just move into a small town many places…