From that report, Japan's rank for household financial wealth: 3 / 36. Anyway, the OECD report is highly suspect, IMO. It certainly doesn't tell the story that I've lived.
Well, I've made a lot of money in America and been afforded all of the privileges, but every North American city I've ever lived in had a miserable, destitute area and plenty of visibly neglected people, not to mention the background noise of violent crime and sleazy people who will take any advantage they can get. I wish it wasn't true, but it simply is. I've lived on the west coast, east coast, south and Canada. We really need to change our outlook if we hope to clean up our house. It starts with positive thinking.
You have lived a very privileged life in Japan, my friend.
I have travelled to Japan and have a fiancee who is Zainichi North Korean.
I urge you to stop interpreting Japanese culture with such extreme rose-coloured glasses and tone down your extreme positivity because it is blinding you from having the "balanced view" you say you have of Japan. Furthermore, it is insulting to minorities in Japan, which has a racist, insular, homogenous culture that so rigidly controls what is "true" and what is "false". The difference is that racism in Japan manifests itself in less violent and direct ways, as the culture of honne and tatemae is so prevalent. So it's difficult for foreigners to distinguish these things at face value.
If you compare types of crimes and the types of "bad things" in the US to Japan, you will see Japan has very little of the "bad" things the US has. That is not the point, however.
For example, I read an article that car accidents are up there as the leading causes of most deaths in the US. The Japanophile will remark how great Japan is because cars are not the leading deaths in Japan. But what the Japanophile will not tell you is that Japan has a high suicide rate, Hokkaido residents have the highest rate of heart disease in the world due to their consumption of sodium, and other issues that are probably specific to Japan.
There are very few robberies in Japan, but sexual harassment and sexual assaults are so common that there are specially designated areas and classes for women only. The sexual predators known as "chikan" have targeted foreigners, as well. It is so widespread that there are public service announcements advising women to be cautious. Does this happen in the US? Yes, but not to the degree that it happens in Japan.
I'm sure you don't know what it feels like to be eating at a sushi restaurant with your family and an old Japanese "steward" interrogating you about why you don't pay taxes and still leach off the government like Zainichi North Koreans have felt. These stewards' reasons are unfounded, of course, and an explanation of this would be too lengthy to write in this box.
Japan has many wonderful things, but what I have learnt is that Japan has specific problems related closely to their unique culture. It's tempting to consider Japan as the better country simply because it lacks the bad that the US has. But I believe the wise thing to do is consider the opinions of those Japanese that want to leave their own country and their reasons for doing so. This way, you get a more balanced view. It is definitely a trade-off, and it is about your priorities.
1. There are less than 10K homeless in a nation of 150MM+.
2. This is a sexist culture, to be sure. Women wield a lot of power in the home, but endure a lot of nonsense from insecure men. It's an abstraction for me, though. I'm surrounded by strong women, and men who respect them. I'm sympathetic, but it doesn't have any impact on my daily life.
3. As for racism, this is a monoculture. Koreans are both revered and despised by different people here because they're different. The same is true for Chinese, Africans, Americans, Russians, etc. If I felt unwelcome here, I would not like this place, and I would leave it.
Let's be clear: I don't think everyone deserves to have everything that they want. I admit that I am in a privileged position relative to others, and the opposite is also true, in that others have advantages that I will never have. Life is unfair. You have to find the place where you fit, or make the place fit you. For me, I found a place that fits me.
I wonder why you would begrudge me that, just because it isn't your place too?
> If I felt unwelcome here, I would not like this place, and I would leave it.
> You have to find the place where you fit, or make the place fit you.
This is an extremely ignorant thing to say. I recommend having a read of the history of Koreans in Japan. They cannot just pick up their stuff and leave. Some Koreans like Japan, sure, but others do not because they do not want to change the way many Japanese people want them to.
I saw that you wrote that you have ancestors from Northern Europe in this thread. I assume you mean Scandinavia? If this is correct, by this I deduce that you are White. It's pretty obvious, but Whites have a vastly different experience in Japan. They have a very privileged experience. Most of us know the majority of Japanese (especially women) love White, blue-eyed, blonde foreigners. And even if you don't have these characteristics, you are still viewed as White to them as an American, as long as you are not black, and for that you receive extra special treatment and they offer you concessions because, in their eyes, you are not Japanese, will never be, and will never really understand their culture.
Let me be clear: everything you write comes from a place of comfort, privilege and where people go easy on you because you surround yourself with people who love White foreigners.
Why do I say this? Because I am White and I have been to Japan. Every single person was extremely nice to me, and so I thought these people could never be mean to anyone else. However, I spoke with a family of minorities, some people who are now part of my family circle that I love, and other Japanese friends to understand how the same people that treated me so well treated others so poorly.
And absolutely: Japan will never be my place, even though they treat me with such love and attention. I believe in treating everyone genuinely and equally, though.
I don't necessarily begrudge your lifestyle. I take issue with foreigners in Japan painting Japanese people in such a one-sided way. I can list the many things of Japan that I like, but I feel I need to balance out what you're saying here.
And I'm going to call you out and say you sound exactly like the old Japanese "Baby Boomer" generation who nag the yutori generation (Gen Y-equivalent, if the HN crowd is following this discussion), when it was these baby boomers who have lived such a privileged life during great economic times in Japan. Congrats! You've assimilated wonderfully!
Yes, he really put me in my place! If you choose to focus on the negative, you'll get victimhood and negativity. It's simply a fact that Japan doesn't welcome foreign Asian people. That's why almost everyone here is Japanese. Should I be concerned that everyone isn't welcome here? In my home country, everyone is welcome and there is an imperative to treat everyone as if they're equals——frankly, the result of that social experiment sent me running away to Japan.
Take for example a school project...if the group is graded based on everyone's contribution, but you've got one person who contributes nothing or actually makes it harder for the others to contribute. The person who drags everyone else down was given an equal opportunity, but they squandered it and actually interfered with the opportunities of others who would otherwise take advantage of it. If you're forced to tolerate that person who is a negative and pander to them as if there isn't a problem, you're held hostage by the weakest link, and the entire group wastes time on fundamental problems of getting any work done at all, while they should be moving up the ladder of solving higher and higher order problems. Eventually, the frustration of the negative actor begets apathy and a sense of insurmountable problems, and endless discussion about matters that should never need to be discussed while real work goes unfinished. This is the condition of America in 2016.
This is quite a good response. Even though I criticized you for depicting overly positive picture of Japan, I praise you to bring this point out. I am not an American but I like America and its open culture. But what you are saying is also important. An excessively open culture that also tolerates negative elements is headed towards trouble. And if it forces/preaches its "good" members to tolerate the intolerance of new/old "bad" members, then the "good" elements in that nation feel frustrated and the nation as a whole slides down the path to failure. I guess, the excessive "political correctness" might be forcing America the way you are suggesting.
