Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations

What about that is a contradiction? Either through public services such as social security, or traditional family values (which are obviously strong in Japan), the elderly invariably become a burden on younger generations. On the most basic level, when the day comes that my father can no longer work for his food, he will pull from social resources and I will personally be responsible for his welfare. A healthy economic landscape is prepared to receive such a burden and cycle it indefinitely through the generations.

A population of elders with a disproportionately small pool of working-aged adults throws this balance out, and is obviously a threat. If you combine that with the fact that those few who are capable of working to support the older generation are without question losing their jobs to automation, I don't see how the combined effect isn't an obvious and looming threat.

When you say that those two things are a contradiction, are you suggesting that the commentator is incorrectly pointing out that this is a contradiction when it isn't, or are you saying that the commentator is mentioning these two things, and you yourself think they are a contradiction?

I'm ready to take all the downvotes.

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.

Homelessness? Please tell me what your thoughts are on Kamagasaki: http://viewfind.com/story/fruits-of-his-labor-or-lack-thereo...

For reference:

https://www.tofugu.com/japan/nishinari/

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/03/24/national/nations...

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.

When actual results differ from what our intuition tells us, we call it "counter-intuitive".

When this happens, it could mean that our intuition is right and reality will eventually conform to how we think things should work.

But more often, it means that there is more going on than we understand, so we should calibrate our thinking to correspond with what is actually happening.

You're free to wait for the territory to change to match your map. As for myself, I find it's more profitable to update my map to match the territory.

> the price of beans, CPUs and clothes may have fallen - but the price of education, healthcare, energy and especially housing have not fallen

Over what time period do you mean? I'm pretty sure just about everything has a lower cost than it did 50 years ago, with the exception of real estate in neighborhoods where the population density has soared. If you don't insist on living in one of those neighborhoods, you can life that is better than what you'd have had in 1965 in every respect and spend less time working to support that lifestyle than you would have spent at that time for the inferior quality of life.

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.