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Why I left Japan after 10 years

blog.uchujin.co.uk

21–30 of 287 posts

Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years

#21

> Policemen are everywhere, more than London There's a reason why London has had more than 20 people killed this year in terrorist incidents and Japan has 0. London has crime, Japan doesn't. Also, your attitude comes as realy hostile in your blog, maybe it was your body language that caused that? I'm sick of these "i'm superior to you" white boys

3/5 you missed the chance to connect lack of foreigners to low crime rates.

Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years

#22

> Policemen are everywhere, more than London There's a reason why London has had more than 20 people killed this year in terrorist incidents and Japan has 0. London has crime, Japan doesn't. Also, your attitude comes as realy hostile in your blog, maybe it was your body language that caused that? I'm sick of these "i'm superior to you" white boys

I call BS on this; for multiple reasons:

1) Japan is not involved in all the military conflicts in the Middle East regions where terrorism is based, and so does not show up on the target list of IS and other groups, compared to France, the US and UK (and to a lesser extent Germany, which is mainly involved in Afghanistan, and sells weapons to Saudi-Arabia).

2) It's dead easy to get hold of a truck and maim people with it, no police state in the world can protect from this - in fact, terror by truck was the modus operandi in the major attacks in Berlin, France and London.

3) Japan does have crime, just google for Yakuza. We as westerners simply don't hear about it, because a) Japan is not really on the radar of Western press until it's a disaster like Fukushima with worldwide consequences, b) European press is mainly focused on stuff that happens in the EU and there's an awful lot of stuff to report on, so there's simply no place for it, c) as there is next to negligible amount of European/US crime victims in Japan, there's no "relationship" to Japanese crime victims which also influences media reporting.

Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years

#23
The "JAPANESE ONLY" sign was probably meant for chinese tourists. The kanji below it, "謝绝中国人", translates roughly to "decline chinese people" which is understandable given their notorious behavior abroad:

http://shanghaiist.com/2016/12/30/shanghaiist_2016_embarrass...

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/world/asia/bad-manners-ch...

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/10/07/commentary/wo...

Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years

#24
Just came back after a month of vacation in Japan. Honestly, I saw like 3 police cars on the entire journey and I saw more police officers in the airport than the rest of the trip.

I come from Sweden, a relatively safe country. However, compared to Japan it is not. I felt incredible safe in Japan. Everyone is super friendly but hard to talk to since they don't generally won't speak english.

I wanted to meet some japanese people and make some friends while I was there but it was harder than I thought it would be. This is probably the only critisism I have except that they should install a lot more garbage bins and learn that a sidewalk is not a good place to bike on. Why not make better sidewalks and a bike lane?

Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years

#25
Many of the problems he describes aren't exclusively Japanese, but a few, like the hierarchical view and casual racism are far more particular to the Japanese.

It's not hard to understand where it comes from, however - Japan is something of a cultural isolate, and resisted European and others' overtures well into the 19th century - at which point they underwent explosive industrialisation and social upheaval.

Then there was the whole mess of their wars of expansion in early 20c., culminating in WWII. Following that, American occupation and control, which ended many decades ago.

What I'm getting at is that there's been a huge amount of technical and societal change in Japan over the last 150 years - but not as much social change. You can change how people make their meals, spend their days, travel to work, but you can't shake notions like bushido or sakoku overnight.

Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years

#27
My experience was totally different in in the main point: the Japanese were unfailingly polite and courteous with me. But, unlike this fellow, I was comfortable being viewed as a foreigner. And always respectful in my expression.

(I was also younger than him when I lived there, which might also have made a difference.)

Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years

#28

The "JAPANESE ONLY" sign was probably meant for chinese tourists. The kanji below it, "謝绝中国人", translates roughly to "decline chinese people" which is understandable given their notorious behavior abroad: http://shanghaiist.com/2016/12/30/shanghaiist_2016_embarrass... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/world/asia/bad-manners-ch... http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/10/07/commentary/wo...

doesn't make it any less racist

Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years

#29
post #14

I don't know Man, pople visit India here and have very disrespectful behavior, most US and UK people. Most other countries are okay. They think they are more "civilized" and hence get to lecture people on what to do and what not to do. Fix your own problems first! And even when you do, don't lecture us, we'll fix our "problems" ourselves.

I was under the impression that India was considered one of the most racist/sexist countries on the planet.

I wouldn't say most. Racism and sexism are a problem in India though.

But that doesn't give anyone an excuse to be rude and disrespectful.

Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years

#30
>The level of English in Japan is shockingly low, despite everyone studying it for 6 years at school. I honestly think it is kept deliberately low

>I honestly think it is kept deliberately low

Is this guy serious?

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