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Japan has changed in important and visible ways

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Re: Japan has changed in important and visible ways

#361

Post by bcherny »

willbudd wrote: post #331
bcherny wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quick corrections: 1. N3 isn’t that easy. You need to learn 600 kanji, plus reading and grammar. It takes over 1000 hours of focused study [1]. It’s a stretch to call it “basic” or “very easy”. 2. There’s no double taxation for US citizens living in Japan, thanks to the foreign tax credit [2]. [1] https://cotoacademy.com/study-hours-needed-pass-jlpt-compari... [2] https://brighttax.com/blog/the-american-foreign-tax-c…

1. I guess it depends on the situation. I assumed N3 was very easy, because I passed N1 with ease. I don't really like to bring it up, because it sounds like bragging, but that's my experience at least. Maybe using the language in a professional context on a day to day basis helps more than I appreciate. Then again, I'd expect some degree of familiarity to form naturally if you live here as a 社会人 of sorts. 2. True, b…

Any tips for passing the N1 with ease? It seems daunting..

Re: Japan has changed in important and visible ways

#362

Post by toyg »

tkgally wrote: post #188
Dalewyn wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In exchange for that, I would have to give up 3 other citizenships. Not a great deal... Obligatory IANAL, but the "no dual citizenship" thing is a Japanese thing and it's not like the Japanese government will go around informing other countries of your new citizenship status. You would have to make the rounds yourself informing the governments concerned you renounced their respective citizenship. Which is to say: I'…

> You would have to make the rounds yourself informing the governments concerned you renounced their respective citizenship. The Japanese government requires that you have renounced your other citizenship(s) as a condition for acquiring Japanese citizenship [1, item 5, in Japanese]. I know a number of people who have taken Japanese citizenship, and they all had to go through a formal citizenship-renouncing process at…

The Japanese government, however, doesn't go around checking other countries' citizenship lists (nobody does). I know of several Japanese citizens who accrued other nationalities but never informed the japanese government. Obviously they'd be stripped of their JP rights if it emerged, but until then...

Re: Japan has changed in important and visible ways

#363

Post by aikinai »

quartesixte wrote: post #98
rippercushions wrote: post #28

> Shopping centers, bars, clubs, and glittering zakkyo buildings (the ones with all the signs) continue to multiply. How could you live in Tokyo for a decade and miss all that? Emphasis on Tokyo, which was basically the only place in Japan that's still growing, until it too started shrinking during COVID. Go to any second-tier city, or even much of suburban Tokyo, and you'll see urban collapse in action: emptied-out…

Kind of related, but the slightly odd thing about a lot of Japanese commentary is that people forget the suburbs exist. And these suburbs are very car centric. The major difference is that the suburbanites will not visit the major city by car, and most young people do not become stuck in the suburbs and instead leave for Tokyo or any of the other big cities.

“Very car centric” is incredibly relative. Compared to Tokyo, yes. Compared to anywhere in America except NYC, not even close. In suburban and even rural areas, there’s still a centralisation and comprehensiveness of public transit that makes it possible to get by without a car. Look at all the apartment buildings with no parking or like four spots and 30 homes.

Re: Japan has changed in important and visible ways

#364

Post by wellanyway »

epups wrote: post #351
rayiner wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I live in the country for 10 years, then it is my country too Lol no. You’re not a sovereign individual. You’re part of a society, and every society is the product of people who have a culture that’s been cultivated over generations. Japan is a creation of the Japanese—the fruit of generations of Japanese people building a society according to their culture—not some foreigner who’s lived there for a fraction of…

Japan is not a a lone entity as well. It exists in a concert of nations. It buys and sells products from elsewhere. If you showed how modern Tokyo looks like to a Japanese from only 100 years ago, they would have a breakdown. Meanwhile, to the average Westerner, Tokyo is perfectly understandable, although of course unique. Let's just take one example. John von Neumann - a gasp immigrant - may have more to do with how…

You are not seriously comparing yourself to Neumann, are you?

Re: Japan has changed in important and visible ways

#365

Post by 0dayz »

The biggest grip I had with the BBC article is the fact that he bemoans that the ldp party still holds a firm grip on the country.

While it us tryr as he says that yes that the LDP party is still a dominating force to be reckon with, the truth is that the opposition had the best election result yet (CDP) and even a progressive party was voted in into the diet.

Does it change the status quo? Probably not.

But it's a sign that things can change.

Re: Japan has changed in important and visible ways

#366

Post by toyg »

bmoxb wrote: post #354
Cloudef wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dual citizenship is kind of gray area in Japan. As long as you don't talk about it, nobody really cares. (And this attitude kind of sums japan as a whole)

I've definitely heard of cases of people who've had their Japanese citizenship revoked after the authorities found out they were a dual national.

Obviously: rules are rules, and in Japan rules just cannot be broken or bent.

However the level of proactive enforcement of such rules can be very variable. Dual-citizenship can be trivially hidden and nobody will hunt you down for it, particularly if you live abroad. If you bring it to the attention of some authority, though, they will be forced to take action.

Re: Japan has changed in important and visible ways

#367

Post by robjan »

toyg wrote: post #362
tkgally wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You would have to make the rounds yourself informing the governments concerned you renounced their respective citizenship. The Japanese government requires that you have renounced your other citizenship(s) as a condition for acquiring Japanese citizenship [1, item 5, in Japanese]. I know a number of people who have taken Japanese citizenship, and they all had to go through a formal citizenship-renouncing process at…

The Japanese government, however, doesn't go around checking other countries' citizenship lists (nobody does). I know of several Japanese citizens who accrued other nationalities but never informed the japanese government. Obviously they'd be stripped of their JP rights if it emerged, but until then...

They don't check citizenship lists but you must show proof of renouncing the citizenship attached to the passport you used to enter the country.

Re: Japan has changed in important and visible ways

#369

Post by toyg »

Aeolun wrote: post #63
idiocrat wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.turning-japanese.info/2021/06/naturalization-sto... Excerpt: [...] the seven requirements [...] . 1) Have continuously lived in Japan for 5 years or more? 2) Be 20 years of age or above, and be a legal adult in my home country? 3) Be of upright conduct? [///] 4) Have a way of supporting myself and my family? 5) Be willing to give up my other nationality/ies upon acquisition of Japanese nationality? 6) Hav…

Darn, they’ve seen through my plans, and now nr 6 won’t allow me to gain citizenship!

It's the classic "are you a terrorist or a member of the Nazi party" question on US entrance forms... the point is obviously not to catch those people, but being able to easily convict them of something (lying to authorities) if they emerge.

Re: Japan has changed in important and visible ways

#370

Post by soraminazuki »

eloisant wrote: post #319
tsukikage wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strangely enough, the official languages there are Vietnamese and Korean respectively, not Chinese or Japanese.

I don't know about Vietnamese but you can really make a parallel between Korean and Japanese. Korean was using kanji the same way Japanese are using them now, and Japan could totally switch to hiragana only like Korea went for hangul. I've had some Japanese friends who were advocated for hiragana only, and were writing (on Twitter or blog posts) in hiragana only. Yes, once you know kanji it's easier to read that full…

Retro Japanese games displayed text in all katakana because of technical limitations. But it didn't stick, for good reasons. It's incredibly hard to read. Like, imagine reading an ASCII text in hexadecimal representation. That's how it feels when reading a sufficiently long text in all hiragana or katakana.

Abolishing kanjis might've worked for the Korean language, but Korean isn't Japanese. They're entirely different languages. Funnily though, that's something that the Unicode Consortium also needs a reminder on [1].

> Not just for foreigners, but also for Japanese students from first grade to high school.

This is an exaggeration. Native Japanese speakers in middle school would have no problem reading common kanjis in real life. A high schooler would be able to read as well as a grownup.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_unification

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