The United States of Japan • Hacker News Board

Re: The United States of Japan

#131

Post by mistermann » Sun, May 06, 2018, 10:27 AM UTC

qbert wrote: post #111

mistermann wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything I've read suggest japanese women generally prefer leaving the workforce to stay home and raise kids.

Those who don't are still automatically expected to however and stigmatized or discriminated against if they don't conform. When I lived in Japan and taught English conversation at a large company, one of my older male students, whom I became friends with, told me that one of my female students secretly was a single mother. He told me not to tell anyone else. Female employees at this company were basically expected t…

I wonder if there any accurate stats on the split of voluntary vs non-voluntary.

Re: The United States of Japan

#132

Post by mistermann » Sun, May 06, 2018, 10:39 AM UTC

vkou wrote: post #105

mistermann wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything I've read suggest japanese women generally prefer leaving the workforce to stay home and raise kids.

There can be a number of potential, highly involuntary reasons for why that may be the case. 1. Your workplace will marginalize you for having children if you're a woman. 2. The cost of childcare may be so high, compared to your wages, that it makes more sense for one parent to quit their job, and raise the children. See, also: 1 for why there are few stay-at-home dads. 3. Social expectations from your family.

As there can be with anything else. The question is, what is the reality?

Re: The United States of Japan

#133

Post by mistermann » Sun, May 06, 2018, 10:42 AM UTC

verisimilidude wrote: post #124

mikekchar wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to get into these discussions (even though I somehow do :-) ). I can give you my impression having lived here for about a decade, though. In Japan traditional gender roles are a lot stronger than they currently are in the west. Trans gender (and similar -- I apologise if I am getting the terminology wrong since I'm largely ignorant of appropriate language) culture is widely accepted in the media, but not terri…

On the surface, this is a good comparison of gender roles within Japanese culture. But peeling the onion reveals complications. Some women will say they want to become housewives even if they don't. Some women will deliberately act dumb when they go on dates, because they'll get dumped on the spot if they show any signs of personal ambition. If you can cultivate some close friendships with educated Japanese women, yo…

It is very difficult to know what Japanese people truly desire.

http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Honne_and_tatemae

Re: The United States of Japan

#134

Post by yomly » Sun, May 06, 2018, 11:13 AM UTC

kha wrote: post #45

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I hate Disney these days, I've always wondered why they've had extremely limited success stepping into Nintendo's domain -- and why they haven't tried to partner / aquire.

They have :) re: Kingdom Hearts

KH is really just licensing of their content through - Square Enix do the hard work...

Re: The United States of Japan

#135

Post by digi_owl » Sun, May 06, 2018, 12:01 PM UTC

dragontamer wrote: post #72

digi_owl wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa,_Okinawa#United_States...

I mean, the US has a lot of bases around the world. We've got bases in Cuba for example, and that doesn't really foster a good relationship with that country. Heck, there's an Asian country right next to Japan called "The Philippines" which was a US colony for 40+ years.

And before that was a Spanish colony for 300 years before that.

Japan on the other hand was an independent nation until said occupation.

Re: The United States of Japan

#136

Post by sureaboutthis » Sun, May 06, 2018, 12:08 PM UTC

As one who lives on the internet for work, I have never heard of any of the things mentioned at the beginning of the article which makes me suspicious of its foundation. Years ago, we heard of Japan taking over all of technology due to their innovation and we see how well that went.

It is the USA with the biggest influence on the world, not the other way around, especially short-term fads like those mentioned in this article.

Re: The United States of Japan

#137

Post by boomboomsubban » Sun, May 06, 2018, 12:31 PM UTC

dragontamer wrote: post #72

digi_owl wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa,_Okinawa#United_States...

I mean, the US has a lot of bases around the world. We've got bases in Cuba for example, and that doesn't really foster a good relationship with that country. Heck, there's an Asian country right next to Japan called "The Philippines" which was a US colony for 40+ years.

It's not just military bases in Japan. Our relationship started by threatening to bomb them to oblivion unless they did what we wanted. And when Japan stopped doing what we wanted, we bombed them into oblivion, occupied their country, and eliminated their ability for further defense.

Re: The United States of Japan

#138

Post by bobthechef » Sun, May 06, 2018, 3:12 PM UTC

I've heard one interesting hypothesis concerning the paradox that the poor tend to have more children than the rich. You would typically expect the reverse. The poor, unable to provide for more children, should have fewer. And, according to this hypothesis, that's what is typically the case historically. The major cause for the reversal is the consumerist ethos. Those with more money choose to spend it on things rather than children because when "keeping up with the Jones'" consumerist values are in play, having a child is a relative loss. You are much better off buying more stuff.

Re: The United States of Japan

#139

Post by favadi » Sun, May 06, 2018, 3:18 PM UTC

astura wrote: post #101

derefr wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My hypothesis: Nintendo makes games 1. for families, and 2. for themselves; whereas Disney makes games the way they make movies—for each member of a family as separate "channels" braided through the experience, and not really for themselves. Nintendo make games for families , as in, they think games should still be fun when people of drastically different skill levels—like a parent and child—are playing. Smash Bros h…

Disney doesn't "make" video games, they license their characters. The Aladdin game on the SNES was made by Capcom. Another great SNES game is The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse, which was also made by Capcom. No shocker there; Capcom makes great video games. The Sega Genesis version of Aladdin was actually made by Virgin Games.

Hmm, for some reasons I remember the SNES version and the Sega Genesis are identical.

Re: The United States of Japan

#140

Post by favadi » Sun, May 06, 2018, 3:21 PM UTC

jogjayr wrote: post #39

almostApatriot1 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Japanese culture has filled a gap. If there were more components to Western Culture outside of America's influence maybe it wouldn't be so prominent. But what, culturally, is coming out of Canada, Europe, Australia, South America, or Asia (outside of Japan)? Not much that is universally appealing.

Canada's done all right in terms of music exports. I don't even know Western popular music all that well and I can name Bryan Adams, Shania Twain, Celine Dion, Justin Bieber, and Drake - I'm sure there's many more. Hollywood and American TV has a ton of Canadian actors, which reminds me of the Canadian brain drain article from yesterday - maybe that's not restricted to tech :-) "Asia (outside of Japan)" I can only sp…

K-Pop has big influence in many Asian countries.