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These sort of articles about Japanese cleanliness and homelessness are intellectually dishonest if you don't mention massive factors like the fact that Japan es

These sort of articles about Japanese cleanliness and homelessness are intellectually dishonest if you don't mention massive factors like the fact that Japan eschewed the deinstitutionalization process that most wealthy countries went through toward the end of the 20th century https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinstitutionalisation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinstitutionalisation and as a result, they have four times the rate of involuntarily locking people up for mental illness as the average: > For the last 40 years mental health care has shifted from hospital-based settings to community-based ones in most countries. As a result the number of psychiatric care beds has fallen considerably internationally (Glasby & Tew, 2015:106). More and more people with mental disorders are living and being cared for in the community. In contrast, Japan still has a very high ratio of psychiatric care beds per capita among member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with 269 beds per 100,000 population compared to the average of 68 (OECD, 2014:11). http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0037-80542016000400002 http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S...

ajhurliman 7y ago
This implies that the main cause of trash is homelessness. Although homelessness probably causes an increase of trash, I think it's clear that a culture of littering also causes trash, which is clearly not present in Japan. Bringing in the subject of homelessness seems tangential to the topic at hand.
- jessriedel 7y ago
  It certainly doesn't imply that this is the main cause, it suggests that it's an important cause (say, > 10%) that has to be acknowledged in a 10k word article. I also think dwelling on a "culture of littering" is much vaguer and less likely to make falsifiable predictions.

ajhurliman 7y ago

This implies that the main cause of trash is homelessness. Although homelessness probably causes an increase of trash, I think it's clear that a culture of littering also causes trash, which is clearly not present in Japan. Bringing in the subject of homelessness seems tangential to the topic at hand.

jessriedel 7y ago
It certainly doesn't imply that this is the main cause, it suggests that it's an important cause (say, > 10%) that has to be acknowledged in a 10k word article. I also think dwelling on a "culture of littering" is much vaguer and less likely to make falsifiable predictions.