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There are both amazingly good and amazingly bad things about Japanese culture. The shame of being seen to be not honest or respecting people's property leads t
by supernova87a 7y ago
There are both amazingly good and amazingly bad things about Japanese culture.
The shame of being seen to be not honest or respecting people's property leads to amazing responsibility and kindness.
But it also leads to people being depressed and feeling constrained not to be able to break out of societal expectations.
The very things that make us love Japan, would make you go crazy to live there. So enjoy the privilege of being able to visit and experience the benefits, while not having to deal with the downsides.
And maybe it causes you to reflect that, in the US -- the very personal freedoms (i.e. lack of guilt on being disobedient or trying new things) leads to a society where it's more likely you're not getting your wallet back if you leave it somewhere...
- generaljelly 7y agoThis is a good assessment. I believe Japan generally only works for people that already fall in line with societal norms to some extent. I do wish to believe that a personal freedom society and a society that takes your wallet don't have to be tightly coupled... Although I will say the public shame of Japan is stronger than the private shame of the US.
- duxup 7y agoThere was a good blog post about a guy living in Japan. Here he was in this clean and crime free place, but his bicycle kept getting trashed overnight. Just his bike parked in a sea of other bikes. He thought it was because he was a foreigner, but finally after he reported it to the police numerous times someone explained the phrase "The nail that sticks out gets knocked down." and pointed out the bikes he was buying were from China. His bike looked similar to everyone else's bike in the area, but it was made by a Chinese company and there had been news stories about how these bikes were faulty / dangerous / bad (the information apparently was somewhat questionable). So he bought a proper Japanese bike that looked like the other bikes, and it never happened again. The contrast of a clean and orderly society with very targeted pressure by random members of society not to do something like buy the wrong bike ... is quite striking.
- drdeadringer 7y ago> "The nail that sticks out gets knocked down." Ever since I first heard this I've kept both this phrase and the phrase "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" in mind at the same time. Basically, both sides of this coin together ask you "should you speak up?" type of thing; substitute "speak up" with whatever the given situation is.
- raarts 7y agoWe Dutch have a similar proverb: "Whoever sticks his head above ground level, his head is cut off. "
- russdill 7y agoRelated: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2019/09/02/62-michele-gelfand-on-tight-and-loose-societies-and-people/ https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2019/09/02/62-m... Michele Gelfand on tight vs loose cultures. There's also a link there to her TEDx talk.
- namelosw 7y agoI remember there was a YouTube video making comparison between Japan and China. Of course Japan is much better in many obvious ways, and the comment sections also reflect most people prefer Japan over China. Then I saw a Japanese commented when he was traveling in China he saw a lot of employees playing with their cellphones during working hours. He said he was all of a sudden really jealous of those people do that while in Japan he has to work all day long without much personal life.