Interesting read! After moving to Japan from the United States, I've started to realize just how biased Western articles about Japan really are. Stories about

Interesting read! After moving to Japan from the United States, I've started to realize just how biased Western articles about Japan really are. Stories about Japan by Western news outlets often limit themselves to a few common "takes" on Japan: > Japan's economy is stagnant (e.g. [1])! -- Western media tends to apply Western economic metrics to everything--and as we have all seen recently, the stock market is NOT the economy! It's not necessarily a problem for an economy to stop "growing" once it has reached a comfortable size. These same articles often conveniently ignore that lower- and middle-class workers in places like the United States are suffering from similar problems. > Japan is "weird"! Maid cafes! Kawaii culture! -- Conveniently forgetting that in a metropolis of 14 million people like Tokyo, it's not difficult to find 10,000 people interested in absolutely any niche topic you can think of. New York is just as "weird" [2]. > Japanese people are sad! -- Articles often misrepresent Japan's suicide rates as being higher than Western countries [3]. > Tokyo is expensive! -- I live in Tokyo, and this is patently false. I pay less in rent, groceries, transportation, restaurants, and entertainment than I ever did in a major city in the United States. See [4]. > Japanese people are racist! -- Sure, some people face discrimination, Chinese and Korean immigrants especially, and it can difficult to fully assimilate. However, I feel incredibly welcome as a foreigner, and I believe that most friction between native Japanese and foreigners can be attributed to a language barrier. For instance, renting apartments can be an issue for foreign residents with poor Japanese language skills [5]. It is exceedingly rare to meet someone who is outwardly hostile towards foreigners, but the same cannot be said for places like the United States. After seeing these patterns and actually living here, I can't help but view most writing about Japan as pro-Western propaganda, whether intentional or not. Certainly the United States has a thing or two to learn from Japan when it comes to infrastructure, city planning [6], healthcare, and safety. Most articles, though, serve the purpose of reiterating to American audiences that America is the best country on Earth, and there's no reason to ever change or question anything! As the author said at the beginning, there is a great deal of writing about Japanese economics and government that hasn't been translated. If anyone can point me to some English resources giving the Japanese perspective, I would love to read more! [1] https://www.ft.com/content/e5b9e75a-a8b8-4899-a0e4-4aea19d97ff6 https://www.ft.com/content/e5b9e75a-a8b8-4899-a0e4-4aea19d97... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_To_with_John_Wilson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_To_with_John_Wilson [3] https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/k39yps/in_japan_more_people_died_from_suicide_last_month/ge3n2n4/ https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/k39yps/in_japan_more... [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vi2xePezOE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vi2xePezOE [5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ5f_QokinY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ5f_QokinY [6] http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html