3 ms·

I spent a month in Japan. Most Japanese people live closer to how Americans live. Low density suburbs and very low density cities. Even in Tokyo you can purchas

I spent a month in Japan. Most Japanese people live closer to how Americans live. Low density suburbs and very low density cities. Even in Tokyo you can purchase a small single family home in the suburbs with a driveway for what would be considered a very cheap price by American standards. You would take a 30-45 minute train into Tokyo. They also sound proof the nice condos in downtown really well and you can afford a fairly large two bedroom for around $1500 USD per month. They are also more creative with the dense city space and parking and allow parking on the sidewalk in designated spaces. One thing that struck me walking around Osaka was a 7-11 that had parking like an American style one would with parking in front. Driving into Kagoshima (bullet train was out due to landslide so we drove down) you're gonna see basically single family style dwellings all the way down hill into the city where it gets instantly dense but for only about 15 city blocks. Was dead AF at night. In a city like that you can own a car no problem and commute in. And that's how most Japanese live. Don't get it twisted. Japanese folks enjoy privacy as much as anyone else. Tokyo is the exception, not the rule. And even in Tokyo they will go to retreats out in the mountains regularly. Tokyo is a great model for proper zoning in high density urban areas to prevent high costs but it's not how you live everywhere

ninjin 5y ago
From what I can tell, this discussion is drifting beyond what I originally disagreed with in terms of what you wrote: That there is a strong correlation between the effectiveness of policing and what you consider to be desirable properties of Japanese society. Your latest response instead seems to focus on Japanese zoning, population density, etc. Which, while I certainly understand enough to discuss, is not something I introduced into our discussion and I also do not see in your response above how you relate it to our original discussion point either. I usually only monitor posts for a few hours after I make them, but before I “move on”, you wrote: “And that's how most Japanese live. Don't get it twisted”. That is not a particularly friendly way to respond to a person, especially as I can not see how I anywhere have even hinted towards a suggestion that all Japanese live “on top” of each other. Perhaps you thought my point about “knowing your neighbours” was about privacy? I can assure you that it was not the case (which hopefully becomes apparent if you reread it in that light) and that what I wrote about Japanese society (in my experience) is equally applicable to the large cities and out “in the country”. If you want to dig further into this on your own with me “gone”, there is plenty of reading about “wa” which is pretty much what I describe. Although I fully admit that seeing the implications and complexity of the concept took me many years.

ninjin 5y ago

From what I can tell, this discussion is drifting beyond what I originally disagreed with in terms of what you wrote: That there is a strong correlation between the effectiveness of policing and what you consider to be desirable properties of Japanese society. Your latest response instead seems to focus on Japanese zoning, population density, etc. Which, while I certainly understand enough to discuss, is not something I introduced into our discussion and I also do not see in your response above how you relate it to our original discussion point either. I usually only monitor posts for a few hours after I make them, but before I “move on”, you wrote: “And that's how most Japanese live. Don't get it twisted”. That is not a particularly friendly way to respond to a person, especially as I can not see how I anywhere have even hinted towards a suggestion that all Japanese live “on top” of each other. Perhaps you thought my point about “knowing your neighbours” was about privacy? I can assure you that it was not the case (which hopefully becomes apparent if you reread it in that light) and that what I wrote about Japanese society (in my experience) is equally applicable to the large cities and out “in the country”. If you want to dig further into this on your own with me “gone”, there is plenty of reading about “wa” which is pretty much what I describe. Although I fully admit that seeing the implications and complexity of the concept took me many years.