4 ms·
> While the nation is known abroad for minimalist lifestyles, their websites are oddly maximalist. I’m not aware of this stereotype of Japanese minimalism. I g
by tshaddox 8mo ago
> While the nation is known abroad for minimalist lifestyles, their websites are oddly maximalist.
I’m not aware of this stereotype of Japanese minimalism. I guess there’s Marie Kondo, and some Japanese high-end dining tends towards minimalism. But then there’s manga, anime, kawaii, Nintendo, Sega, Miyazaki, etc., a lot of which is closer to maximalism than minimalism.
- m4rtink 8mo agoDo not forget the Tokugawa tomb in Nikko. ;-)
- Cpoll 8mo agoYou also have wabi-sabi and all the other bits of Zen Buddhism we've imported.
- ghaff 8mo agoHaving attended a lot of conferences in Japan, I would have said signage and the like tends towards the amateur and garish. Which isn't inconsistent with what you wrote. I've always found Japan a weird mix of refined/minimalist and kitsch.
- pezezin 8mo agoI read a description somewhere that I loved: the Japanese have a very refined sense of beauty, but no sense of ugliness.
- flakiness 8mo agoA subset of Japanese people use minimalism as a justification as lesser purchase power these days. That said, I think the Japanese commercial ecosystem is still less wasteful than the one in the US except the excessive plastic wrapping. I hope one day they realize that won't count as "Omotenashi".
- CuriouslyC 8mo agoFruit would like a word
- m4rtink 8mo agoI think a lot of what looks like to much wrapping can be explained by high humidity year round. The wrapping protects products from spoiling or being damaged in such an environment.
- numpad0 8mo agoWet Japanese climate necessitate sterile packaging. It's not as extreme as the Southeast Asia, but things do get soggy in matters of hours. So "excessive" aluminized plastic wrapping is just a necessity.