aayl1 wrote:lol no
Aaron lived there so he's probably had more direct experience himself, but I think I can answer better than this
+ Japanese people are generally very polite.
This depends where you are - if you're in the countryside or pretty much any major area outside of maybe Tokyo this is very true. People in Tokyo are pretty much exactly like the people in London. Head down, stay away from others and just get what you need to get done and get out. While this isn't the same for everyone a lot of people from the Kantou area are like this - people are still pretty helpful but even then you have to be careful as a lot of people like in Britain are outwardly polite while hiding how they actually feel. There's terms in Japanese for this called tatemae (how you appear) and honne (what you're actually thinking).
+ There is a common culture of respecting others and putting their wishes on a par with your own. We, not Me!
This again is for the most part true, but it depends on where you are and it's also in some cases a negative. For the most part a lot of this is bred through a feeling of fear of standing out from others or feeling like others will judge you if you are too different. It leads to bullying when it comes to kids in some cases. A lot of people especially in the countryside will go out of their way to help each other, but I'd say that's the same in most places. Cities again it's a lot more insular like you'd expect outside of Osaka where even in Japan they're stereotyped as all being super friendly which for the most part is actually true - this is the same for a lot of people in Kansai in general. Even though there's a lot of big cities and towns people are a lot more relaxed and it even shows in the dialect they speak, it's a hell of a lot less formal than most Japanese.
+ People hold themselves to high standards and are eager to comply with social norms.
This is somewhat true, but a lot of it does come down to fear of standing out. I will say in the end it leads to positives overall since a lot more people are willing to follow rules that have been set up to keep others safe. This is somewhat drilled into Japanese people through the schooling system as well. There are negatives though with a big strive for perfection since it puts a hell of a lot of pressure on people and leads to some of the major problems Japanese people face with stress, depression and ultimately suicide.
+ People generally dress as well as they are able to; they wish to look smart.
This is a stereotype for sure, this depends entirely on the person. Japanese fashion brands even the cheap ones look pretty cool though which hides it for a lot of people I think.
+ The streets are clean; people are careful in disposing of their rubbish and they often clean the area outside of their homes.
This is true in the countryside, but if you're in a big city you'll see rubbish all over the place. The one thing Tokyo does compared to London though is they have a lot of cleaning crews working around the day. If you get to somewhere like Shibuya or Shinjuku in the morning though there's usually mountains of rubbish where cleaners overnight have gathered it all up to throw it into trucks throughout the day.
- Work is often very demanding with long hours and short holidays; it can be the focus for life.
For Japanese people it is life, they don't have a choice. This is absolutely the worst part of Japan and it affects my partner and every single one of my Japanese friends who work. You're expected to work long hours, you don't get paid very much especially after the bubble burst in the 80s and longer holidays are essentially impossible. For shift workers you can go weeks without 2 days off in a row, but that could be the same here I'm not sure. My partner for instance only has one chance a year to take a 7 day holiday and he can barely ever book it.
A lot of Japanese companies give you unlimited paid time off, but then never actually let you take any or pressure you heavily into not taking them as you'll cause problems for the rest of the people there. A lot of Japanese companies are understaffed so if anyones off it puts a lot of pressure on the remaining staff and rather than hire more people a lot of bosses will end up using an example of someone being off to create discontent amongst the other staff meaning people feel guilty taking time off even if it's when they're sick.
It's why so many Japanese people have drinking problems as well. Most people drink to deal with the stress of work.
To add another negative you're always at risks of massive natural disasters - there's common earthquakes all the time, typhoons during typhoon season, active volcanoes and every once in a while a tsunami. Japanese people just kinda deal with it because there's nothing they can do, but as an outsider it's scary as hell to think about living with that.
Japan overall has a lot of positives but at least anecdotally there's a hell of a lot of negatives as well. Most of the stuff I've said here comes from my two relatively short trips to Japan and a hell of a lot of hours conversing with Japanese people be them my partner, friends or randomers I've met over the last few years online.
I absolutely love Japan and my partner wants me to do my best to live there, but getting a work visa is difficult and uh honestly I don't want to work for a Japanese company due to all the horror stories I've heard from pretty much every Japanese person I've ever met. There's so much from Japanese culture that I love and I'm glad learning Japanese introduced me to it all and allowed me to experience it and learn so much. I wouldn't change it for the world.