Misconceptions About Japan
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- Опубліковано 10 лип 2024
- Japan is a fascinating country with rich history and culture, but some of that is often overshadowed by the misconceptions people believe to be true. Is Japan really a high-tech wonderland from straight out of a sci-fi movie? Do Japanese people's diets only consist of sushi? Are tattoos a one-way ticket to being banned from public facilities?
Join host Justin Dodd as he debunks some of these popular myths and stereotypes about Japan.
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00:00:00 Intro
00:02:23 Japan is on the cutting edge of tech
00:04:36 Everyone eats sushi
00:06:48 Japan is super expensive
00:08:22 Japan is crowded
00:10:34 Masks are worn only to avoid getting sick
00:11:52 Japanese game shows are weird and dangerous
00:13:59 Tattoos are illegal
As someone who lived in Japan for several years, it always made me laugh when people describe Japan like it’s bladerunner or smth, CDs are still popular, fax machines are still a part of daily life for many people.
Fax machines where the language is written in such complex glyphs makes far more sense than trying to find one of hundreds, if not thousands, symbols from a list on a small screen! Older tech can be so much easier to use than modern kit.
@@y_fam_goeglyd The thing with Fax machines is that Japanese law required things on paper. So some business do not count email as official. It's slowly changing but many older business still use fax.
@Mandy B they figured out typing quite a while ago... thats really a moot point. But there are other reasons for them still being around there
haha Ditto. I lived in the boonies for nearly the entirety of the 2010's and had a flip phone for the first 2 years. Even after that, the main means of text communication was a weird email address tied to your cellular provider. Even now, credit cards aren't accepted at a lot of places. (Which is not necessarily a bad thing.).
Blade Runner was an 80s retrofuture, though...
Just got back from a vacation in Japan. It's very much still a cash country, so I would suggest having it available even tho tourist areas readily accept cards. Besides, it's handy for the vending machines. Tokyo and Kyoto definitely seemed crowded, but also about the same as any major city or high tourist area. I also found both cities very affordable. One thing that surprised me was that many stores don't open until 10am, or even 12noon on weekdays. Getting a later start does help avoid the business rush hour, but it was hard to sleep with the excitement to get out. Lol
That was very positive spin on the truth that the misconception that Japanese TV is awesome when it, in fact, isn't. Lol
Very informative and well done. Thanks!
Slurping noodles is ok, it's nothing compared to when you hear them in the train snorting their snots every 10 seconds because "it's rude to blow your nose"
Japan *was* at the cutting edge of tech... in the 80s. Sadly, they got kind of stuck in that solid-state era and missed out on the purely digital era.
Most Japanese versions of common products and brands had extra features in Japan not released to overseas markets, which helped spur that notion. Case in point, the NES modem which you could use to download new games from a phone line. Most US models still had the connection, but it was covered over by the bottom case on the US model.
Japan was also light years ahead of the West when it came to mobile barcodes. Japanese were using flip phones to read QR codes as early as '04. We didn't get into it until much more recently. Japan was doing HDTV decades before the West was even thinking about it. That sort of thing. Even Blu-Ray -- and it's forgotten competitor, HD-DVD -- were both Japanese developed technologies. (Sony vs Toshiba)
So I mean Japan might not be Blade Runner, but there were and still are cases where their tech is or was a little better than ours.
Yes Japan is/was good at making high tech but very slow to incorporate it into retail and especially government services. So Japanese people could buy the devices (as could Americans) but they couldn’t see them in their infrastructure. I remember getting my driver’s license in Japan in 2005 or so and the license center still had cardboard boxes full of paper files, it was crazy.
HD DVDs exist in the us they just are rare
I think you have grown really well into the role of the host. Good job 👍🏻😊
When I think of Japan I think of the artisans making their crafts using centuries old techniques. A katana artisan who makes each blade by hand and apprenticed for 10 years. The pride they have not only in their work, but in their history is amazing.
anyone who makes blades in 2023 is a loser.
there are these things called guns. guns win vs blades.
Ah man I totally forgot about that MXC show! It was great lol
I have misophonia! Good to know I can still visit Japan, as it's been a dream of mine for years 😂🤙🏾
I lived there, they slurp all the time. No idea why this video says otherwise. It's advisable to stay away from ramen stores, though you will still be surrounded by people who chose to snort up what is in their nose rather than blow it (because that's rude apparently, when having everyone hear your rattling snot isn't).
Your nail polish looks fantastic 😍
Justin - hope you feel better soon!
Misophonia is also the sound made when you drop your bowl of soup off the table at a Japanese restaurant.
I've been away from this channel for a while but glad to see Justin is still here! The topic of Japanese culture brought me back. Luv yr narration & nails!
I mean, along with the toilet thing it's a misconception that Toto is the sole manufacturer of fancy toilets. I've seen Lixil and Inax markings (same company though) more often than I've seen Toto brand even though Toto is more known internationally.
Food-wise probably noodles or some combination of rice with protein and veggies.
The problem with the population density in Tokyo and fixing that is that a lot of jobs are in Tokyo, so realistically paying people to move isn't an incentive unless your job can go with you.
Price-wise, there are apartments in Tokyo cheaper than anything I could find in Los Angeles. They appear to have some level of general rent control because while luxury places exist, very few are so exorbitant in cost very few could afford to live there. Seems a lot like Jpn city planners and landlords like not having empty properties unlike developers in US cities that couldn't build affordable housing to save their life. Literally my first visit here I saw a listing for an apartment bigger and cheaper than my apartment in LA. It was a bit of a walk from the nearest train station and not a main stop, but that's negligible concern in comparison to the price and size difference.
Also, quality of life is better because NHI instead of the insane insurance system we have in the US. NHI is pricey, but it's affordable relative to your income and better than no insurance. Plus every American I've talked to is always pleasantly surprised by how much things cost. We have shared medical trauma expecting a massive bill, but it's like $30. I had a root canal and that would have cost me thousands in work back home, but only about $100 here for the whole procedure and follow up stuff.
Other quality of life upgrades is utilities that don't have a monopoly and actually do what they're supposed to unlike PG&E that just lets their infrastructure break and then shrugs about it and passes the cost onto consumers. Last time I went home for New Year's the power went out for hours on NYE. I don't know how I used to put up with that bs before.
Streaming services aren't a big deal, but also Japan has a lot of them so Idk what stats people are checking. Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ exist here. D+ is probably the biggest one because their catalog obvi and they got Tokyo Revengers exclusively. But there's domestic Jpn ones like dtv (changing names soon), d anime, DZN (sports), U NEXT, Animax, etc. Plus Gyao and Abema that run on a freemium model. Haven't checked TVer, but that's a new one Kingohger referenced, and a lot of people just watch free content on UA-cam. There's a lot more competition than you'd think.
Anime isn't as big of a deal to average people either. A lot of people watch it, but a lot of people watch dramas and variety shows too.
A large majority of variety shows are talent/celebrity focused. Some do have silly games or outrageous stunts but it's because people like watching celebs they know be put in odd situations. A lot of them are hosted by popular idols or comedy stars. I used to love watching Arashi's when they were together. Arashi ni shiyagare was fun with a celebrity guest coming on and teaching them something.
My current fave is Kisumai chou busaiku b/c it has a whole boy band talk to a celebrity guest that's often female. The guest puts them in a romantic scenario that is recorded 1st person with a pretend girl called Maiko, and we see how each member does in the situation and who had the best plan for a date or flirting or something. It's like practical dating advice in practice. All recordings were screened by like a survey of like 100 women or something and voted on so there's a ranking of who was good and who majorly screwed up. There's even like commentary from the people who watched that flashes across the screen and it is so funny.
Takeshi's Castle is a classic long before the Wipeout game show. They still got Big Balls of their own.
ua-cam.com/video/mtnVU4BU39E/v-deo.html
Interesting, thanks!
You look very nice today btw
As someone who lives here I need to stress the fact that Japan is very much and old country. The reason why it looks futuristic is because we have a ton of old people. Therefore, products made to make life easier for old people ended up looking futuristic to the west. Accessibility luxuries like automatic toilets, doors, high speed trains, and convenient stores are the result of making life easier for the old. The problem is that this boom in tech advancement did not bring people along. We still use Fax machines because things on paper count as official documents. We still use cash because a lot of people don't even own a smart phone for NFC contactless payment. There are tons of other things that make us old fashioned to list but hope you get the point. As a society, we have not entered the modern age, just our products.
Dude, I don't think you can attribute all of those things to "old people". Of course the automatic toilets are easier to use, especially for elderly people, but I think the strong desire for cleanliness among all ages in Japan had something to do with it also. Automatic doors are just common sense with the high levels of customer traffic you see in many areas. Shinkansen are just convenient for travel for the young or old, and especially for business people. And I'm pretty sure convenience stores became so popular in Japan for the same reason vending machines are everywhere. In the 60s and 70s when Japan was rebuilding its economy and people were working late hours, the little local markets were usually closed by the time they were heading home. Maybe elderly people go to them earlier in the day, but in the late afternoon/evening/early morning the people I see in Lawson's or Family Mart are middle-aged or younger. Also, I see a fair number of elderly people using their smartphone to pay or as a points card in supermarkets/drugstores/coffee shops, etc. The problem sometimes is that it takes them longer to do it, and the person behind the counter often has to help them figure out how to use the app. But that's a different issue...
Shout out to MXC! Love that show.
Nice.
7:47 What? $727? Damned! That's not much more expensive than renting an apartment in Arendelle, Norway!
What about the sex trade and porno?
And the rampant racism
yes. One would think all Japanese business men were pedophiles, or just creepy and perverted, according to some accounts.
@@AliHSyed As a foreigner who has lived in Japan for over 8 years: bullshit. Why are you so mad that white people are watching the wrong cartoons?
Right you are Ken.
Do India next. I'm sure most of what I've heard or know is a misconception
I've lived in Japan for over five years. Thank you for making this video. A lot of these misconceptions are just plastered all over the internet like they're the truth. While I will say you're a bit off on avocado not being typically seen in sushi rolls, you're otherwise spot-on, especially when it comes to tech.
Most people eat sushi with their hands? I don’t think so. I’ve certainly never seen it. Maybe in certain regions or settings?
Nigiri-zushi we know now was one of the popular fast food in Edo Era sold on street for quick bite, so people used their hands. (And they were much bigger, like onigiri.) Nowadays you can use both, hands and chopsticks, but most of us sit down and take time to enjoy eating sushi. Anyway rice is sticky, and we eat other dishes with sushi, too, so why don't we use the chopsticks with it along?
"japan is expensive"
this is true, or not depending on the specific thing...... ive been to japan..... my friend told me what his rent, it it was crazy high, compared to the US, probably even more now days.............. transportation is super cheap..................... food was high price, but also high quality.... the best mexican food ive had was in japan ( and im from colorado which used to be part of mexico)......... entertainment is variable depending on what youre doing.....and if youre lucky (pachinco and other games can give you alot for your money, or nothing)........................... but the best bits for a tourist, are free, or close to it, wandering, exploring, people watching, meeting people, just looking at all the different stuff, smelling the smells, ect....... cant put a price on that, and if you could, not even elon musk could afford it.
Yes, a misconception of progress the tattoos. There was a brief time that slave and livestock were marked. Just 35 to 40 years ago here in the states you were refused employment and looked down because of Tattoos. Nowadays, even Respectable People flaunt them.
Popular misconception: "Neo-Queen Serenity rules Japan."
I love those nails 💅
Do Germany next!
As someone with misophonia, I can say hearing people eat and crunch fills me with a white hot rage that scares me.
I’ve always wanted to visit Japan while my biggest problems and fiasco is that whole thing that they have with tattoos since I actually have 32 of them on my upper left forearm one is a ribbon with treated and pink with my grandmothers who had died when I was Reince prostate and right under a green shamrock with my deceased grandfather‘s birthday he happened to been born on St. Patrick’s Day this year who was born and be from an all Irish American family hence why it’s in a shamrock I have one other one on my lobster bread which ironically enough is the Condrey symbol for love in red
Slurping and doing that inhalation thing with hot foods may not be common in Japan, but it certainly was a thing among the Nisei generation in the U.S.
My grandfather and great uncle - both part of the Nisei generation - sounded like they were trying to Hoover up their food. As a little kid, I asked my mom why they did that. Her answer: they were closer to Japan than most of our family members, and that "noisy eating is polite over there." Is that true? Who knows, maybe it was 100 years ago. But that belief must have been passed along into the Sansei generation (even though neither of my parents did it).
For what it's worth, I worked at a university that had a disproportionately high Asian population, many of them Asian nationals. And by and large, those students shared that same practice when eating hot foods of all kinds, ranging from fries to Taco Bell burritos. One of my co-workers exhibited the same, claiming to get it from his Japanese mother.
Anyway, I might hate the sound, but I kind of appreciate one thing about it: one alternative is blowing on your food to cool it down. And that can get kind of gross.
Your Japanese pronunciation isn't great, but better than most. Well done.
I lived in Tokyo for three years. It is DEFINITELY expensive to live there. The trick is knowing how to shop. As a rookie I made the mistake of ordering a Bacardi and Coke at a bar. In 1989 that was about $20. The bartender told me next time just order a rum and coke and Ill get a Japanese rum. Eating at the small hole in the wall cafes are way cheaper than a sit down restaurant or even fast food.
As someone from a state in Australia famous for rum, I'm always sad when I can't get a rum and coke in Japan. The one time I DID find an izakaiya that DID have it, it was during an all-you-can-drink party. Good times were had!
I stayed in Kyoto for cheaper than that, but it was 2004 so maybe you can't anymore. It was a bit sketchy.
What I’ve though about Japan are:
Work culture is horrible and overbearing and it is contributing to a dearth of new births.
Sexual harassment on trains.
The police are extremely forceful about trying to get a confession to protect their high records of convictions.
I’m not sure how true those are but they’re just what I’ve heard about.
dont forget that 10% of their population are over the age of 80!!
How did I never make the connection that Joe Rogan used to be the Fear Factor guy until now…?!
The first topic is right up my alley... I'll stay right here in Europe, thank you very much!
"japanese tv shows are weird" this is very ture........ my friend worked for tokyo tv while we were there, and we watched a show he was working on that was live....... it was 1v1v1 wrestling type stuff, but it was 3 girls, and the goal was to undress eachother, if you were naked, you lost, the last person with clothes on was the winner. There was also a segment of a show, where people were told they were participating in a sleep study, and made to sleep with fake sensors on theri head.... and the host snuck into peoples room while they were sleeping, cooked ramen next to them, dumped it on their face, still hot, and then made them eat it.... then upskirted the sleeping girls with an RC tank with a camera on it.
.... if thats not weird tv, then nothing is weird.
ua-cam.com/video/mtnVU4BU39E/v-deo.html
Stunning scenery friendly people, still the weirdest place on earth.
I was staying in a 100,000 population city and it was considered to be "the country".
I absolutely bring my phone with me every time I use the restroom and put online streaming music so is that my husband here do the fact that the restroom is directly connected to my bedroom we've been married 13 years and he still laughs at me
The reason the toilets have a button for music called Oto-Hime 音姫 (sound princess) is because japan had a huge problem of wasting too much water because - especially - many females are ashamed of their bodily sounds that they constantly flushed the toilets while in use until they where finished to mask their own sounds. Now just just press a button for some Mozart to accompany their organs.
音姫?
@@atsukorichards1675 yeah. You're right. Corrected my mistake. Thanks
@@TheScratcherStudios I think they named it so because those two Kanji have the same sound, it is a pun. Anyways 乙姫 is a name of a princess, so it sounds pretty.
Hmm I've been living in Japan for close to a decade and a lot of things that could be called a "game show" here do tend to be on the sadistic side...
I wonder what a certain foreign Goomba would have to say about this ^ -^
You can get your own apartment for 750 month or stay in a hostel for the same price??
What?! Push ALL the buttons while on toilets in Japan.
MXC!!!
Joan Rivers called...she wants her nail polish back.
Love the nail color this episode. Should name it in the description. 😊
The lack of streaming service subscription may be something to do with a culture where hobbies and conversation are highly valued.
I loved my time in Japan
Cassette tapes, really?
Japn was ahead of the tech world for about a decade and then they started falling behind badly as that generation aged.
human sure do love conflating Exceptions, making them out to _be_ the General Rule - don't they?
ironic, indeed: japan, known for its _silence proclamation_ on public transport; yet, Smacking in public venues is not, *_*not*_* encouraged
=====
today was the first time i noticed, you guys film in front of a green screen
i wonder, thus, if there is any reason in particular, backdrops can't be natural?
(yes, i know about upkeep costs
well?
that's what _Profit_ is for)
everything doesn't have to be _sanitary_ and _corporate_ **all** the time, after all
working from home?
erin and justin, i'm sure you two have some spiffy office space in your respective residences; failing that, what about Fake Walls for film productions?
those have been _en vogue_ for some years now; have 2 - 4 of ´em to rotate through between shoots, if they're not terribly expensive (i don't know how much these generally cost)
´like, i dunno..
..i just wanna "connect" with you guys even more than i already do
(and tell john i said hello!)
As I understand it, while manga and anime are more generally popular to the Japanese public than comics and cartoons are to the American public, most of the stuff is generally pretty niche and stigmatized as childish the way it is in the US
It didn't seem that way. Granted, I was a US tourist two weeks ago and not someone living in the country. But Japan loves cute characters and that was clear. Anime and characters like Hello Kitty were absolutely everywhere. They were also used for cafes, collabs with restaurants, and for tourist merch like "Hello Kitty In Kyoto." Even random vending machines had trading cards or tiny figures.
To an extent, but more "nerd" than "childish" unless you're watching actual children's anime. Popular mainstream anime like Sazae-san are watched by pretty much everyone, but if you're into stuff like Gundam or Fate, then you're gonna be looked at as a geek. Source: I live in Japan.
While Japan may not be focused on tech, you can't deny that "all the best stuff is made in Japan".....(lol...I couldn't resist the Back to the Future reference)
Japan has a huge issue with being anti immigration which hurts it so much.
random painted nails not even mentioned
I think the video we need right now, with all the fearmongering that Meta spread through the media, is misconceptions about China
the tech myth I put down to Japan's largely isolationist history and some rememants of that, could be wrong about the reasoning as to why the myth developed but just my logic, like I said could be wrong. I live in the USA not Japan, also seriously slurping=polite in japan? I get people THINK(think not that japan is backwards in terms of the rest of the world, it in no way IS backward compared to the rest of the world) Japan is backwards, but it's not. Slurping is just a way in several countries, not just east asian, to enhance the taste of whatever you're eating, never is it about manners. I already eat sushi with my hands, I suck at using chopsticks
I think it's more about the after effects of WW2. The isolationist history ended in the 1800s, and it's true there was a technology boom after it ended. But things evened out by the time of the world wars. However, after WW2, there was a big push for Japan to again catch up and excel in modern technologies as a way to recover from the war.
@@sophykitten2212 i did say I could be wrong didn't I? and look, I was wrong. I never claim to know everything
Do Japanese generally hate Americans?
No? I mean, it wasn't a problem when I was there recently. Everyone was very friendly and polite, and considerate about any language barries. It is true tho that I was in known tourist areas. The only time I saw anyone get dirty looks from others was a gentleman who did not wear a mask and spoke loudly on his cell phone on public transit. I do not believe he was American but could not place the language he spoke.
Are you kidding? To Japanese people, America is the shining symbol of the outside world, all my students say that's where they want to visit. You got to remember, while a lot of people from Western nations are still caught up on WWII, for Japan, they remember the post-war reconstruction efforts by the allies that lead to Japan quickly rising to become an economic superpower. The only people who are still bitter about the war are right-wing nutters who were born long after the war ended.
I don’t think Japanese people generally hate Americans. There is definitely some resentment for the American military base in Okinawa, but that’s sort of a local issue.
Yes to all of this, I've been doing this job of correcting misconceptions about Japan for decades now, all checks! xD I'm not Japanese though... just super interested in the culture, visited the country twice, intend to go a few more times in my lifetime. :P
Justin dodged (no pun intended, though it's kinda funny) a few of the most controversial stuff, so I'll just take the hit here and talk about some topics people are bound to come cussing at me... that's fine, but I'll just say it's only an opinion, I may be wrong, you'll have to check data for yourself because I'm not in the mood of looking and putting up all links, sorry. :P
So... suicide, work related suicide (karoshi), loneliness, mental illness related cases with specific Japanese names such as hikkikomori and a few other stuff that is often talked about as negatives in Japanese society are problems there, some of which were directly addressed by politicians and specific policies, but I have to address the misconception that it only happens in Japan, or that Japan is particularly notorious for those.
Suicide, for instance, was a huge problem back in the 80s up to early 90s, but it has been dropping since then. Lots of people still have this image of Japan being a country with extreme suicide rates, but here's the thing - while rates have been steadily dropping there, in several developed western nations including the US, the rates have pretty much skyrocketed in the past couple of decades or so, to the point nowadays, countries like the US, South Korea, Russia, Finland and India all have a higher overall suicide rate than Japan. Mind you, not that it's low or not worrying, just that all those countries have pretty high suicide rates. Japan is 49 in a list of 189 countries according to 2019 WHO statistics.
Next. The famed used panties vending machine thing. There were just a handful of cases where that happened, by some shady people (potential links to Yakuza), I think way back in early 2000s or something like that. International press latched onto this, and it became such a huge thing that eventually Tokyo prefecture had to pass an ordinance to forbid the whole thing on basis of public health worries. But this is yet another thing that completely blew out of proportions on International press and still has so much attention from foreigners that eventually some more touristic places in Japan has jokes or sanitized reproductions for the enjoyment of tourists.
Next. A famed "lonely people" coffee shop where people were supposed to sit with giant plushie toys not to feel lonely or something like that, there were several entries on this coming from different angles, several of them talking about Japanese being the most lonely society or some crap like that. The photos that turned out in these pieces were just from a temporary themed coffee shop with a Moonmin theme. Since the merch had a bunch of oversized plushies, the coffee shop offered to sit them along with not only people who were by themselves, but also families with small children and such.
Someone had the bright idea of getting a selection of pics and creating this entire story about Japanese being lonely people who needed plushies at their tables to keep them company yadda yadda.
So... what is the reality there? Well, according to some global statistics, Japan is well bellow several other countries on opinion polls asking if people feel or felt lonely... in fact, in some polls it's closer to the bottom of the list.
Now, not exactly misconception, but stuff that might surprise some people. Japanese politics have been conservative for decades now, dominated by a single all encompassing party (it's a huge party with groups of politicians that leans towards all spectrum of politics), but that also has some weird ties with a cult-like church (Unification Church, aka Moonies). Japanese people are largely apolitical, particularly younger generations. Of course you have exceptions, but most people just don't discuss politics much.
Yakuza, and the other group Justin mentioned, Bosozoku (biker gangs), still do exist in Japan, but they are all in sharp decline, and you are very unlikely to see them as a tourist visiting the country. The stuff you saw in movies, games and whatnot... that's from the 80s and 90s. In the early 2000s there was a huge crackdown on organized crime groups and whatnot, plus lots of laws and regulations passed, which limited the scope in which crime groups could operate in, and also blocked any action that gave some groups visibility - like Bosozoku. There are laws in place that prohibits transit of biker groups in certain parts of cities, there are limitations on how much noise they can make, and more stuff like that.
Let's go for another major one that I always see causing controversy everywhere - the Japanese imperial flag. It always causes huge consternation and controversy when it comes to South Korea and China, because of pre-WWII and WWII atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese armies in occupied territories in both nations.
There is no dispute there about the horrible war crimes committed there.
But also, and here's the misconception - the Japanese imperial flag is not like the Nazi Germany flag. It not only has been in use to represent Japan as a nation since... around year 600 in Japan in some capacity, it is still in use to this day.
This might surprise some due to all the International press coverage of the controversy on using the flag, sometimes in manga, sometimes in art, sometimes in TV shows and whatnot... but even though Japan's national flag has been switch to the current flag of the Sun since a few years after the end of WWII, the flag of the Rising Sun, Japanese imperial flag that is considered so controversial, has been in continuous use by the Japanese Self Defense Force since then up to today.
It doesn't represent a specific party, ideology, political motif, party or whatever... it's the flag of the rising Sun, because Japan is the land of the rising Sun. This rising Sun symbology exists throughout all the history of art in Japan. It signified the nation, sometimes patriotism, sometimes just an allusion for the country as a whole. It's among the oldest still in use national flags in the world too.
That isn't to say I don't understand the indignation of some people when faced with the flag though... after all, the occupied territories that suffered so much abuse at the hands of Japanese imperial military back then had to do it under that flag. Japanese navy and army came invading with that flag in hands, and so people have the right to be disgusted and indignant of it's usage. But you gotta put into context. It's just not the same thing as the Nazi party flag, which represented one ideology, it replaced Germany's flag, and existed only during that period as part of Nazi propaganda and iconography.
Another major one - the 99% conviction rate of Japanese justice system. I won't question specific cases of wrong conviction and injustices committed by the system, they happen and are there, but what people also need to understand is that the Japanese justice system is completely different from the system of other nations. It's a mix of old Japanese justice system with more modern concepts, I think largely taken from UK, but which does not translate well for other cultures. The 99% conviction thing has largely to do with suspects only going to trial when there is a high degree of certainty of culpability. Which is not always perfect, to be clear, but it mostly is. You should also know that the number of people in jail is proportionately tiny in comparison to most western nations, that wrongful conviction exists but is also proportionately tiny in comparison to most western nations, and that Japan is just a country with a crime rate that is absurdly lower. But also, the justice system itself is extremely complicated, extremely opaque, and full of weird quirks that don't fit modern democracies.
Next subject, on Japan's peculiarities perhaps. Mental health is an area that Japan has yet to evolve a ton in. This remains a highly taboo topic in the country that very few people talk about openly, there is still very little specialized care. Which leads to the problem of homelessness in Japan being very unique. Japan has homeless people, but you are unlikely to see them if you visit as a tourist. They tend to stay away from crowded areas, there is a prevalence of people suffering from all sorts of mental illnesses in the mix, because Japan does have social programs and governmental policies to help the homeless, so it ends up that most people living in parks, streets and whatnot are trying "not to be seen". To be clear, they are there, but homelessness is not even close to levels like in most developed nations.
One more. Bullying in schools do exist in Japan, it used to be a huge problem, it still is a problem, but much like other misconceptions, this is yet another one where if you look in the mirror, you might see something worse there. There are horrible portrayals of bullying in anime, manga, Japanese dramas and movies, and there are horrible real life cases that led to suicide, and it has at some point got the attention of politicians and government... but it's yet another one of those things that it's really a worldwide problem. For the particular case of bullying, you have a whole ton of countries you wouldn't expect leading the charts. It includes countries like Canada, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland and France.
There's plenty more to talk about... these things come up every now and then becoming permanently attached to the image foreigners have about Japan. This is in part because of a phenomena that affects International press coverage, and just people making videos, writing articles, or doing small docs about Japan in general. It's because Japan is both an isolated nation with an extremely unique and long history to it, a big portion where the island nation was isolationist, but at the same time it's not an extremely approachable nation that has lots of admirers and detractors. Because it's largely peaceful and courteous it also takes any image foreigners might make of it in stride. And so, it has become this "other world" that everyone talks about, in good or bad terms. But which then produces all these misconceptions. All in all, it's just another country. It has lots of good things to talk about, and lots of bad things people don't quite understand.
All of this created this effect of press and people pretty much using the country as a clickbait or sensationalism fodder... news from there are pick and chosen based on how much public interest it might make, and so it creates all these distortions.
And now you know. My opinion on it that is. :P Feel free to disagree. Just thought of sharing this because people watching Justin's video might be interested in these too.
過労死 doesn't mean "work related suicide." It is just "death by overwork."
Please do not lump together Americans of Japanese descent with Japanese citizens of Japan as the same thing. During World War Two Japanese-Americans were 100% the *victims* and completely *innocent* of any and all wrong doing.
I don't care for his painted fingernails.
You missed this misconception: Japan exists.
Dude, pink nail polish? Seriously!?
Wtf? Is he's nails painted pink or I'm having a stroke?
yes they are, not a colour I would wear. The silver and blues are better IMO.
You left out the Emperor. Talking about Japan without bringing up the Emperor is like trying to explain Christianity without ever mentioning Jesus. This facit of Japanese life remains largely unknown because of course it is taboo to ever so much as allude to the existence of the emperor in pop culture as doing so sullies the glory of the heavenly super person.
Can't be bothered with this guy.