| Japanese people seem to be in a pretty good place emotionally. They are pretty closed-off, as I expected, but they're more laid back than people in many Western countries and definitely much less stressed than Americans. I'm speaking in generalities here, of course, and I haven't been to Tokyo yet. > There are several reasons why satisfaction is rising. Partly because of the cost of housing, more young people live with their parents. Masahiro Yamada, a sociologist, calls them “parasite singles”. Yeah, accomodation is ridiculously expensive here and it's reflected in the price of hotels and how small everything is. It was pretty claustrophobic my first few days here. There's an interesting article[0] talking about the housing situation but I don't know if it's accurate or not. > Life is pleasanter in other ways too. On every street corner is a 7-Eleven or similar convenience store where young people can buy everything from stationery to ready meals (and heat and eat them on the spot), flick through manga comics, and buy tickets to baseball matches. My favorite part of Japan is that you can walk down an average block and expect to pass a dozen vending machines with coffee, energy drinks, and beer. Always gives me a good laugh. In this sense life is pretty convenient, but in Korea it is even more so (their skyscrapers literally have miniature malls in them). > Although rapid economic growth is history, they appreciate that living standards remain high, and that life (apart from housing) is affordable. This seems true, stuff like food is not as expensive as I expected (coffee is a dollar, a sushi dinner for two is 60 dollars maximum and usually more like 20.) Korea was even cheaper, though, and the food was much better. > That is good news for a country where the word “youth” tends, with good reason, to conjure up images of gloomy misfits: hikikomori—people who shun society—and otaku—nerds. Most "otakus" I've seen so far were foreigners and not Japanese. I can't comment on the number of hikikomoro here, for obvious reasons, but I do think these are exagerrated stereotypes. Perhaps these stereotypes were more true in the past. Just some observations, I've only been here a week. Oh yeah, and Japanese people drive less, bike more, and tend to be rather fit (or at least not obese) -- that gives them a big leg up on Western countries in the happiness department :) [0]: http://thejapanfaq.com/FAQ-Prices.html |