[bluepizza]

Every time any subject contains "Japan", it always devolves into cultural explanations. There are plenty cultures around the planet that are hierarchical, consensus based, or both.

It's baffling to me that Japan is always singled out in these situations. If the same news was about any of our neighbours (South Korea, China, Taiwan) the amount of cultural explanations would be much smaller, and the discussion would be much more focused on the fundamental principles of the problem.

I understand that we are guilty of furthering this sort of discussion, but it is really frustrating to me.

[uranusjr]

I live in Taiwan. News from Japan usually needs accompanying cultural explanations even here. People from Taiwan, China, and South Korea have difficulties understanding the situation even we’re lifelong neighbours. Yes, Japan is that freaking unique.

[tasogare]

Any link to an article that would illustrate that? I’ve been in Taiwan a bunch of times, live in Japan and on the contrary Japan, while having a good image there, is not a single-outed as it is in the West. The cultural gap between Taiwan and Japan is infinitely smaller than between Japan and more remote places. Taiwan was even part of Japan at some point, so while only the most elderly lived it, I really doubt cultural explanations are needed as you claim they are.

[bluepizza]

Uniqueness does not really relate to my point.

If coronavirus is contained in South Korea, it is due to smart government, if it is contained in New Zealand, it is due to good policies... but if we are discussing Japan, suddenly we are talking about a "collectivist society" with face masks explanations extrapolating to some daimyo actions 400 years ago.

This makes it quite hard to reach the central points of anything that happens here - there's always a random cultural sidetracking. Maybe when a government official is caught lying and apologizes, he is just trying to save himself, and a shame oriented collectivist society is not the central point - a lying politician is.

[omniscient_oce]

Sometimes it gets thrown out of proportion but I speak Japanese and talk with guys and gals there who are currently freelance with previous experience in a company. Japan work situation is just that weird. I wouldn't be surprised if most people who WFH would end up having their PC being monitored. The ironic thing is a lot of people just look busy without doing that much work because they have to stay until the boss leaves meaning they're there for hours. Of my main friends 100% of them have had experience regularly having to stay to 8pm

[gfxgirl]

A friend of mine said her PC is monitored. If she doesn't touch the keyboard within 5 minutes the screen changes color and she's (apparently) reported as not working. She claims she currently doesn't have any actual work to do so she reads a book and presses some keys every few minutes.

[bluepizza]

Yeah, that happens in a lot of places. Stefanini develops PC monitoring software - I interned for them while doing university in the USA. But they don't have a presence in Japan.

[pdimitar]

Including an important factor is not "devolving" into anything, it's being context-aware.