[ranebo]

"What is perhaps more interesting is the things that are worse."

First and foremost I believe is resistance to change. The reasoning of "because that's the way it has always been" and general bureaucracy means change is very slow to come. When change is actually put into motion it occurs with amazing efficiency but initial resistance seems much stronger than many other cultures.

Anyway, my personal counter list might go like this:

- Blatant sexism

- The work emphasis placed on quantity (time) over quality

- Despite a reputation of High Tech, requiring paper (printed) documents for nearly everything.

- Meeting people outside of work/school is so unusual that often you can make someones night by striking up a conversation in a bar. Great for the visiting tourist but seems suffocating for many Japanese.

- Fantastic food often ruined by the people chain smoking right next to you.

Still really enjoy living here, but I fortunately don't have to deal with the Japanese work environment like many of my friends do.

[XorNot]

A friend of my family knows a few female Japanese expats. They are all very adamant that they absolutely would not go back to living in Japan due to the sexism.

Another thing to add to that list is the Japanese justice system: no trial by jury at all.

[arethuza]

Not having juries is pretty common is countries that use a civil law approach rather than common law:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_law_%28legal_system%29

[tluyben2]

I hear from friends who are not Japanese / Asian who work there a lot that Japanese are generally quite xenophobe; is that true generally or in certain regions or?

[anaphor]

Yes, Japan has a long history of mutual xenophobia with China and other countries around southeast asia. I'm not sure if you were referring to that or xenophobia of westerners though, which I've also heard about. Despite that however, it seems like a great place to live.

[tluyben2]

They were referring to westerners as they are those and feel discriminated against in mostly subtle but sometimes not so subtle ways.

[Jack000]

Don't forget trash cans. I regularly spend 10+ minutes walking around looking for a trash can. I know they got rid of them due to terrorism but c'mon that was 15 years ago.

[jmadsen]

That's not true. They generally consider it people's own responsibility to take care of the trash themselves by taking it home & disposing of it there.

Most people don't stop to think: it costs money to dispose of trash. Here they just don't believe the city should have to foot the bill for your garbage. Different way of thinking about it, is all.

[michaelbuddy]

No, it's a lack of consideration. That's the paradox of Japan. They consider a lot, say spending zillions on the care of vegetation by the municipality. But then you find that there's not enough waste cans to dispose of the trash from the street food you just bought. They could tax the vendors a bit more, have them pay for the waste removal they are ultimately generating, then everyone's happy.

Then there's the lack of soap dispensers in restrooms. you know where you might have just had an accident, you get to clean up your hands with just water. Then jet dry all the particles into the air on that overbuilt $1900 unnecessary hand dryer. You know for the sake of cleanliness. I guess dry hands are clean hands right?

It's a different way of thinking about it. So the guy who had shit on his hands, cleaned it up, but it's still on the faucet. Now I've touched the faucet (with my had because no towel dispenser of course) and I've got his shit on my hands. Real cool. But they good thing the hedges outside the restroom look so nice.

[narism]

To the untrained eyes, it may appear that there is no where to throw trash away in Tokyo. This is because the Japanese have cleverly disguised the trash cans as vending machines (PET bottles/aluminum cans) and convenience stores (other garbage).

[Jack000]

I'm not sure.. there are trash cans in certain public places like parks and subways, but they're rare enough that you have to spend time looking.

And sometimes it's not practical to carry your waste the whole day - I have seen trash piled up beside the street on occasion.

I have trash anxiety from spending time in tokyo.. whenever I buy something I have to consider the wrapping and whether there's a trash can nearby.

[michaelbuddy]

thank you for mentioning this.

[minikomi]

- Cheese.