Comments on Never Stop Dreaming: Unique Japanese society: perspective of a foreigne...

The strangest apology I often get in Asia is '...

2011-01-02T16:42:50.469+09:00

The strangest apology I often get in Asia is 'Sorry, here is your food' from waiters/waitresses.

Very good sharing of culture...

2010-07-25T17:16:51.818+09:00

Very good sharing of culture...

thanks.. Nice one!

2010-07-14T13:59:27.557+09:00

thanks.. Nice one!

Thanks for sharing ! most of the asian countries a...

2010-05-15T13:40:27.039+09:00

Thanks for sharing ! most of the asian countries are male dominated societies, infact when I read about chinese I dont find them any different... Oriental culture is very similar to us.

Dr.Jha, maybe you are busy with your new DSLR. You...

2010-04-09T19:35:19.935+09:00

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2010-03-31T00:20:10.657+09:00

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मैले पनि जापानको बारेमा लेखिएका धेरै लेखहरुमध्येको...

2010-03-12T05:31:39.487+09:00

मैले पनि जापानको बारेमा लेखिएका धेरै लेखहरुमध्येको एउटा सहि लेख । दिपेन्द्र जी राम्रो लाग्यो ।

साह्रै ठीक र सही कुरा लेख्नु भयो। मैले पनि यस्तै द...

2010-03-10T00:52:26.451+09:00

साह्रै ठीक र सही कुरा लेख्नु भयो। मैले पनि यस्तै देखे र भोगेको छु। यो लेख बास्तबमा जापान सम्बन्धी लेखहरु मध्ये सबै भन्दा सही छ जस्तो लाग्छ मलाई। मन खोलेर जे देख्नु भयो त्यही लेख्नु भयो दिपेन्द्रजी धेरै धेरै धन्यवाद है।

The article is quite balanced and informative for ...

2010-03-07T12:58:02.188+09:00

The article is quite balanced and informative for the learners of Japanese society. Of course,everything from the history till now cannot be included in a single shot,you have taken much care to put the picture as it is. Everyone's dedication to his/her work and the group culture in Japan is very impressive.

Nice one! your perspective on Japanese society mat...

2010-03-05T11:20:32.810+09:00

Nice one! your perspective on Japanese society matches with my understanding of the same. disappointing to read that Japan continues to be a male dominated society. Anyways, thanks for posting an informative article once again. keep up the good work!

Thank you Deependra-jee for very informative posti...

2010-03-04T20:50:08.151+09:00

Thank you Deependra-jee for very informative posting.

I think these are kind of one sided perspectives o...

2010-03-04T09:59:10.016+09:00

I think these are kind of one sided perspectives of you about Japan. There are more cultural diversities in Japan than you would imagine. Also, most characteristics you picked could be universal like... " In Japan, everyone belongs to some group, and every group has people of superior rank and status."as this can be applied to most people in the world who are working for big enterprises or administrative etc. Besides, whereas there are millions of small individual shops, small companies or freelance workers in Japan.

As for "Sumimasen", it doesn't necessarily mean "I'm sorry". It normally just means "pardon" or "please pay attention". Often "Sumimasen" will be used to make a mental cushion because they just don't want to argue or confront with someone. Sometimes it even means "I don't want to go into any serious relation with you" Probably "Moushiwake arimasen"or "Gomennasai" will be more used for real apology.

Probably only obvious unique characteristics of Japanese are that they are not so straight to the point about saying something negative, or some collective social behavior, due to historical and geographical background. Generally, every culture is different and each could be described as unique.

Great observations. In my dealings with Japanese s...

2010-03-01T07:18:23.574+09:00

Great observations. In my dealings with Japanese students I was surprised by the way the girls always wanted to act so cute all the time. Also, one young Japanese he was very worried about the lack of hunger in the young generation.

Very informative post! I sometimes wonder if this ...

2010-02-28T21:02:07.758+09:00

Very informative post! I sometimes wonder if this is the same Japan that I had read and heard about when I was back in Nepal. I fully agree with Anonymous' comment that "Japanese conservative mindset has a superiority complex in the Asia and inferiority complex with the West. This problem basically stops Japan going socially international and multicultural." Nevertheless, there are several things that make Japan a nice country to live in. The polite behavior of Japanese people (no matter whatever they might be feeling inside) is really appreciable.

From my experience, studying abroad in Japan and h...

2010-02-28T20:49:58.319+09:00

From my experience, studying abroad in Japan and having lived here for a few months now, I would say most your observations are pretty common interpretations of the culture but perhaps a little overly simplistic.

As far as how Japanese people treat foreigners; I have yet to have a consistent enough experience to claim any kind of trend. I have seen the typical disdain for foreigners that older people will give you and I have had random guys pay for a whole night at a bar after just asking them for directions. I think it has to deal more with the social status and age of the person to determine how they will treat you. As far as telling you your Japanese is good you have to keep in mind how many foreigners they see on a regular basis and how many of them likely speak good Japanese.

Groups are certainly a very important thing to the Japanese people, but they are for every culture its just much more overt in Japan. Japan has never really had a proper revolution of the people to greatly upset the deep seeded institutional hierarchy that has existed throughout its history. It takes a lot to change a culture drastically and the current system is pretty strongly entrenched.

Cuteness pervades the culture, but the way you describe it makes it sound like its forced upon women when it seems more like they want to be cute. Humans are in general hot wired to be attracted to cute things, its what drives us to take care of babies rather than letting them die. It is also not something that is sole restricted to women. Everyone has a cute little keitai (cell phone) charm, including old salary men, and there is a good deal of androgyny in male fashion. The notion of sexuality among the Japanese is inherently different from most other western countries in a way I can't really put to words.

Finally just a small point on the language; I find it better to translate sumimasen as "excuse me," it feels way more natural that way. If you actually have something to apologize for you would say gomen nasai, not sumimasen. There is still a rather larger amount of formality and self deprecation in the language, which I won't deny.

I hope I didn't come across as attacking you or anything I just saw the post saying "I'm learning lot of things about Japan..." and thought I would add on a little more depth. I see a lot of people essentializing Japan and like to throw out counterpoints and caveats where I can to make Japan more of a real human place rather than a exotic alien land.

Yet another informative post. I'm learning lot...

2010-02-28T19:41:56.143+09:00

Yet another informative post. I'm learning lot of things about Japan from your blog :)

Deependra Dai, You have written very good article....

2010-02-27T20:27:12.974+09:00

Deependra Dai,
You have written very good article.
In fact, I personally have observed many of them. I want to add some of my observations as follows:

1) Among the developed world, Japan is the only country with homogeneous society. Eastern Europe and United States by virtue of their location, history and trandition didn't/doesn't have any problem in internationalization.

2. The conservatives stronghold in Japanese government for several years helped to shape the country's economy but has left some everlasting consequences. They did little to mend the impression of Imperial Japan to some new and old generations Koreans/Chinese. What is incomprehensible to me is that, Japanese conservative mindset has a superiority complex in the Asia and inferiority complex with the West. This problem basically stops Japan going socially international and multicultural.

3. Japanese young generation lack enthusiasm and they are very much worried about the future. This is hard to explain but basically it is not the same Japan where their parents grew up and made good fortune in its economic boom. In contrast, many Chinese youngs are quite optimisitic about the future of their nation. When young generation goes pessimist it is hard to drive the changing 21st century world map.

4. Regarding Female demography: It may not be strange to go cutie in manga/anime obsessed society, but they have now grown up with different conflicting requirements. Males are not different from this. Thus, you can see the degree of growing domestic violence in Japan. I have observed that Japanese women are more smarter than men if you evaluate the younger demography. But, Japanese mens are not ready to accept the changing role of the tranditional "HOME". It has caused growing number of singles.

5. And, frankly, Japanese way of saying sorry speaks the politeness and responsibility but I still have doubt wheather they really feel when they say. :) "Feeling" sorry is more important than "saying" sorry. It is hard to judge how much they have felt.

6. In almost every points I made above I criticized Japan and Japanese. But, I love Japan. There are many things in Japan that we can't simply express but love, like and feel easy.One should feel very lucky to have some experience of staying in Japan. This is in fact an wonderful country in many aspects.

And, the bottom line is that it is the country of the Japanese by the Japanese for the Japanese.

I knew some dozens japanese of different occupatio...

2010-02-27T08:18:02.334+09:00

I knew some dozens japanese of different occupations some years ago in Moscow.All of them,including some dozens japanese students and post-graduate students at the Moscow State University,turned out to be spies and informants of their secret services and police.Since i made acquaintance with them at random,the results of my "survey" can be considered sociologically valid.They are really a nation of spies and sneaks,both inside the country and abroad.
The author didn't spoke about racism in japan.In fact,the japanese despise other races - burakumins,philippinians,other asians,blacks etc.and abstain from mixing their blood with them.All those "inferior" races are subjected to a cruel discrimination in all spheres of society.In fact,you will never see a japanese subordinate to a non-japanese,because the japanese find it beyond their dignity.At the same time the japanese are greedy for white flesh.Since the beginning of 90-ies they have taken away from my country about 300 russian girls each year as only wifes not to mention concubines and prostitutes.Usually japanese husbands recruit their russian wifes making them work for the japanese secret services and police as agents.
Now i am going to give you an example of japan's activity in Russia.The japanese embassy in Moscow opened "free" japanese courses at the Foreign Literature library in Moscow.The japanese embassy pays that KGB-FSB(russian secret services)scum to persecute with all legal means and all abuses of civil&human rights those people whom they together with KGB-FSB admit to those courses in order to recruit them and force them to work at the japanese embassy or japanese companies in Russia.Some people might be bought into slavery by the japanese to take them away to japan and force to work for the japanese secret services and police.

Hmmm...even i was surprised about the gender bias....

2010-02-27T03:18:57.238+09:00

Hmmm...even i was surprised about the gender bias......but nice observation of the japanese culture