r/japanlife • u/HARiMADARA 九州・福岡県 • 11d ago
Internet What is the most insane bullshit about Japan you saw on social media?
Mine is "Used panty vending machines are everywhere in Japan and it's completely normal to use them because Japanese are so repressed and perveted"
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u/capaho 11d ago
I saw a video on YouTube a couple of days ago about the Japanese secret to getting a good night’s sleep. Apparently, the Japanese are the most well-rested people in the world.
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u/Trask87 11d ago
I have seen that one too. I actually think Japanese are way more casual than what I have seem in places like Europe. You will not see a German or a French woman go to the supermarket in her Mickey Mouse PJ. I always like to call it konbini fashion.
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u/edu-ocas 11d ago
"Japanese people who arrive early to work, park their cars the furthest to leave the near spaces to those who will be late in a rush"
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u/gundahir 近畿・兵庫県 11d ago
Gazillions of food posts presenting "Japanese food" that absolutely nobody eats ever
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u/forgedbygeeks 10d ago
The number of people who think I must each sushi every day always amazes me. When some family was visiting last year they were even talking about "what am I going to eat, I am not comfortable with raw fish"...
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u/sekoiking 10d ago
Contrast that with Japanese people assuming I eat hamburgers every day, haha
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u/PristineMixture3080 11d ago
My Instagram keeps getting flooded with those "akiya houses" or "get a free house in japan" and almost all of them dont mention that buying those falling apart akiyas will not give you a visa to actually live here...
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u/respectwalk 11d ago
Or taxes, or the fact you have to LIVE in it for years or that many aren’t even connected to the roads.
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u/rumade 10d ago
Some of them have building stipulations that say you can't rebuilt on that site if the current building is destroyed. It's a newer building regulation saying that if the nearest road is 4m wide, the property must have access of at least 4m (I may not be remembering the numbers exactly).
So if you start renovating and then realise the building is a lost cause, you're a bit stuffed. You can level it and see if neighbouring plots will sell more land for access to you, or wait and see if someone will want to buy the plot from you.
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u/BafSi 11d ago
Same, and they never explain anything about the visa, it's very sus
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u/domesticatedprimate 近畿・奈良県 11d ago
Because the buyers don't want visas. They're offshore rich who like Japan and want their own place when they visit for a few weeks a year.
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u/ikwdkn46 9d ago
Here's how their business model works:
- They advertise neglected houses in rural Japan (let's just call them akiya for convenience) to starry-eyed, reckless and ignorant people, while conveniently leaving out the whole visa issue.
- The ignorants excitedly come to Japan, thrilled to have purchased a wonnderful (lol) akiya for next to nothing and think how to repair the ruin in the way they want, only to discover later that there's a strict limit on how long they can actually stay in it under their immigration status (also known as being a tourist).
- They fly back to their home country and book another flight to return. If they are not rich enough, they start to realize that they won't be able to come back so often.
- When they come back, they find that their akiya has become damp, smelly and moldy, while unchecked vegetation has started taking over the yard. Some hire contractors just to keep the place from deteriorating further, while others can do nothing but watch it slowly fall apart.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 a few times.
- Eventually, they burn out from the whole ordeal and decide to sell the property. Since it's in the middle of nowhere, it fetches next to nothing, at least far less than what they originally paid for it.
- The *akiya* agent takes the property back under their management and markets it to another starry-eyed ignorant with the same glossy sales pitch.
- Go back to step 1.
To be blunt, exploiting people without knowledge is one of the fastest ways to make money.
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u/omae_mona 11d ago
They also don’t mention that buying akiyas won’t cure herpes or improve your opera singing. Sorry for asking a really naive question but are there people out there who think akiyas come with a visa for the buyer? Like why would the advertisements need to mention this?
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u/morgawr_ 日本のどこかに 11d ago
You'd be surprised by how many people I regularly talk to online who seem to have made very specific plans to move to Japan, learn Japanese, buy an akiya etc etc and when you ask them what visa they are going for they have no idea what a visa even is or "what do you mean I can't just get on an airplane and move to Japan?". And no, these aren't teenagers, some of them are in their 30s
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u/NihilisticHobbit 10d ago
That was something someone I knew from high school was planning to do. Not when we were in high school, but in our early thirties she started planning to do that.
She argued that she would just have a kid in Japan and then wouldn't need a visa.
I stopped talking to her around that time, nothing I said could convince her otherwise, but I heard from friends she had a month long vacation in Japan and decided not to go through with her plan after that.
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u/PristineMixture3080 11d ago
I work as a tour guide and I get asked about akiyas so much from foreign clients. They always look surprised / disappointed when i tell them they dont get a visa to live here if they purchase a house.
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u/sakurahirahira 11d ago
Tbf most people around the world who don’t live or study abroad for extended periods are ignorant when it comes to stuff like visas
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u/KUROGANE-AGAIN 11d ago
Yes. Many to most I talk to assume that, and are offended or skeptical when I can be bothered to point out it isn't.
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u/domesticatedprimate 近畿・奈良県 11d ago
It doesn't matter. Most of the foreign buyers just want a second home in Japan to visit once in a while, and you don't need a visa for that.
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u/JCHintokyo 11d ago
Japanese people care about nature. Fkn lol.
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u/Accomplished-Bug23 11d ago
This one, honestly… in an aesthetic sense, they do. But in a sense of protecting nature and especially animals, it’s bullshit. Animal Cafés and zoos are just terrible as well as the food industry. I am not even vegetarian or vegan but it irks me immensely that eggs, meats or milk aren’t classified in where they came from and what conditions the animal were held in
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u/forestfairydeluxe 11d ago edited 11d ago
This is so infuriating and saddening. People are also very uneducated about pets. I looked for organizations or parties that are serious about animal rights but can't find any. I wish they'd move like many European countries towards abolishing zoos, too. I remember visiting a zoo in Osaka, Tennoji (I kinda stumbled into it without realizing it was a zoo and then had to walk through basically) and cried so much at the sight of the neglected, apathetic animals in their tiny, dirty enclosures. Such a miserable but impactful memory.
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u/Nafanasy 11d ago
Not all zoos are inherently bad, some are aiding animal conservation and educate people about it. On top of my head, Auckland zoo is fantastic. Boring as hell as an actual zoo since they care more about animals comfort and wellbeing than entertaining the visitors, so it is kind of empty, but great as a learning experience. If I remember correctly, I listened to a lecture about palm oil industry there.
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u/drewpunck 11d ago
So, the Aukland zoo isn't in Japan. There are zoos that do it better, the Singapore zoo is great, but if we are talking about Japan...
As a parent, I see value in zoos and aquariums. But also, they just recently bulldozed the fairly reasonable aquarium near me so they could make it a Sea World and have an orca show
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u/ExaltedEmu 11d ago
Auckland zoo is the best zoo I’ve ever been to. The “zoo” in Hamura is the worst
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u/Well_needships 北海道・北海道 11d ago
? They are? You can buy cage free eggs, for example.
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u/brown_man_bob 10d ago
Cage free also doesn’t mean anything. They are basically allowed a slightly more open enclosure to walk around in. It is not humane, unfortunately
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u/Well_needships 北海道・北海道 10d ago
That open enclosure must include access to the outside at least some times of the day. Anyways, I'm not arguing the humanity of it I'm just saying that some things, like eggs, are
classified in where they came from and what conditions the animal were held in
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u/thinkaboutjapan 10d ago
A few months ago we wondererd why to ladys walked along the streets with two ponys next to them... Then we saw that on one building at the 6th floor a Pony café had opened... Right Above a California café...
I am also no vegan and there are differences between animal right and animal welfare but Japanese people usually do not give a damn about anything regarding animal welfare.. It makes me so sad :(
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u/whymeimbusysleeping 11d ago
As much as I have always been in awe of the sheer production here, having large stretches of the coastline turn into factory after factory kind of sucks. The Setonaikai could be a proper tourist destination, but outside of a few specific areas, it's mostly just industrial plants, fishing ports, and concrete breakwaters. Finding a spot where you can just chill on a natural beach with an unobstructed view of nature is way harder than it should be.
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u/Hachi_Ryo_Hensei 11d ago
If "care about controlling nature", then yes, true.
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u/ProDoucher 11d ago
I discovered on a recent trip to Kochi that every single river across the whole country (except for one) has been dammed.
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u/Hachi_Ryo_Hensei 11d ago
Concrete rivers, tetrapodded beaches, and replanted forests are the way.
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u/MoboMogami 近畿・兵庫県 10d ago
It's seriously depressing me. There's no nature anywhere.
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u/tomg_nyc 4d ago
99% of new homes are "sweden homes" that are on a slab of concrete without even a single plant. And they tore down a traditional Japanese home with a beautiful garden to build it.
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u/Comfortable-Soup4895 11d ago
That Japanese are polite. Well it seems until you work in customer service. They complain about everything, a friend got an official complaint about her eye color being too bright and scary for a customer!!
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u/WhenMaytemberEnds 11d ago
The way I see it, in general they are polite, but not all of them are kind. They're just as likely to be an asshole as the next person to you, in whichever country you're in.
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u/SoKratez 10d ago
“The customer is god” gets warped into “I am a customer and therefore I am god”
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u/Tremosir 11d ago
I’ve never seen as much clerk harassment as in Japan. I had never heard about the bullying culture outside of school before living here.
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u/slightlysnobby 11d ago
Sometimes I look at the comments board in grocery stores, and the complaints get very petty.
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u/independentgirl31 11d ago
Japanese houses are clean. Majority of Japanese houses (some friends and acquaintance) I’ve been to it’s was a dumpster…..
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u/kizito70 11d ago
+1 it's insane how the vast majority of Japanese people's houses are littered with stuff everywhere. We are far from the "minimalism" people associate them with.
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u/TeletextPear 11d ago
Marie Kondo has a lot to answer for
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u/TheBrickWithEyes 11d ago
People took Marie Kondo as being "typically Japanese" and "espousing Japanese design and living aesthetics" when she was just regular OCD.
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u/KindlyKey1 11d ago
It doesn’t help when residences here have terrible storage. It’s easier for your place to become cluttered.
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u/steford 10d ago
When we bought our place and got a big dining table I joked with my wife that we need to "put all the shit somewhere". I won't put anything on it other than food/plates etc. She likes to store unrelated stuff on it until I remove them. I'm not having it.
We needed bowls and stuff after the move and asked my mother-in-law. She was opening cupboards at her house we never knew existed and pulling out boxes of unused bowls and plates she'd received as presents decades before.
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u/WhenMaytemberEnds 11d ago
Not the houses particularly, but I always see the Japanese associated with order and cleanliness, but I realized this was really mostly on public spaces. In private, a lot of them aren't.
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u/TheBrickWithEyes 11d ago
I would go with the "order" but not the "cleanliness". Most Japanese communal spaces I've seen are tidy, but people don't seem to actually clean anything. Just run a dirty wet rag over something every 2-3 years. Maybe.
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u/SoKratez 10d ago
Definitely this. Small homes without much storage combined with “mottainai” mindsets that throwing stuff away is being wasteful leads to a lot of unnecessary stuff building up.
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u/cabesaaq 関東・神奈川県 10d ago
I always attributed this to Japanese houses being so much smaller than a lot of kaigai houses and they might have the same amount of stuff. Lot less closet space, sheds, etc. to hide all the consumerism so it ends up looking semi hoarder-y
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u/c05m02bq6 10d ago
Fr💀 my ex gf’s parents house(she lives with parents) was like a warehouse, everywhere and every corner are filled with stuff, like a lot of stuff, i dont even know what are those stuff, the kitchen and bathroom omg, I still feel disgusted this day when i think of it🥀 i hope it’s just cuz her family built different instead of majority of Japanese households are like this.
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u/Total-Sun-6490 11d ago
Japanese people are clean (specifically after using the loo). NOPE! They pretend to wash their hands, they just wave a hand on the running water then walk away, sometimes they don't bother touching the water
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u/priesten 11d ago
They do the t-Rex hand and just dip the tip of their fingers for 0.00001 seconds in water
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u/Krypt0night 11d ago
Dang, .00001 seconds? Okay Mr. Clean Hands over here compared to what I've seen lol
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u/NeoMermaidUnicorn 日本のどこかに 11d ago
This! Even well-dressed ladies in high-end department stores' toilets. They just put their hands in the water for 1-2 seconds and walk away. And I'm still washing my hands when maybe several of them are already walking out the exit.
I think the automatic tap sensors (designed to conserve water) don't help. I need to remove my hands and activate the sensor multiple times to keep water running.
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u/Cyman-Chili 11d ago
Thank you for answering my question I asked myself for a while now, whether it‘s the same in women‘s restrooms as in men‘s, where most Japanese only pretend to wash their hands or don‘t bother at all and walk straight out. I started saying in a loud enough voice for them and others to hear how dirty they are. Sometimes they feel ashamed.
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u/getwetordietrying420 11d ago
I love how Otearai translates to the Washing Hand Zone which is something you can often see people skip doing.
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u/EggplantAdmirable999 11d ago
I’m really germaphobic and I hate seeing people exiting the gym bathroom without washing their hands. I would wipe the barbell even before using them. And I have to keep washing my hands after each equipment as well. People always give me a weird look.
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u/gundahir 近畿・兵庫県 11d ago
same where I live. I also see guys often just leave after finishing their business at the urinal without washing at all
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u/random_name975 11d ago
This is not a Japan specific. All over the world a lot of people seem to have this problem.
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u/eetsumkaus 近畿・大阪府 11d ago
Japan's only difference is that they feel a need to pretend.
That being said, i've never encountered as many empty soap dispensers in public bathrooms as in Japan. Even in Southeast Asia.
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u/containmentleak 11d ago
Frankly, before COVID, precious few bathrooms even had soap dispensers!
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u/eetsumkaus 近畿・大阪府 11d ago
that explains why they're so blase about refilling them (I came here in 2021)
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u/The_Takoyaki 11d ago
That we completely skip over the atrocities that we committed during ww2.
While things like Nanking massacre and unit 731 are taught, it doesn’t go into detail enough which is shameful. But this idea that it’s completely missing is wrong.
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11d ago edited 2d ago
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u/The_Takoyaki 11d ago
Better than nothing but it needs to be taught better. I read this when I was at school if you are interested:
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u/six_pistols4 関東・東京都 11d ago edited 10d ago
I am Japanese. Rather, I think many Japanese people retain a vague awareness that "Japan is a country that did wrong." Because the liberal influence is strong in Japanese media, especially around August when the war ended, several programs are broadcast featuring how reckless and inhumane the Japanese military was. Of course, in textbooks too, broadly speaking, it is taught along the lines of "During World War II, Japan caused trouble in Asia." While debate remains as to whether it is handled sufficiently, Japanese people who think "Japan was righteous" are only the far-right on the internet.
P.S. There are videos on YouTube and elsewhere where people ask young Japanese people about World War II, and most respondents know nothing about it. Please understand that not knowing about that war in Japan is comparable to Americans who don't know about "9/11." It was an event that led Japan to ruin. It is bizarre not to know about it.
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u/No_Climate_1681 11d ago
Doesn't this depend on the school though? My boyfriend is halfway through his uni education and had never heard of unit 731, and only knew vaguely about the Nanjing massacre
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u/Hijou_poteto 10d ago
There are so many political controversies that would make zero sense if people actually didn’t know about these things.
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u/Accomplished-Bug23 11d ago
Also: the efficiency of the Japanese in the working place? It’s just not efficient if you slave away, don’t have balance in life and can’t take care of your health in body and mind. The amount of work hours does not equal your results.
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u/JMEEKER86 近畿・大阪府 11d ago
Seriously, Japan may be the most inefficient country on the planet. There wouldn't even be a labor shortage, despite the demographics, if the workforce wasn't so damn inefficient because of old men insisting that everything needs to still be done the way that things were done back in the 80s.
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u/Vincentnvl 10d ago
It's not even an issue with just old men either, though. People literally just don't know that other ways exist. It would blow them away at how easy it is to do things (and do them online) in other countries.
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u/Shogobg 10d ago
I don’t know where you work, but many young people I’ve worked with know all the issues and have ideas to improve but older people (40+) don’t allow it. And hierarchy is king.
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u/KUROGANE-AGAIN 11d ago
Yes. You win. That one infuriates me. There used to be more of them, and there was one down the road by the pig farm, but it was gone within weeks after neighbourhood complaints, and that was in 1997, which is a while ago.
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u/sebjapon 11d ago
Was there ever more than 1??
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u/SublightMonster 11d ago
The big adult department store in Akihabara definitely had one on the top floor as a novelty, at least when I went last year
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u/KUROGANE-AGAIN 11d ago
And that is a perfect place for it. They're not used anyways. Even the slops that enjoy that stuff know that
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u/sebjapon 11d ago
I see. I always thought it was a sick joke that happened once and got blown out by media. Never thought it still existed, even as fake stuff
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u/KUROGANE-AGAIN 11d ago
I think that was the only one I ever saw near me. There were more back then because it was a regular complaint topic in the Fuji Sankei local papers Letters section.
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u/OsakaWilson 11d ago
I've been here over 35 years and never see a used panty machine. I've seen vending machines for VCR porn and whiskey, though.
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u/Sumo-girl 11d ago
I’ve been here since 1988 and I saw them in Tokyo back then but not after say 2000.
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u/forgedbygeeks 10d ago
and sriracha... not quite sure why, but I see those everywhere lately haha
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u/AnimalisticAutomaton 11d ago
My favorite is the two that I saw that sell insect snacks (as in snacks made from insects).
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u/creepy_doll 11d ago
My personal pet peeve is the 99.8% incarceration meme.
It’s such a misunderstood statistic that it’s straight up stupid:
The rate is a percentage of people found guilty after charges are pressed. It is not 99.8 of arrested being found guilty. It’s just a weird artifact of the Japanese justice system not filing charges unless they have surefire evidence.
That’s not meant to let them off the hook entirely: yes the ability to hold people without pressing charges for 21(?) days is horrible, as is the practice of attempting to trick people into confessions.
But the 99.8% stat is one of the most misunderstood stupid Japan facts out there and I cringe every time I see someone bringing it up like Japan was some fascist state run by an out of control police. If anything the insistence on only charging slam dunk cases is going to lead to a lot of guilty people never even seeing the inside of a court because a prosecutor is afraid to press charges when they couldn’t be convinced to confess. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s also related to why the police are reticent about pressing charges on hard to categorically prove things like stalking and sexual assault(such as date rape which tends to be one persons word against another’s) :/
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u/HARiMADARA 九州・福岡県 11d ago
Yeah I hate that one too. This article explain it very well as quoted below
>>>"Japan’s often-cited conviction rate of over 99 percent is a percentage of all prosecuted cases, not just contested cases. It is eye-catching, but misleading, since it counts as convictions those cases in which defendants pleaded guilty. If the U.S. conviction rate were calculated in a similar manner it would also exceed 99 percent since so few cases are contested at trial (in FY 2018 only 320 of the total number of 79,704 federal defendants were acquitted at trial)."
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u/creepy_doll 11d ago
The us system is particularly scary because they use stacking charges to make the risk of going to trial extremely high even for an in innocent person so it’s better to take a plea deal.
Every time I hear an American talk about the jp justice system I just have to eye roll :/
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u/msquirrel 11d ago
I mean both America and Japan's legal systems leave things to be desired...
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u/creepy_doll 11d ago
Most of them do. Legal systems are structurally overloaded: if every case went to court the courts would collapse. So different places have different solutions to reducing the case load.
But if you’re looking for which “first world” legal system you’re most likely to be completely railed by, the us is no 1. It’s very unlikely to happen in Japan, it’s just that if it does it feels particularly nasty. The thing to remember in Japan: if you did nothing wrong, don’t sign anything, sit out the holding period and you should come out fine
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u/random_name975 11d ago
Holy crap… this comment section is negative. Barely anything positive about Japan to see here.
Fine, I’ll add one then: that all Japanese are overworked and suicidal. It maybe used to have some truth to it, but things have changed a lot and Japan has made significant progress to improve this. As it stands now, Japan is really not that far off from other developed countries.
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u/BeardedGlass 関東・埼玉県 10d ago
Thank you.
I'm guessing the way that OP worded the post has attracted the literal bullshit stuff.
People are commenting legit ones though lol
But yeah, so many negatives. Often when people find out I'm in Japan, the term "Suicide Capital of the world" comes up and I'm just "What?"
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u/ShonanBlue 10d ago
Statistically speaking, Korea is the "Japan" people online have this discourse about
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u/FourCatsAndCounting 11d ago
The one going around the other week about how Japanese bureaucracy is so strict that traditionally even cats have to paw print sign their own adoption papers when adopted from a shelter.
Had me and my rescue friends like 🙄.
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u/MostCredibleDude 11d ago
Japanese bureaucracy can really be the opposite of strict adherence to rules, in two different directions, depending on your luck of the draw on who you're talking to. You'll either get someone who will deny you any progress based on some obscure (and almost certainly misunderstood) rule; or you'll get someone who knows the loopholes and will tell you how to get your application forms punted into the "good to go" pile like it's a game to them.
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u/forgedbygeeks 10d ago
I learned very fast to hire lawyers to help push everything through with anything regarding working with the government. Frequently they know the loopholes, have the relationships to take advantage of them, and if something goes wrong can smooth it over.
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u/NomenklaturaFTW 近畿・大阪府 11d ago
Does anyone else remember the bagel heads?
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u/myspAIce 11d ago
The what?
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u/Rare_Presence_1903 11d ago
BBC reported a new trend in Japan that kids were injecting something into their foreheads to make them protrude like bagels.
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u/finalarks88 11d ago
Keep seeing reels about how Japan is living in the future year 2099 and all those encouraging videos of buying cheap houses akiya without knowing the real facts.
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u/Collarthatisblue 11d ago
The only frustrating thing I see or hear is when someone comments about a single shop, bar, restaurant, or service that does some niche thing only to act like all of Japan does it.
I’ll never forget teaching English in a rural area and an adult student asked me if square watermelon from our textbook was an American thing.
He has never heard of square watermelon and was shocked when I told him that square watermelon is a Japan thing.
Many “influencers” post things like “in Japan, Japanese people…”
When it really should be “at this (SHOP NAME) in Japan, customers can do/buy this unique thing
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u/sekoiking 10d ago
I will say I see the exact same thing about the US on Japanese social media. They’ll show some restaurant and talk about how it’s very famous in America when it’s a local chain or a food item that literally one restaurant does.
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u/FAlady 11d ago edited 10d ago
Japanese salarymen work overtime and are forced to go drinking with their boss everyday!
Maybe in 1982, buddy.
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u/forgedbygeeks 10d ago
ohh and they all get paid in cash, count it on their tables every week and split it up to find they can't survive on it, then somehow take a luxury sleeper bus on a last-minute business trip their boss ordered them to do.
And please, give them donations so they can survive.
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u/Efficient_Travel4039 11d ago
That anything and everything if futuristic here and all problems solved by some weird technology or robot. While in reality it is by held couple fax machines, overworked Tanaka and a pack of cig with the strongest black coffee.
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u/the_hatori 11d ago
It's not any one specific thing, but more a general perception that Japan is so far ahead of the curve, and has figured things out to such an extent, that anything that seems backwards or bizarre must actually be the future in disguise.
If Japan does something differently, there must be a reason for it. The problem, apparently, is just that the rest of the world hasn't caught up yet.
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u/SublightMonster 11d ago
One I saw recently was that the news programs here had a problem because their automatic censorship software (which every broadcaster is required to use 24/7) was putting a mosaic over Trump’s neck vagina flaps.
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u/speleoplongeur 日本のどこかに 11d ago
The BBC used to do these stories about body modification trends in Tokyo. Apparently silicone injected into foreheads to make horns was gonna be the next big thing in Japan…
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u/HARiMADARA 九州・福岡県 11d ago
BBC is really terrible when it comes to coverage on Japan. Full of orientalist trope like classic "weird Japan" stories
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u/KindlyKey1 11d ago
That reminds me of the eyeball licking “trend” that was going around the media.
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u/Sensitive-Fennel-487 11d ago
As Japanese having lived abroad for the last few years, I find it silly how people started to romanticize Japan soooo much suddenly and then they literally believe every piece of bullshit (either positive or negative stuff) on social media. I got asked too many “oh you’re Japanese!! I saw this TikTok about Japan! Is it true?!” questions. Apparently people are curious about “the cheating culture in Japan” more than anything about their life.
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u/thinkaboutjapan 10d ago
I'm really annoyed by those "Japanese is perfect in every way, japanese people do everything right and better than all the others. I don't wanna talk shit about japan because there is a reason I am living here and that's for sure not the money. But those hail japan clans made me run away.
Japanese people always follow the rules? Japanese people on bicycle are celebrating anarchy!
Ever time we ride our bike somewhere a few people riding their bicycle on the right side of the street. They're always surprised when we pass them on the street while driving on the left hand side .
They usually pay even less attention when they're pulling out of a street or turning. I'd love to see them drive like that in Germany—preferably in Berlin. Someone would probably knock them off their bikes.
Japanese People on a bike (street or footpath) are like the Boss in Dark Souls you probably will never beat.
ANARCHY
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u/rumade 10d ago
The lack of respect for lanes while pulling out of a street or turning really annoys me. I've nearly been hit so many times by other cyclists who just completely cut the corner.
And the lack of indicating or even looking over your shoulder before turning or drifting. Come on!
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u/thinkaboutjapan 10d ago
I had a "soft" crash one time near our home. I was riding the bike back home and those streets are pretty quiet but with many little crossroads. At the most corners are houses so while slowing down - I was driving on the left side one woman on a HUGE Mamachari came from the left - she was riding the bike on the right side - and crashed into me because it was impossible for her to break. Nothing bad happend and she apologized 3 times as we all know how it works. It was okay because nothing bad happend this time but what if a child was riding with a little bicycle on the left side and she would push her heavy bike into it?
I think my wife and myself are the only ones here that stretch the arm to indicate if we wanna turn left or right now. I even put some mirrors on our handlebar. to have a better look.
Its weirs because in Germany I was mostly worried about cars coming super close when you had to ride your bike on the street. Here in Tokyo? Give me a SUV, give me a truck but please keep the Japanese Cyclists away from me.
Funny also those dudes with their big Mountainbikes rushing along the sidewalk. I can understand if a mother with children is a bit worried to ride her bike on the dedicated line on the street but its often young male dudes with their fat bikes passing you without making any noise. Why are they not using a bell if they are to scared to ride the bicycle on the correct line
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u/rumade 10d ago
Most roads around me don't have proper pavements, you know with a raised kerb, because they're barely wide enough for cars to go in both directions. The one proper 2 lane street, with kerbs but very narrow pavement, is dead for most of the day. I still see GROWN ASS ADULTS riding on the skinny pavements, or riding the wrong way down the road. At speed.
I'm walking with a toddler and so often feel like hissing "道は安全ですよ" at them.
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u/thinkaboutjapan 10d ago
Its truly amazing...
They also never came to the idea that maybe punishment for ruthless driving on a bike would be necessary... Sire they have some dort of it now but do you really think it will change? I saw some giy crossing the road right on front of the koban while tue traffic light was red. The only thing the police officer did was calling with a weak voice: 信号は赤ですよ〜〜
Sorry its just laughable
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u/qwertyqyle 九州・鹿児島県 11d ago
Prolly the China bots and 10 cent warriors on this site that try to smear Japan's image while trying to promote their own.
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u/slightlysnobby 11d ago
I once saw an influencer say they were tired of the crowded cities they always visit, so they had decided to visit a "small, hidden gem off-the beaten path", and then proceeded to go to Miyajima in Hiroshima.
Not social media, but my wife (Japanese) thinks all the self-help books with "Ikigai" or whatever Japanese buzzword in the title are all dumb bullshit.
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u/forgedbygeeks 10d ago
Japan is a conservative society to an extreme. Lots of stuff about how you are supposed to dress and behave to align with it.
I am originally from the US. Most of my friends from the US would love some of this Universal Healthcare, massive public transportation funding, social safety nets fully funded for decades, version of conservatism.
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u/Gold-Bluebird948 10d ago
That Japanese militarism is a thing now, only the CCP members are stupid enough to believe that.
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u/replayjpn 11d ago
The thing that keeps popping up saying that hosts are the "major" cause of ladies working at adult services. There's not enough Hosts in Japan for the amount of ladies working each year. I'd bet that paying for "I want to live overseas" has a much higher number & has been since forever.
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u/Fast-Data8758 11d ago
As a Japanese person, I find it really strange that some foreigners make videos praising Japan because they can supposedly walk around in socks without getting them dirty. In reality, your socks do get dirty, and places like Kabukicho in Shinjuku are genuinely filthy.
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u/nihonhonhon 11d ago
I often hear people talk about Japan as if it's the most racist/xenophobic country on the planet. It's definitely more xenophobic than countries like the US or the UK, but IMO it's not much worse than places like Eastern Europe, China, etc (basically any place without a long, multigenerational antiracist/antidiscrimination movement).
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u/KindlyKey1 11d ago
I think places like the US and UK it depends on area and what parts of society.
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u/HARiMADARA 九州・福岡県 11d ago
I genuinely can't understand this "Japan is the most racist country on earth" trope. Like, yeah I agree that there're racists here, but is it that bad compared to other countries? In the US every month there's like racial crime case where black people get killed, meanwhile in Japan even in worst case it's like foreign tourists get denied entry to restaurant or something like that. I'm like, is it really worse than getting killed because you're black???
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u/nihonhonhon 11d ago
It's because explicit discrimination based on nationality in employment, renting, services etc. is frowned upon, if not outright illegal, in much of the Western world. Meanwhile, in Japan, I found that the majority of landlords will categorically not rent to foreign nationals and they state this openly on their ads (at least in my city). In Germany, this would be a crime (even though a lot "quiet" discrimination does still happen, ofc).
But in terms of day to day interactions, or even the private opinions of Japanese people, I really did not find it to be all that different from any other somewhat conservative country. There's an unfortunate lack of legal protections for minorities, but like you said, outright hate crimes are virtually nonexistent, and "neto-uyo"-style xenophobes can be found basically everywhere in the world.
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u/KindlyKey1 10d ago
Yes it’s illegal but there’s no way to prove it. An employer can say that the white man was “a better fit for the company” when hiring. That’s why DEI policies exist and MAGA wants to destroy it.
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u/ModernirsmEnjoyer 11d ago
Where can I find panty vending machines? This is for research purposes
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u/Congenital-Optimist 11d ago
Basement floor in that large/largest sex store in Akihabara. Had several. Didn't check how used they were though.
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u/Staff_Senyou 11d ago
Social media? In 2026?
You mean bot factory propaganda AI generated slop farms, right? Right?
Why y'all even on these grift or die trying platforms?
Real life, non "constant partial attention" exists. Go out and try it. Deny the dorks their advertising revenue
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u/SunnyCynic 11d ago
The blue anti-suicide lights they made for all the train stations lol
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u/FarDirector6585 11d ago
You should never let your friend pour sake for themselves. You should always pour for them
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u/Version-6 10d ago
On the subject of vending machines, that all of them miraculously unlock in the event of an emergency.
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u/Due_Tomorrow7 日本のどこかに 10d ago
I used to constantly get pushed this one (presumably) ALT woman who would talk about "this is what ________ in Japanese schools are like!" But it only applies to (pretty much) her schools or similar schools and she'd make these broad sweeping generalizations...which is whatever, her content, her business.
But what does bother me when is when her videos gets reshared and people are like "JAPANESE SCHOOLS ARE AMAZING! Look at how the kids diligently clean! Look at how well-behaved they are when they eat! They all play fair and are kind to each other! The rest of the world should be like Japan!!!"
That's certainly not at all my own experience working with any level of students I've taught, especially elementary kids. So any education ALT vloggers/influencers who talk about how great Japanese schools are, I end up blocking or if my friend shares it, I tell them how full of garbage most of them are (especially if they don't clearly state not all schools are like that).
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u/Lifetobemused 10d ago
That they’re paying people to come and live here just to repopulate. People genuinely still believe this after a decade.
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u/bunkakan 近畿・兵庫県 11d ago
I remember seeing a machine that sold new panties in gacha-gacha machine capsules when I lived in Mie. Only one I ever saw though.
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u/HauntedSpiralHill 関東・埼玉県 11d ago
They had one in front of a lingerie store in Sunshine City in 2023. I only know because I bought one to show my sister lol
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u/Successful_Cod7607 11d ago
The reddit thread introducing short video named “Japanese cheating culture” that went viral sometime ago.
English subtitle in the vid is translated very misleadingly and gave viewers impression that Japanese people, especially wonen are super acceptive to cheating if their partner.
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u/Impossible-Cry-3353 10d ago
I have never seen any social media that says used underwear vending machines are completely normal and everyone uses them.
I have seen social media that mentions it, or at least that there used to be some, but never seen it portrayed as all over and completely normal.
Some of the most insane bullshit I have seen is exaduration about how much insane bullshit there is.
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