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Would you like to live in Japan?


Clephas

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As opposed to visiting, that is.  Here are the pros and cons as I see them.

Pros

For an otaku, it means accessibility.

No direct involvement in foreign wars, occupations, etc.

Interesting and plentiful food culture.

Both beautiful back country and incredibly developed cities to choose from.

Hot springs.

Numerous religions, all religions tolerated.

Cons

Prices for otaku material are high.

Recent upsurge of nationalist groups.

Job market is unstable/few full time jobs

Seismic events are frequent

Extreme weather patterns

Property prices are extremely high in the cities

Somewhat xenophobic culture

Weak military

 

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Yeah, probably... though I would choose anything that's not my own country or anything related to south and central america XD
For a person like me who doesn't have a social life at all it's the perfect place.

EDIT;
Still a hard decision, since I would have to shove my lawyer degree (almost have it) in the butt, so yeah I really don't know.

Edited by Deep Blue
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1 minute ago, Deep Blue said:

Yeah, probably... though I would choose anything that's not my own country or anything related to south and central america XD
For a person like me who doesn't have a social life at all it's the perfect place.

For me, Europe, Africa, South America, and the Middle East are out, for stability/cultural reasons...  Australia for heat reasons (I hate hot weather, and if I'm going to move, I want to move somewhere nice and cold). 

To be honest, the extreme weather and seismic events make me not want to live there... the one thing Texas has that I love is that the only major disasters we suffer from are tornadoes and flash floods, both of which can be avoided if you are careful (it's called living underground on a tall hill away from rivers, lol). 

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1 minute ago, sanahtlig said:

Collectivist culture is going to be a big pro or con for anyone used to Western culture, especially the US.  Everything is about the group.  Being an independent thinker won't be valued there as it is here.

It isn't really valued anywhere, except on the net, lol.  We might admire freethinkers, but most people don't want to be around them, hahaha

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As much as I'm interested in otaku culture and Japanese food (despite controversy, Japan does have the most Michelin Star restaurants in the world), I feel like some aspects of Japanese culture are a big turn off for living there. As for otaku accessibility I feel like most of what I want is available in the U.S. 

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11 minutes ago, Clephas said:

For me, Europe, Africa, South America, and the Middle East are out, for stability/cultural reasons...  Australia for heat reasons (I hate hot weather, and if I'm going to move, I want to move somewhere nice and cold). 

To be honest, the extreme weather and seismic events make me not want to live there... the one thing Texas has that I love is that the only major disasters we suffer from are tornadoes and flash floods, both of which can be avoided if you are careful (it's called living underground on a tall hill away from rivers, lol). 

Yeah middle east and africa are out of the question, some asian countries (most of them) and russia which occupies a big part of the planet itself xD Australia sounds nice.
Europe is too big to say no to everything, there are some good countries but sadly the ones I consider the best have really cold weather and that's no no too, but I prefer cold weather rather than a insecure country (in the extense sense of the word, such as economy, safety, public services etc)

Not really, I'd probably have a hard time living in a country where I don't speak the language.

you can always learn it :P 

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1 minute ago, Deep Blue said:

Yeah middle east and africa are out of the question, some asian countries (most of them) and russia which occupies a big part of the planet itself xD Australia sounds nice.
Europe is too big to say no to everything, there are some good countries but sadly the ones I consider the best have really cold weather and that's no no too, but I prefer cold weather rather than a insecure country (in the extense sense of the word, such as economy, safety, public services etc)

I might consider Finland, Sweden, or Denmark... but nothing in central or south Europe.  I don't want anything to do with France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Italy, or Greece... or Portrugal (afterthought, lol) either.  Switzerland... maybe if their anti-foreigner sentiment dies down a bit.  Britain is just too expensive outright.  One of the few countries worse than Japan. 

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I would never move to Japan, there is a lot of japanese artists and stuff I wanna work with and I would love to be there for an extended period of time and to buy otaku shit.

their mindset and work culture just clash with mine in an extremely bad way even though I dig some of the collectivist ideas.

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I'd have preferred to grow up in it rather than migrate to it. I would have knowledge of Japanese from young then. :sacchan: Of course, finding my own Japanese culture to be fascinating enough in that alternate universe, such that I would pick up VN-reading and anime-watching... well, that's another story. :makina:

But truth be told, every culture has its pros and cons. My own country has its own share of annoyances, albeit being safer than Japan (no natural disasters, a low crime rate, and best of all, effective gun-control for centuries). Even though it's boring, I think I still prefer living here than in Japan, with those earthquakes and the unreliable law enforcement ignoring certain crimes.

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Yes, in a heart beat.

Having just spent 2 months working as an intern with an NPO in Japan, I just returned home two days ago (and am still very very Jet lagged). I have been working towards the goal of moving there for around a year now. The sole reason I even attend the college I am currently enrolled in is because through it, I can participate in a duel degree program with a 1st rate Japanese Uni, but have the majority of the costs covered by my domestic school. 

Honestly, I hardly experienced much culture shock at all in Japan, but my reverse culture shock has been much worse. I really can't wait to return to Japan. So why did I love it, and why do I have my heart set on moving there?

For one, the people are really nice. People seem to have this perception that Japanese people are xenophobic, and in general I think this is false. Of course there are some racists in Japan, but racists exist everywhere. And I would say that they are actually pretty rare in Japan. That said, if you are a foreigner people will make some assumptions about you. They will probably assume that you don't know Japanese, that you aren't accustomed to Japanese culture, that you are just visiting, etc. But I wouldn't call this xenophobic, as these assumptions are generally true. And if these assumptions don't apply to you, it is because you are the exception, not the rule. Also, its really easy to make friends if you are actively learning Japanese, or know the language. I still have a lot to learn regarding Japanese, but because I primarily always communicated with people there in Japanese, I had no problem making friends. Regardless of the fact that my ability to communicate was limited.

Actually, I had a much easier time making friends in Japan than I do in my native country, which is another strong motivation for me to move there. This gets on to my observations about the culture. I spent most of my time in the Japanese countryside, but I did spend some time in Tokyo. So I will comment on both. I will start by comparing the countryside in Japan, with the countryside in America (my home country).

 

The American countryside, in general, is shit in my opinion. It is the breeding ground for extremism on two equally unappealing sides. 1, are religious fanatics. Christianity is impossible to avoid in the American countryside, and they take it super seriously. The 2nd extreme group you will run across in the American countryside are drug addicts, alcoholics, similarly unhealthy/dangerous people. In my view, there is no culture in the American countryside, aside from religion and blind patriotism that is. 

The Japanese countryside by contrast, is mostly focused on community and tradition. Things are fairly secular, and ritualistic events only happen on special occasions. From my view, religion in Japan is much more about persevering the traditional culture, than it is about the mystic elements of religion. So if you are an Atheist /Agnostic like me, this is great. Furthermore, extreme alcoholism and drug abuse is practically non-existent. I said before that things are highly focused on the community, so community events are somewhat common. I got a sense that people genuinely cared about each other in the Japanese countryside, and that the village community was like one big family. This is to the extent where people feel comfortable enough where they don't lock their doors, and they don't knock. Rather when entering a neighbor's house, they will open the door, shout "Sorry to be a disturbance!", and enter (but they will stay in the part where shoes are kept, until they are indicated otherwise). Anyway, my summarized thoughts on the Japanese countryside: warm, secular, safe. 

Now onto City life. Or more specifically, a comparison with New York City (where I live), and Tokyo. I think Tokyo is a much more fun city, with a much larger variety of things to do, for a much more affordable price. NYC is hella expensive, and if you want to do something with friends, you are most likely going to be spending a pretty buck. Furthermore, NYC has much fewer options. In Tokyo, Game Center (aka Arcades) are fairly common, Karaoke is practically ubiquitous, there exist many cafes with various themes (such as Maid cafes, Butler cafes, cat cafes, Jazz cafes, etc), not to mention gambling places such as Pachinko and Mahjong parlors, both of which are really popular. Entertainment wise, the only things that New York beats Tokyo at is in performing arts (Broadway!) and variety in restaurants. Tokyo also has a large variety of restaurants, but still hands down New York wins. NYC has many many immigrants from all over the world, so you can eat well made dishes that originate from practically all over the world. So in terms of Globalization and the benefits that come with it, NYC wins. But overall the benefits that NYC has going for it are usually accompanied with a relatively high price, and while good quality cheap alternatives do exist, you have to really search out for them or know a friend. 

One last benefit that pertains equally to the countryside and city life, they are not strict on underage drinking. The legal age to drink is 20 there, but if you are a foreigner, they practically never check for an ID. And if you are Japanese, they don't typically card people in groups (so long as most people in the group look like they are older than high school students). Izakaya's are really fun, and a great place to have fun with friends.  

So I hope this makes it clear why I want to move to Japan (I am also considering Taiwan, but that would require me to learn Chinese). 

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I think I wouldn't want to move there just because of the overwhelming shock I would have from my expectations being crushed by the reality of Japan not being full of cute 2D girls :makina:

On a more serious note, I'm not sure. I'm a hikikomori and rarely leave my room, so I probably wouldn't notice much difference between US and Japan anyway. I do like some aspects of the culture, and the cities seem more interesting than the place I'm living in, at least, but I don't know if it would be worth it to adapt to a new country just for those things. Then again, having to integrate into a totally different culture could be a very good way to expand one's horizons, so maybe it's worth doing for that reason alone.

I'd definitely like to visit Japan for a while, though. Until I do, I can't really make an informed decision.

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While I do kinda want to because the climate and nature looks very nice. 

But apparently the legal system is an absolute shitfest if you're a foreigner. A youtuber by the name techyescity had a child in Japan but separated from said child because of the legal system.

I'm not 100% sure if the entire legal system is like that. But if it is then probably not.

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No, not really.  I don't need to live in Japan in order to be a goddamn filthy weeb, seeing as I already am one  :sachi:

I'd like to visit Japan one day, but that's along with several other European countries.  I don't really want to live in a different country other than the US, to be honest, as stupid as it can be at times.

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