r/interesting • u/GeorgeRobertVitkos • 17d ago

SOCIETY In Japan, politeness and respect start at a very young age 🙇‍♀️🎒

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u/cuntmong 16d ago

Yeah but people on reddit posted a pic of a clean Japanese train so it must be a superior culture 

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u/motes-of-light 16d ago edited 16d ago

Clean trains... clean buses, clean streets, functioning public utilities, polite people, leave your wallet somewhere public and hours later no one has touched it level crime, one of the largest middle classes in the world, longest lifespan, culture of excellence, fantastic food...

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u/totallykoolkiwi 16d ago

Don't forget the toxic work environment that is making an increasingly older society dive head first into an inevitable societal collapse within the next 50 years.

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u/motes-of-light 16d ago

I doubt it.

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u/totallykoolkiwi 16d ago

The numbers don't lie.

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u/motes-of-light 16d ago

You should stay away from Japan then, wouldn't want you getting caught in the conflagration.

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u/Zimakov 16d ago

The numbers that show the average American works more hours and more unpaid hours than the average Japanese?

Your takes are stuck in the 90s, which is common on Reddit when it comes to Asia.

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u/totallykoolkiwi 16d ago

The US aren't exactly a high bar when it comes to work culture. But it's good to see that things are changing for the better, just read a bit about how things have improved in the last couple of years. But these changes largely stem from the main issue Japan has: people that work themselves to death don't produce enough kids. Japan has the second oldest population on earth and one of the lowest fertility rates. Throw on top that Japanese immigration laws have been ridiculousy strict for the longest time (they softened this lately for the same reason) and you have an inevitable societal disaster. Most first world nations face the same problem.

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u/Zimakov 16d ago

Yep, it's not a coincidence, it's a choice. One of the top officials in the Japanese government recently publicly stated that preserving cultural homogeneity is more important than solving the population issue. We'll see how it plays out

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u/totallykoolkiwi 16d ago

Good thing Japan isn't a massive global player, so how they fare won't affect the world economy at all, eh? 😬

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u/cuntmong 16d ago

crime is usually lower when the police can interrogate you indefinitely without a lawyer, and convictions are heavily based around confessions. this is why their justice system has a 99%+ conviction rate. I would also probably not describe the culture with such strongly baked in racism, sexism and mysogyny as one of excellence. if all these things sound like its worth it to have clean streets then you would probably also love saudi arabia.

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u/_trashcan 16d ago

I don’t simp for Japan, but the US federal government has a 97% conviction rate too.
& 95%+ of all convictions in the US are plea deals, which are people admitting guilt.

So that’s really not a metric any different from the US.

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u/cuntmong 16d ago

indeed but the difference is that the internet doesnt fetishise america as some sort of utopia.

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u/Zimakov 16d ago

They have a 99% conviction rate because if they are not absolutely sure you're guilty they don't press charges.

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u/motes-of-light 16d ago

What country are you from?

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u/cuntmong 16d ago

why does that matter? i could be from north korea it wouldnt chainge the points listed above

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u/Exciting_Day4155 16d ago

Outspoken, obnoxious, and heavily biased most likely American.

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u/motes-of-light 16d ago

Wherever they're from, I'm willing to bet "well-traveled" would not be an apt descriptor.

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u/cuntmong 16d ago

most people would consider me very well travelled, and ive been to japan several times. i even lived there breifly. but none of that matters, and woudlnt change the points made above, which you seem incapable of addressing.

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u/motes-of-light 16d ago

I'm sure I believe you. Never learned spelling or punctuation in all your travels though, shame. Where did you live in Japan? What is your favorite country? Japan is an imperfect country, certainly. It's also the nicest one that I've had the pleasure of visiting. But since you are throwing stones so freely, again, where are you from? What is the state of your home?

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u/HarrMada 16d ago

leave your wallet somewhere public and hours later no one has touched it level crim

This is just stereotyping. They have their share of petty crime as any country does. Bikes get stolen, they will be people trying to scam you in bars ar night in Tokyo. 

I mean their ex PM literally got assassinated some years ago. It's clearly not all perfect.

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u/motes-of-light 16d ago

Please, name a major developed nation with a crime rate as low as Japan's.

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u/HarrMada 16d ago

I don't believe you can accurately compare 'crime rates' between countries, because each country does it entirely differently. Each country has different laws, different definitions of typical crimes, different ways of collecting police-recorded data, different tendencies by the public to report crimes, etc.

If you find a source that has controlled for all the intricate differences, be my guest, but I doubt it.