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Originally Posted by Ash
Would this be the reason why there aren't many Japanese people on this forum?
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I believe there aren't many Japanese on this forum because many Japanese have a hard time with English and foreign languages in general and sort of have a mental block when it comes to learning them. Thus the high number of jobs for teaching English in Japan.
You must also keep in mind they are very shy and do not like to make mistakes, especially in English, in front of others. They are very self-concious and fear being criticized.
There is a saying in the conformist society of Japan that, "The protruding nail gets hammered down." Most Japanese fear being the protruding nail and will not "step up" so to speak out of this fear. Also, one does not want to be the first to participate in a forum like this if there are no other Japanese.
I belong to a few forums dealing with Japan including one with thousands of members, but there are only a handful of Japanese and those that do participate are very fluent having lived overseas or are just one of the "rebels" so to speak and do step up. One Japanese person even uses translation software and I give him credit for participating in a forum about his country where 99% of the members are foreigners. But their numbers, compared to the participation of people in other countries' forums are very low. It is unique but understandable.
I do know one Japanese woman who participates in forums like this and I will invite her here. She is young, in her early 20's and her insight and views would be most helpful here and will give you a Japanese perspective on many of the topics here.