[Nyororin]

To sort of step back from the off topic discussion of Japanese technology and the like - What compels so many people to decide that they want to live in Japan permanently? I am not talking about people who have been in Japan for some amount of time, etc, but the younger set who has not even so much as set a foot in Japan. Often many of them have not even met a Japanese person.

It is not the interest in Japan that I find curious, but the leap from interest to wanting to live there forever without much in between. There seem to be considerably fewer people saying they want visit Japan than there are people saying they want to move there.

While I am very happy living in Japan, and can`t personally say I`d like to live anywhere else... I find it hard to imagine just wanting to up and move to a country I`d never even been to. Especially if it would be not only an unknown place, but the first attempt at living alone. (And no, having read a bunch about Japan, watched a bunch of anime/drama, etc, in no way can be compared to physically experiencing a place.)