Not Cool Japan

[RadioKid]

I know this could be dangerous thread. And I am not sure whether I could write my thought correctly in English. Please allow me to express myself freely and give second chances to correct my expression.

No one believes all the things in Japan are cool. Post what you find as "Not Cool Japan" with your reason.

I have already found several "Not Cool" and post it one by one.

***付和雷同：FUWA-RAIDO;Agreeing with majority without serious thinking

Generally, Japanese people are neither good at think by him/her self and good at expressing his/her own thought. It is easy for Japanese people to follow the neighbors without thinking deeply. It works in most of the cases but sometimes these tendency is used for bad purpose like as the WWII.

[Supperman]

I agree with you!
I completely agree with you!




Because I'm a Japanese guy. lol

[RadioKid]

The concept of "和:WA;harmony of the people" often looks attractive from foreign point of view. However it would be sometimes annoying when you are living in it.

For this reason, some Japanese people want to get out of Japan and visit some other country (and will come back at last...).

[RadioKid]

すする：SUSURU;to Slurp

I know it is rude to slurp something in western table manner. And I also feel slurping is not smart way to eat something.

However, slurping is a basic technique like as using chopsticks in Japan. It is actually "vacuum eating" just like as the vacuum cleaner.

With slurping, we can drink very hot tea before it gets colder by making the tea into mist. Also, you can enjoy the flavor of the soup mist going through the mouse to your nose.

And I know, I know, I know, it is not smart.

I try to stop slurping in western style restaurant in Japan and every chances at over sea.

[Sangetsu]

One of the things which concerns me is the sense of dependency Japanese have, and their fear of making serious decisions on their own.

Japanese tend to prefer a safe environment where they can depend on others to make the hard choices for them. Most Japanese students who are job hunting prefer to find a large and "safe" company to hire them, even though the work is numbing, and promotions and pay increases come slowly. But in exchange they are not required to bear much responsibility in the company, and have little risk of making mistakes which might cause them shame.

Making decisions always takes too much time. If I ask a company worker a question which is not routine, he will not be able to answer it, he will ask his manager, and the question will go up until it finally reaches someone with the authority to answer. Sometimes the answer never comes.

When an emergency occurs, like at the Fukushima nuclear plant, this inability to make important decisions quickly paralyzes the entire system, and can cause serious failures.

[RadioKid]

I agree. I think we have incomplete individualism and incomplete democracy in Japan.

Or Our "individualism" and "democracy" might be different from western ones.

[RadioKid]

** Mutual Reliance

Japanese people depend on, rely on, and trust each other. It mean they (we) can not decide something by himself/herself.

Did I wrote this topic before? This issue could be the root cause of several items I choose for "Not Cool Japan".

[davidannis]

Too much of anything can be bad. Even though too much deference to the group is bad, too much individuality is a problem too. Much that is wrong in American society (executives watching out for themselves at the expense of their company, workers, and society), people insisting on their right to carry a gun, our huge budget deficit, etc. can be linked to a me first attitude and not enough deference to society. No society will ever strike a perfect balance.

As far as not cool in Japan - the bagels are horrible and the pachinko parlors are too noisy.

[RadioKid]

Hahaha, I don't like bagels. I have been believing Japanese bagels are very common in the world and missed the chances to try foreign ones in London or other cities. I did not know Japanese bagels were such horrible relatively in the world level comparison.

[RadioKid]

** Not to tell "I love you"

I have never tell "I love you" to anyone even in Japanese. Neither my wife, my daughters, my parents or other person were told "I love you" from me.

I think it is very common for Japanese males not to tell "I love you" and ALL Japanese females would be discontented about it.