thanks for your well-balanced consideration.

I’m German, living for four years now in Japan. I came here with a “elevated” opinion about Japanese culture, technical development, society etc. This caused finally the “disillusionment” Shari is talking about.

My little daughter visits 2nd grade of primary school now, while my elder (Japanese step-) daughter finishes (private) senior high school. She was visiting a German grammar school before (3 years), so we definately have a direct comparison of both educational systems. J-Rock, your statement ““3-4 years ahead”? That is utter rubbish” is absolutely correct, also from the point of view of my (elder) daughter. She loved the Western style of challenge and critical consideration at an European school.

Also let me tell you that I work in a German engineering company - the only non-engineer amoung Japanese engineer colleagues. Once creativity is required, they’re totally helpless, leaving the path of what they have learned “by heart”.

Maybe the problem is mainly caused by the Japanese government in a sense of presenting themselves towards the rest of the world. The way they do makes people believe that everything in this country is perfect. At least to me it had this impact. Since I was a boy I’ve been a Japan-fan.

I also want to emphasize here that my intention is NOT to draw a “good - bad” picture (although they stole my motorbike and my navigation out of my car here). All we should learn is to respect each other within a healthy!!! national pride (please don’t mistake with “Nationalism”!).

One mistake everyone makes about the U.S. is seeing it as one country represented by its popular culture, politics, and more outspoken speakers. The U.S. is not culturally unified in any way. It’s a huge place and different areas have very different ways of life and styles of thinking. It’s more like 5 countries in one (7 if you consider Alaska and Hawaii are also vastly different from the mainland) with a lot of sub-divisions within each “country”. On top of that, rural living is vastly different from urban living and there are more people living in rural areas than urban ones.

Life is not nearly as mercenary in the U.S. as is indicated by the author of this post and people aren’t all running around killing each other or waving guns around. I never experienced any type of crime in the U.S., not even a petty theft. In Japan, I’ve had things stolen (a large bag and 2 bikes). That doesn’t mean the U.S. is safe and Japan is dangerous but it does illustrate that you can’t draw conclusions about entire cultures based on anecdotal experiences.

While I’m deeply troubled by the political situation in the U.S., this is a very unusual time there because the 9/11 attacks caused the political pendulum to swing so far to the right. People were very reactionary after the first terrorist attack by a foreign national on U.S. soil and foolishly surrendered certain rights in the name of security. This is extremely unfortunate but also understandable. The situation will normalize (hopefully) over the next decade. Perspective must be applied to any analysis of any country’s politics and culture. If I’ve learned anything from living in Japan, it’s to look at all sides of a situation and not just one. This is something that Japan does which often is not done in other cultures.

I think J-Rock and Blue hit the nail on the head in terms of the counterbalancing negative points to Blue’s positive points about life in Japan.

The bottom line is there is no “utopia” anywhere. Every country and culture has good points and bad points. If you really want to take something of value away from living in a foreign culture, it’s to learn that it is useless to elevate one culture over another. To see Japan or any place as perfect is to set yourself up for a big fall into disillusionment later.

J-Rock, I completely agree with you there. Both the starry eyed gaijin and those who hate everything about Japan (but continue to live there) drive me crazy. But I must say I have a real respect for the gaijin who have lived in Japan for 5+ years and still only have wonderful things to say about the place - to me they are in a different league to the starry eyed new chums just off the boat. (To be honest you sound like one of those guys but you don’t wanna admit it!??)

Also, I think the guy who has just moved to Japan is still in the “honeymoon” phase - reality will sink in that Japan is just as messed up as any other country, only in different ways

We have free schools and university which teach you how to think, and not 4 years of nomikai with MCQ validated tests, a social welfare system (that cost a lost, I admit) but which is accessible to everyone, a quite multicultural societey (no uyoku back bus every week in front of my office shouting after Chinese) at least in big cities…
So well, taxes are higher in France, I must admit. And contact with other people maybe much more agressive, specially in paris.

But I’m really not sure that I would chose Japan to raise my children (specially if they’re half, I still have ijime stories wandering in my head- even if everyone tells me that now its different).

I would love to see some data on Japanese students’ performance in relation to their western counterparts. “3-4 years ahead”? That is utter rubbish. In addition, Japanese universities are famous for coddling their students, which may be the reason why ambitious Japanese parents with the means to do so often opt to send their children to elite western schools. To my knowledge, academically gifted westerners are not busting down the gates at ToDai, Kyoto, Waseda or any of the prestigious Japanese universities. I work in a Japanese company where most of the employees have advanced level degrees. I can tell you from my daily interactions with colleagues that the Japanese education system systematically sucks any creativity, individuality and desire to take risks out of students. And that is in direct comparison with similarly educated westerners.

While the streets of major Japanese cities are relatively safe, it is still a good idea to exercise caution. I’ve heard of several people, both Japanese and non-Japanese, who have experienced trouble ranging from swarmings to perverts exposing themselves, to gropers and straight-up theft.

The undercurrent of racism and xenophobia which still pervades Japan as well as the standard of living (long hours, small living quarters - often poorly insulated, lack of vacation time) are just two more things that I would suggest should prevent it from being labelled “Utopia”. The truth is that no such place exists. Japan is just like everywhere else. It does some things very well, and others not so. I think that article may have been a little bit hard on the US and UK - and/or too easy on Japan.

Don’t get me wrong, I have lived in Japan for several years and I enjoy it very much. In fact, the list of things that I like about the place, would be much longer than my list of grievances. However to discuss it in such glowing terms while turning a complete blind eye to it’s failings is somewhat disingenuous. For example, no matter how bad hotels in the UK might be, a Japanese tourist will never be turned away simply because they are not British.