Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore

http://kotaku.com/5484581/japan-its-not-funny-anymore

Discuss.

 

Hmmm... Wait, people actually get disillusioned after a while in Japan, and there are moments they are reminded they live in an actually *different* culture? Those things HAPPEN? Mind=blown.

I lived in Japan for a year, there were times when the place knocks my socks off with awesomeness, other times when I didn't like something but I could be unaffected by pulling the "gaijin LOL" card, and also some times when I had to swallow the bitter pill and try and do as the Romans, since I went to Rome of my own will. Like probably everywhere in the world, if you don't want to come off as a d-bag.

Yes, Japan may be perceived as awesome. Yes, it's a different culture. No, you don't own the place. If you want to come and stay and can handle a bit of blending in, feel free - otherwise, gtho. I'd suppose it's common sense really.

Also, some of the points that dude make seem exaggerated to drive his point to me, or perhaps we've been living in some other Tokyo. No battalions of ninjas were switching Snickers to the other corner of the stores I've been to. "Every Japanese pop song is about the same thing" - well guess what, pretty much every *pop* song is about the same thing, period. And lastly, if common phrases such as "irasshaimase" or "otsukaresama deshita" are annoying him, and so are people "apologizing all the time", then one more time - this is a different culture. It's how it's done, doesn't hurt anyone so like it or not, but complaining just makes you look like a self-absorbed tool.

He may have a point about smoking and prices... Otherwise, it reads just like a gigantic "BAAAAAAW this isn't paradise as I had envisioned it, want my money back" blog... Something I'm having way too much on my studies, so my opinion may have been voiced a bit harsh. I do stand by it though.


...what does "discuss" mean anyway? Common manners would dictate voicing your opinion in a discussion you're starting, OP. Discuss... please?

 

I dislike that you open by requesting an opinion without offering your own. I see this often. I think it epitomizes laziness. It almost makes this thread, and other threads like it, unworthy in my eyes.

"Here's a link. Please start talking about it."

You want to start a thread I find interesting? Share your own fucking opinion instead of just linking to one belonging to someone else and then asking me to talk about it. Expunge the audacity to request input from some random reader just because you can't be bothered to provide your own.

 

I realize that. Part of the reason is I posted this before finishing reading it. Actually, I'm not sure what to think about this article. Having never actually been to Japan, but having spent a large amount of time immersed in Japanese culture, it's difficult to have legitimate opinion. But since many people here have visited or live in Japan, I though it might be interesting to hear their viewpoints.

Edit: I also can't help but think this has some relevance to understanding how a company in the Japanese game industry works. Before reading this, much of Sega's decision making process over the years seemed like complete lunacy to me. Now I sort of understand it. Not that I agree with it...

 

I've not read that article yet but I wouldn't take the authours opinions too seriously . I read a lot of his articles about Japanese culture and videogames and they are mostly satirical.

 

I assumed as much. But you know, there is always truth to be found in satire. Otherwise it wouldn't be satire, it would just be making stuff up. I was hoping to get some perspective on the precise level of exaggeration involved.

 

I read Tokyo Vice... that's as much insight into japanese culture i know. I like the idea of the openness of sex and all, (really, blowjobs and coffee? hmm...) but it explains alot.

 

I am currently going to school with people who've been here for 10+ years, and they've echoed similar sentiments.

Even i'm beginning to see some of the things discussed in the article (template conversations, no real subjectivity, apologizing, passive aggression, etc.) Things can feel very much "on the surface" here. Despite these things, i enjoy being here.

I'm not much of a culture relativist, but it's fascinating to observe how Japan operates.

 

Chipmunk women.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc6v8IUe_0g

Some of the things in that article are odd though,

anime sucks? dont watch them

meat? dont eat it

drinking? dont drink them

dont like parties? dont go

how do japanese make friends? they go to the fucking parties and enjoy their drinks

japanese comedy not funny? watch the vid I linked

pop songs everywhere are about love (or death? whatever)

my favourite: japanese movies suck! sorry what about that movie that just won the best foreign movie award?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Departures_(film)

shit is expesive. LOL try living in UK.


no subjectivity: i'd like to intruduce you to the work of Karatani Kojin, Japan foremost literary critic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqPCs416b7E

I'd like to point your attention to what the lady says when introducing the speech: these days when we "get" Japan, usually means "popular culture" (1:44)

people apologize a lot: again, try living in UK

hate pachinko: dont go

Summary: 5 years in Japan and all he sees are games and pop music, maybe its time he gets a girlfriend.

PS: I live in UK, I hate binge drinkind, smoking pot, the QUEEN, old ladies calling me LUV, people keeping the door open for me and queueing, I dont like food here and the weather is shit. Should I write to KOTAKU?

 

He doesn't eat meat and doesn't drink, so I can imagine having those things shoved in his face all the time can get annoying. Like I said earlier, his stuff is mostly satirical so I doubt he's half as serious as he sounds in any of that article.

 

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I live in UK, I hate binge drinkind, smoking pot, the QUEEN, old ladies calling me LUV, people keeping the door open for me and queueing, I dont like food here and the weather is shit.</div></div>

ha ha ah ah aha haaa

 

Don't forget suitcases. You hate suitcases.

 

That article was so long that its very propable he meant what he said. Then again, im my opinion every place has negatives. Im propably not the right person to talk to if you want to discuss negative things

 

Yeah, after years of being exposed to this guy's writing in various places on the internet I still can't tell what he's getting at. He really does stretch the definition of satire pretty far into "just making stuff up" territory. That, or I don't have the patience to sit down and read all of it. It couldn't matter less, I suppose.

 

at first i just thought of this as another shitty kotaku article not worth my time.

then i saw it was by tim rogers and knew it wasn't worth my time.

 

Good article. I lived in japan from 2000-2002 and speak fluent japanese so I know what this guy is ranting about. Some of it might be reaching but points like the anime nowadays not being what it used to be, the smoking, tattoos in the gym and various work place customs I really feel the same way about. I really have a love/hate about japan just as I do about the US and europe and I wish I could take the elements I like from each society and throw the rest away.

No matter where you live, there is gonna be good and there is gonna be bad. Just gotta figure out what you can live with.

 

I thought I have seen this kind of articles for more than ten years and it always fascinates me how people react to this kind of articles emotionally every time. Why is that? I mean you don't see too many articles about the bad things in Burkina Faso or Trinidad and Tobago and people jumping up and down, do you?

Of course, the answer is that more people take interests, or perhaps emotion ridden interests, in Japan than Burkina Faso. But of course, in a true Socratic tradition, let's ask why that is?

Beside those with genuine academic interests, I think undeniably there is a distinct group of people in the west who fantasize/fantasized about Japan. They imagine as if Japan is a fantasy land where socially maladjusted dorks can become heroes and let their imagination run free and get surrounded by 5ft2- tall big-eyed and big-chested school girls. I mean is it truly shocking that the place is not an anime fantasy land? But just a country with its own set of problems and vices? The article's title is funny enough: "Japan is not funny any more." I mean why should Japan, or any country, be "funny"? Was it ever supposed to be a Universal Studio theme park? Yet the fact that such articles are even being written and the fact there are Japanophiles getting emotionally upset are both ironic.

One way to look at this is: All those anime, manga and videogames are imaginative, uplifting and "funny" PRECISELY BECAUSE THE COUNTRY ITSELF IS NOT.

It's an open secret among the artists that depression (and oppression) drives creativity. Even in the West some of the most creative and productive types were some deeply disturbed and unhappy individuals. Japan is a high-stress, conformist, fast-paced and highly competitive society where highschool kids regularly commit suicides because of their test scores. This kind of society breeds, no requieres, escapist fantasies for kids and adults alike. An analogy can be made to the US box office doing well despite, or perhaps even because of, the great recession we are having.

Anime and Manga are filled with non-conformist, devil-may-care macho, testosterone filled heroes PRECISELY because such types in real life in Japan will get shot down faster than an old man hunting with Dick Cheney.

Japan has a lot of real serious problems and some people are justified in thinking that it's actually a dying culture. (In a sense, literally, given its crippling low birth rate.) But then you could also write a book about the problems the US has too.

 

I feel him on the meat issue. I eat meat but will only eat meat or something with additives derived from animals if it's halal. Normally it's not so I have to avoid the most basic things because EVERYTHING contains some for of meat or animal fat or something.

When I read his comment about bread i was like YEAH! No one ever believes me but it's true, usually supermarket bread has a bunch of animal derived additives.

Off topic I know but I found it cool to hear someone going through the same thing with this albeit for different reasons.

 

lol pure rubbish,
so what he's just realised the worlds not all fun and games and decided to write about it relative to his own experience in Japan? MEH too negative for me. Needs to man the fuk up