Japan Sucks
September 17, 2008 Living in Japan, Working in Japan
It’s that time of year again. Typhoons are fast on their way, and it’s just about time to harvest millions of kilograms of plump rice from seemingly endless fields of green. Students are back in school, and the summer vacations have long since passed, putting the public transportation systems back on their regular schedules, allowing millions of people to get to work within their comfortably hurried schedules. Autumn is here, after all, so it’s time to rejoice.
But it comes as little surprise to find one group of eternally disgruntled individuals marking their territory with their smug attitudes and self-righteous indignations. Yes, I speak of course about some of the less-popular English Language Instructors in this country. Now that the summer heat is on the decline and daily humidity levels have dropped below 300%, they are airing out their list of non-weather-related grievances with this country and thumping their chests as though people actually care about what these people think.
Would You Like Some Cheese With That Whine?
Over the last few weeks there has been a growing number of people posting negative comments about Japan, a country that 99% of all foreign people consciously chose to live and work in. Here is a brief list of the ones I’ve encountered so far this month:
- House prices are falling too fast
- Kids are treated as Gods in the Public Schools and teachers have no control
- School lunches are bland and boring
- The Olympics only showed Japanese athletes
- The only shows on TV are cooking shows or restaurant reviews
- The Tokyo Airport is in Chiba Prefecture
- Coffee beans are two years old and there is no cream (from milk), just the powered cream
- Bureaucratic nightmares requiring endless confirmations
- Crappy service sector employees
- Lack of accountability
- Lack of responsibility for personal actions
- Lack of respect for everyone’s personal space
- Personal space is limited to a 1mm radius away from our body
- Nobody pays attention to their surroundings when walking, driving, riding a bicycle, etc.
- Mind-numbing noise levels
- Childish mentalities
- Things are either “kawaii” or ugly
- Too many people fart in public
- The Japanese Police are about as effective against crime as dirty kleenex
- People pick their nose, trim their nails, put on makeup and shave in public
- Poorly timed traffic lights
- Excessive traffic lights
- Hidden traffic lights
- Japanese girls think it’s okay to be stupid if they have a nice body
- Japanese people can’t act, only react
- Japanese men only care about sex
- Japanese people are too concerned about status quo, and won’t think outside the box
- Japan still thinks it’s a victim and never an aggressor
- Everyone is racist
- Nobody wants to hire a foreigner
- Nobody wants to sit next to a foreigner
- When there’s a problem, they never tell you directly what the issue is
The list goes on and on and on and on … and all I could think of when I was listening to this drivel was this:
Shut up and go home.
I’ll admit that sometimes I find certain things in this country frustrating, but it’s no different than the garbage that one would find in any other country of the world. Well, no. I take that back. There is one thing that really pisses me off in Japan: Whiny, bitch-ass gaijin who think they’re so smart and genuinely believe that Japan should become the next .
If people really think their home country was so great, why did they leave? While this next part does not apply to every foreigner I’ve met in Japan, there is one common truth about many of the English-speaking whiners that have felt the need to stand on their soapbox around me: they’re all failures at home, so escaped to Japan where it would be easier to pass themselves off with a delusional identity.
You’re Not a Teacher. Get Over Yourself
I refuse to call myself an English teacher. Not because it’s a career I had never really seen myself getting in to, but because I did not go to university or college to be a teacher. After high school, I went to college to be a software engineer. While I can take some of the things I’ve learned all those years ago and apply them here in Japan, there is no way I could realistically call myself a teacher for anyone that I sit in a tiny room with as they practice their English language skills. Instead, I prefer to be called a “Language Facilitator” or some other crazy title that does not have the word “teacher” anywhere in sight. If I wanted to be a real teacher, I’d get the formal education to be one. Anything short of a proper Masters Degree in Education is just not good enough.
Being an “English teacher” does not make someone better than everyone else around them.
So when I listen to dolts grand stand about all the faults and failures they’ve encountered while in Japan, it’s hard not to imagine what their life was like back in their home countries. Something tells me it was quite a bit of the same. Politicians were lying and stealing. House prices fluctuated every few years depending on the general economy. People made racist or sexist comments. Discrimination against immigrants was common due to a fear of language and cultural differences (Lord help you if you happen to “look Muslim” in a Christian nation). Traffic lights were timed in a semi-frustrating fashion.
Seriously … these aren’t Japanese problems. They’re human problems.
Let Me Help You
In Vancouver, I liked to think of myself as a “solutions provider.” This is something that I think I’m quite good at. After being made aware of a problem, looking for possible solutions and then present them to the affected parties only seems natural. So when I hear people bitch and moan about how crappy life is here in Japan, I tend to ask some of the following questions:
- Do you have a plane ticket home, yet?
- Have you packed your bags?
- What will you do when you go back to your home country?
Typically, these questions will calm the moaner down long enough to hit them with the target phrase: Go Home.
There are quite a few people that I’ve asked if they needed help finding cheap airfare out of the country, or if they wanted a hand packing their bags. Life is just too short to spend it somewhere we don’t want to be. Heck, with all the economic issues happening in developed nations around the globe, now is the time to make our way back if we truly expect to afford the airfare. Hopefully, with the collapsing financial markets overseas and subsequent ripples it’s sent throughout the globe, a few thousand of the loudest complainers will make a run back to their parents’ basement before it’s too late.
If you know one of these moaners that have nothing positive to say about the country they were once so excited to live and work in, let me know. I’ll be sure to help them pack up and leave before it’s too late.
Comments (59)
But, but… my company won’t pay for my ticket home!
Ah … the Nova Teacher response
House prices are falling everywhere.
Why shouldn’t they show Japanese athletes.
I’ve seen other shows besides cooking shows.
Geez, people complain too much.
I often think the same thing about immigrants in America.
“We can’t get equal treatment under the law!” Go HOME!
“The police target us unfairly!” GO HOME!
“We have difficulty finding adequate housing!” Go Home, you whiny foreigner!
Come on man, living in another country is stressful. If people can’t complain on their own blogs about the things that bother them, where can they complain?
Yes, Japanese problems are human problems. Bloggers are humans, too.
Personally, I hate the “Everything in Japan is so AWESOME!” attitude more, because it creates an artificial sense of reality. Japan is not perfect. It’s also not terrible. It’s a human place, with human faults, and human nature makes people complain.
Might I add, which is harder to avoid—bloggers complaining about Japan, or all of those little problems that occur when you live, day after day, in another culture?
I’m not denying that people can complain on their blogs from time to time, but it seems that many are taking it to the next level with almost constant complaints about the various differences. While I can certainly empathise with many, there comes a time when their negative comments far exceed the positive.
When someone reaches that point, it’s time to move on
Dude, I was just about to write something similar to yours after reading an umpteenth ranting on Japan Today (better known as Japan TROLLDay) this morning by the usual suspects. Japan is just a magnet for these losers and you are right, returning to their home country is not an option because they were maladjusted there to begin with. But telling them to go home usually results in a barrage of vitriol where you are accused of being a Japan apologist.
Complaining and venting on their own blog is one thing. A large number of clowns do it at places like Japan TROLLday, Gaijin Pot, F*cked Gaijin, Big Daikon, etc. where it reaches nail on a chalkboard screeching proportions with virtually zero rationality and a whole lot of racism.
You’re calling gaijin racists? *gaSp!*
It’s pretty hard to read Japan Today and GaijinPot lately as there’s way too much negativity and pointless flaming. Anyone who says “Go Home” is called everything from a Nazi to a Scientologist, and anyone who adds fuel to the fire just fills the site with more poorly-spelt tripe.
You’d think that “English Teachers” could at least spell words properly when complaining about something
“a country that 99% of all foreign people consciously chose to live and work in.”
I think you mean only 70% or so, since 30% of all foreign people in Japan were born and raised here.
But my real gripe with your post is your seeming attitude that “we are but humble guests in this country, contributing nothing, and whatever Japanese want to do is A-OK, and if we don’t like it, we have no right to say anything and rather should just go back to our home countries, like all good little foreigners do”. I mean, damn it, we have companies here abusing their foreign labour to the point of breaking their legs and we’re supposed to say “ah, if you don’t like it, just go home!”?
I mean.. complaining about little things is just human nature (and mostly just blowing off steam), and complaining about big things is.. well.. sometimes necessary.
And let me ask you one final question. When you were living in Canada, would you tell an immigrant who was on the news complaining about something or other “if you don’t like it, go the hell back to whatever country you came from?”
In Canada, we did tell people to go back to their home country if they didn’t like Canada. We’re not quite as polite as the world seems to think
That said, I don’t mean to make it sound like we’re contributing nothing. I’m saying that the people who are always looking down and unhappy are contributing little. People who are genuinely happy here tend to give 110% on a bad day, and quite a bit more the rest of the time. Yes, there are some employers that’ll treat foreign labourers like crap, but this is seen everywhere. Can we complain? Absolutely. But if it’s constant and never-ending, then perhaps that’s not the place we should trap ourselves in work
Complaining is human nature but, when it goes nowhere and just incites others, it does nothing to solve the problems that people actually have.
The lady at the counter of my local post office in my Tokyo neighborhood made an issue over a transaction. A few minutes later, at home, I received a call from her. She’d made a mistake, and I needed to go back and re-do something. I told her I’d go back in the next few days. When I returned, she gave me a document handwritten in English. It explained everything that happened, and she wrote that her friend had helped her write it all in English. Then she gave me a Japan Post present – a hand towel, a dish towel, and a sponge. Now, service at the Immigration counters in Japan is often horrendous. But the post office lady’s actions soothed an initially unpleasant experience. See the gift!
That’s pretty cool, Mark. It’s not too often that we hear of such great service. I’d be happy with just a “Sorry, my bad”, but that Postal clerk went above and beyond the call of duty
There are so many great stories like this from all over Japan … if only there were a blog dedicated to sharing these wonderful customer service experiences … then we could all support those businesses ourselves
I’m guessing that they are not comparing them to service employees in other countries…
[...] at j2fi.net posted something recently about overly negative foreigners living in Japan and it reminded me of a [...]
Today some really pretty girl was staring at me on the train. Then, SHE GAVE ME HER NUMBER! I’M SO SICK OF THIS RACISM IN JAPAN!
XD
You’re a lucky guy, Jordan. Just be sure to use your powers only for good
Jordan,
You should have yelled out “差別!”
Was the number actually legit?
The traffic lights here ARE extremely poorly timed. They don’t use any kind of reasonable algorithm nor are there any sensors under the white stop lines at intersections in my mind. I say these things as both a cyclist and a driver.
The noise levels ARE mind-numbingly loud. I’ve lived in Shinjuku for five years in two different apartments. Each one has been subject to a year of insane noise due to a new building being built right next to it.
People DON’T want to sit next to a foreigner, for the most part, which insults me, but also is nice because then I have more space.
And YES, I am going back to my home country, so I guess that gives me the right to complain??
Have a safe trip home. It’s a shame that you couldn’t enjoy Japan more. While there are many things that can be frustrating, you’ll find the very same sort of deficiencies in most every other country on the planet.
That said, I hope that your landlord cut you some slack on the rent if the decibels went over 120. At that point, construction crews are (supposedly) required to compensate people living in the area for the “discomfort”
I was joking about getting her number. That part was my dream.
I was talking to my pal about this on Saturday. Seriously. If you complain this much, leave. He mentioned some complaining threads he read over at Dave’s ESL Cafe. One was about being stared at on trains, something that never happens to me except for the occasional child which gives me the chance to make silly faces and make the child laugh. It made me think that this guy had to be a) paranoid b) so egotistical to think people actually cared to look at him or c) wearing a Pikachu costume. I’m thinking a combonation of A and B in this guys case.
Another thing my pal mentioned was someone complaining about the attention he gets when he uses a katakana hanko. How is getting attention a bad thing in this case. Also wasn’t this guy doing the same thing when he first came to Japan and found the beer vending machines or similar glory. Katakana hankos are rare and hence something of interest.
Many of us here in Japan have the Deibito like complex of looking for racism. It’s a form of paranoia. What we should do is think the opposite-pronoia as Rob Brezsny calls it. People, in general, don’t want to hurt you, they want to help you. Lots of those situations that you might feel discrimination is someone trying to help you. They might be doing a bad job at it, but the motivations are good. There are a lot of annoying things about Japan, there are a lot of good things too, but isn’t that the same anywhere in the world? A cafe owner in Kanazawa gave me a postcard with the sayings of Haile Sellassie one of them says.
The best place – Where you succeed.
If you’re not succeeding here, and your complaining everyday, perhaps you should find a different best place.
Pardon the rambling aspect of this comment, needed to get this off my chest. Nice blog too, first time reader.
Thanks for your comment, Dave. I agree that too many people are looking for racism here but, in their defense, many of us were taught to look for it and eliminate it (or at least deride someone else for being racist).
I’m not so sure about other western countries but, 20 years ago, many Canadian public schools started to push really strict anti-racism lessons. On top of this, there was lots of political correctness issues being raised in the news for everything from calling people something along the lines of {Place of Origin}+{Place of Residence}, {Condition} Challenged or “differently abled”, and a whole slew of other terms that were supposed to be less offensive. That said, rather than harmonize the population, all it did was create more splits and exclusionary cliques.
Old habits die hard. Hopefully our children will be smarter about it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not condoning ignoring racism. I feel racism is a problem in Japan and I support those that fight against it. I’ve heard anti-buraku statements in person which I felt were in poor taste and called people on them. I’ve been to BLL offices in Osaka and done a bit of study into their situation. Although less a problem of family history, but of economic situation, the anti-buraku racism is truly something to fight against. White upper-middle class college educated males (hey that’s me!) not getting the same sort of entitled treatment as they do at home, well that’s just fair play. Looking for racism is good, but I don’t think the list in the original post, or the two examples I cited count as racism, if those were our only problems this would be a near perfect world. Then we could work on getting those stop lights timed on Route 2.
Looks like the Japanese found themselves another foreign apologist. Hey Jason when your done kissing nippon ass don’t forget to wipe that chocolate stain off your mouth.
I don’t need to apologize for the Japanese; they’re pretty good at doing that themselves. That said, if someone’s not happy where they are, God Himself told us to pick up and move on.
Have a nice day
Dear Jason,
Don’t mention God living in Japan the Japanese won’t like that because it gives their people hope to believe there is something greater than their own shitty lives living under the thumb of some bureaucrat in Tokyo.
That being said, have sympathy for those foreigners who were fooled by the anime cartoons, and samurai movies, which shows Japanese as having a superior moral code, a selfless society, and went to exotic Japan only to find a dull, mindless, and boring people who obey their superior’s commands who believe that their race, nation of Japan is superior to the world and discriminate against any foreigner stupid enough to venture there.
That being said these “whiners” are in fact telling how it really is in Japan, whatever your opinion, you are unwittingly helping to push Japanese propaganda by obscuring reality.
Get real Jason.
Doug, do you really believe that Japanese people are dull, mindless, boring and have shitty lives?
Personally I love Japan and I am fortunate enough to lead a good life here, certainly not dull and shitty, though there are plenty who do lead shitty lives, but the same is true for every country. If you had a good life before Japan then came here without enough knowledge, money , language skill etc.. then your experience would be shitty.. most whiners live in a 1 room apartment, sleep on the deck, their Tv is a DoCoMo 906i, and have to pay their own commute for a 60 hour $25,000 dollar a year job.. that is shitty in anybodies book.
Damn, I didn’t watch any samurai movies before a I came (I really should watch some don’t you think?) and before I came I knew bushido was only introduced into the Japanese vocabulary during the Meiji period to help bolster the legitimacy of the Japanese royal family and culture in the eyes of westerners.*
Anime? I was out of that phase by the time I was conjugating verbs in JPN101.
While I do feel sad and a bit embarrassed for those that come here blind and lack the ability integrate into society such as those living in the example you gave, I’m not one of those people. So where do I fit into your understanding of Japan, Doug? Where do the rest of the people on this blog that take the good with the bad, just like any country, but enjoy life here and want to stay fit?
*Yes, I know that’s really simplified.
Hahaha. Someone couldn’t make a life of it in Japan! God damn that Japanese conspiracy! Every Japanese I know is trying to make everyone think its a happyland where they live in gumdrop houses on lollypop lane! If it isn’t the Jews controlling the money and the media, its the Japanese trying to obscure reality and make me think I’m happy when I’m not!
I WILL TAKE NO MORE OF THIS! FROM NOW ON MY OUTLOOK ON LIFE IS COMPOSED PURELY OF PISS AND/OR VINEGAR! TAKE THAT JAPANESE CONSPIRACY! PRAISE “BOB”!
Praise be to “Bob” and to frop, of which I have consumed too much in my slackful ways.
Personally I enjoy Japan but I am fortunate enough to live a good life here, not Dull, not Shitty , not Mindless, and certainly not Brainwashed. The serial whiners do have a shitty experience and usually come here ignorant of what to expect, don’t have the skill, money, language skill etc.. and would certainly have a shitty experience, probably in a 1 room apartment in Saitama, sleeping on the deck, their TV is called a DoCoMo 906i, have to pay for their own commute to their 60 hour a week, $25,000 a year Job teaching their mother tongue to a room of sleeping 14 year olds, with barely enough cash at the end of every week to buy half a beer… shitty… yes…
But to call a whole Nation “dull, mindless, and boring people who obey their superior’s commands who believe that their race, nation of Japan is superior to the world and discriminate against any foreigner stupid enough to venture there” just shows blatant ignorance.
I doubt the 906i’s antenna can pick up a good enough signal in one of those apartment buildings to make it watchable.
Maybe if they are in their balcony-bed it’d be ok.
blah blah blah blah Paul is the Japan master, because he doesn’t have a DoCoMo 906i and whatever else.
Hey Paul cram it!
Japan is a very conformist country with extremely immature people, racist, and doesn’t mind using its bullshit “culture” to defend everything it does.
If you’ve lived so long in Japan that you’ve become a foreign apologist for Japan, and can’t even tell the truth about Japan then I think its time to go home.
Japan is a
very conformist country – Correct
with extremely immature people – Correct
racist – Correct
and doesn’t mind using its bullshit “culture” to defend everything it does. – Correect
And! so what.. deal with it or leave if you haven’t already.
You want the country to change to suit your tastes? won’t happen sorry.. it’s Japan, not Doug M. town.
If you’ve lived so long in Japan that you’ve become a foreign apologist for Japan, and can’t even tell the truth about Japan then I think its time to go home.
I live here by choice because I see the good, it’s not time to go hame at all..
More crap from the “global citizens”.
Well good luck in Japan, just hope you don’t believe you have rights in Japan and are equal to the Japanese themselves.
Most people don’t need, or want, equal rights to the Japanese. Why would anyone want to vote in the elections? Why would anyone want to have the right to a fair trial? Why would anyone even want to have the right to live wherever they want?
These freedoms don’t exist in America so, because Japan is often considered some weird obsidian reflection of the U.S., why would the government here want to grant immigrants or permanent residents here anything different?
Jason, why should Japan? when they have people like you willing to take it bending over, asking for more, and encouraging others to do likewise.
If you got a problem with Japan don’t come to Mr. sun-shine-out-my-ass-Jason, if you were discriminated against, endless confirmations, mind numbing noise levels, Japanese act like children…ohhhh noooo cause Jason won’t be hearing any of that.
Even if its true? Will you be sharing any of that information with people who ask about Japan? Ohhh of course not because…
you see the sun is shining out Jason’s ass and that is just negative talk..Japan what? No, its a damn lovely place you bastards! But talk about America and Jason knows every horrible sin that is committed there…bad bad bad place…Japan good..America bad…
Same to Paul. Get over it, its not your own private little pond, no need to get pouty, nobody is pissing in it, just stating the facts.
Is it possible to be a regular in Japan just like a regular on a message board?
I really want to know:
How long did you live in Japan?
What work did you do here?
How much Japanese do you understand?
Did you study any Japanese culture or history in college?
Hmm … for a post that was written half in jest, it has certainly received far more attention than initially planned
But you’re right. If someone has a problem with Japan, they shouldn’t come to me. Not because I may appear indifferent (depending on the topic), but because I am not in a position to do anything about it. Foreigners have had difficulties in every nation around the world, including my home country of Canada. While that nation claims to be the “True North Strong and Free”, it’s really just another Japan, but with lazier people and bigger food portions.
Will I share real information about Japan and its problems? Sure. Heck, if you’ve read any other Japan-related posts on this site you’ll notice that I’m complaining about something 65% of the time. This country is hardly made of rainbows and gum drops.
Either way, it’s good to see that you’re currently in the US. It’s obvious that you could never be happy in this country
>Same to Paul. Get over it, its not your own private little pond, no need to get pouty, nobody is pissing in it, just stating the facts.
What! at no point have I said anything like that… I agree with your facts, however I also see good which makes it a good place to live in for ME. Judging buy your random comments that don’t reflect what people are saying to you indicates you are unstable and it is very clear now why you failed in Japan.
“That being said, have sympathy for those foreigners who were fooled by the anime cartoons, and samurai movies, which shows Japanese as having a superior moral code, a selfless society, and went to exotic Japan only to find a dull, mindless, and boring people who obey their superior’s commands who believe that their race, nation of Japan is superior to the world and discriminate against any foreigner stupid enough to venture there.”
Dude, that shit is true. I guess I aint the only one feeling it. This place is scary, not too far off the mark to compare it to North Korea. What gets me is why cant the citizentry see it? Its like some sort of brainwashing or mind control . Ill be glad when I get out of here. I think I got some minor PSTD from being here over 10 years. Biggest mistake of my life? Living in Japan.
Perhaps foreigners who feel this way could try to pass themselves off as a New Half. People like IKKO and Ai Haruna have gone from being the “family disgrace” to national celebrity, and all it took was 15-20 years of constant persecution and exclusion from … well … everything.
Addressing “Japan’s unique problems” in this case should be relatively constructive in nature for the non-Japanese here as well as for the locals, as opposed to switching the focus of the argument into “Human problems” whether this is done unintentionally or not…
Frankly speaking as a Japanese, Japan as a country is “Developed” in terms of her trade and economy, but to consider the Japanese as being “Developed” should be a separate issue. Personally, I think we, the Japanese, still have a long way to go and have a lot to learn from the West. And the Japanese here can actually learn something from comments made by Jason, Paul or even Doug. Japan is a small island country on the edge of the Pacific, a minority in a rapidly globalizing environment, and to consider oneself safe and protected in this homogenous society of ours is merely an illusion.
A progress for the locals should be an advancement for the non-locals, vice versa. In the end, the change has to come within. But I believe an external voice is definitely worthwhile to jump-start this “change.”
Thanks for your throughrs on the matter, Last Samurai. There will be change, I agree. But I don’t think it’ll come from the outside completely … I think that some strong-willed person will say “enough is enough” at the current state of politics and make some severe changes in the Lower House … probably with the creation of a new political party
That said, I’d love to get my hands into politics myself in order to solve some of the bigger problems in Japan … like the seemingly endless number of gaffes on the international stage. Japan has a lot to offer the world, but it seems that any time a politician goes abroad, they just make a fool of themselves.
Tornado, are you stupid, or do you have a serious inability to read? The guy is not complaining about tv showing Japanese athletes, he is complaining that they ONLY show Japanese athletes. It would be nice (and normal) if they showed the whole games and other competitors too, not ONLY Japanese athletes, like everywhere else, don’t you think?
House prices are still high in Vancouver lol
Its good to hear the negatives to get an idea of what to expect. Grass is always greener on the other side. I know alot of nerds in the US that think that if they go to japan everyone will think they rock. This one kid i know thinks people will think that he was Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime when he goes to japan. Newsflash! if you were a nerd and no one had any respect for you in the US what makes you think people in Japan will like or respect you? Its how you carry yourself not where you live. Anyone who watches the Olympics in the first place should be embarrassed.
Experience is the best teacher. I just hope that people don’t come here with too many expectations only to have them crushed. Some people never recover when they finally learn that our perceptions are rarely ever correct, and expectations will almost never be met
Rather interesting post. I especially liked the comment by “the last samurai.” I also have a Japanese friend who shares the same sentiment. He lives in Sendai away from the gaijins and yet he feels they have more to offer to his country than most of those in town. The issue with Japan vs. America is, the older a person is, the slower they are at making changes and “wising” up. This analogy could possibly be applied to the two countries, where Japan is the elder struggling to fit in, while America, an infant compared to the rest of the world, makes a lot of mistakes but also learning from them at a faster rate. But hey, I’m 4 weeks from being in Japan, maybe I should go there first before I have any credibility to participate in this debate. Expect my whining in a few months. Cheers.
I think Japan is a great country personally. Like every country has good points and bad points, far from perfect but compared to alot of other countries I have been and lived in, its fantastic.
HOWEVER…after living here for nearly a year I have decided to leave because of one crucial factor about Japan which completely debilitates the experience for me; Its music scene.
Every country has a music scene and if your a musician (or regular gig go-er) you would know the whole tier system of gig venues for bands dependent on the size of your band, how many people you can pull on one night and promotion/label backing etc is dependent on the size of venue you play or when you play on the bill…however these factors are pretty null and void because of a few very simple reasons:
1: All live house venues (except maybe one or two) are pay to play, charging bands anything from 30,000 – 150,000 yen to play one night.
2: Live house doesn’t promote the show, charges customers 2000 – 3000 at the door + 500 yen drink fee. So nobody comes or 9 times out of 10 its only the band’s friends which are coming to each show.
3: Japanese audience is uncannily shy and sometimes won’t even applaud a band unless they say “Arigatou gozaimasu”…its still met with a shy applause. On the same factor too shy to take a demo CD from a band (Don’t worry, some bands are shit but honestly the audience is the same with 90% of the bands which play, so its just an unfortunate aesthetic).
4: No magazine/press people go to live houses regularly (due to “financial reasons”).
5: Billing system is chaotic with no rhyme or reason to who is playing first and last. Bands who are accepted to play and accepted because they can pay – therefore quality control on the night is terrible.
Your probably wondering what kind of live houses/Gigs I’m referring to, well of course your large halls with larger bands and promoter (only ONE promoter in Japan, nice way to monopolise!) backing are no problem, but I am talking about the smaller venues which have your young/new bands starting off etc – E.g the spine of the music scene (Every country has one).
Its just an unfair situation for these bands. They end up playing to nobody and paying so much out of their pocket while the venue laughs all the way to the bank with the band’s money (+ What they made on drinks and door prices). That is the main gripe with ALL Japanese bands here if you talk to them…the live house bosses are basically just crooks (this is why this system is frowned upon in the West).
So one CRAZY example was a friend of mine had his friend’s band play this show in Chiba, but suddenly 2 days before he got news his mother died suddenly and he wanted to cancel the show to contact his family who live overseas (he is a Japanese born musician, his family just live overseas now) and of course take time to grieve and make an emergency trip back to where his parent’s live etc – The live house was like:
“I’m sorry for your loss. You cannot cancel so please still play this show and pay 18,500 yen in cancellation fees after + consumption charge and tax – Total: 37,500 yen. Thank You.” – My friend said they kept calling him even when he left Japan to go back home…crazy! (He of course didn’t pay them…no contract was signed of course!)
Same thing happened to me when I was cancelling shows – Getting hawked by a live house for some cancellation cash (When there is no written contract! Just a word-of-mouth rule…so dumb! Its not in Japanese law, so its really their word against yours etc).
As for the CDs here…well hell even my friend here who has worked in Japan’s music scene for nearly 20 years as a producer says its madness how they charge you 3800 yen for a CD when you get it for 1200 in many Western countries (Yet again, here there is absolutely no justification for this reason).
Anyhow I came here to find out some of my heritage (I’m half Japanese) and play a few shows and if I enjoyed it live here longer, I was really happy to find such a wonderful country but at the same time so disappointed to see such a close minded and money obsessed culture leak into its arts/music scene. I would live here longer but I can’t accept or respect the music scene here – but I definitely will come back here many times!
If your wondering, all my friends are Japanese and I don’t have any “gaijin” friends (Except my friend who is a producer here, he is from NYC) – Unfortunately if you speak to most Japanese bands about music in Japan they will tell you its pretty terrible, I guess its because, like their culture, they are trying to keep it to themselves and sacred to Japan – So they force the idea that “Japanese music” or “Japanese melodies” in vocals/instruments etc is popular – but this never translates well over to the West when band’s want to tour….You don’t see America or Britain saying “Let’s be really British/American in this song”…so there is a problem with having an open-mind or border-less here, its mainly all poor imitation in the end and is all really horribly artificial in its execution (the bands AND the audience) – its all really soulless in its atmosphere.
Then you have the gaijin press being (almost unintentionally racist) condescending in the picture they paint of Japan’s music scene – Everything is either J-Rock/Visual Kei/J-Pop or “Fucking WEIRD because its SO JAPANESE!!!!”…simply not true – Come here and you’ll find all the mentioned latter genres is actually very unpopular here (it has the promotion backing, but the sales and show tickets are poor) – So the gaijins spoilt it alot for them by pigeon-holing them too much and disregarding the REAL music scene here.
You have to also remember (guys like DJ Sisen have said this before) that there is a BIT of a time lag here in Japan’s music scene or “pop-culture” scene. So they are always trying to catch up with the West and this is most prominent in its music scene.
I just got so depressed when I would show almost all my friends incredibly intelligent/political lyrics to some post-punk/hardcore bands I like and their response would ALWAYS be: “Oh! Cool Kakoii!….I think in Japan this is not very popular song writing. So there is no bands here who write this style”. – I dismissed that initially, listened to the songs myself that the bands here were producing…found it to be true sadly.
Well I better finish this message….if your wondering what IS popular here…well, its dead simple;
R’n'b and Rap with “nice lyrics” (e.g nothing like “I’m gonna kill you and I have 100 ho’s yo!” – more like “I love you and I want to get married to you” etc).
Last note, for some reason metal music isn’t massively popular unless your band is a “joke band” (e.g they have a crazy image like “tribal guys” or something or the last band I saw “3 Japanese Elvis’s in their mid-50s” who loved slamming their instruments against the amps on stage).
So if your not a musician or don’t care about music much, then this country is gold. Highly recommend you come here anyhow!
Thanks for the comment, Ryuki.
I didn’t think the music scene was so one-sided here in Japan. I have a few friends that have been trying to get into the scene who always complain about some difficulties, but I thought it was just because they sound awful (they really do).
I hope that you can find success in your next home.
Ah no worries! Like I said, I think this country is wonderful and should stay unique…but like everything in life you need to take a few risks. For example I can only relate this “problem” to say the cleanliness of Japan which many Japanese have talked to me about (maybe because I come from the UK and the UK is…well..like one giant toilet!).
They always say; “It is great that Japan is very clean, but now you see it is SO clean that our younger generation is getting many allergies and sick, so they have not built up a good resistance to even basic viruses” – Same could be related to its music scene and arts…they won’t take that risk so open up so it will always lie pretty stagnant with the Western bands only using the country as a touring device and the occasional “Live in Japan” CD.
I think they have alot to contribute to be honest…but until that changes, its always going to be one big tourist spot, a place for questionable looking “gaijins” who have enough money to abuse (honestly, the gaijins I have met don’t even conform to basic etiquette here – AND one of them stole my wallet in Shibuya!….) and the Western bands flaunting their superiority that they are known worldwide were as the Japanese “big” band equivalents aren’t.
I can only say think of Japanese bands like…well “Mono” or “Mad Capsule Market”…that is the only bands I can think of who are “known” in the West…kind of.
Anyhow yea, I guess I should have listened to my friends when they said; “You need contacts to survive here” or “Your music is a mismatch here” – I didn’t believe it, but now I do.
Personally I think China in the next few years will have a bustling music scene – Can’t wait to see what they produce once the veil is fully lifted!
I lived in Japan for 14 years, 7 in Kansai and 7 in Kanto. I had a lot of good experiences, a lot of mundane experiences (the majority because of the need to make a living), and a lot of bad experiences. I arrived in Kobe 3 months before the Hanshin earthquake and assisted with recovery efforts only to be told that the relief supplies “weren’t for gaijin, they were for Japanese” at several aid stations. Still I stayed and over the years “enjoyed” both good and bad experiences including unwittingly partying at a great hanami with the Yamaguchi Gumi (I didn’t know that the name referred to a large and powerful yakuza group at the time and the party was a blast) to being told by a supervisor that “My (cab) driver was right to not take you. Gaijin should walk instead of sticking up our taxis.” I have met great people and not-so-great people there. I agree with Jason and other posters here that this is part of the condition of every country on the planet and will happen wherever you go, home countries included. I take exception to the “foreigners go home attitude” though. Valid complaints about any culture represent opportunities for growth and change if enough people feel the problem is serious enough and have the will to work for long term change. Instead of taking the easy attitude of “shut up or get out” perhaps you might prevent repetitions of the complaints by instead constructively expressing your own opinion and directing the people complaining to work with like-minded individuals to effect change? That would be true whether in Japan or Canada or the US or any other country. If it had not been the case Minamata disease issues would never have been addressed, public school teachers would still have license to beat students and solicit favors from them, and Japanese women would still be relegated to eye candy roles on all programs (you can insert examples for other countries according to your own experiences). Next time someone complains about issues they are having in Japan, tell them to pick one issue they believe they can contribute positively to and to work with like-minded locals and foreign residents towards improving (there are always groups to work with or through, including the Chambers of Commerce). If they aren’t willing to, then tell them the conversation is over and move on instead of telling them to “go home”. Maybe after a while they’ll become engaged and productive instead of getting stuck in the victim role.
Thanks for your thoughts on the matter, Glenn.
I’ll admit that I do tend to have a rather black & white approach to solutions when it comes to topics such as this, so I’ll be sure to give your suggestion a try the next time. Who knows, it might just make the local community a better place for everyone concerned
I think your outlook on life in Japan really DOES have to do with what kind of work you were able to acquire. When I first moved here I had a part-time ALT position with low pay. Was I upset? No. Because I was in a lovely school with teachers who respected me and gave me equal responsibility in everything. The kids were great. I joined a dance school and made great friends.
But at the same time I did have bouts of home-sickness where I would cry for hours. But after I had a good cry OR danced it off in class I would be fine.
Now, i’m in a different city with shitty kids, teachers who don’t respect me at all even though I have more responsibility. My last school the teachers chose to let me plan lessons, in this school it’s my job to plan an execute an entire curriculum. I’m in the biggest school in the city, completely overworked and it’s changed my entire outlook.
I find myself being affected by the negative things more. Yes people stare at me on the train and i’m not paranoid. I think the person who said that was out of line. How dare you try to tell someone else what they experienced.
There’s been tons of times when a Japanese male would sit next to me and just start staring. I can totally see him in my peripheral vision. Mostly it’s old people and children who stare….younger men if I wear a short skirt.
I don’t mind too much but some people do and sometimes people stare at you like they’re scared you’re going to hurt them or something and it’s very insulting. It’s like I’m not even thinking about you B***t.
There was one time when a group of kids and their mom got on a train and then the kids started like. I’m not sure what to call it no one wanted to sit next to me so one kid would get up and then the next kid would realized he was next to me and get up then one kid would sit down, the next kid would sit down but then when that kid realized there were no more kids they would get up, which lead the next kid to get up.
I was sooo pissed off and so over it that day that I just got up and left the train (before I said something I’d regret).
I wasn’t mad at the kids, I was pissed off at the so-called adult who just allowed them to be total brats without any regard for how their actions might affect others.
And talking about students being spoiled by their parents. Depends on the area. The first area I lived in, the children were fine. But in the second area the teachers are having a really ruff time disciplining the students and it’s all because of the parents.
Like we have this group of 5 girls who are just disruptive. One girl will just walk out of the class for no reason, open the door to another class, yell something at her friend who then walks out with her.
When the Japanese teachers call the parents, they’re the bad guys. And let’s just pray they don’t go running up and down the halls yelling and screaming.
It got so bad that the principal decided that those girls could not come back to school until they were ready to follow the rules.
It worked for a while but then the parents started complaining that their kids had a right to go to school. And did nothing about their child’s disruptive behavior. The other student can’t learn because all the teachers are preoccupied keeping these few bad seeds in line and if those girls are ignored they just get louder.
But no one can do anything about it because the parents swear their kids are perfect angels. One of them invited me to take a smoke with her…..she’s 12.
But dude I felt so bad reading your blog because…….I used to be stuck up just like you. I swear I’ve said those very same words to myself about other people who complained and especially about those people on the blogs mentioned above.
But 1) I learned to stay away from those blogs. 2) I’ve learned that some people just need someone to vent to. Someone who they THINK will sympathize with what their feeling and tell them that they’re not wrong to feel that way. I bet if you did that instead of just egging them to leave, you’d do a lot more for our friends. Maybe even try encouraging them to get a hobby to help them deal with the homesickness.
but stay away from those blogs I tried posting on them for advice before I came to Japan and was flammed for no reason. I asked for help and got flammed.
Just wanted to say that not everyone who complains about Japan is being a crybaby.
Just today, I had an incident that brought me to tears. But once the bad started out-weighing the good I purchased a ticket on the Peaceboat. In 4 months I’ll be gone. I just can’t take the fakeness anymore though I will miss my real friends.
Japan is only good in small doses for some.
I’m sorry to hear that Japan isn’t for you, but I do hope that you’ll find more happiness in the near future. Being an immigrant or even just a foreign worker in any nation is difficult, and the people around us play a direct role in whether we will make it or not.
This is probably why so many foreign people leave Canada after just a few years as well
I whine about Japan a lot
The catch is, I don’t take myself seriously as I do it, and most of the articles I write are for pure comic relief. For me, Japan is really inspiring! There are so many little things you won’t find anything else that you’ll never run out of themes and ideas.
On the other hand, as other readers said, some things are serious enough to warrant complaining about. Here’s my experience, and why I can’t go home (just yet).
I came here as a MEXT scholarship grantee, and after one year of studying the language and culture, I was bounced to a Tokyo university. I was told from the start that I wouldn’t be subjected to any “preferential” treatment, and that was 100% cool with me. Little did I know that “no preferential treatment” would translate into a worse kind of discrimination than I could’ve imagined.
In my view, when classes are in Japanese, it’s illogical to expect a foreign student to perform at the same level as a native Japanese speaker. My grades were sucky for two years straight, and I did my best through and through. When a teacher failed me for no reason at all, the university shrugged it off with a simple “his class, his rules”. Another teacher made a racist remark, and nothing was done.
But the worst part is that the Japanese students (my classmates) act like I don’t exist most of the time. I can put up with people trying to pass through me on the street or refusing to serve me as a customer, but when you see the same faces every day and you can’t even have a basic conversation with anyone (even though I speak fluent Japanese), you know you’ve got a problem.
I’ve already wasted three years of my life in Japan. I might as well finish what I started and graduate. But boy oh boy… I can’t wait to go back home. To Canada
I have had some great oppurtunities in my life, one was a 3-month “Study Abroad” program (funded, I’ll admit, by rich mom and dad) in which I got to move around Japan, South Korea, China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
I got a great taste for all the cultures both high-class and low, urban and rural. It was definitely the highest point in my life, despite a sort of creeping loneliness, and I was definitely numbed to whatever culture shock. I also polished off Mandarin Chinese (which proved to be the most useful language I learned) and become intelligible in Korean. I “spoke” Japanese, but you’d hardly know it.
Fast forward, I got a job which would put me in Japan for 5 years (admittedly, my first choice was Singapore, beautiful, wonderful Singapore). I go there with all the expectations I had before…
A few things I could never get over. I felt like I was drowning in the feigned politeness, in China, people always tried to avoid conflict, but as soon as you showed yourself friendly, they were wonderfully vulgar and very approachable, in Japan, I couldn’t get people to open up, even the most darling woman and her daughters who became my closest friends always treated me with a strictly, “You are here, You are right” Is it wrong to want something more genuine?
I’ll admit I craved pork after living a year in Japan, but I could live. Of course life was different, but I love different, I still felt very alone in Japan even though everyone insisted (under that strange, condescending politeness only the Japanese can pull off) that my “Japanese was very good” and “I use chopsticks well” and “you bow well” (which I didn’t even really understand to be honest…)
I made sure to really hone my Japanese, every day (even when I was assured to be fluent by the most (relatively) direct people I knew) and study Japanese history. That frightened me the most.
Maybe it’s from coming from America where we proudly display “We had slaves. We abused them, we hurt them, we did it and it was horrible, learn from it!” Or, “We met the natives. We abused them, we hurt them, we slaughtered them mercilessly and it was horrible, learn from it!”
Not so in Japan. I remember constantly checking my teacher’s discussions, and half of what he said just wasn’t true. Statistics were made up, and I remember how he glorified Japan even in its darkest hours (when in America my teachers made sure I knew just how horrible it all was)
I pressed a formal complaint and found another teacher. This teacher did not make up statistics, instead he worded his Japanese (if teachers in Japan really “word” anything, more grunt) in a way that was always subtly hinting at Japanese superiority, being the only foreigner in the class, I wonder if he was simply piling on that Japanese politeness which I could never really grasp.
After that class, I found another, subtlety was not his game. Every class I would listen to a beautiful, yet disturbing description of how Japan had no faults. I thought I was back listening to my American friends talk about their Otaku lifestyles. This was really dark, however, because I soon heard every reason why Korea was some horrible abomination of nature.
I remember physically laughing, and oh, what a mistake, when he explained how China had never influenced Japanese culture. Fed up, I asked about the fact that Japan was a poor mass of fishing villages before the Chinese taught them how to write. I received the most honest opinion I ever had in Japan. A racist joke about my bug eyes and non-divine racial origins.
That was three years, I felt like I was being indoctrinated with Japanese history.
I got out at 4 through miles of red tape, and was relocated to Seattle, my next is definitely to Singapore.
I feel that Japan has some seriously disturbing problems (unless I had the only three professors who decided to rewrite history or say “children of the sun god” a thousand times a class period, but rewriting history just isn’t possible these days, and I was apparently the only one who complained.)
Sadly that stigma continues, I returned to America and remembered how wonderful it was to hear women speak at a normal tone range, not squeak, and men not grunt. English is so much sweeter when you are away from it.
I talked to a few British expats in Japan, and the only one who had had a history class explained a similar experience. Honestly, the lack of any personal space and avoiding any eye contact was fine, though I often chuckled to myself as I walked down the street, 6′6″ with a wonderful view. I actually waited those three years to hear “Godzilla” even if it was my Expat friends, just to see if anyone would look and say “Racist bastard” anything… that never came… maybe that’s why Japan doesn’t work for me.
I am whining, I’ll admit, but I still feel like it has some legitimacy to it.
Oh, and this is all throughout Asia, indiscriminately. Smoking. EVERYWHERE. I think that they think it’s a very hip western thing. They seem behind the curve there. I remember once having a rock thrown at me by a child with a massive cigar in his mouth and being scolded by his mother for being… there to be thrown at. Very unreal actually.
I know in Singapore you drop trash when you’re done with it, the cops care more if you are eating a Durian outside than if you’re shoplifting… but I love the place, approachable people who speak a language which I haven’t gotten annoyed of after 8 years of study and conversation (but just wait until I’m surrounded by it). And the food! With the exception of Thailand, it’s the best, and the cheapest! A gourmet Satay, a bowl of honeyed walnut noodles (from what I claim as “my little secret”) and a fresh Mangosteen…
I think the closer you go to the equator, the happier the folks. Japan wasn’t gloomy, persay, but just so businesslike, sort of like Hong Kong, though definitely slower (I don’t care what anybody says, nothing’s more fast paced than Hong Kong) I think that maybe Hong Kong seems like a happier place is because everyone is screaming Cantonese, and not grunting Japanese.
I just suggest for anyone with Japan plans, be prepared for disappointment, and don’t even try studying those etiquette books. I would much rather have gone to Japan a total slob, insulted everyone, just so that I might have learned “The Japanese Way” to do it all, not the translated way, believe me, there’s a difference.
The way I see it, Japan is way overrated all over the world, and that makes us come here expecting some kinda paradise..and then reality hits us right on the face! It’s as lozy a place to live in as it was home (different problems perhaps, but still problems after all). Someone said it right: They’re not Japanese Problems, but rather Human Problems.
Guess I expected something better after hearing all these great things about the “Land of the Rising sun and the Manga”…
One more to the list: the weather also sucks! (5 months of cold, 5 months of humid heat and rain all year round!)
Sorry guys, that’s the truth…