Current Events > What's your favorite country and why is it Japan?

(+) Yeah! (+)

They make the best games, the best anime and dramas, the best music
Japanese women have exceptionally great fashion sense
Their city designs are vastly superior to everywhere else. The walkability, style, and ease of public transportation, it's just perfect
Their culture is the least flawed of all
I wish everywhere could be as awesome as Japan

But it isnt. Its Canada.

The country with useless governments that let corporations continue to fuck over all of its citizens

The country with zero culture

Sure...

idk if I have a favorite country, but of the countries I've been to, I really liked Belgium.

it seemed really laid-back.

like, if I had to describe its atmosphere, it would be - it felt like late afternoon after a light work day.

super chill.

They make the best games, the best anime and dramas, the best music
Japanese women have exceptionally great fashion sense
Their city designs are vastly superior to everywhere else. The walkability, style, and ease of public transportation, it's just perfect
Their culture is the least flawed of all
I wish everywhere could be as awesome as Japan

It's Sweden.

They make the best games, the best anime and dramas, the best music
Japanese women have exceptionally great fashion sense
Their city designs are vastly superior to everywhere else. The walkability, style, and ease of public transportation, it's just perfect
Their culture is the least flawed of all
I wish everywhere could be as awesome as Japan

The obsession with Japan among introverted nerds is sad

The obsession with Japan among introverted nerds is sad

The obsession with Japan among introverted nerds is sad

I've never heard those words to describe my country before, so they're appreciated.
It's not so much that we're chill, but we're a somewhat timid people. Comedians here regularly joke we're the type of people who would go out on the streets in order to protest something, but request everyone doesn't make too much noise for the people living in those streets.

EDIT: We're basically Europe's Canadians with the Dutch being the more straight to the point Americans

some of my family lives there, so I stopped by to see them, and just walking around and doing stuff made me feel it was super chill.

The obsession with Japan among introverted nerds is sad

Once you've made your pilgrimage to nerd Mecca, you'll realize that weebs were right all along: Japan really is better

Once you've made your pilgrimage to nerd Mecca, you'll realize that weebs were right all along: Japan really is better

Once you've made your pilgrimage to nerd Mecca, you'll realize that weebs were right all along: Japan really is better

It's funny because a lot of us Japanese don't even put our country that highly any more. Especially the younger ones. even more if they visited other countries. So many younger Japanese are prone to moving to another country and never coming back because of it except for visits.

And that's not even getting into the declining interest in our own products and culture beyond a surface level by our own youth. More interested in foreign stuff nowadays. because most of our stuff sucks now. Way more interested in foreign stuff and stories and media.

The obsession with Japan among introverted nerds is sad

tbf seems like it's a relatively popular opinion not just among introverted nerds.

The graph does not serve as proof that their statement is false. To do so it would need to also show that the countries in question didn't have a disproportionate amount of introverted nerds.

The US is generally well known to be more extroverted, for better or for worse, than most countries.

As a statement that holds roughly as much weight as bsp's.

It's actually not mutually exclusive. I'm just saying the Japan obsession is common with extroverts too, something self-conscious introverted nerds often overlook.

But yeah, it was pretty enlightening to see all the holes in the culture. I can see why raising a kid in it, especially with all this global exposure to other cultures and media, doesn't seem appealing nowadays. When some of them explained the reasonings, it was...actually pretty sad ._.
I had no idea their systems up to and including adulthood were THAT rigid and stressful.

I mean, I believe it. Most foreigners who come here are socially fucked and can't make friends unless they're other foreigners, or a leftover man/woman and their family that they married.

I have too many stories of foreigners getting slowly pushed away or excluded from friend circles, and the foreigner don't know why. Probably end up on Reddit asking for advice from other socially awkward losers.
We're polite, but we're not nice. That's a good way to put it, actually.

It's like they treat us like we're Japanese, and not like we're people. Because it's like you said, a lot of things are similar between us all over the world. It's just that, 99% of the time, foreigners can only interact with the culturally-mandated kindness. And very few will get to see how we actually are, which is, again, just being human and no different from anywhere else in the world. Because they're not worth showing ourselves to.

There was a very popular TeD Talk about six years ago, that got used even by some articles from NHK and even appeared on Chiko's program. I think it was by Noku Okada from Astroscale, but I might be very wrong.
Regardless who it was, he touched on the culture effectively beginning to die and as you said becoming almost entirely superficial. Also why Japanese and especially youth are far more interested in foreign countries and what they put out rather than our own, especially nowadays. I will always remember the quote, roughly translated:

In the 1980's, Japan was in the 2,000's. In the 1990's, Japan was in the 2000's. The 2000's came and we stayed the same. It's the 2010's, Japan is still in the 2,000's. It's the 2020's, Japan will likely still be in the 2,000's."

We're not changing, but the world is. So we're stuck in the past, which attracts us to foreign stuff more. The quote gets dug up now because it's true even in 2024. The worst part is that our cities like Tokyo look like every other average city on the planet, just with some neon signs like Nashville, so there's not even any real cultural identity visually.
But for some reason, foreigners claim there is. Again, socially awkward.

Also, Singapore is a godtier mention. Most Japanese know Singapore or want to visit. It's known for four things:

1.) The best airport in the world (This is not up for debate. At all.)
2.) Among the best, most unique cities in the world for their policies on blending nature and manmade structures. Absolutely stunning.
3.) The Merlion.
4.) A multicultural dream for food, business, you name it.

I did not say that it was. Just that it held just as much weight.

And don't throw stones in a glass house.

Wow, I appreciate your insight on Japan. Thanks for the interesting perspective!