Just recently, I landed back in Japan after a few weeks reconnecting with the last remnants of family that I still have in the States. After arriving and smoothly making my way through customs without an overly aggressive agent grilling me, I made my way to the nearest restroom at Narita International Airport. Having been fast asleep on a plane for the past ten hours, the phenomenon of a Japanese lavatory was a sight for sore eyes. As my buttcheeks touched the clean and already warmed seat, I thought to myself, “Japan is just better than…” It was good to be home.
Ass-washing toilets aside for a second, whenever I extol the virtues of Japan vis-à-vis the rest of the world, some internet troll always inevitably claps back with some vile slop. Time and time again, I’ve been accused of being a so-called “pick me gaijin” or worse, someone with a Japan fetish. These types of comments always make me laugh. I mean, at least from my vantage point, it’s a night-and-day difference between the western world and Japan. How people cannot comprehend the degrees of magnitude by which this country is better than others is beyond me.
The Other Side of the Coin
Now, is Japan not without its present-day problems? That, dear readers, is quite the loaded question and one that comes with a lot of proverbial strings attached. You see, I think this is actually the wrong way of looking at the issue. Instead, I’m of the mind that each culture in this world makes certain trade-offs. For example, the United States, from where I just returned, is all about freedom and “rugged individualism,” but these principles come at the cost of collective cohesion and trust.
Many of the things that people criticize online about Japan are simply the downstream results of their positive corollaries. The fact that the trains almost always run on time and that the aforementioned airport bathroom did not look like somewhere I needed a hazmat suit for are all obvious examples of Japan’s positives. Moreover, what looks xenophobic from the outside is, more often than not, just strong social cohesion. These upsides, though, are all the result of hardworking people and a high-trust culture that leads people to not behave like utter barbarians when out in public.
Of course, none of this comes for free. The very same cultural norms that keep public spaces clean and crime low can also foster a kind of social rigidity that isn’t for everyone. People in Japan are under constant pressure to conform, whether it’s following unspoken etiquette rules to a T or simply keeping their personal struggles to themselves for the sake of group harmony. Overwork and burnout are real issues here, and mental health often takes a backseat to not rocking the boat. It’s the other side of the coin, where the collective good sometimes overshadows individual needs.
What frustrates me is that a lot of what people label as “problems” with Japan are actually the very mechanisms that make the place run as smoothly as it does. The pressure to conform, the emphasis on not causing trouble, and the societal obsession with order are not glitches in the system. They are the system. You do not get spotless train stations, quiet city streets, and a sense of safety without a population that has been socialized to prioritize the group over the individual. What outsiders often write off as “repressive” or “stifling” is simply the price of a well-oiled society, and frankly, I will take that trade any day of the week.
While I always do loathe leaving Japan, even for a mere couple of days, one of the silver linings is that it gives me a bit of perspective that I lack when immersed in daily life. When you’ve lived here for as long as I have now, it can be easy to mistake this well-functioning society for the global standard. Though the country never once lost its luster for me, there is a real risk of starting to feel as if living in a magical place like Japan is just the norm. After being overseas for a bit, it’s always a reminder that, no, the rest of the world just isn’t on this level.
Life in a High-Trust Society
When I think about the “negative” sides of Japan, the costs that we need to pay to enjoy a society like this, the juice is always worth the squeeze in my book. Compared to where I just came back from, I’d much rather live in a collective, high-trust culture where I can just leisurely leave my laptop on the table when going to get coffee and not have to worry about getting robbed while out and about in Japan. This sense of safety and security is just so normal here that it’s easy to forget the country is a very, very rare exception to the rule, not the standard seen elsewhere.
To be honest with you, I actually get a little bit sad that the rest of the world isn’t like Japan while I am abroad. When walking back from the gym in the States just recently, I always felt that I had to be hypervigilant for my own safety, lest a robber, or worse, materialize from the shadows and shank me from behind. This constant sense of fear that something might happen while out on foot keeps everyone cooped up in their cars. While traveling around in an armored vehicle might provide a sense of safety, it kills any potential for actually exploring the city.
While I am on my soapbox, don’t even get me started on the sorry state of public transportation. I know things are a bit better in Europe, but when it even exists, the train and bus network Stateside is simply sickening. Not only is it f@$#ing filthy, but passengers also need to constantly worry about becoming a tragic national headline, a la Iryna Zarutska. Again, this is less the case in much of Europe and other nations that don’t have pitiful public transportation infrastructure, but my point remains. In Japan, one need not worry about trains and buses, nor about their own safety.
This constant peace of mind alone is worth any cost that a culture might need to carry to create such a society. Heating toilet seats and rear-end rinsing bidets aside, in and of itself, it’s reason enough for me to choose to live in Japan. And that’s before all of the other amazing wonders and allure that make this country so incredible to visit. From historic castles and spiritual sites like shrines and temples to the never-ending neon glow of big cities like Tokyo and Osaka, there is so much on offer in Japan that you’d need literal lifetimes to see it all — and that assumes you live here.
Seeing as most of you aren’t even residents, you won’t really ever need to share in paying the communal cost that we do to ensure that the trains run on time, public spaces are spotless, and law and order prevail. Though I’d expect readers of this blog to be respectful guests, the brunt of the burden of ensuring that Japan stays, well, Japan, falls on the backs of the Japanese. Much like a flock of ducks paddling frantically beneath a tranquil lake surface, they work diligently to keep everything from going bottom-up, the default state everywhere else.
The thing that really gets me, though, is that it doesn’t have to be this way elsewhere. Japan isn’t some utopia born from myth; it’s a real place built on real values, and the systems here didn’t just fall from the sky. They were created, maintained, and passed down through generations who cared about the collective good. So why can’t other countries do the same? Why is it so radical to expect trains to arrive on time or public restrooms not to resemble scenes from a horror movie? The sad truth is that many places simply stopped expecting better. They normalized their dysfunction.
Visiting the World’s Best Place
Once you’ve seen how things could be, it’s hard not to feel disappointed by how far short most of the world falls. That said, if you’re lucky enough to come visit Japan, please don’t contribute to the ongoing problems we are having here with the other. Already, overtourism in Japan and immigration woes are leading to an ever-increasing sense of foreigner fatigue, so it’s more important than ever to be respectful, observant, and remember that everything just working here doesn’t happen by accident.
So yes, to wrap up my TED Talk, Japan just is better than everywhere else out there as far as I am concerned. Sure, the compromises might not be something that everyone can deal with long term, but I think we can all agree that, when it comes to a place to visit and experience temporarily, nowhere can compare to Japan. That much is simply self-evident. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an amazing country to get back to exploring.
Until next time travelers…
