Pros: can go to work, get a living wage, have good affordable health care.
Cons: Not enough good legit Mexican food made by illegal immigrants like in California.
Pros: Great husband, comfortable lifestyle, great group of people at my temple
Cons: Dealing with things in the US is a pain from here, cost of living is too high, my job is important but unfulfilling
Pros: konbini everywhere with affordable food. Safety
Cons: Japan’s future is bleak, and it will only get worse. Most people are getting old and not enough young people paying tax.
[deleted]
> If you made a pros and cons list of your life in Japan, what would it look like?
I would have a section called “pros” which would list all the good things about life in Japan.
Next, I’d have a section called “cons” which would list all the bad things about life in Japan.
That’s what it would look like.
Pros: beautiful and great wife, huge house, cool car, beautiful garden, billiards room, cute cat, cute ferret
Cons: difficult to meet my family
+ Five-fold wage from where I came from so I can save up big, fantastic living standards, supports all my hobbies. Public transportation is very extensive- no personal vehicle, no problem.
– Very few close friends, almost no acquaintance aside from work/hobbies. Minimal human interaction. Tons of paperwork for everything.
Pros: ramen aisle at the supermarket rules
Cons: cereal aisle at the supermarket sucks
I think the list differs a lot depending on where you have lived in the past, and which part of Japan you live in now. Here’s mine but my Pros can be your Cons for the above reason. I lived in Hong Kong and Toronto for reference.
Pros:
* You can get to most places by bike even in downtown area * Food is cheap for the quality, especially fresh produces * Public transport is convenient (in Tokyo at least) * Weather is relatively mild (in most parts of Japan) * The city is dynamic and entertainment is abundant (my feeling about Tokyo) * Affordable health care (well at least Tokyo National Hospital is great, been there for a couple weeks)
Cons:
* You need to learn Japanese to go any further than surviving Japan (which is fair) * Relatively distant from Europe/North America (which may be inconvenient for your work if you need to communicate with oversea firms, or harder to see parents/old friends back home for some) * Lots of prepared food is a bit too salty * Salary can be higher
After spending almost three years here, this is actually the first time I tried more seriously to think what I dislike Japan about, there is really not a lot lol.
Pros-
* Great urban environment in terms of safety, cleanliness, COL, transportation, excitement * Decent rule of law and organized institutions in general (e.g. you can trust the banks, the post office ,etc) * Universal health care * Generally civil people * Great food * Generally less identity politics, gender politics, politic-politics…just less of all that * Lack of any significant illicit drug culture * Great for dating when you are single
Cons-
* Role of the company in your life – to me it sort of exploitative and controlling * Lower salaries, lower velocity of raises, less opportunity in general * Rigidity in various aspects of life * Group think (even when it isn’t always the case) * Flip side of the healthcare system is the quality in certain areas such as physio, pain management, access to specialists, diagnosing chronic issues – it’s a sort of “good enough” mentality. * Known and accepted rampant discrimination in certain areas such as renting and in a more subtle way (often hidden as language skills) hiring
Pros and Cons about living in Japan:
The positive will be marked with plus (+) and the negative with minus (-).
+Clean
+Polite people
+Great local transport
+Conbinis are awesome
+Vending machines everywhere
+Good healthcare and quite affordable
+Amazing toilets
+Safe in general
+Onsens
+Affordable restaurants
+Great food
+Structured society in general
+Great looking men and women, always tidy and in my experience good eye for fashion, especially women
-No place to put trash when out in public, have to mostly carry the trash with you
-People are cold in comparison to every other place I have lived in or travelled to
-Local transport stops going at around midnight
-Queues everywhere to everything
-Bureaucracy until your eyes bleed, for literally everything
-Mostly paper based society
-Many places only take cash
-As a woman you are a second class citizen
-As a foreigner you are a second class citizen in addition to being an outsider forever
-Impossible to find housing as a foreigner no matter how good of a job you have or how good of a citizen/person you are
-Many moronic rules/customs especially in the workplace (no, like really, that makes no sense)
-Biking on narrow sidewalks where people are walking instead of the bike lane next to it
-No responsibility of others (if you were in a medical emergency dying of a heart attack, people will assume you are drunk and walk around you)
-People don’t say what they mean, they always beat around the bush
-Very tattoo unfriendly
-Culture of casually cheating
-Efficiency is not as important as showing up (as in, being at work is more important than if you accomplish anything or not)
-Close minded people
-Messed up legal system
-Very rapey vibe in general (I mean, there are tons of people aggressively stalking and trying to pick up girls on the street. This is accepted, they even have a word for it called ナンパ)
-They control the ACs on public transportation and the gym based on dates and not temperatures (so even if it is hot outside the ACs are blasting on full heat, and the other way around too)
This is only my personal experience and I am sure I have forgotten many pros and many cons as well. In general it is a nice place to visit I would say, but to live in, well that’s another story.
All right, sure.
Pros: Generally a very safe country, rarely need to worry about having stuff be stolen or fear of being attacked. Excellent infrastructure makes it easy to get around and owning a car optional. Being a perpetual outsider means that we’re not subjected to a lot of the unforgiving social expectations placed on Japanese people, allowing us to have very comfortable lifestyles. Japan is also, generally, less noisy/in your face about politics and what not. Good food.
Cons: While being a perpetual outsider lets us live comfortably outside of Japanese social expectations, it can also feel isolating to sometimes be treated like an outside despite living here. Can be difficult to make real, lasting friendships. The expat community here can be very complainy/negative for whatever reason. Japan is behind the rest of the world in many areas, such as gender equality and workplace open-mindedness/flexibility, and clashing against these things can be frustrating. While the food here is good, there is a noticeable lack of cultural diversity in the culinary choices.
Pro: sento
Con: old man balls
Pros: Lonely
Cons: Lonely
Pros – can walk down the street at night without getting robbed/shot
Cons – Learning the language is hard lol
what’s your fax number? I’ll send it over
Pros:
Safety, food and nature
Cons:
Tons of irritating nonsensical stuff everywhere
Did not get drafted and get my head blown off in a war for a sick nation’s political ambition.
10/10 would move to Japan again.
Pros: Great Public transportation & safety. The variety of options for many things. Might be more applicable for Tokyo tho.
Depends where one is from I guess?
What’s “annoying” to some of us in Japan doesn’t even register for others of different backgrounds.
Pros
* More job opportunities for an English MA; easier to get into a full-time faculty position than it would be in the US * Permanent work contracts * Universal, affordable healthcare (I’ve got lots of medical issues) * Convenience: All of my transit needs are satisfied by feet, a bicycle, and trains, which leads to healthier lifestyle that helps with my medical issues * More healthy and affordable food options, which also helps with my medical issues * Gaijin smash * Easier to find solitude * More things to do * Generally more pleasant people
Cons
* You’re disposable and an outsider * Dwellings are small, ill-designed for living, and expensive * Harder to make and maintain relationships * Some things you would really like to do are prohibitively expensive here vs. the home country * Group think, social pressures, and work pressures * Tatemae * Zero tolerance for difference; god I wish I could get my courseload reduced because my medical stuff totally destroys me after a short day of work * Crafty ways of legal discrimination; if I formally applied for reduced workload, work can do all sorts of things to make my life difficult to try and get me to quit, which should be illegal but Japanese are very good at subverting rules and laws
Pros: – Better public transportation coverage, even outside of the capital region; – Relatively cheap groceries; – 4 seasons experience (i come from Southeast Asia, its hot humid year round); – Far superior research funding & culture (more than i could have imagined back home); – a more secular state; – very welcoming & helpful work colleages (this is with language barrier)
Cons: – My Japanese speaking skill is shit; – ancient banking system with ridiculous fees; – lack of international food variety and expensive imports; – public transportation is noticeably expensive; – awful house designs in terms of temperature regulation/insulation; – inconvenient food labelling (makes it hard for people with dietary restrictions); – still paper-based for admin matters; – fruits are expensive!
overall, Japan is a pretty nice stepping stone for me to advance my career and go overseas but i am not planning to stay here for the long term
Cons: Tiny salary in Japan.
Pros: Everything else
Pro: – 1% interest on a 35yr mortgage with no downpayment. – people leave me alone. – mountains, nature. – job prospects
Cons – uncertain long term future of japan due to demographics. – I find a lot of people rude – work is unbelievably unproductive. – language issues
Oh am I forgot the most important. Driving. Driving fucking sucks in Japan.
Pros: Four seasons
Cons: Four seasons
Pros: salaries, rent and utilities are better than in my country. Eating out is cheap. It’s easy and safe to camp in nature here. Conbinis. Recycle shops and Mercari offer almost new products for a fraction of the product’s original price (great for branded clothes and video games). The train system is great.
Cons: Weather here sucks compared to my home country. It’s hard to have “deep” conversations with people, therefore it is hard for me to build friendships and romantic relationships here. Animal rights are non-existent here. Individually wrapped everything that makes me feel guilty about buying shit like cookies. Not a lot of holiday time compared to my country.
Pros
– Feels safe. If I forget to lock up my car or go home, I don’t sweat it. If I leave my bag unattended somewhere for a moment while I go deal with something, it’s no problem. – Internet is cheap, unlimited, blazing fast and widely available. – Shipping is fast and cheap almost no matter where you are. – People mind their own business, yet at the same time will often go above and beyond to be friendly and helpful if you reach out to them. – Staff are exceedingly courteous and friendly as a general standard. – Domestic travel is relatively easy and cheap due to the developed train, bus, air and highway network. – Convenience stores. They’re like mini supermarkets that also handle your mail and bills and are open around the clock. – Healthcare is cheap, accessible, and the costs are predictable if you know how to research. – Thriving secondhand market for goods, with the difference being that “used” in Japan still almost always means “Like New” if we use Amazon’s vernacular. – Public facilities (including bathrooms) are usually appreciably clean and well-kept
Cons
– The people’s strict adherence to courtesy and politeness is suffocating and I feel like it is broadly holding this country back and leading to an emotionally stunted culture. – Keigo is overused as to lose any real meaning. – Owning a car is expensive. Fortunately in many places here you don’t need a car, but if you do want or need one, it’s expensive. – Supermarkets often swap out their inventory. Stuff comes and goes in a way I would usually have only expected from a warehouse store like Costco. – Omiyage culture. The “cultural obligation” to bring meaningless sweets back for your acquaintances and coworkers feels like a commercial construct and it irritates me when people bring it up as something I’m expected to participate in. – The food here is, in a word, boring. Even in Tokyo I’m often not that impressed by attempts to mimic various international foods, and once you venture outside of Tokyo it gets so much worse. I like Japanese food, don’t get me wrong, but on days I want something not-Japanese I’m disappointed more often than not. – This country has a growing problem with putting all its eggs in the Tokyo basket. Tokyo is slowly but surely draining the rest of the country of people and opportunities. At least this appears to be an acknowledged problem by the government. – The summer humidity is oppressive
It’s a place with a lot of convenient creature comforts and a pretty good and stable standard of living, but I have concerns about the longterm integrity of its social and cultural systems.
Pros …………… Don’t need a car, public transport is world class
Japanese food is better here ofc
Employement is very stable (no mass layoffs)
Healthcare is decent
Trips to another city are affordable and fast
Convience stores
Opening hours are much later, a lot of stuff to do
Less crackheads and don’t have to worry about being robbed
Expat community irl is very friendly and supportive
The woman are generally pretty decent looking
1+ hour flights to another country
Cons …………… Lack of food variety e.g. international ingredients sometimes you can find but it’s a hassle and expensive
I find a lot of international restaurants from various cultures unauthentic sometimes you find a gem though
Outside of a few areas Japan is quite ugly in terms of infrastructure, spacing etc
Beaches are a disgusting shade of grey
Swimming caps in pool
Country is slow to change e.g. still require either pcr or covid tests to reenter country
perhaps my bias is speaking but Company’s here love exploiting employees and paying as little as possible, additionaly the “bonus” is just a way for the company to cheat you out of your money and keep you in your position longer.
Everything is just accepted as it is what it is and people won’t stand up for themselves/others. As we can see with blatant discrimination with renting etc
I find it hard to connect with locals in some parts it may be due language +adulthood and cultural difference
People love to stay within there bubble here, much more than back home
High beauty standards for women
A lot of creeps and perverts
Pros: -standard of living -easy to buy a house compared to a lot of countries
Cons: -work culture -paperwork
cons can be overcome if you get a foreign company + learn workarounds for paperwork (online forms are increasing in popularity)
‘+ cheap
‘+ less fat girls
‘- Japanese food
‘- weird people talking to you because you’re a foreigner
-There isn’t homeless people all over and human feces on the sidewalk everywhere like on the west coast.
Cons: -I hit my head everywhere I go.
-Everything is small for me.
-I can’t find clothing that fits me to save my life without using Amazon.
-I’m missing salmon season back home.
-Strict laws on weed and magic mushrooms.
-The hardcore weebs of the world tend to migrate here.
-I’m not fluent in the language.
Pros – you can survive here off of very little in a way you can’t in alot of other countries. That’s kind of amazing. People here make a conscious effort to be decent most of the time. It’s not fake, it’s not lip service. It’s a social value. That’s also amazing. Public safety feels great, you can get any time of seasonal activity you want without having to travel very far at some point during the year. Service industry leaves you alone unless you actually need them. It’s beautiful here. Think about where you might have come from. There are certainly spots, but out here, aside from major cities, it’s the kind of place that makes you want to be outside alot.
Cons – It takes a ridiculously unreasonable amount of time to do stupid menial shit. It’s dumb as hell. Salaries are not great for the most part until you get to the upper echelon of certain specialty fields. Japan’s future looks bleak in terms of political and systemic apathy towards taking part in change/reform. Good people are forced into positions where they feel obligated to uphold stupid shit, and it takes a toll on their mental health. Because it’s so isolating, we turn to the internet for support, socializing etc. Other expats have the capacity to be complete bastards to each other. Over the dumbest classist bullshit. What’s even sadder, is there’ll be these people dickwaving their credentials only to be shut down by a service worker in this space on an important topic. It can be mentally exhausting when the one space you look for comoradory, you get these weirdos with a massive chip on their shoulder trying to drag you down.
Pros: – more clinics, more doctor choices. Don’t have to wait months for surgery or other procedures for example. When I had to get my foot operated on, the doctor asked me “can you come next week?” … I’d have to wait months in Canada – reliable public transportation – food for the most part is affordable, including restaurants. And no TIPPING culture!! – as a nerd… I love how easily accessible game/anime merch is. And of course I can go see anime movies right when they come out without having to wait for an international release. – Hobbies: as long as you have the time/money, there’s multiple things to try especially in Tokyo. Many specialty/niche shops and places. I didn’t get into ice skating for example until I started living here. – I feel safer here as a woman
Cons: – Working all.the.f-ing.time. – finding clothes that fit me and look good as a foreigner. When I was 20kg lighter I could fit into the “Free” size clothes, which is the size that the cute clothes only come in it seems like. – working all the time – summer can really suck (heat/humidity). And there’s cockroaches to worry about … – things get moldy easier/faster than back home – did I mention working all the time ???
Tokyo Metro Police are running a heavy traffic crackdown for all of July. https://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/kotsu/torishimari/kokai_juten/kokai.html Fast machine translation: **Speeding…
36 comments
You have done one? Post yours.
Pros: can go to work, get a living wage, have good affordable health care.
Cons: Not enough good legit Mexican food made by illegal immigrants like in California.
Pros: Great husband, comfortable lifestyle, great group of people at my temple
Cons: Dealing with things in the US is a pain from here, cost of living is too high, my job is important but unfulfilling
Pros: konbini everywhere with affordable food. Safety
Cons: Japan’s future is bleak, and it will only get worse. Most people are getting old and not enough young people paying tax.
[deleted]
> If you made a pros and cons list of your life in Japan, what would it look like?
I would have a section called “pros” which would list all the good things about life in Japan.
Next, I’d have a section called “cons” which would list all the bad things about life in Japan.
That’s what it would look like.
Pros: beautiful and great wife, huge house, cool car, beautiful garden, billiards room, cute cat, cute ferret
Cons: difficult to meet my family
+ Five-fold wage from where I came from so I can save up big, fantastic living standards, supports all my hobbies. Public transportation is very extensive- no personal vehicle, no problem.
– Very few close friends, almost no acquaintance aside from work/hobbies. Minimal human interaction. Tons of paperwork for everything.
Pros: ramen aisle at the supermarket rules
Cons: cereal aisle at the supermarket sucks
I think the list differs a lot depending on where you have lived in the past, and which part of Japan you live in now. Here’s mine but my Pros can be your Cons for the above reason. I lived in Hong Kong and Toronto for reference.
Pros:
* You can get to most places by bike even in downtown area
* Food is cheap for the quality, especially fresh produces
* Public transport is convenient (in Tokyo at least)
* Weather is relatively mild (in most parts of Japan)
* The city is dynamic and entertainment is abundant (my feeling about Tokyo)
* Affordable health care (well at least Tokyo National Hospital is great, been there for a couple weeks)
Cons:
* You need to learn Japanese to go any further than surviving Japan (which is fair)
* Relatively distant from Europe/North America (which may be inconvenient for your work if you need to communicate with oversea firms, or harder to see parents/old friends back home for some)
* Lots of prepared food is a bit too salty
* Salary can be higher
After spending almost three years here, this is actually the first time I tried more seriously to think what I dislike Japan about, there is really not a lot lol.
Pros-
* Great urban environment in terms of safety, cleanliness, COL, transportation, excitement
* Decent rule of law and organized institutions in general (e.g. you can trust the banks, the post office ,etc)
* Universal health care
* Generally civil people
* Great food
* Generally less identity politics, gender politics, politic-politics…just less of all that
* Lack of any significant illicit drug culture
* Great for dating when you are single
Cons-
* Role of the company in your life – to me it sort of exploitative and controlling
* Lower salaries, lower velocity of raises, less opportunity in general
* Rigidity in various aspects of life
* Group think (even when it isn’t always the case)
* Flip side of the healthcare system is the quality in certain areas such as physio, pain management, access to specialists, diagnosing chronic issues – it’s a sort of “good enough” mentality.
* Known and accepted rampant discrimination in certain areas such as renting and in a more subtle way (often hidden as language skills) hiring
Pros and Cons about living in Japan:
The positive will be marked with plus (+) and the negative with minus (-).
+Clean
+Polite people
+Great local transport
+Conbinis are awesome
+Vending machines everywhere
+Good healthcare and quite affordable
+Amazing toilets
+Safe in general
+Onsens
+Affordable restaurants
+Great food
+Structured society in general
+Great looking men and women, always tidy and in my experience good eye for fashion, especially women
-No place to put trash when out in public, have to mostly carry the trash with you
-People are cold in comparison to every other place I have lived in or travelled to
-Local transport stops going at around midnight
-Queues everywhere to everything
-Bureaucracy until your eyes bleed, for literally everything
-Mostly paper based society
-Many places only take cash
-As a woman you are a second class citizen
-As a foreigner you are a second class citizen in addition to being an outsider forever
-Impossible to find housing as a foreigner no matter how good of a job you have or how good of a citizen/person you are
-Many moronic rules/customs especially in the workplace (no, like really, that makes no sense)
-Biking on narrow sidewalks where people are walking instead of the bike lane next to it
-No responsibility of others (if you were in a medical emergency dying of a heart attack, people will assume you are drunk and walk around you)
-People don’t say what they mean, they always beat around the bush
-Very tattoo unfriendly
-Culture of casually cheating
-Efficiency is not as important as showing up (as in, being at work is more important than if you accomplish anything or not)
-Close minded people
-Messed up legal system
-Very rapey vibe in general (I mean, there are tons of people aggressively stalking and trying to pick up girls on the street. This is accepted, they even have a word for it called ナンパ)
-They control the ACs on public transportation and the gym based on dates and not temperatures (so even if it is hot outside the ACs are blasting on full heat, and the other way around too)
This is only my personal experience and I am sure I have forgotten many pros and many cons as well. In general it is a nice place to visit I would say, but to live in, well that’s another story.
All right, sure.
Pros: Generally a very safe country, rarely need to worry about having stuff be stolen or fear of being attacked. Excellent infrastructure makes it easy to get around and owning a car optional. Being a perpetual outsider means that we’re not subjected to a lot of the unforgiving social expectations placed on Japanese people, allowing us to have very comfortable lifestyles. Japan is also, generally, less noisy/in your face about politics and what not. Good food.
Cons: While being a perpetual outsider lets us live comfortably outside of Japanese social expectations, it can also feel isolating to sometimes be treated like an outside despite living here. Can be difficult to make real, lasting friendships. The expat community here can be very complainy/negative for whatever reason. Japan is behind the rest of the world in many areas, such as gender equality and workplace open-mindedness/flexibility, and clashing against these things can be frustrating. While the food here is good, there is a noticeable lack of cultural diversity in the culinary choices.
Pro: sento
Con: old man balls
Pros: Lonely
Cons: Lonely
Pros – can walk down the street at night without getting robbed/shot
Cons – Learning the language is hard lol
what’s your fax number? I’ll send it over
Pros:
Safety, food and nature
Cons:
Tons of irritating nonsensical stuff everywhere
Did not get drafted and get my head blown off in a war for a sick nation’s political ambition.
10/10 would move to Japan again.
Pros: Great Public transportation & safety. The variety of options for many things. Might be more applicable for Tokyo tho.
Depends where one is from I guess?
What’s “annoying” to some of us in Japan doesn’t even register for others of different backgrounds.
Pros
* More job opportunities for an English MA; easier to get into a full-time faculty position than it would be in the US
* Permanent work contracts
* Universal, affordable healthcare (I’ve got lots of medical issues)
* Convenience: All of my transit needs are satisfied by feet, a bicycle, and trains, which leads to healthier lifestyle that helps with my medical issues
* More healthy and affordable food options, which also helps with my medical issues
* Gaijin smash
* Easier to find solitude
* More things to do
* Generally more pleasant people
Cons
* You’re disposable and an outsider
* Dwellings are small, ill-designed for living, and expensive
* Harder to make and maintain relationships
* Some things you would really like to do are prohibitively expensive here vs. the home country
* Group think, social pressures, and work pressures
* Tatemae
* Zero tolerance for difference; god I wish I could get my courseload reduced because my medical stuff totally destroys me after a short day of work
* Crafty ways of legal discrimination; if I formally applied for reduced workload, work can do all sorts of things to make my life difficult to try and get me to quit, which should be illegal but Japanese are very good at subverting rules and laws
Pros:
– Better public transportation coverage, even outside of the capital region;
– Relatively cheap groceries;
– 4 seasons experience (i come from Southeast Asia, its hot humid year round);
– Far superior research funding & culture (more than i could have imagined back home);
– a more secular state;
– very welcoming & helpful work colleages (this is with language barrier)
Cons:
– My Japanese speaking skill is shit;
– ancient banking system with ridiculous fees;
– lack of international food variety and expensive imports;
– public transportation is noticeably expensive;
– awful house designs in terms of temperature regulation/insulation;
– inconvenient food labelling (makes it hard for people with dietary restrictions);
– still paper-based for admin matters;
– fruits are expensive!
overall, Japan is a pretty nice stepping stone for me to advance my career and go overseas but i am not planning to stay here for the long term
Cons: Tiny salary in Japan.
Pros: Everything else
Pro:
– 1% interest on a 35yr mortgage with no downpayment.
– people leave me alone.
– mountains, nature.
– job prospects
Cons
– uncertain long term future of japan due to demographics.
– I find a lot of people rude
– work is unbelievably unproductive.
– language issues
Oh am I forgot the most important. Driving. Driving fucking sucks in Japan.
Pros: Four seasons
Cons: Four seasons
Pros: salaries, rent and utilities are better than in my country.
Eating out is cheap.
It’s easy and safe to camp in nature here.
Conbinis.
Recycle shops and Mercari offer almost new products for a fraction of the product’s original price (great for branded clothes and video games).
The train system is great.
Cons:
Weather here sucks compared to my home country.
It’s hard to have “deep” conversations with people, therefore it is hard for me to build friendships and romantic relationships here.
Animal rights are non-existent here.
Individually wrapped everything that makes me feel guilty about buying shit like cookies.
Not a lot of holiday time compared to my country.
Pros
– Feels safe. If I forget to lock up my car or go home, I don’t sweat it. If I leave my bag unattended somewhere for a moment while I go deal with something, it’s no problem.
– Internet is cheap, unlimited, blazing fast and widely available.
– Shipping is fast and cheap almost no matter where you are.
– People mind their own business, yet at the same time will often go above and beyond to be friendly and helpful if you reach out to them.
– Staff are exceedingly courteous and friendly as a general standard.
– Domestic travel is relatively easy and cheap due to the developed train, bus, air and highway network.
– Convenience stores. They’re like mini supermarkets that also handle your mail and bills and are open around the clock.
– Healthcare is cheap, accessible, and the costs are predictable if you know how to research.
– Thriving secondhand market for goods, with the difference being that “used” in Japan still almost always means “Like New” if we use Amazon’s vernacular.
– Public facilities (including bathrooms) are usually appreciably clean and well-kept
Cons
– The people’s strict adherence to courtesy and politeness is suffocating and I feel like it is broadly holding this country back and leading to an emotionally stunted culture.
– Keigo is overused as to lose any real meaning.
– Owning a car is expensive. Fortunately in many places here you don’t need a car, but if you do want or need one, it’s expensive.
– Supermarkets often swap out their inventory. Stuff comes and goes in a way I would usually have only expected from a warehouse store like Costco.
– Omiyage culture. The “cultural obligation” to bring meaningless sweets back for your acquaintances and coworkers feels like a commercial construct and it irritates me when people bring it up as something I’m expected to participate in.
– The food here is, in a word, boring. Even in Tokyo I’m often not that impressed by attempts to mimic various international foods, and once you venture outside of Tokyo it gets so much worse. I like Japanese food, don’t get me wrong, but on days I want something not-Japanese I’m disappointed more often than not.
– This country has a growing problem with putting all its eggs in the Tokyo basket. Tokyo is slowly but surely draining the rest of the country of people and opportunities. At least this appears to be an acknowledged problem by the government.
– The summer humidity is oppressive
It’s a place with a lot of convenient creature comforts and a pretty good and stable standard of living, but I have concerns about the longterm integrity of its social and cultural systems.
Pros
……………
Don’t need a car, public transport is world class
Japanese food is better here ofc
Employement is very stable (no mass layoffs)
Healthcare is decent
Trips to another city are affordable and fast
Convience stores
Opening hours are much later, a lot of stuff to do
Less crackheads and don’t have to worry about being robbed
Expat community irl is very friendly and supportive
The woman are generally pretty decent looking
1+ hour flights to another country
Cons
……………
Lack of food variety e.g. international ingredients sometimes you can find but it’s a hassle and expensive
I find a lot of international restaurants from various cultures unauthentic sometimes you find a gem though
Outside of a few areas Japan is quite ugly in terms of infrastructure, spacing etc
Beaches are a disgusting shade of grey
Swimming caps in pool
Country is slow to change e.g. still require either pcr or covid tests to reenter country
perhaps my bias is speaking but Company’s here love exploiting employees and paying as little as possible, additionaly the “bonus” is just a way for the company to cheat you out of your money and keep you in your position longer.
Everything is just accepted as it is what it is and people won’t stand up for themselves/others. As we can see with blatant discrimination with renting etc
I find it hard to connect with locals in some parts it may be due language +adulthood and cultural difference
People love to stay within there bubble here, much more than back home
High beauty standards for women
A lot of creeps and perverts
Pros:
-standard of living
-easy to buy a house compared to a lot of countries
Cons:
-work culture
-paperwork
cons can be overcome if you get a foreign company + learn workarounds for paperwork (online forms are increasing in popularity)
‘+ cheap
‘+ less fat girls
‘- Japanese food
‘- weird people talking to you because you’re a foreigner
pros : beer 
cons : beer 
Balanced as all things should be.
Pros:
-Awesome food
-Very few woke Americans.
-A loving family that values me.
-Great mushroom foraging.
-Easy to make friends.
-Experiencing new things in Japan.
-There isn’t homeless people all over and human feces on the sidewalk everywhere like on the west coast.
Cons:
-I hit my head everywhere I go.
-Everything is small for me.
-I can’t find clothing that fits me to save my life without using Amazon.
-I’m missing salmon season back home.
-Strict laws on weed and magic mushrooms.
-The hardcore weebs of the world tend to migrate here.
-I’m not fluent in the language.
Pros – you can survive here off of very little in a way you can’t in alot of other countries. That’s kind of amazing. People here make a conscious effort to be decent most of the time. It’s not fake, it’s not lip service. It’s a social value. That’s also amazing. Public safety feels great, you can get any time of seasonal activity you want without having to travel very far at some point during the year.
Service industry leaves you alone unless you actually need them.
It’s beautiful here. Think about where you might have come from. There are certainly spots, but out here, aside from major cities, it’s the kind of place that makes you want to be outside alot.
Cons – It takes a ridiculously unreasonable amount of time to do stupid menial shit. It’s dumb as hell. Salaries are not great for the most part until you get to the upper echelon of certain specialty fields. Japan’s future looks bleak in terms of political and systemic apathy towards taking part in change/reform.
Good people are forced into positions where they feel obligated to uphold stupid shit, and it takes a toll on their mental health.
Because it’s so isolating, we turn to the internet for support, socializing etc. Other expats have the capacity to be complete bastards to each other. Over the dumbest classist bullshit. What’s even sadder, is there’ll be these people dickwaving their credentials only to be shut down by a service worker in this space on an important topic. It can be mentally exhausting when the one space you look for comoradory, you get these weirdos with a massive chip on their shoulder trying to drag you down.
Pros:
– more clinics, more doctor choices. Don’t have to wait months for surgery or other procedures for example. When I had to get my foot operated on, the doctor asked me “can you come next week?” … I’d have to wait months in Canada
– reliable public transportation
– food for the most part is affordable, including restaurants. And no TIPPING culture!!
– as a nerd… I love how easily accessible game/anime merch is. And of course I can go see anime movies right when they come out without having to wait for an international release.
– Hobbies: as long as you have the time/money, there’s multiple things to try especially in Tokyo. Many specialty/niche shops and places. I didn’t get into ice skating for example until I started living here.
– I feel safer here as a woman
Cons:
– Working all.the.f-ing.time.
– finding clothes that fit me and look good as a foreigner. When I was 20kg lighter I could fit into the “Free” size clothes, which is the size that the cute clothes only come in it seems like.
– working all the time
– summer can really suck (heat/humidity). And there’s cockroaches to worry about …
– things get moldy easier/faster than back home
– did I mention working all the time ???