Anyone have stories about being tall in Japan? Like has anyone said anything to you, or can you feel a difference in social relationships? As an example taller people in America can be seen as “more mature” or intimidating and tall women can’t be “cute” like shorter women.
I’m moving to Japan next year for work and on the taller side even for US standards.
First post in the community and it’s not like other posts I’ve seen. If theres a problem mods please let me know.
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**Being tall in Japan**
Anyone have stories about being tall in Japan? Like has anyone said anything to you, or can you feel a difference in social relationships? As an example taller people in America can be seen as “more mature” or intimidating and tall women can’t be “cute” like shorter women.
I’m moving to Japan next year for work and on the taller side even for US standards.
First post in the community and it’s not like other posts I’ve seen. If theres a problem mods please let me know.
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I am not really that tall by other country standards but by japanese standards (6 foot guy here)
One thing I have noticed my close friends and even my gf say when I prodded them on this topic that too too much of height can intimidate people here quite a bit that can affect your social life (especially if you are outgoing or social yourself that much yourself)
It’s not a deal breaker by any means but by my anecdotal experience is people might even be in awe/admirable about your height but be hesitant to actual have a conversation relative to average base case.
Once you go past it life’s good though 🙂
I’m 196cm and haven’t noticed anything other than instinctively ducking through every door, even when it’s tall enough. And a bad back from constantly using things designed for a child’s height. The bottom of my kitchen sink is the same as my knees, the showerhead is about the middle of my chest.
Socially, nothing much. My wife is 158cm by the way, height has never even come up in conversation with us. Some people will comment how big I am and ask how tall I am, that’s about it.
Why would you write this and then not write how tall you are?
I’m a 6’3” /189cm white guy and lived there for about 10 years. That’s definitely not “super tall” but it’s tall for Japan. Inconvenient for smaller shops and lower ceilings. Nice for crowded trains since my head is always “above the clouds”. Plenty of people asked me how tall I was “nan senchi desuka”, or just commented on it “se takai desune…”. But that’s about it.
If you’re even taller you’ll probably get more of the same.
One of the first Japanese sentences said to me by a native speaker that I understood was this old man at a gas station who just looked at me and said “so big” lol
I’m just tall enough to hit my head on older doorframes. They are just slightly smaller than me so for the first week or two I did that several times. Also used to have trouble finding shoes my size.
Other than watching your head nobody has ever commented, i will also say, there are plenty of japanese people, men mostly, that are taller than me (183cm or about 6ft), you wont stick out like crazy, there are more than a few japanese guys over 190cm. Maybe less so than in the west, but still, there are tall people here, Japan is not Vietnam (no disrespect meant to the Vietnamese), you wont be considered a freak.
Be ready to bang your head on everything, be ready to get a sore back from the low desks and chairs at most offices. You get used to it pretty quickly.
I’m a tall-ish woman, in Japan anyway. I’m not too tall to fit through most doorways, except in older buildings.
It’s hard to know whether it’s my height that makes me an undesirable date, the mere fact of being foreign, or just what god gave me to work with. In any case, I’m single a lot. The only Japanese guy I’ve dated long-term while here was 6 foot tall, and I’ve met my fair share of first dates who had clearly inflated their height by a few inches.
Oh, and I can’t buy shoes. A Japanese female friend around my height confirmed that she can’t either. Sizes stop at 25cm which is juuust too small.
I’m 5’10” and struggled to get into a couple disney rides (Journey to the Center of the Earth at disney Sea is snug in the legs, also too tall to see on 20,000 leagues without bending over) my partner is 6’2″ and gave himself some gnarly bumps on the head from one particular doorframe in a rental. It was at the top of a set of stairs in a Hakone rental house and I scraped my head on it- he walked right into it, full speed.
I totally saw some crazy tall local athlete types out there, hanging out with their friends who were half their height.
I was in a Don Quijote a couple nights ago, when a woman turned to me and pointed to the shelves across the way and said “excuse me, can you get that for me?”… some things never change.
Really sucks. Beds are too short, doors are too low, shoes are too small, seats are too cramped, pants and shirts don’t fit, counter tops are too low, bicycles are too small, and then everyone tells you how great it is to be tall. May be great if you’re in the dating market and have other desirable features (being tall alone is unlikely to make much difference).
Plus, you may have shortened life expectancy.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/24/shorter-people-may-live-longer-than-most-heres-why.html