I haven’t been on this sub for too long, but I’m struck at how many people post about wanting to up and move to Japan, without any job, family, or social connections impetus/backgrounds, just…aspirational dreams? Is this common for other countries, or does Japan have more pull for some reason?
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edit: When I mentioned without any job impetus, I guess I should have clarified I meant opposed to people who aspirationally move to countries like the US to actually find work.
Japan seems to attract a lot of people \*despite\* not having job prospects for foreigners-like the job thing is just something they can figure out later, if only they could just \*live\* in Japan.
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**Are there other countries with so many people just ‘aspirationally’ wanting to move to like Japan?**
I haven’t been on this sub for too long, but I’m struck at how many people post about wanting to up and move to Japan, without any job, family, or social connections impetus/backgrounds, just…aspirational dreams? Is this common for other countries, or does Japan have more pull for some reason?
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The USA, Western Europe.
If you don’t like where you are, you dream to be elsewhere
..and let’s not forget NZ and Ozzie thanks to the ‘gram.. especially in cold winter N America this time of year
I’m from third world country so people like to move to better places. But I rarely see the desire to move to EU in my country.
Lot of people for France and USA no?
At one point Japanese people were very aspirational to move to France (leading to Paris syndrome of course). Younger people now still seem to have aspirations of moving to the US/Australia/Singapore.
I suspect Westerners have similar feelings about South Korea, China, Thailand, Italy, NZ, Australia and maybe a few other places. Many of those aspirations are also filled with shit and dreams. Americans of a certain age and background also aspire to move to places like Costa Rica. Japan just happens to be the biggest target that’s also “easy” to move to.
As an American who just moved to Japan and has traveled to other countries, people tell me all the time that they wish they could move to the US. And I see that sentiment all over social media as well. A lot of people thought I was crazy for leaving the US, but I think they’re a bit crazy for wanting to move there so badly 🤷♀️
I believe it’s their projected soft power. Japan has projected and exported their culture through Anime, videogames, food, as well as music throughout the 80’s and beyond; not to mention the tech sector (Sony, Toyota, Nintendo, etc). Without using military might, Japanese culture was popularized. Even CityPop is making a come back in popularity. I’m pretty sure kids all across Asia (Hong Kong, Vietnam, Philippines, and more) have been exposed to Doraemon.
Something similar can be said about Korea and their K-pop industry. It has put south Korea on the map recently because they heavily invest in said industry, and now it’s paying dividends with how many k-pop stans existing, as well as k-dramas on Netflix becoming popular. Samsungs phones are heavily sought after, right behind the iPhones.
Speaking of iPhones, America always had softpower through Hollywood movies and sitcoms. Apparently I remember seeing a post where Friends was really popular in China because many people used it as an entertaining and non political way to learn English.
Speaking of China, they do very poorly on the soft power aspect (I’ll try not to get too political)
There usually isn’t a good connotation connecting like Japan and South Korea has going for them.
You can think of Made in China products, or maybe some of the awful tourists you read about on Reddit. Chinese food would be the main good point that has been exported. They have tried making their own Chinese-pop boy bands imitating S.korea, but failed to reach the same wide-spread popularity. One more aspect could be censorship. Japan and S.korea could freely use western social media such as YouTube and Twitter to promote and share their cultures organically, but I believe China has mostly banned Chinese users from accessing said sites (unless you have a VPN, but that is mostly illegal), so its mainly Chinese state media pushing very certain narratives, and most reasonable people can see through that…
TLDR; Japan has great soft power going for it, that is why so many people dream about moving there.
Yup I think South Korea Is also kind of popular
Anime tiddies and food was my reason
If you pay attn to subs like /r/amerexit and /r/expats , I’d say the Nordics are very popular… at least amongst Americans and some other westerners.
On one hand, I get the appeal… higher QoL, safety, work:life balance, & social safety nets. But OTOH, the CoL is stupidly high, and most cities tend to be relatively boring.
Thailand seems to be popular too… People take a week or two vacation in Thailand and are wanting to drop everything to move there.
Thailand, Japan, and many countries are great to visit on vacation, especially if you have extra money. On the other hand, getting the local salary, commuting to work everyday, living in a normal residence (not a hotel) and putting up with the bureaucracy will get old fast. I meet so many emigrants to Japan, Thailand or USA who constantly complain and are unhappy with their new country.
Japan has some pros and cons. And by going to work in french company with a french contract I could address some cons (work culture, not much paid vacation, working hours)
I don’t even think Japan is in the top 10 of most “dreamed of” countries to move to. I see way more people fantasizing about moving to the US, Western Europe, and the Nordics. I do think for whatever reason, that more people seem to fully commit and actually move to Japan.
Yeah for sure; I am from australia and work in a field with many foreign workers. They all thought I kinda nuts to leave but many understood as well.
It’s often easy to be unaware of the subculture of expats for your home country.
it seems like everyday there are posts like “i have no degree, can’t speak japanese, no savings, but i watch anime and love japanese food. can i move there in a month and find a job?” i’m being facetious but any serious recommendations i make like are downvoted so it’s just interesting to see the responses on this sub.
South Korea seems to quickly be becoming the new Japan in terms of absolute delusion in young people wanting to move there without any concept of the culture, language, or history.
Japan is seen as safe and culturally stable.