Why do so many people think that Japan lives in the future?

35 comments

1. Because they believe everything they read on the Internet if it’s telling them what they want to hear.

2. Probably because it’s exactly the fact that they don’t live here? They’re on holiday, why would they actively look for things to hate about the place they potentially spend thousands of dollars to visit? No normal person visits somewhere for the express purpose of being negative.

3. I mean, I think you kind of answered your own question 😀 People watch and share these exact TikToks and YT videos about robots/toilets in Japan and think that every aspect of Japan is like that. A lot of media up until now have pushed this image, and people take it in without questioning it.

4. Most of the videos on TikTok are clickbait

5. For the same reason Japan believes America is the best.

   Countries use “soft power”, by choosing what image that they want to send to the rest of the world and broadcasting a lot of it.

   And more often than not, you’ll see things about robots/shinkansen/toilets and new research that they are doing. Less about a lot of people still using fax machines, people being tech-phobic here, etc.

   Plus, I think a lot of people just want to believe that Japan is the tech capital. Japan is the place, for a lot of people, where a lot happens. So some of it, is just us brainwahsing ourselves.

   Plus it makes good news/cotent if people post about Japan’s tech versus some of toilets that are just holes in the ground.

6. Did I miss something? Where’s the possibly controversial part?

7. I’m from the UK and Japan is definitely more futuristic than my home country in most areas.

8. The parts that are advertised are ahead of their time or stuff that would never survive western culture and really only work in a society with etiquette. But yeah there’s stuff thats decades behind too

9. It’s the future from the late 80s and early 90s; sadly, it just never kept up with the futuring.

10. Sorry mate head office says can you fax this complaint, in triplicate. Then can you come in and hanko each in person?

11. I will agree with you OP on 90% of this. Loads of “Japan Aesthetic” and “J-Vlog Content” that portray Japan as perfect, idyllic, and the only country having X, Y, or Z (when truth be told, many other countries have similar to X, Y, and Z).

    However, fax machines? I’ve lived in Japan for 13 years and I haven’t needed to fax anything for the past 8 years. I know those that disagree that Japan is NOT in the future love to throw out the fax machine thing, but I think it is only a small small percentage that need to use one. Even on that – many countries still use fax within government offices because a fax can’t be hacked. It’s also the easiest way to get a copy of needed document in the hands of another department – less time than emailing, wait, other opens email, prints…

    I would say that Japan having so few banks that offer debit cards (when overseas had debit cards for near 20 years), that banks still don’t allow joint accounts, that they still practice age discrimination (especially in a country with people living healthy lives well into their 80s and above), that dealing with any government or banking office takes forever as they have too many useless procedures ~ these are signs of living in the past.

12. Because its time zone is one of the most advanced in the world.

13. Because Tokyo has really good infrastructure compared to many if not most other major cities around the world, and Japan in general has quite a lot of nice basic quality-of-life features that other places kinda lack. And that’s all people see on the media about Japan, and all that most people see when they take a 1-week tourist trip to Japan, and most people won’t ever look any deeper than that.

14. Because they’re ignorant and superficial.
    Add youtubers, tiktokers, influencers etc. who make money selling “Japan”, or at least a fancy image of Japan that people buy into.

15. Because they are still living in the past when Japan *was* the future.

16. Because those “futuristic” things often make highlights as content, especially short ones.

    Coupled with Japan’s standing as one of the more developed countries with worldwide brands (like Sony, Honda, Toyota…etc…) it is easy for the laymen to think that Japan is further ahead of their own place.

    For me personally, Japan is a country that leapfrogged 30-50 years ahead but somehow stagnant in the last 20-30 years or so.

    Like you mentioned, they still use fax machine, it is a cash-dependent and very conservative society, and don’t get me going about online services or forms.

    However, there are a few things in Japan that have been around for decades but still much better and more convenient than a lot of places.

    Examples: bullet trains, extensive metropolitan public transport with a fast IC Card, vending machines are lightning fast (Australia’s still quite slow), convenience stores are…very convenient but have high quality stuff, also of course their toilets are the best 👍

17. I always say I live in the future.. since Japan is 14 hours ahead of where I grew up 🙃

18. It’s still more advanced than my country

19. I wouldn’t say my country is futuristic in any means, because most of the city development was done in the 80s and 90s, and finally there are redevelopments in Tokyo that will actually make some parts look futuristic.

    Regarding the technology and stuff, I would argue that China is leagues ahead with new technology and the rate of implementation. Japan tends to use old technology that works, and won’t change it unless it’s absolutely necessary. Suica/Pasmo is a lot faster than Contactless Payment via CC, and was required to allow the mass crowds to go through large stations like Shinjuku. This is the superior technology to be used in Japan, but there are plans to completely replace them with Contactless because the rest of the world uses them.

    That being said, I would still prefer to live in Japan over any other country for many reasons.

20. Cartoons and comic books. That is all. Japanese Culture Experts hate this one simple tip to fold them 1000x!

21. My view – its not possible to live in the future or the past. We all live in the present. Different countries follow different paths prioritizing different issues (while with some loose similarities on things like social issues so that they can be part of the global community). But each country’s path is its own. Some things country A does today may be similar to what country B did in years gone by because country A did not prioritize changing that thing, or changed it in a different way. Other things may be reversed. None is living in the past or the future. All are living in the present on their own similar, yet different, timeline.

22. Japan has been living in the year 2000 since 1980.

23. They were considered futuristic in the 90’ but (people who live here would agree) stayed the same ever since.
    Only tourists may state that Japan lives in the future because truthfully speaking – it just doesn’t.

24. The notion of a developed infrastructure based around public transportation seems pretty futuristic to people who live in towns full of nothing but stroads and crumbling bridges.

25. I think a major part of it stems from urban design & transport: so many places in the United States have large populations, but they’re characterized by dependency on cars to get around, and places like grocery stores, cinemas, schools & other services being far away from each other & needing a car to commute to.

    So when people arrive in Japan & discover that they can go sightseeing, dining, shopping and travelling virtually anywhere in the major cities using extensive & economical public transit systems without needing to hire cars or taxis, they’re convinced that Japan is “living in the future”, when in reality its them who have been living in the past.

26. Tell you what’s unpopular truth here. What you say is mega Chinese cities. Most futuristic place I’ve been to is Shenzhen these last 2 years. Imagine saying (parts of) China are futuristic in a western tailored Tik Tok video. Fast way to lose viewers and incite anger.

    Japan is in 2005. Has been since 1995. Nice place and all and Tokyo kind of is a clean and nice version of a metropolis, but no way futuristic. Outside Tokyo, I think it looks more like 1985 (I live in Nagoya often in Osaka)

27. When people say “live in the future” referring to Japan I don’t think *anyone* means respective to social issues, they mean technology usually. But even socially is a mixed bag, some things stuck in the past as you said, some things in places where the rest of the world hopes to move to (e.g. low crime rates, safety virtually everywhere, low unemployment, people being polite to each other, etc).

    Technologically, again, it’s a mixed bag, but I do think even if *some* things are stuck in the past, compared to virtually everywhere it is pretty futuristic. The problem is that one of the parts that are “most visible” are consumer software, where USA startups and innovation cycles certainly beat Japan. However when you compare more mundane things like train networks and reliability, restaurant automation (tablets to order food for as long as I can remember), house appliances, public events, etc. they are all definitely “in the future” compared to any other nation. You can again find exceptions in any of those examples, but that doesn’t change the overall point.

    Heck, my two main “but Japan is still behind” have been fixed in the last couple of years:

    * Contactless credit cards are accepted virtually everywhere (thanks Covid) while before even the chip was a confusing thing for store clerks (I’ve heard in the USA people still use cheques??).
    * Bank transfers are now instant, it takes few minutes instead of the hours-to-a-day that it used to take me. Sure it’s hilarious that my online bank “closes at night”, but well…

28. Tourists don’t have to deal with administrative nightmares.

    If every other city was as well designed like Tokyo people would be much happier

29. The grass is always greener.

    In some perspectives, Japan is indeed advanced, while in others, it lags behind. Visitors may not notice the problems that local people face.

    Similarly, some Japanese people think everything in the USA is amazing and perfect.

    Edit:
    I thought OP was genuinely seeking some answers, but I found out that everything in Japan seems unreasonable to OP… and that she is the type of person who believes everything has to fit her ideas and values.

30. Japan has been in the year 2000 since the 80s. That’s why.

31. Depends on what you’re into. I’m more of a public transit nerd than an IT nerd, so I think Japan is very advanced. The term ‘advanced’ is loaded, since it implies one thing is advancing towards becoming like the other, or that the two are both advancing towards some imagined end point. Depending on where you put the goal posts, one country is more ‘advanced’ than the other.

32. > Those of us who have lived here before know this isn’t the case, actually in many ways Japan is stuck in the past, with the fax machines, poor levels of gender equality, homophobia…

    Because your idea of “futuristic” is completely subjective and different to other people?

    Let’s say 500 years into the future there is a civilization on Earth that manages to achieve faster speed of light space travel and they have robots doing all their daily monotonous labour, they’ve achieve all kinds of breakthroughs in medicine and genetic engineering but they are not a big fan of gay people and transgender people. Does that make them more “medieval” than our current world?

    Meanwhile right now on this Earth right now on our planet there are stone age era tribes in the Pacific Islands of Papaua New Guinea that have culturally acceptable elements of homosexuality and transgenderism, but they also used to practice straight up cannibalism and they were using stone age technology. Are they more “futuristic” than your society or mine?

33. ” Japan is stuck in the past, with the fax machines, poor levels of gender equality, homophobia… Don’t get me wrong, I do love living here in many ways but like everywhere else it isn’t perfect and it’s certainly not living in the future. ”

    ​

    Fax machines and gender equality/homophobia isn’t one of the same category. But beside the point, it’s all about what others don’t have and highlighting what Japan has to offer differently.

34. Who cares?

35. No one of us Japanese ever says to outsiders “we live in the future” from the beginning. Please don’t be jealous of or disappointed at what we have never claimed lol.