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What is happening to Japan?

Oberstein

Member


Oriental Pearl isn't a sensationalist YouTuber. Behind her provocative title lies a reflection of modern Japan: graffiti everywhere, more and more trash scattered on the streets, rising incivility, and tags — often in English — saying things like "Free Palestine" and others.

Homeless people, too, are becoming more visible, and sadly, increasingly younger.

As she points out, none of this is entirely new (except for the graffiti), but in recent years, Japan has started to look more and more like a Western capital. Sadly.
 
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Oriental Pearl isn't a sensationalist YouTuber. Behind her provocative title lies a reflection of modern Japan: graffiti everywhere, more and more trash scattered on the streets, rising incivility, and tags — often in English — saying things like "Free Palestine" and others.

Homeless people, too, are becoming more visible, and sadly, increasingly younger.

As she points out, none of this is entirely new (except for the graffiti), but in recent years, Japan has started to look more and more like a Western capital. Sadly.

I would imagine there's a sizable percentage of disaffected, directionless young men in Japan. Some go the hikikomori route, others act out or just end up on the streets. Different forms of rebellion against the high-pressure society they grew up in that leads to a "reward" most don't want--a salaryman lifestyle with 80-hour work weeks and an unhappy marriage. Combine that with a declining economy (they have it even worse in terms of the boomer heyday to millennial/Gen-Z economic downfall than Americans) and you end up with some societal problems.
 
Inb4 Immigration and Islam!

Unchecked tourists, dirty immigrants (actually dirty, messy selfish ones), and bad economy will do this. Tis a shame.
 
Shinjuku and Shibuya always had a seedy side to them. It was pretty common to see homeless people set up their cardboard tents for the night even a decade ago. A lot of it was temporarily cleaned up for the Olympics, but it's not surprising that it's back. There's a general economic malaise world wide with young people finding it harder and harder to get by. I think a lot of it has to do with social media - expectations are far too high, but on the other hand a lot of things are legitimately harder (buying a house, getting a good job post COVID) and are probably going to get worse with A.I.

FWIW I was in Osaka last year and it didn't seem that much worse than before. I'll be back in a few weeks and it'll be interesting to see if things have changed.
 
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I fucking hate graffitty. It is everywhere in Berlin i mean literally everywhere. Sad to see Japan going the same route.
 


Oriental Pearl isn't a sensationalist YouTuber. Behind her provocative title lies a reflection of modern Japan: graffiti everywhere, more and more trash scattered on the streets, rising incivility, and tags — often in English — saying things like "Free Palestine" and others.

Homeless people, too, are becoming more visible, and sadly, increasingly younger.

As she points out, none of this is entirely new (except for the graffiti), but in recent years, Japan has started to look more and more like a Western capital. Sadly.

So it's going back to Japan of the 1980s?
 
I fucking hate graffitty. It is everywhere in Berlin i mean literally everywhere. Sad to see Japan going the same route.

It's a scourge. Like the broken window theory.,graffiti festers. We had a new park built nearby on an old bit of land. Nice job, benches, grass, flowers and trees planted. Someone tagged a picnic table. A single mark. A few days later other people decided to add to it. Instantly the place looked worse. I reported it to the council and a crew came out and cleaned it off. It's not returned since thankfully.

And to the person who first tagged it. Take your Trans rights elsewhere, it's not an excuse to vandalize a public space.
 
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I fucking hate graffitty. It is everywhere in Berlin i mean literally everywhere. Sad to see Japan going the same route.
It's even in the fucking trains now as well. Wasn't fucking enough that these absolute fucking dipshits spray their fucking eye cancer causing shit on the outside of the trains.
 
Seems like Japan is letting in more immigrants than a fair chunk of the population is comfortable having present in their society.

However, I don't see any evidence from this vid that the graffiti or trash is down to immigrants.

Firstly, this is Tokyo and major city's tend to collect more assholes. Secondly whilst Japanese youth are unlikely to be as violent or disrespectul as Western youth (way less so), there will still be a delinquent cohort that will do shit like tag walls with their horrible slogans. More so in the present climate of growing economic hardship and disenfranchisement.
 
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Inb4 Immigration and Islam!

Unchecked tourists, dirty immigrants (actually dirty, messy selfish ones), and bad economy will do this. Tis a shame.

Unfortunately what you say is also perceived by me.

My biggest example - My country's capital, Lisbon, has a very nasty garbage problem in the recent years, and its inhabitants complain a lot about that. Coincidentally (or not) it's the city where its biggest community of migrants, who came in the last 3/4 years, is from the Indian Peninsula, from a culture that is well perceived worldwide for the way they handle hygiene and sanitation. But I also think that specially ignorant tourists also contribute for the garbage problem.

Edit: I live in Porto and it's also one of the most sought destinations in Europe and we don't have that problem. But, then again, the migrants that come to our region are mainly from Brazil.
 
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Unfortunately what you say is also perceived by me.

My biggest example - My country's capital, Lisbon, has a very nasty garbage problem in the recent years, and its inhabitants complain a lot about that. Coincidentally (or not) it's the city where its biggest community of migrants, who came in the last 3/4 years, is from the Indian Peninsula, from a culture that is well perceived worldwide for the way they handle hygiene and sanitation. But I also think that specially ignorant tourists also contribute for the garbage problem.

Same in my town in Europe. 2015 changed everything here. Nothing like England but still massive change for such a small town. These changes are irreversible without strong and most likely ugly forcing hand.
 
I'm trying to think of any Anime that has graffiti tagging in it.
Only one that comes to mind is Basquatch. About mecha basketball.
 
The nigerians were a pain in the ass in 2018 in shibuya when I was there. Not sure about now. I visited north eastern Japan last year, and while there were a few more foreigners than usual, like J1 workers, they didn't seem to make trouble. If you want to gauge how crazy things are getting, probably best to look at Osaka since they're more lax on things on that end of the country. There has been news about metal theft going way up because of Vietnamese immigrants
 
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I don't need to watch this trash video to know this video will focus on specific areas of Tokyo, usually those full of moron TikTok tourists and apply this generally to the whole of Japan.
I've been spending the last 10 years visiting Japan for a month per year and the only noticeable change is depopulated rural areas and in the main tourist areas in the last few years, low quality tourists that are there because influencers told them
that It's cheap and the place to go, being dicks.

Fukuoka, Miyazaki, Oita, Nagoya, Kumamoto, Takamatsu, Okayama and scores of other places are the same as ever, although Japan is experiencing cost of living issues like every country on the planet.

File under sensationalist crock of shite.
 
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I'm trying to think of any Anime that has graffiti tagging in it.
Only one that comes to mind is Basquatch. About mecha basketball.
Gachiakuta that's airing right now.

Also Jet Set Radio is literally all about graffiti.

As a weeaboo faggot I do think it's getting a bit much how so many white people are concerned about Japan but then go there and just treat it like a fucking theme park.
 
As a weeaboo faggot I do think it's getting a bit much how so many white people are concerned about Japan but then go there and just treat it like a fucking theme park.
As a white guy who has spent the last few weeks in Japan, this also pisses me off. When I see these douche bros walking down the street, being loud in English, high fiving each other, I just cringe so hard and instantly want to apologize to everyone around me on their behalf (I don't, because that would be considered rude).

I spent years learning the language and culture so that I could come here and be as respectful as possible.
 
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Is there any place in the world getting better instead of worse?

The world is a mess right now, not only in terms of politics, but mainly economically

So yeah, no surprise that Japan is suffering. We all are.
 
I dislike anything Oriental Pearl has to say on anything. That is all.
 
I hate shit like this because it just distracts people from the real issues that are actually making Japan a fairly sucky place to live right now. Where is the video on inflation, stagnant wages, weak yen, reselling, consumption tax, overcrowding, crazy hot weather, over-reliance on consumer culture etc etc.

These foreigner Japan YouTubers that just make videos for their foreign audience have always been a cancer.
 
I hate shit like this because it just distracts people from the real issues that are actually making Japan a fairly sucky place to live right now. Where is the video on inflation, stagnant wages, weak yen, reselling, consumption tax, overcrowding, crazy hot weather, over-reliance on consumer culture etc etc.

These foreigner Japan YouTubers that just make videos for their foreign audience have always been a cancer.

There are many videos digging into such issues out there.... done by foreigners. In fact most youtubers I am following from Japan talk about these exact problems and interview people about them. Even the OP's youtuber talks about it
 
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I was just there earlier this year and I saw no foreigners, no graffiti, and no crime. However it is true that a lot of touristy areas are being completely overwhelmed and tourists are leaving trash everywhere. It was absolutely disgusting in Osaka at one of the big street markets

Japan's relationship with trash is a strange one. The country does not have public trash cans anywhere on the streets. You are not supposed to have public places to put trash there. Japanese people pack their trash up and take it home and dispose of it at home if they have been outside and generate trash. It's extremely fucking weird and I'm not surprised tourists have no fucking idea what they are supposed to do with their trash. Most tourists just leave it somewhere discreet, which is why bathrooms in touristy areas of Tokyo have random trash left in them. Tourists are baffled by the lack of trash cans in the country and Japan needs to address it by having public trash cans, at least in tourist areas

Comparing Tokyo to any Western capital is hilarious though. Tokyo's streets are clean, there is no crime, and there are no homeless anywhere I could see and I went all over the city riding the trains which were perfectly clean and perfectly safe. During Japan's commute hours, you really are elbow to elbow with the other people on those trains and not one single person got pickpocketed, robbed, stabbed, or shot. Japan has a lot of problems, almost all of which are caused by their inexorable population decline, but comparing Japan to the West is the epitome of retard Youtuber nonsense
 
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I was just there earlier this year and I saw no foreigners, no graffiti, and no crime. However it is true that a lot of touristy areas are being completely overwhelmed and tourists are leaving trash everywhere. It was absolutely disgusting in Osaka at one of the big street markets

Japan's relationship with trash is a strange one. The country does not have public trash cans anywhere on the streets. You are not supposed to have public places to put trash there. Japanese people pack their trash up and take it home and dispose of it at home if they have been outside and generate trash. It's extremely fucking weird and I'm not surprised tourists have no fucking idea what they are supposed to do with their trash. Most tourists just leave it somewhere discreet, which is why bathrooms in touristy areas of Tokyo have random trash left in them. Tourists are baffled by the lack of trash cans in the country and Japan needs to address it by having public trash cans, at least in tourist areas

Comparing Tokyo to any Western capital is hilarious though. Tokyo's streets are clean, there is no crime, and there are no homeless anywhere I could see and I went all over the city riding the trains which were perfectly clean and perfectly safe. During Japan's commute hours, you really are elbow to elbow with the other people on those trains and not one single person got pickpocketed, robbed, stabbed, or shot. Japan has a lot of problems, almost all of which are caused by their inexorable population decline, but comparing Japan to the West is the epitome of retard Youtuber nonsense
Guys, everything is totes fine, I've just been to Tokyo and saw non of the things happening, so they are not happening. Relax.
 
I don't know if I'll ever get a chance to, but I've always been fascinated and wanted to visit Japan at least once in my life.
 
Close immigration. Begin reimmigration. Insane tax credits for having children.

Looky here I saved Europe and Japan.

Many countries are giving money for having children and... shit doesn't work. People that don't want to have babies aren't persuaded by that.

100 years from now women might be forced to have babies.
 
As a white guy who has spent the last few weeks in Japan, this also pisses me off. When I see these douche bros walking down the street, being loud in English, high fiving each other, I just cringe so hard and instantly want to apologize to everyone around me on their behalf (I don't, because that would be considered rude).

I spent years learning the language and culture so that I could come here and be as respectful as possible.
TikTok/Instagram/YouTube is an utter cancer when it comes to tourism.
When I go now, I completely avoid the likes of Kyoto and Osaka, it used to be that it was mainly Chinese tour groups you wanted to be nowhere near, now it's Western dickheads as much.

BTW in 99% ofJapan there is no graffiti or rubbish, it's insanely clean, even in places that look a bit tatty and run down, they're still clean as fuck.

For anyone thinking about going for the first time, you don't have to do the Golden Route, you don't have to stay in Shinjuku, you can ignore 99% of influencers, get your information from the likes of Japan-guide.com
Tokyo is full of fantastic areas that aren't overrun with tourists, Shinjuku is like Disneyland now.
All the dickhead tourists go to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hakone, Hiroshima and to a lesser extent, a few other places like Kinosaki Onsen, Takayama and Kanazawa.
The rest of the country is amazing and doesn't all the high-fiving twats.
 
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