Interesting historical facts about Japan. Curious facts about Japan and the Japanese (33 photos)
15 facts about Japan
Against the backdrop of the previous article, I wanted to talk a little about Japan - an interesting, mysterious and very original country.
1. Japan is considered the safest country in the world. And Tokyo is the safest city in the world. It is so safe that children as young as six can use public transport on their own without parental supervision.
2. The Japanese respect a foreigner who knows at least a couple of phrases in their language. The fact is that they believe that it is impossible to learn their language.
3. The Japanese are very honest people - if you lose something in the subway, then with a 99% probability the finder will take it to the lost and found office.
4. There are vases with umbrellas on the streets of Tokyo. In case of rain, you can safely take an umbrella there, and then you can leave it in another vase.
5. During the morning rush hour, the Japanese subway has separate cars for women so that no one can harass them. Pinching females on a crowded subway is common among Japanese men.
This is something like a Japanese national sport, so it’s not surprising that an adult man can happily share with his colleagues that he pinched a high school girl on the subway.
6. The Japanese are obsessed with food. And when they eat, they describe the sensations of the food. During dinner, be sure to praise the food, otherwise you may be considered impolite. When traveling abroad, the Japanese are not fascinated by spiritual food, but by ordinary food. You definitely need to eat something outlandish, and show off when you get home.
7. Food in Japan is cheap fish and meat. But fruits are very expensive: an apple can cost two dollars, and a bunch of bananas can cost five. And there’s no need to talk about melon at all. One melon, of which we can eat about ten in a season, can cost two hundred dollars in Japan.
8. Despite the fact that the Japanese can safely squeeze other people’s girls on the subway, in their personal lives they are very shy and easily embarrassed. For example, instead of proposing marriage to their beloved, they may say something like “could you make me some soup?” or “can you do my laundry?” - and this will be considered as a proposal to get married, otherwise they are embarrassed.
9. In Japan, men are always served first. In restaurants, they will take his order first, bring a drink, and in stores they will greet him first, and only then the woman.
10. Instead of their personal signature, the Japanese put a special personalized seal called hanko. Every Japanese has such a seal and you can buy it in any store.
11. In the northern cities of Japan, where it is cold and snowy in winter, sidewalks and streets are heated to prevent ice. But at the same time, the houses do not have central heating; each resident heats his home as best he can. Therefore, very often Japanese apartments and houses are very cold.
On some high-speed trains, when entering the carriage, the conductor takes off his hat and bows, and only then checks the tickets.
In Japan, you can see vases with umbrellas on the streets. If it starts to rain, you can take any, and then, when the rain stops, put it in the nearest vase.
The Japanese have very low pensions. The maximum social benefit for poor old people is about $300. Every Japanese person is expected to take care of their own old age.
In Japan, the school year begins on the first of April. By the way, in Japanese the months do not have names; instead, they are designated by serial numbers.
In the northern cities of Japan, all sidewalks are heated, so there is never ice here.
Arriving to work on time is considered bad manners in Japan. You need to be there at least half an hour earlier.
There is even a word in Japanese called “karoshi,” which literally translates to “death from overwork.” On average, ten thousand people die every year with this diagnosis.
Every second Japanese draws well and sings well. This is partly the result of the system of raising children - they are first taught to draw and sing, and then to speak and write.
The Japanese are very clean people, but no matter how many members there are in the family, everyone takes a bath without changing the water. True, before this everyone takes a shower.
The Japanese are crazy workaholics. They can easily work 15-18 hours a day without a lunch break.
The Japanese are very shy, not used to expressing their feelings. For many, it is a real feat to say: “I love you.”
The Japanese and alcohol are poorly compatible concepts. Most of them, even after one glass of strong alcohol, begin to blush terribly. But there are exceptions - they will outdrink anyone.
A third of weddings in the country are the result of matchmaking and viewing parties organized by parents.
The age of consent in Japan is 13 years old. This means that from a certain age, consensual sex is not considered rape.
The Japanese almost never invite guests home. The invitation to “come by sometime” in most cases should be taken solely as a polite turn of phrase.
Tokyo's Shinjuku-Ni-Cheme district has the largest concentration of gay bars in the world.
If you are caught for something serious, they have the right to keep you in a pre-trial detention center for 30 days without allowing a lawyer.
Tokyo is the safest metropolis in the world. Tokyo is so safe that children as young as six can use public transport on their own.
You won't see trash cans on Japanese streets. The Japanese take all the garbage home, and then sort it into four types: glass, burnt, recyclable and non-burnt waste.
Every grocery store has a hentai shelf on the press rack. Large bookstores have entire floors dedicated to pornography.
Japanese police are the most honest in the world; they do not take bribes. Except that sometimes for minor violations you can talk them out of letting them go by pretending to be a “baka”.
People in Japan are very honest. If you lost your wallet on the subway, there is a 90% chance that it will be returned to the lost and found office.
There is no looting during earthquakes in Japan.
Japan has a specific attitude towards pornography. Previously, almost every Japanese hotel had a strawberry channel.
Japan has the slowest McDonald's in the world.
In Japanese, “fool” is “baka” (literally stupid person). And a foreigner is like a “gaijin” (literally, a stranger). "Baka-gaijin" in Japanese colloquial means American.
In Japan they eat dolphins. They are used to make soup, cook kushiyaki (Japanese kebab), and even eat them raw. Dolphin has quite tasty meat, with a pronounced taste, and is completely different from fish.
The Japanese have great respect for those who can speak at least two phrases in their language. They believe that it is impossible to learn it.
In Japanese families, it is an absolutely normal situation when a brother and sister don’t talk at all, and don’t even know each other’s mobile phone numbers.
The Japanese talk about food all the time, and when they eat, they discuss how much they like the food. Having dinner without saying oishii (delicious) several times is very impolite.
Probably, proper nutrition can explain the fact that here you very rarely see an overweight Japanese woman.
The strongest curse words in Japanese are “fool” and “idiot.”
Japan is a special world, and to Europeans its inhabitants - from schoolgirls in knee socks to geishas in kimonos - seem to be aliens from another universe. But we are already accustomed to these aliens from books, films and photographs. However, if you dig deeper, you will discover facts in the life of the Japanese that you won’t even immediately believe - they are so incredible for a person with a European mentality. Here, look!
Keijo is a sport invented for anime.
Anime is such a popular culture that its own special world has long been created around it - with its own slang, habits and fashion. There is even a separate sport that exists only in the world of anime. Keijo is a water gymnastics game invented by the creators of the anime series of the same name. Keijo is practiced exclusively by girls, and the sport itself consists of standing on a special platform swinging on water and knocking your opponent off the same platform, pushing her exclusively with her breasts or buttocks. Nozomi Kamenashi, who studies at Keijo School, is one of the most popular anime characters in Japan today.
Mario kart racing is a popular sport
The Japanese love video games! In particular, the racing simulator "Mario Kart", in which the famous game character named Mario dashes around in a small car. At the same time, any Japanese person can try himself in the role of Mario in real life, buying himself a kart, like in the game, and dashingly riding it through the streets! Every month, Akiba Cart hosts a "Mario Race" in Tokyo, where people wearing fake mustaches like their favorite character get the chance to feel like Mario in real life.
Kancho - the stupidest prank ever
Every country has its own popular stupid jokes. For example, the joke “your whole back is white” is one of them. But the most beloved - and most idiotic - prank, adored by the Japanese, surpasses everyone! The essence of the prank called “kancho” is to run up to an unsuspecting neighbor, form your hands in the shape of a pistol, pointing out your index fingers, place this “gun” closer to the victim’s ass - preferably closer, so to speak, to the exit hole - and shout loudly: "KANCHO!!!" You won't believe it, but the Japanese laugh.
Killer food
If “Russian Roulette” is the lot of the desperate, then “Japanese Roulette” is the lot of the rich and respectable. True, they play it not with a pistol in their hands, but with a knife and fork. Only in Japan there is exquisite and expensive food that can easily kill the eater! Yes, yes, we are talking about puffer fish. It is served only in specially selected expensive restaurants, and is prepared by chefs who have completed a specialized three-year training course. The main thing here is to separate the non-poisonous meat from the poisonous parts of the fish's body with surgical precision. If the cook's hand trembles and the poison still gets into the dish, the eater is finished: fugu poison is 120 times stronger than cyanide. There is always the possibility of error - and this adds spice to the meal.
Dekotora
Dekotora is a decorated truck. All over the world, truck drivers love to decorate their vehicles, but in Japan this custom has reached the heights of art. Trucks shimmer with neon lights, on their sides there are huge paintings, usually with elegant women (here the traditions of truck drivers are unbreakable), the lights flicker and run all over the car, and it seems that there is not a centimeter left on the truck without the acid-colored decorations. In general, a high-quality decor resembles a traveling circus - and is a source of pride for its brutal owner.
Kanamara Matsuri
The Kanamara Matsuri, or Iron Penis Festival, takes place every year at Kanayama Shrine in Kawasaki. During the festival, participants honor the male sexual organ and its fertility. To honor the “power of an ordinary penis,” people from all over Japan, in addition to numerous tourists, come to Kanayama Shrine. At the festival you can see people dressed as phalluses and giant phallic sculptures. Parade floats, candles, sweets, balloons - everything follows the shape of the male genital organ. You won't see this in any sex shop!
Subcultures and street fashion
Representatives of youth subcultures traditionally strive to stand out through clothing. But in Japan it takes absolutely incredible forms! Let's start with the fact that the genre of cosplay, now popular all over the world, was born in Japan, and precisely in the form of street fashion: young girls went out into the street, dressed and made up as their favorite anime characters. And today the street fashion subcultures of Japan amaze with their diversity. Even the Lolita style, popular all over the world, exists here not only in classical, but also in Gothic, androgynous and many other variations.
Zoshi kese - business on high school girls
Zoshi kese, or “jay kay” for short, is an officially existing and very popular type of business in Japan. And it consists of organizing dates with teenage girls on a paid basis, or, more simply put, for money. No, no, don’t think about it, nothing indecent! Only communication, compliments and innocent flirting. At least officially: according to rumors, at times this business takes completely illegal forms, but the police are already dealing with this. The official “Jay Kay” is innocence itself, at least from the point of view of the Japanese. There are even entire girl groups that combine the stage and business "dzoshi kese". Adults and quite respectable fans of such groups as SNH48 and Akushiba Project quite officially pay a lot of money to communicate with their favorites after concerts.
Seijin shiki
When Russians turn 18, they have the right to buy alcohol and serve in the army. When Japanese people turn 20, the whole country celebrates their birthday with them. "Seijin Shiki" is an annual official holiday, "coming of age day". Its heroes are considered to be everyone who turned 20 after the previous “seijin shiki”. Jubilees are celebrated throughout the country, and they can go from party to party all day long. The girls put on beautiful silk kimonos, the guys also dress up as best they can. After "seijin shiki" the Japanese are considered adults, have the right to vote and... well, yes, drink alcohol, where would we be without it!
School years are wonderful
Many rules in force in Japanese schools have no analogues anywhere in the world. In particular, the school cleaning is done by the students themselves, and girls are prohibited not only from wearing makeup at school, but even from shaving their legs - so that concerns about beauty do not distract from their studies. At the same time, romances between students - of any degree of seriousness - are also considered illegal and punished as violations of discipline.
Crazy prank jokes
The fashion for pranking has been spreading widely across Europe in recent years, but in Japan pranking was a favorite hobby a couple of decades ago. As the Japanese themselves say, in recent years the intensity of passions around stupid pranks has subsided somewhat, but ten to fifteen years ago they were raging with all their might! A story in which the main character created a realistic dinosaur costume for himself and went out into the street in it to scare passers-by is not considered something out of the ordinary. Moreover, it is not even unique: this draw took place on a grand scale in various cities in Japan. Probably many people needed a sedative, but no one was offended by the jokers: it’s a national tradition!
Crazy reality shows
Enthusiastic TV viewers who were frozen in horror when reality show characters fought or ate live worms in front of their eyes simply did not watch Japanese popular TV shows! Their creators do not limit their sick imagination in any way, including the entire range of perversions in the script. Thus, in the TV show “AK-Bingo,” participants were asked to hold a plastic tube with their lips, each on their side, and try to blow a live insect crawling somewhere in the center of the tube down each other’s throats. And this is not the limit, but, one might say, the average level. And reality shows for adults are famous for their overtly sexual things, which, according to rumors, in other countries will not be allowed on television.
Themed restaurants
Themed restaurants exist in many countries, but you will not find such variety and wild imagination as in Japan. In themed restaurants you can find everything you can think of - robots, owls, ghosts, vampires, sexy maids, reptiles... There are fully automated restaurants without waiters, restaurants where food is served on the bodies of naked women, airplane restaurants and much more. other. In the Modern Toilet restaurant, customers sit on toilets, and miniature toilets act as plates. At the Robot Cabaret, guests are entertained by robots and strippers. One of the craziest is the prison themed restaurant Alcatraz. At the entrance, guests are handcuffed and taken to a cell. To call a waiter, you will have to hit the door bars with a stick, and from time to time a siren sounds in the restaurant and a “fugitive” in a prison uniform begins to rush around the room. In general, complete madness!
They eat them, they watch
The Japanese love very fresh food. It is not surprising that their menu also includes live animal food. This is guaranteed freshness! No, “live” is not a publicity stunt, but the most real reality! In Japan, for example, a popular dish is “ikizukuri” - fish cooked with just three strokes of a knife. The cook, cutting off the fish's head with one stroke, brings it on a platter to the client so that he can see that it is still moving and rolling its eyes. When the fillet is cut from the bones, you can see that the heart is still beating. In Japanese restaurants you can also order sashimi with live octopus, shrimp or lobster. Animals are served alive, artistically decorating the plate with pieces of their own flesh.
Japan is an amazing country. Many expats who have lived here for decades still cannot understand the Japanese soul, their amazing hard work and sincere love for the Russian Cheburashka. In this article we have collected the most interesting facts about Japan.
1. It is difficult for independent travelers from Russia to get to Japan. To get a visa, you need an invitation from the host party or buy a tour.
2. The population of Japan is 126 million people (for comparison, 146 million live in Russia). Most of the apartments here are very cramped, and our dachas here are considered real luxury.
3. In restaurants where locals dine, there are plastic food layouts instead of menus. You choose the dish you like and after a while they bring you the real thing.
4. In Japan it is not customary to change jobs. A young specialist chooses a company to work for until retirement. Dismissal is considered a great shame. As a rule, it doesn’t come to this: you are simply demoted.
5. Coming to work (as well as leaving it) on time is considered bad manners. You need to be there at least half an hour before the start of the working day. Therefore, foreign employees cannot work in local companies for a long time.
6. Death from overwork is not a figure of speech, but a diagnosis with which 15 thousand people die every year.
7. There is almost no obscene language in Japanese. The effect is achieved from the volume and intonation of the spoken word.
8. Levels of politeness (keigo) are a feature of the Japanese language. There are conversational, respectful (a dialogue between a wife and her husband), polite (a conversation between a cashier in a supermarket and a customer) and very polite (for example, a subordinate addressing a boss). Schools have special courses on keigo. Sometimes this reaches the point of absurdity; service workers believe that the longer the phrase, the more polite it sounds, so buying a bun at McDonald's can turn into a fifteen-minute dialogue with the cashier.
9. Japan ranks first in terms of surplus labor. For example, there are people who hold road signs. A traffic controller must be assigned to a working traffic light. Four traffic controllers (!) will help the driver enter a parking space. There are also special people who look for smokers on city streets and tell them about the dangers of this habit, or employees who make sure that subway passengers do not accidentally step onto an escalator that is being repaired.
10. The Japanese medical mask has become almost an element of the national costume. It is worn by everyone: from motorcycle taxi drivers, salesmen at kiosks, to office clerks and fashion students. The point is not the city dust, but the fact that the Japanese are very afraid of catching a cold. In Japan, it is not customary to go on sick leave; according to statistics, office workers do not go to work due to illness for only two (!) days a year.
11. Tokyo is the safest metropolis in the world. Cars are rarely locked here, bicycles are not fastened when left overnight, you can forget your purse on the subway, and then someone will take it to the lost and found office. Nobody steals here, so the Japanese rarely take care of their things. For the same reason, they find themselves in unpleasant situations while abroad.
12. In Japan you can’t just buy a car. To obtain special permission to purchase it, you need to prove that you have a place to store it.
13. There are no garbage cans in the country. There are only bins along food vending machines and street cafes. All waste needs to be sorted, for example, there is a container for paper, glass, organic waste, plastic bottles and a separate one for paper labels from these bottles. There is even a special container for those who are confused about which type of garbage you throw out.
14. You can’t just throw away the TV. You need to buy a special sticker, stick it on the TV and put it in the place where the garbage men will take out the garbage. Without it, the TV will stand forever.
15. In no other country in the world is there such a mass phenomenon as hikikomori (they are sometimes called hikki) - these are people who have abandoned social life. They do not work, sit at home in an isolated room, live at the expense of their parents or receive unemployment benefits. 7% of men in Japan are hikikomori.
16. Japanese restrooms have become a real meme. In what other country can you find a toilet with a heated seat and colored lighting, the color of which can be adjusted in different ways?
17. It is very difficult for a foreigner to figure out local addresses. The house number is its cadastral number, so finding the right place is extremely difficult. If a Japanese invites you to visit, he will send you a clear driving directions or meet you at the nearest metro station.
18. Japanese street fashion is a topic for a separate post. We may be shocked by the sheer amount of clothing and its absurdity that the Japanese like to wear. In fact, there are a lot of different styles here. After living in Japan for some time, you begin to see your aesthetics in it.
Japan is a small country, but there are many big and interesting things here. It is home to the world's most expensive amusement park, Disney Sea, and four of the ten tallest roller coasters. Tokyo has the most developed subway system in the world, the largest railway hub and the largest mixed pedestrian intersection.
80 Interesting Little-Known Facts About Japan
1. In Japan, girls show affection and give gifts on Valentine's Day. I won’t tell you what this tradition is connected with, but today it performs an important social function: it allows girls to say “yes” without waiting for a Japanese man to have the courage to approach her.
2. In Japan, fish and meat are cheap, but fruits are very expensive. One apple costs two dollars, a bunch of bananas costs five. The most expensive fruit, melon, a variety like our “torpedo”, will cost two hundred dollars in Tokyo.
3. In Japan, pornography is sold absolutely everywhere. In every konbini (grocery store), there is always a separate shelf with hentai on the press counter. In small bookstores, hentai makes up a third of the total assortment; in large bookstores, 2-3 floors are devoted to pornography.
4. Hentai is allowed to be freely sold to minors.
5. The two most popular subgenres of hentai are violence and underage sex.
6. Wrapped in a cover, hentai can be easily read on the subway.
7. The Japan Subway and JR have women-only cars. They are added in the mornings so that during rush hour no one harasses the girls. The Japanese are voyeurs, and groping girls on crowded trains is something of a national sport.
8. At the same time, Japan has one of the lowest rape rates in the world. Five times less than in Russia. It seemed important to me to note this, after everything I said above.
9. Most Japanese characters consist of 2-4 syllables, but there are surprising exceptions. For example, the character 砉 is read as “hanetokawatogahanareruoto”, that’s thirteen syllables! Describes the sound made when flesh is separated from bone.
10. Another interesting fact about Japan: the issue of honor still plays a central role in Japan, even in politics. The last Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, resigned after failing to fulfill his campaign promise (sic!). Two of his predecessors too.
11. Japan is a small country, but there are a lot of big things here. It is home to the world's most expensive amusement park, Disney Sea, and four of the ten tallest roller coasters. Tokyo has the most developed subway system in the world, the largest railway hub and the largest mixed pedestrian intersection.
12. In Japan, it is customary to sculpt snowmen strictly from two balls, and not three, as in the rest of the world. And then the Japanese distinguished themselves.
13. Colonel Sanders is one of the main symbols of Christmas in Japan, like Coca-Cola in the USA. On Christmas Eve, the Japanese like to go to KFC with the whole family and eat a large portion of chicken wings.
14. In Japan, 30% of weddings still take place as a result of matchmaking and bridesmaids organized by parents お見合い (omiai).
15. In all northern cities of Japan, where snow falls in winter, sidewalks and streets are heated. There is no ice, and there is no need to remove snow. Very comfortably!
16. However, in Japan there is no central heating. Everyone heats the apartment as best they can.
17. In Japanese there is a word 過労死 (Karoshi), meaning “death from overwork.” On average, ten thousand people die every year with this diagnosis. Studio Ghibli director Yoshifumi Kondo, the author of my favorite The Whisper of the Heart, died with this diagnosis.
18. Japan has one of the most liberal tobacco laws. Smoking is allowed everywhere except on railway platforms and airports.
19. Japan is the last country in the world to formally retain the title of Empire.
20. The Japanese imperial dynasty was never interrupted. The current Emperor Akihito is a direct descendant of the first Emperor Jimmu, who founded Japan in 711 BC.
21. Japan turned 2725 this year.
22. Japanese people constantly talk about food, and when they eat, they discuss how they like the treat. Having dinner without saying “oishii” (delicious) several times is very impolite.
23. In general, the Japanese love repetition. When girls do this, it is considered kawaii.
24. The Japanese language simultaneously uses three types of writing: Hiragana (a syllabary system for writing Japanese words), Katakana (a syllabary system for writing borrowed words) and Kanji (hieroglyphic writing). It's crazy, yes.
25. An interesting fact about Japan is that there are almost no guest workers in the country. This is achieved by a simple law: the minimum salary at which it is allowed to hire a foreign worker in Japan exceeds the average salary of a Japanese worker. Thus, the path to the country remains open for highly paid specialists, and unskilled migrant labor does not dump the wages of local residents. Solomon's solution.
26. More than half of the railways in Japan are private. Non-state carriers are responsible for 68% of the country's total rail traffic.
27. Hirohito was never removed from power; after the war, he led the reformation and ruled until 1989. Hirohito's birthday is a national holiday and is celebrated every April 29th.
28. Mount Fuji is privately owned. In the Shinta shrine Hongyu Sengen, a deed of 1609 has been preserved, with which the Shogun transferred the mountain into the possession of the temple. In 1974, the authenticity of the deed of gift was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Japan, after which there was no other choice but to transfer the ownership of the mountain to the temple. Because property rights in Japan are inviolable.
29. The Japanese language has several levels of politeness: colloquial, respectful, polite and very polite. Women almost always speak a respectful form of the language, men a colloquial one.
30. Seven percent of the male population of Japan are Hikkikomori. Seven!!!
31. In Japanese, months do not have names; instead, they are designated by serial numbers. For example, September is 九月 (kugatsu), which means “ninth month.”
32. Before Japan opened up to the West, the only word to describe romantic attraction was 恋 (koi), literally meaning “an irresistible attraction to something unattainable.”
33. Japan is a mono-ethnic country, 98.4% of the total population are ethnic Japanese.
35. In Japan they eat dolphins. They are used to make soup, cook kushiyaki (Japanese kebab), and even eat them raw. Dolphin has quite tasty meat, with a distinct taste and is completely different from fish.
36. There are practically no personal pronouns in the Japanese language, and those words that are sometimes used as pronouns have at least one more meaning. In Russian, for example, the pronoun “ya” means nothing other than “I”, and in Japanese 私 (watashi, ya) also means “private, personal”; 貴方 (anata, you) - “my master.” It is polite to use “anat” only when meeting for the first time; then it is customary to address the interlocutor by name or position.
37. Tokyo is the safest metropolis in the world. Tokyo is so safe that children as young as six can use public transport on their own. This is fantastic indeed.
38. The Japanese consider the outside world very dangerous and are afraid to travel. So a Japanese friend once asked me whether it would be too dangerous for her to stay alone in the area of Kensington Gardens in London. They consider the United States to be the most dangerous country.
39. The ninth article of the Japanese constitution prohibits the country from having its own army and participating in wars.
40. In Japan, the school year begins on the first of April and is divided into trimesters. Schoolchildren study from April to July, then September to December and from January to March.
41. There are no trash cans in Japan because all garbage is recycled. Waste is divided into four types: glass, incinerable, recyclable and non-incinerable waste. Each type of waste is removed on a certain day and can be thrown away only on strictly designated dates. For violating the procedure there is a large fine, in my house it is one hundred thousand yen (about a thousand dollars).
42. There are also no trash bins on the streets, only special bins for collecting bottles. A good example of what is clean where people don’t shit.
43. Japan has very low pensions. The maximum social benefit for poor old people is 30,000 yen, which is about three hundred dollars. There is also no compulsory pension insurance; it is assumed that every Japanese person must take care of his own old age.
44. Godzilla (Gojira in Japanese) is not an accidental name. This is a portmonteau of the words “Gorilla” and “Kujira” (whale). One can only guess how they crossed so that they got a reptile.
45. Transport in Japan is very expensive; the cheapest metro ticket costs 140 yen (50 rubles).
46. In Japan, men are always served first. In a restaurant, the man is the first to place an order, and the drink is brought to him first. In stores they always greet the man first.
47. The Japanese drive big cars. It is impossible to find city cars even in cramped Tokyo, but there are a lot of jeeps.
48, During my entire time in Japan, I have not seen a single toilet without a heated toilet seat and with less than 10 buttons. And recently I discovered that the toilet in my house can make the sound of running water in order to hide, um, its own sounds.
49. In Japan, everyone knows that Hello Kitty comes from England.
50. Tipping is strictly not accepted in Japan. It is believed that as long as the client pays the prescribed price for the service, he remains on an equal footing with the seller. If the buyer tries to leave extra money, he thereby depreciates the service/product provided to him, reducing equal exchange to a handout.
51. During the year of living in Japan, I never encountered any manifestations of racism against myself. I think this is very cool.
52. Japan is the best country in the world.
53. On Japanese MTV there is a popular series Usavich, a cartoon about two birds with one stone, Putin and Kiriyenko, trying to survive in a police state.
54. The age of consent in Japan is 13 years old.
55. Japan is three times the size of England. The area of Japan is 374,744 km², England is 130,410 km².
56. Japan is often cited as an example of an overpopulated country. In fact, Japan's population density is only 360 people per square kilometer. This is less than in England, where there are 383 people per square kilometer.
57. In Japanese, the words “irregular” and “different” are expressed by the same word 違う (chigau).
58. In Japan, things have taken root that twenty years ago seemed like the future, but today leave a strange retro-futuristic impression. Automatic doors in taxis, vending machines that sell everything from fruit, to soups, to used underpants. Fantastic shaped trains and funny fashion. This is all very cool.
59. The Japanese word 御来光 (goraiko) describes the sunrise seen from Mount Fuji. Japanese has a lot of meaningful words.
60. Hitler admired the integrity of the Japanese nation and called them “honorary Aryans.” In apartheid-era South Africa, the Japanese were the only ones who were not disenfranchised, as they were considered “honorary whites.”
61. Japanese phones have a built-in national emergency notification system. When some kind of cataclysm occurs, a loud beep sounds on all phones (even if the sound was turned off) and a message appears explaining what happened and how to behave.
62. There is no looting in Japan. If you type “looting in japan” into Google, you will only find tens of thousands of surprised foreigners who cannot understand why empty houses are not looted in Japan.
63. The Japanese speak almost no English, but use a fantastic number of Anglicisms. Alex Case tried to make a list, counted over 5,000 words and got tired of continuing (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) However, the Japanese pronunciation of them is so distorted that you can not hope to understand them, or that they will understand you if you pronounce the word with an original accent.
64. Few people know that the words “cotton wool”, “pollock” and “ivashi” are borrowed from Japanese. I think everyone knows about “tsunami” and “typhoon”.
65. Japanese also has borrowings from Russian. The words イクラ “ikura; caviar” and ノルマ “noruma; norm". There is also a funny expression “ヴ・ナロード” “wu people; to the people,” it was inherited from Alexander II.
66. Japan has the death penalty. Last year, eight criminals were executed in Japan. The last two executions were attended by the Japanese Minister of Justice.
67. An interesting fact is that Japan has the lowest murder rate and the lowest violent crime rate per 100 thousand population of all countries analyzed. It has the highest average life expectancy in the world.
68. Tokyo is home to one of the largest gay districts in the world, Shinjuku-Ni-Chome. It has the largest concentration of gay bars in the world.
69. Japanese and Chinese characters are one and the same. There are regional differences: in Chinese there are more characters and in simplified form they are written differently. But knowing Japanese, you can understand the general meaning of Chinese signs.
70. Instead of a signature in Japan, they put a special personalized hanko stamp. Every Japanese has such a seal and it is used many, many times a day. You can also buy it at any store.
71. Japan is the only country in the world where the criterion for a train being late is a minute mark.
72. In Japan, it is considered impolite to open a gift in the presence of the giver. They thank him for it, and then put it aside to open it in private.
73. The Japanese believe that a person should be able to hide suffering behind a smile. There is even a saying 顔で笑って心で泣く (Kao de waratte kokoro de naku; smile while you suffer inside).
74. The Japanese are a nation of very passionate people. If they do something, they strive for complete authenticity. Thus, in all French bakeries, Japanese inscriptions are duplicated in French. An Italian gelateria will have ice cream labeled in Italian, and a Spanish restaurant will have a menu in Spanish. However, there will be nothing in English. Sometimes it seems that for them it is just “another European language.”
75. In Japan, property rights are strictly observed, so there are dozens of companies with a history of more than a thousand years. For example, the Hoshi Ryokan Hotel has been continuously operating since 718. It has been run by the same family for 46 generations (sic!).
76. Tanuki are wayward Japanese werewolf animals that bring happiness and prosperity. Their eggs are a traditional symbol of good luck. For the canonical happiest tanuki, the area of the eggs should be 8 tatami, which is 12 meters. In case of trouble, they take retribution with them. Studio Ghibli has a wonderful cartoon about them, Pom Poko, check it out.
77. Two thirds of Japan is covered with forests. Japan prohibits commercial logging of its own forests, but it consumes 40% of all the wood that is mined in tropical forests.
78. For 10 years, from 1992 to 2002, Japan was the largest donor of international aid in the world. This is a word for everyone who is now gloating over the Japanese disaster.
79. When the conductor enters the next carriage of a high-speed train, he must take off his headdress and bow, and only then begins to check the tickets.
80. In Japan, the third way has been successful, which we have been looking for for a long time and cannot find. There is a unique organization of society here: on the one hand, a completely Western legal state, on the other, an original culture that lives not only by traditions, but is constantly evolving. I don’t understand why no one in Russia studies the Japanese experience.
Other interesting facts about Japan in this section.
