Concrete buildings and the lack of urban planning
Lack of respect of nature (concrete all along the coast, hills, few parks in cities, etc.)
Non-buried electric lines everywhere
Lack of thermic isolation and central heating in houses
5-month-long muggy summers (except Hokkaido and Tohoku)
Natural disasters (earthquakes, typhoons...)
Lack of preservation of the historical heritage
Political corruption (amakudari system, government using postal savings...)
Police checks on non Japanese (e.g. gaikokujin torokusho)
People pointing or staring at foreigners, or saying "gaijin, gaijin !" or "Hello America !"
People telling you that gaijin come to Japan to make money, when salaries are higher in your country
Assumptions that foreigners in Japan commit much more crimes than the Japanese
Assumptions that almost all foreigners living in Japan cannot speak Japanese
Remarks inspired by jingoism (4 seasons, farmer vs hunter, etc.)
Ignorance about the rest of the world (cultures, geography, history...)
General denial or downplaying of war atrocities
Discrimination in general (toward women, young people, foreigners, burakumin...)
The education system (school + juku + homeworks and they still do not learn anything)
The exceptional Japanese ability to copy what China or the West did/does
Other (please specify)
I voted for "Ignorance about the rest of the world (cultures, geography, history...)" because it's amazing to me to hear what some of my students say when I ask them about such things (and i'm not talking about an isolated few or just the younger generation).
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