It's hard finding a trash can outside.
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)
It's hard finding a trash can outside.
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I'm interpreting this question to be about things I personally find unpleasant or inconvenient when living in Japan, rather than matters of policy or suchlike (though I think the choices given straddle that).
My biggest complaint would be the climate. Japan certainly does have four seasons: a little too hot, a little too cold, way too hot and way too cold (^_^). But then, I'm from California so most anywhere seems a step down on that score.
I disliked the crowding and how cramped things are, and some of the things that flow from that. Even fairly small towns have a dense, urban mid-rise feel to them. I'm the first to admit that they're better than American cities in many ways, but concrete is concrete and traffic noise is traffic noise.
I also found the "one right way to do anything" attitude increasingly annoying the longer I stayed. As a foreigner, you're excused from a lot of it and your lapses often seen as more endearing than anything else. It can become a nasty issue if you get into closer relationships though, especially with the Japanese reticence to openly discuss disagreements.
I have only been here 3 months. I dont care much about political issues. What I dislike most is the uncomfortableness of accommodation. It was too cold when I arrived and it's already too hot now. Summer is not yet there and I fear it will be unbearable. Houses surely are shaggy and poorly insulated. I can hear everything going on in the street from my room.
I'd have to say cults. Every large train station there's always people handing out flyers and you never know which one's wanna throw you in a commune and take your bank account info. I also hate that "no-pants" look that women are all sporting now.
What do you mean by "no-pants look" ?Originally Posted by ushiwakamaru
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The big trend of women now to show their entire leg, without tights of stockings. I call it "no pants" because its followers, except for high-schoolers, who have to wear school-issue jackets, tend to wear a big sweater, which is about as big as my raincoat, except there's only skin beneath it down to their shoes.
I don't see the appeal at all. It's not attractive, it just looks like the woman was stupid enough to forget her pants.
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