A foreigners point of view?
 

I thought this was just a little bit cheeky. Tell me what you think?

Japan - The Strange Country (Japanese ver.) on Vimeo

English version - YouTube - Japan - The Strange Country (English)

just to add on point of strangeness :)

sometimes there goes a japanese video or other material around a local forums. and they might show anything, like tv-programme, a music shot, etc. usually it was created to make people laugh or just have fun

but from our point of view we are considering it nonsense and therefore funny so we are not actually laughing at the content which was made to be funny, but we are laughing because we don't understand how could someone do something like this and consider it funny (or interesting, or worth to do) at first place :D

like one day i have seen, i think that was a short-cut of concert of a pop group of 5 boys. it was something similar to backstreet boys, sort of, but japanese, and they were singing dressed in something like baby-pants and they had an oak-leave in front of the... you know :) the intimity parts. and that was all they had dressed, so you would normally think why would anyone ever would want to look like that. still they had this huge audience and, i think best pop group from hereby would never had such amount of fans :) but music was so average, like you know, common radio stuff, i would not bother. but their audience was boiling, everyone singing, jumping, doing everything, my god :) and the final point was, when camera stopped at a couple of like 80years old grand-ma and grand-pa who were singing with those heavy smiley faces, and i thought - this is the end of world :)

i don't know, was that real? you know, the fact is, sometimes you even don't believe that it was real, maybe it was fake :)

Pretty amusing. If you can be unbiased about it all, it's fun to watch.

Most of its information sounded valid. Though, I do find number-per-minute calculations to be misleading. It isn't necessarily every 4 seconds that a person dies from starvation or every 16 minutes that a Japanese person commits suicide; it's averaged out.

I think a lot of our diehard Japanese fans should watch things like this.
I can't tell you how much "I am L from Deathnote" acts irritate me. It butchers much of what should be appreciated about Japan.

No offense?

If I am not mistaken, this was made in Japan originally then dubbed in English.

Correct. By some Japanese student.

Whoa, definetly a good watch!I wonder what people say about America now XD

So, a Japanese student just accused me of making his/her country strange?

Cheeky? I think it was really harsh. Its strange for someone to wanna beat up on their own country like that.

No, it was originally directed at Japanese people and produced in Japanese - so it`s referring to citizens at the end.

I thought the production was really nice, but the information given is incredibly misleading. There are reasons for most of those things that could have been introduced in order to bring attention to them - but instead it was just a bunch of facts and figures. The tone was of an infomercial, and I think the message itself wasn`t horrible... It just reminded me of those commercials selling anti-bacterial hand soaps. "Every year more and more bacteria are too strong to be fought by regular anti-bacterial soaps! So use our extra-strength version!" All the while neglecting to mention one of the reasons they are getting stronger is due to the over use of such soaps.

The reason all those disposable chopsticks come from China is that there have been a bunch of "environmental protection" movements to stop their production in Japan... The thing is, when they were produced in Japan, they were made from wood culled from managed forests to stimulate growth and to prevent overcrowding. Without being able to cull wood from the managed areas, more trees end up dying and being wasted - which is why it`s so common now to find areas in planted forests that have completely died. "Protecting" the Japanese forests has actually had the opposite effect.

The large amount of food thrown out in Japan actually has little to do with normal people and their consumption. 80% of it is food disposed of prior to sale or processing... And of that 80% I believe most of it is government action to raise the value of food. A few years back there was too much cabbage produced so to keep the market from being flooded more than two thirds of the cabbage produced was bought by the government and left to rot. You can`t try to fix a problem without having the roots and reasons brought to attention.

I don`t know. I guess I just think that a lot of these figures are brought up to make people feel responsible and change their habits... Even though those habits are a very very tiny part of the issue and there would be much more effective ways to change things.
It`s like telling someone their humming is noise pollution so they should keep it down... Even though it would be much more effective to get them to come with you to ask a neighbor to turn down the 100 speakers he has pointed at the street.

Ah, of course. I got that part mixed up. Thanks for clarifying.

I just thought this is really interesting stuff, at first i thought this is a parody of japanese's way of life, then right through the middle part of food, water and shushi, i was a bit confused about what the creator try to do "Is he/she trying to criticise japan?" or " Is he/she trying to make fun of the watchers of this video?". By the end of the clip, i came up with the conclusion that the creator was just mucking around, throwing random facts and try to extrapolate some short of respones from people. LOL what treacherous person. quote "... and who created this strange country... U did"

yes, maybe the ending was a bit controversial :) but i don't think it was aimed at any specific topic and i don't think it was meant to say that someone should change or do something after seeing that video :) simply there is no reason to be too much serious about it :)

apart from facts mentioned in the video, she could say about japanese how they wake up in the morning, then go to work and then home and then go to sleep again. but probably that is something obvious in any country, so why not rather make video about not so obvious things :P like this one.

Huh? I've always thought there are plenty of people like that in every country.

my friend was telling me not long ago, about a documentary movie, i don't know details or name of it but it was something like this.

there was a foreign girl (i think french) who went to Japan and got an office job in there. it was a documentary about "working in japan" so this was probably like one situation in document. she worked about a year for the same company. i only know it was large company, but not sure whether public or private. suddenly a position in the very same company and department, has been made free for a new applicant. it was like position of manager of the department. so obviously this girl has applied and another woman/girl applied too. this other woman hasn't got that high level of education as girl from France, however she was working for the company for nearly 5 years.

the result was the other girl got a job. french girl has complained but was explained that to get certain higher positions in companies you must first work for a company long time and then you might get promoted, there is no other way.

she became like upset, and decided that she is gonna test what if she does nothing :) in the meaning... if she does nothing for 5 years, then she may still apply for higher position, is it not truth? because they only care for how long have you been working there.

so she really stopped working at once, just did sit on a desk :). after 1 week it was spotted by manager that the expected work is not done :) so the first measurement was, that she was given easier tasks :). she still did nothing. so she got something easier and easier and finished in maintenance dept. :). she got only one task, and that was to change paper rolls on the toilets if the are used up. and after all she asked, why they do not simply fire her out?

and the answer was: there is no way there would be no work for every employee of the company ;). they are gonna decide who does what, and who is good for what kind of job. so me personally, i don't know what is this based on. is it a shame for a company to fire someone, even if they are not happy with him/her?

so if this story is based on truth... you know, in my company if i would not carry on with satisfactory results, they would show me the doors :) and i would not be surprised or ashamed. but what this story describes is like being an employee is like being a member of some kind of family or sect :) which obviously might be viewed as strange to the foreigner

while talking about work stories...

my mum used to work for a Korean company and there were implied these practices

- taking annual leave was like a sin against company, and you would immediately become a fugitive when saying you wanna go on holiday
- workers after leaving the work place had to come into the head's office and bow several times (probably even to say something) and then depart the office while not showing your back to your superior
- mum was also told that if they are in korea she is expected to work extra hours like until 9-10 in the evening without any note or mentioning in her work agreement/contract. and obviously for same amount of pay.

so i don't know if japanese work practices are similar but just to mention in Europe and i think America as well, this would be considered as total nonsense :)

and last bit, this is also Korean but i wonder how about Japan :)

you might know but korean KIA automobile producer has a factory in my country, and there was a woman working for KIA but they changed her shift constantly, like morning evening night.

she got an ill husband she got to take care of. and later she learnt about new position opened in another korean little company which was not like shift based so she would work same daily hours and that would help her much.

however when she applied for other job, the korean company contacted KIA company and informed them. KIA has fired her and other company didn't accepted her application any more. so she was obviously treated as betrayer.

again, heavy nonsense. this corporate behavior is perceived by me as slavery. how about japan companies? what if someone want to change job in there?

Yup. Americans do it all the time.

Maybe they want to make it better instead of letting it rot from complacency? Who knows. Any "patriot" that rejects all criticism of their country is little more than a childish dittohead.

It's a comedy based on a semi-autobiography.

Fear and Trembling

I recommend watching it. The main character remind a lot of JF members who dream to work and live in Japan.

I have never seen the movie, but was personally not impressed by the book. She goes on as if she knows all about Japan and Japanese culture - and then you find out it`s from a 5 year stay in Japan as a small child.
She expects the company to hire her and give responsibility from the very first day, but Japanese companies simply do not function that way. Especially as she is hired as a general office person - the translation bit she thinks is going to be her job seems more like something she came up with instead of what her actual contract was. (She assumes that is what she will be doing based on her own qualifications, not what the company is asking of her.)
So instead of accepting office training as is the normal procedure in Japan, she throws a fit that she is not given high responsibility at the start... And as she is on a year contract, instead of messing with unemployment and all the visa issues having to go with firing an international employee, they keep her on until the end of the contract and then do not renew.

It`s been quite a while since I read it, so may be remembering some details incorrectly, but it seemed more like a childish tantrum over seniority.
For me, actually knowing how Japanese companies function, it was a cringe inducing read.

Japanese companies do huge amounts of training inside the company. A degree and qualifications are about 30%, and the rest of work education is all done once you are employed. Employees come in with a certain level of education that is boosted by continual office training. Someone with little work experience does not just hop into a company in a high position based only on their education. I don`t think this is the policy anywhere, really. You give new graduates time and experience before sticking them into important positions - but this is exactly what the woman wanted to happen in the book. She wanted the company to ignore the fact that she had very little experience, had just started working there, and was refusing to participate in office training... And just stick her in management. And when they didn`t, and instead chose someone who had worked there for a long time, had a good reputation and who was good at their job... but who just happened to have a slightly lower level of education instead - she throws a baby fit.

It was like watching a train wreck, and made even more pathetic by how she thought she was completely right, was entitled to so much, etc...

i see, thank you both for explaining. i am sure that working for japan company might need someone to change their list of values and attitudes. and sometimes ppl might be hit harder by the fact.