Mind, you could just say that's my own cultural biases talking (I was socialized in a manner you could call the "equal opposite" to Japanese manners), but even when you ask the Japanese how much they like their modes of socialization and living... they mostly don't.
Why do we continue to import customs from sufferers of depression at the level of a national illness?
EDIT: Very seriously, I'm not trying to start a flag-waving my country is better than yours contest, but I find it continually disturbing that happy countries are, by and large, ignored or ridiculed, while unhappy countries often export their mores, customs, and rules. For example, the very appearance of "group dating" as described in the article and in this comment thread pretty much demolishes the entire concept and point of dating: to get to know one person to the point of being able to form an intimate and (semi-)permanent emotional bond.
Mind, you could just say that's my own cultural biases talking (I was socialized in a manner you could call the "equal opposite" to Japanese manners), but even when you ask the Japanese how much they like their modes of socialization and living... they mostly don't.
Why do we continue to import customs from sufferers of depression at the level of a national illness?
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20120212rp.html
EDIT: Very seriously, I'm not trying to start a flag-waving my country is better than yours contest, but I find it continually disturbing that happy countries are, by and large, ignored or ridiculed, while unhappy countries often export their mores, customs, and rules. For example, the very appearance of "group dating" as described in the article and in this comment thread pretty much demolishes the entire concept and point of dating: to get to know one person to the point of being able to form an intimate and (semi-)permanent emotional bond.