It’s probably a good thing in the long run. Like how the plague in Europe actually gave the serfs more rights. Since it gave the workers more leverage since there was more demand for workers than they were in supply.
Japan is overcrowded. Sure villages are bleeding dry, but in the cities people live in tiny apartments that cost too much. And lots of people do very meaningless soul crushing jobs for little pay, jobs that are already automated in the rest of the world. Like even a job that can be replaced by a simple sign. Seriously when I was in Japan I saw people at the station that were just pointing passengers towards the exit. And it wasn’t even an emergency situation, just a regular workday.
Sure a shrinking population is bad for the economy, but for the people it will mean that housing prices will go down and pay will go up and they will have more rights in the long run.
That’s true, and Japan does have a workers shortage, but unfortunately they are planning on meeting that worker shortage by building robots.
In fact they have already deployed robots in places like airports and restaurants. You can occasionally see them depending on where you go.
One thing I would like to refute however is that housing costs in Japan are quite low compared to the United States. You can buy a house in Tokyo for less than you can buy a one-bedroom apartment in New York or the Bay area. Houses in the countryside are way cheaper.
There are literally millions of vacant houses in Japan right now that are being maintained by family members or neighbors. They are literally boarded up and you can buy them for pennies. I was just in Japan a month ago and in one town near Tokyo, over 50% of the houses were vacant.
But pay is not the same as in the US. Average wage in the US is 77k in Japan it’s 41k. Wages have been even more stagnant in Japan than in the US. Also Japan is in a unique situation. Nobody wants to live in an old home unless they have no choice, because Japan is an earthquake prone country. People only want to live in a home that’s build up to the latest building code. Otherwise people wouldn’t choose to live in tiny apartments. People rather live in a small new apartment than a larger old one, because they fear the old building is a death trap. Therefore rent and prices for relatively new homes are still high. And that’s also why, unlike the rest of the world, houses depreciate in value. And because houses depreciate they are maintained poorly. If you buy such a cheap house you need to raze it to the ground anyway and rebuild from the ground up, because the building is falling apart. Yes cheaper than in the US but you will most certainly lose a significant amount of money when you sell the home again. They are not investments in Japan.
Japan’s underworld has not escaped unscathed either: a majority of yakuza are over 50 and there are now more gangsters in their 70s than in their 20s. Meanwhile, senior porn is a growing niche, populated by a handful of silver stars in their 60s, 70s and even 80s.
Do older people watch porn with older performers? I was under the impression that younger people are the object of gaze regardless of age.
the older i get the more i like mum tums
I was watching a documentary about this. White guy who’s been living in Japan for decades goes to dying villages, talks with the locals in Japanese, they complain about no one wanting to live in villages, declining house prices, no one to do the necessary jobs. He mentions it’d be nice to live in a village.
The look of fear. You wouldn’t understand the culture, we have a certain way of doing things, … yadayada.
I’ve been watching this channel about a Canadian couple moving to a little village in Japan. The locals have been very welcoming. They’re renting a home from a local who were apparently very happy to have them.
I’m sure small town attitudes happen. They happen everywhere. I’m just not sure Japan is uniquely bad.
Idk. Why go to Japan if you want to live in a village when you can go go to Thailand.
what if you like Japanese culture and first world amenities
You should research Thailand a bit to update your worldview
Why the fuck would researching Thailand suddenly make me like their culture and amenities any better than Japan’s
You seem like a nice person, and any culture should be proud to welcome you and your reading comprehension levels!
What am i not comprehending? You implied that researching Thailand would “update my worldview”, when I merely mentioned cultural preferences and better amenities. Researching Thai culture would not make one like it any better than Japanese culture nor would it eliminate the fact that Thailand is a poor country with poor amenities, especially if you’re moving to a rural village.
Also if you can’t handle the word “fuck”, then you might consider getting off the Internet.
Obviously you run into a lot of other issues with a sudden change but we are frankly pretty overpopulated and could use a decrease. It turns out that a system predicated on infinite population growth with finite resources can’t be sustained forever. Especially with how finite they are in our case.
I think even worse than our population issues is the overcentralization though. SO much is based around Tokyo, the vast majority of jobs are located there, especially if you want any upwards mobility. It’s even worse if you include areas like Chiba and Saitama as part of the greater Tokyo area. Even the other cities pale in comparison to opportunities in Tokyo. If people could spread out a bit more, it wouldn’t be nearly as bad as it is now.
I was lucky enough to be able to move out of Tokyo last year thanks to my work. I am not in a super rural area but I definitely never want to go back to Tokyo if I can help it. I am in the mountains around Mt. Fuji, and get to work overlooking a spectacular view of the mountain. Don’t have to deal with packing into crowded trains in the summer when everyone is dripping with sweat.
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