I'm in Japan now. Whatever Japan is doing, they should continue doing it. Life is much better here than in the US. By a country mile. I could elaborate for hours on this small statement. Everything in the US is worse than in Japan, except perhaps the cheese selection at the grocery store. The US does a great job on cheese, I can give our team that one. Everything else, Japan wins. It's not even a contest.
Crime rate: Japan is better.
Divorce rate: Japan is better.
Suicide rate: Japan is better.
GINI score: Japan is better.
Life expectancy: Japan is better.
Obesity rate: Japan is best in the world.
I could go on and on and on. If democracy isn't working out in Japan, that tells me democracy sucks, not Japan.
I understand it, the "disagree votes" and whatnot. At the end of the day, I fully expect to be a -4 wrongthinker for posting this. People get defensive when you start talking about their country, but they've never set foot here. It is mind blowing. You cannot buy a 30 year old vacation home ANYWHERE in the US for $650. Like, you get the land, the house, everything. You couldn't even RENT one for a month in the US at that price.
On voting day here, you can be in and out in 5 minutes. The amount of time it takes to vote is the amount of time it takes for you to fill in the bubbles.
Tell me how that's worse than me waiting three hours in line in the Phoenix sun to vote, only to be given a provisional ballot because I'm the wrong demographic. And I know my ballot is going to be thrown in the trash and not counted.
You have never been to Japan. Visit. It will blow your mind.
edit: lol, "You're posting too fast" an hour later. Okay @dang, you win. I'll just take the "ur stoopid" comment like a champ. What kind of fucking Nazi won't even let you speak?
>As of 2025, Japan's suicide rate is reported to be 15.3 per 100,000 people, which is lower than the United States' rate of 16.1 per 100,000 people, despite the common stereotype that Japan has a high suicide rate. This marks a reversal from earlier decades when Japan consistently had higher rates than the United States.
I’m an American and I love Japan, in fact, I’m typing this in my hotel room in Tokyo. This is my 14th trip here in 16 years; my seventh trip since Japan lifted COVID-19 travel restrictions in late 2022.
Japan does many things well; I love the efficient and clean public transportation, the excellent customer service, the lack of price gouging at hotels and airports, and the general kindness of the people. I love the social harmony here. I also used to work for a Japanese company before switching careers to academia, and in many ways I seem to fit in better with corporate Japan than modern corporate America.
However, not everything in Japan is better than the United States. I stayed in Japan for nearly two months last summer and I found myself craving a nice deli sandwich when I returned to America. Deli sandwiches aren’t really a thing in Japan other than Subway.
For more serious matters, I know many Japanese people who moved to Silicon Valley because there were more opportunities there compared to Japan. I know a few Japanese women who felt stifled in Japan due to gender expectations and ended up thriving in America in careers such as art and biotechnology. While Japanese K-12 schools are better on average than their American counterparts, American higher education is still the best in the world, though it’s very expensive. While I had great experiences at the Japanese company I worked for (both in Japan and the US), not all companies in Japan are good. The work culture here can involve very long hours. Additionally, salaries in tech are much lower than in America, and the yen has been weak since 2022.
Additionally, the United States is a multicultural nation. While it still has a long way to go when it comes to rooting out racism and xenophobia, and while things are challenging with the current political situation, there’s still the idea that anyone can become an American no matter their birthplace. In contrast, Japan is a Japanese nation. I could naturalize, but I’ll never be treated as truly Japanese, and if I have children, even if they are half-Japanese, they would not be treated as truly Japanese.
I love Japan; I want to continue traveling here twice per year and I can see myself spending a sabbatical year here one day. However, Japan is not paradise, and while things in the United States are rather tumultuous now, there are still aspects of American life that are nicer than in Japan, and not just cheese and deli sandwiches.
Crime rate: Japan is better.
Divorce rate: Japan is better.
Suicide rate: Japan is better.
GINI score: Japan is better.
Life expectancy: Japan is better.
Obesity rate: Japan is best in the world.
I could go on and on and on. If democracy isn't working out in Japan, that tells me democracy sucks, not Japan.