Re:Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations
by achamayou on Wednesday April 27, 2016 @05:59AM
(#11579026)
To be fair, the way America and Europe are represented in Japanese media is hardly accurate either. I think you should temper your depressed feelings with some bemusement at how cultures never quite understand each other. That's what I would expect a wise oji-san to do anyway.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations
by nihonde on Wednesday April 27, 2016 @06:21AM
(#11579147)
I lived in America for almost 40 years. I'm familiar with the place.
Re:Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations
by achamayou on Wednesday April 27, 2016 @06:56AM
(#11579293)
I wasn't suggesting otherwise. I've lived in Japan and in Europe for a number of years, and I've always found that the respective media failed to describe the other place in a way that I felt was accurate. I've come to be rather amused by that, that's all.
For what it's worth I do agree with you, for all the doom and gloom about Japan post-recession in the western media, it is very good place to live. I do believe that the overwhelming majority of the residents agree, and are voting with their feet accordingly.
Re:Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations
by nihonde on Wednesday April 27, 2016 @10:20AM
(#11580622)
Yes! The media is a pernicious influence. We hear this so often, but it seems insurmountable and inevitable.
In Japan, the media is complicit in silence about many important issues, but it is also overwhelmingly positive in tone. Television in Japan is either hilarious, emotional, or informative. When I went to the US embassy in Osaka, they had CNN on in the waiting room and I wanted to weep for my countrymen.
It is like a poison gas in the air——you can know it's there and that it's not good for you, but that won't alter the effect that it has.