It's like a hidden autocracy, people in the west probably think it's a democracy here. I mean, people can vote, but there's really only a single party with the same old ideas.
I once read that the reason Buddhism became popular in Japan so quickly is because it gave people a break from the rigid hierarchy everyone was used too. I often wonder why it's less popular now and whether that's an accident.
As far as I can see we're not so different from Japan, other than the fact we have more crime and our cities are dirtier because individualistic Westerners are too lazy to use rubbish bins.
People can be very individualistic in Japan as well, it just expresses itself in a different way than more Western cultures. It is very broad generalization, but in the west we like to show ourselves as more individual than we really are, while it tends to be the opposite in Japan. Open conflict avoidance is certainly more common in e.g. corporations in Japan, at least in my experience. But that's a very narrow definition of collectivism.
In my opinion, the issue with this collectivist society attitude is, very few people think for themselves unless they're explicitly told what to do. This has been the issue in Tokyo and Japan in general, it's wear masks, social distance, but get on a packed commuter train. People just do it, although it makes no practical sense and everyone knows it's stupid, it's just done.
Look at the case numbers in Tokyo though, not going well.
But I get your point. People doing collective things is not necessarily good. "Hey everyone, lets go to war" Ok.
Of course in the ideal world only the people that are correct would think for themselves or everyone would be correct all the time. But it doesn't work that way, usually people that think for themselves are wrong. When a culture has more people willing to go against the grain sometimes they will be right and make things better but more often they will be wrong and make things worse.
That's not limited to Japan, we have plenty of it in the Anglo-sphere as well.
I go out and I almost NEVER see people without masks.
Canadians held doors, helped each other, and apologized for being in the way because we had a deeply ingrained belief that everyone is equal. When every human being is equal to you, of course you would help, or point out TP on a shoe, or applaud their culture.
However, at some point in the last 20 years “Excuse me” has gone from “We both have an equal right to this space, and I had not noticed I took more than my fair share” to “I’m dirt, and not worthy of taking space at all”.
People who believe they are equal is perceived as “high and mighty”/ostracized, while people who believe they are dirt are welcomed as fellow commiserators to complain with.
Fair warning: I’ve lived in Canada my whole life, and have watched a lot of shifts that either break my heart or frustrate me.
As a Canadian ... what are you talking about? What's oppressive? Oppressive compared to what exactly?
The human mind is designed to work with a "tribe" of about 150 people. Above that and we have to layer culture and learned behaviors on top of innate traits to make the whole thing not implode.
One thing I'd say about the Japanese is their incredibly resilient, like I've never seen a race of people who can put up with so much rubbish and not even complain at all. While it can be seen as a strength, In my opinion it's actually a problem, there's way too much apathy in Japan and in my view, Japan is going backwards, not forwards. They'll likely need another Meiji to get them out of the death spiral they're in.
All of that being said, I absolutely love Japan and the culture ad the people, it's truly fascinating and ancient and "special", I just think it's a shame it have this view of perfectionof Japan from the outside, but the problems are mostly going unaddressed and nothing changes for the actual people of Japan, who are so kind.