Have I ever said that Japan is one of my most wanted-to-visit country? At least I put something-to-do-in-Japan in my bucket list. Sure! I definitely want to go to Japan.

I can tell that so many guys around the world want to travel to Japan like me. We heard a lot in media talking about good interesting things in Japan: How special and unique culture is, how they survive after the war and lead to the number one in technology, how creative and useful Japanese products are, how polite and strict Japanese working environment is, how fast and union they recover after the terrible earthquake a few years ago.

But I hardly ever heard any bad things about Japan or Japanese. So it was surprising for me to hear some kind of bad things about Japan from a New Zealand guy lived in Japan for a long time.

There are so many articles complimenting Japanese so I think it’s interesting to discuss about some bad things about that seem-to-be-perfect country.

There are some facts he told me about Japan:

1. Japanese is racist and has strong nationalism, indeed.

Staying there for a short time like a few days or weeks doesn’t make you feel these bad things but as living in Japan for ages, he told that Japanese thinks they are the best, Japan isn’t a Asian country, they don’t like Vietnamese and Thai and they feel insulted if someone thought they are from Vietnam or Thailand.

There is a funny story: A Japanese girl came to Thailand for her holiday. Because she has a dark skin so a Thai tour guide thought she was Thai and he was talking to her in Thai. The girl started crying a lot and kept saying: I’m Japanese, not Thai.

She cried because she has strong nationalism or she hate to be Thai?

How do you get this instance?  For me, it’s quite ridiculous to cry just because someone thought you was from another country.
Many people asked me if I came from Thai or Philippine. Instead of crying and trying to correct that “I’m Vietnamese”, I always laugh and joke them: “Yes, I do”.

Being proud of your nationality is really good but Being over and so racist is really bad.

2. No chance for foreigners to have Japanese nationality

My friend said even if you are living in Japanese for your whole life but you have your non-Japanese ancestor, it’s impossible to have Japanese nationality. And you will be given a card to show that: “You are not Japanese”. Wow. Really. Even if foreigner lives in Vietnam or other Asian countries, they don’t have to have a “racist” card like that.

Maybe Japan wants to have pure-Japanese-blood citizen?

3. Hard to live individually

I used to think that, Japanese is really a place for creativity and dynamism but my friend told me that everyone in Japan they all want to choose something that majority of people is using. And it’s weird if you choose something that is rare and different to others.

I’m not sure about this fact but good to know. Will check!

4. Rule, Rule, Rule all the times.

You can say: What is the bad point in this example. I just want to say that: for me, Sometime, following the rule so rigidly is not necessary.

I also heard that at school, Japanese child is taught really good and … he has to follow all the rule. But maybe my bad thought: I feel him like a robot.

Breaking the rule sometimes for me is really fun and enjoyable (if it doesn’t harm anyone).

5. Mass of suicide

With the pressure of work loads, The suicide situation has increased alarmingly recently. Japan is an excellent, wealthy and developed country but going with that is the stress and the pressure.

To sum up, I can say: every country has both good and bad sides so even if  Japan has high living expenses and these listed thing above, it still can’t hold my desire back to go there.

Anyway, it’s really fascinating to know that Japan is not a perfect country to live. Like it’s really funny to know a “perfect” person has something bad.

As I said, I still strongly want to travel to Japan one day lah Hehe.

What’s your opinion about these facts? Don’t get mad if you can’t adopt it.