Japan has become arguably the world’s ugliest country.
~Alex Kerr
I looked for the context of this quote. Just like anyone else, I didn’t quite understand where he was coming from. Did he mean politically because Japan has one of the most difficult acceptance procedures for asylum seeking refugees? Does the ugliness come from their culture of silence for bullying or sexism? The Yakuza’s Filipino sex-trafficking?
Alex Kerr meant his quote in a geographical and environmental sense. In which, I would also agree. The country rapidly industrialized in the last half-century by leveling hills, changing river patterns, building highways and apartment complexes. Tokyo 2020 Olympics is coming very soon, and they need to accommodate for the droves of people who will visit (and then leave the city a wreckage). On a national level, is Japan doing what it can to preserve the environment? I never really thought about it due to how the areas I viewed are the well-kept tourist hangouts.
A comment made during one of our last dinners in Ueno made me take a step back from all the excitement of being in Japan. It’s hard to live in Japan. Whether economically or culturally, it is difficult. Maybe it’s not a good idea to drop everything, learn Japanese, and go live in Japan (like some of us joked about during the trip).
Japan is rated the 3rd loneliest country in the world. Loneliness is determined by the number of individuals living alone. Some of the factors that affect this are cultural closeness with one another, evidenced by the low birth rates. Or it could be growing independence of the female workforce living on their own rather than starting families. Many elderly people are also living alone. Each situation is very individual, but doesn’t take away from the growing social and cultural concerns.
This is a very rose-tinted trip. I learned a lot about myself interacting as a tourist in a setting that I’m not all too familiar. It was an overall fantastic journey, one that I’ve been privileged to experience. But did we ever take a step back and see that maybe Japan isn’t the Disneyland we make it out to be? At the beginning, we talked about the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that wrecked the East coast of Japan. Many families lost their loved ones and their livelihood. Towns were destroyed by the waves. It’s not all Akihabara or Harajuku, although I wasn’t immune to seeing it that way at times. But maybe we can delve even deeper into some of Japan’s history and reflect on its current issues.
Here are some articles I read to supplement this reflection. Japan’s refugee acceptance rate: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/why-japan-accepts-so-few-refugees-2018-4 Japan is the 3rd loneliest country: https://www.immigroup.com/news/top-10-loneliest-countries-world
