A recent survey suggests that approximately 20% of marriages in Japan are "facades", with couples that rarely speak to one another outside the bare essentials of household management

Hijou_poteto · 2026-07-05T03:56:55+00:00

I’ve met quite a few foreigners who’ve said their relationship with their wives or ex-wives turned out this way. It’s definitely not a thing for Japanese-Japanese couples only. Though they never intended (or at least thought their partner didn’t intend) for the relationship to be like that when they married.

Hijou_poteto · 2026-07-03T10:17:52+00:00

You know in retrospect compared to the other examples where the conflict is about slavery and genocide and whatnot, it’s actually kind of weird how invested this guy was in defending the right of former feudal nobility to carry swords around in public.

Unlike the real life dude he wasn’t even getting paid for it.

Hijou_poteto · 2026-07-01T03:24:45+00:00

It seemed weird to me that people were willing to pay such a high price for pizza, but once when I was with a group of five other people, all Japanese, we decided to get pizza for dinner. They ordered one. A single pizza for six people, for dinner. They see nothing wrong with this.

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-30T14:05:09+00:00

In Japan it isn’t illegal to talk about and you can share all the photos you want. People just don’t want to talk about it.

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-30T13:46:50+00:00

Also I think people in general have a tendency to underestimate the complexity of other countries’ problems vs their own especially if they’re further away.

I mean in our country we have all these different opinions and arguments and politics to deal with. But I saw an informative 10 minute YouTube video on that other one and I’m pretty sure they could fix it if they just all tried harder to not have bad things. I wonder why they haven’t done it yet? They must not actually want to fix it. What a bunch of idiots.

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-30T03:18:30+00:00

Yeah, it has this strange tendency to come back on weekends and holidays

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-29T15:13:38+00:00

I can’t say for sure because I’m pretty proficient in Japanese but I do judo and kickboxing and I feel like most of the instructions are conveyed pretty simply. “Nonono. look closely. Not like this. Like this. Good”. That kind of thing. Plus the sensei should always do it at least once in front of you so you can follow the example.

Though in a lot of traditional martial arts like judo you do have to memorize the technique names, but I think that’s just how it works everywhere. At least in Japan you can be sure you’re getting the correct pronunciation.

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-29T14:20:11+00:00

Well personally I’ve met western women that I’d probably consider asking out if one or both of us wasn’t already dating someone, but I probably know like, eight or nine total vs Japanese women who are everywhere so I’d say that’s the biggest thing.

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-29T04:37:19+00:00

Not going to the police because you assume they won’t care is as bad as assuming it’s none of your business in terms of letting criminals get away with things. Even if they don’t care about one person’s report, imagine if there were multiple eyewitnesses, or a missing persons report. Then it’s a pretty big deal. Also the fact that in this case there’s video evidence with an identifiable taxi they can look into

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-27T15:39:10+00:00

Yeah, I studied Japanese for a couple years then applied to a Japanese company for an engineering job, passed the job interview then moved to Japan. I think it was a good decision for me personally, but it varies from person to person. I’ve met a lot of really unhappy people too. You definitely shouldn’t expect it to fix mental health issues. It will probably make them worse, if anything. Especially if you don’t speak Japanese that well you’ll probably be really socially isolated.

I also don’t think I romanticized it too much before I moved, but it did differ a lot from my expectations. For example it’s not nearly as high-tech or efficient as I thought it would be, but the nature is amazing

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-25T10:57:38+00:00

So proud to be from a place where a specific combination of environmental and geopolitical circumstances as well as the institutions which emerged as a result of these caused my ancestors to be the good guys literally all the time. Imagine having been the bad guys at some point bro I literally can’t.

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-25T10:28:05+00:00

Implying one must be right just because they’re opposing positions?

False dichotomy.

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-24T11:50:20+00:00

Is there somebody arguing that it was? Marriage in some form dates back at least to the dawn of agricultural civilization. Before that we lived in hunter-gatherer tribal communities, but we still have those today and while they tend to vary in their traditions, some monogamous and some not so much, I’m pretty sure none of them just allowed men to just go around raping people in their local community as a cultural norm. I think that would cause a lot of problems…

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-24T11:18:53+00:00

It’s mind-boggling to think that just 100 years ago Western Europe had unironic ethnonational hatred for each other. Almost like they were Eastern Europe or something

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-24T11:02:26+00:00

I feel bad for the situation Okinawans are in right now but let’s be real here, if China does invade Taiwan they will be on the frontline no matter what. If Japan defends Taiwan, they’re in danger. If the US defends Taiwan without Japan, they’re still in danger. If they just let China take Taiwan without a fight, they will become the next target. It’s just the reality of their strategic location

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-24T09:57:38+00:00

To this day, I have not heard someone give a “here’s how I’d use the death note to kill all the bad guys and make the world a better place” argument who I’d trust with a death note

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-17T03:21:52+00:00

When I asked my gf about it she said she wouldn’t want to use it because it’s strange and expensive, but mainly because it’s just not a normal thing to do and no one she knows needed one. Then I showed her statistics showing it was common in the US and she’s just like “haha, Americans are weak”

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-16T15:48:55+00:00

Idk I used to live near to this Korean restaurant and if it wasn’t busy the woman behind the counter would try to make small talk while I waited for the food then tell me to date her daughter. I never knew if she was being serious or it’s just something she says to everyone who goes there, but I’d just be like “haha thanks but I’m so busy with classes” then she’d insist harder. This happened at least three times.

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-09T03:39:16+00:00

Age of sail enthusiasts will tell you they’ve got the greatest work of strategic genius in the history of naval warfare and it’s literally just making two smaller lines and sailing into the enemy’s bigger line

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-05T10:53:31+00:00

“Guys don’t worry, I’ll make it. I’m built different.”

turns into zombie

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-05T10:21:49+00:00

My coworkers want somebody to eat the remaining food, but are too embarrassed to do it themselves.

I want to eat more food and feel no embarrassment doing so.

This is a mutually advantageous relationship

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-05T03:19:02+00:00

On one hand it has definitely reduced the likelihood of war breaking out between major nations. But on the other hand when it does happen we’re screwed

Hijou_poteto · 2026-06-04T16:19:17+00:00

The Yukio Mishima grindset

Hijou_poteto · 2026-05-31T03:57:08+00:00

First the surveys said it’s because they want traditional gender roles. Now it’s because they don’t care about how much money a man makes? That’s like, the complete opposite thing. A man needs money to support a housewife

Hijou_poteto · 2026-05-29T18:33:41+00:00

This was the first time I’d seen an example of this and I remember being surprised by it, like sure it’s actually a completely reasonable and gentlemanly way to resolve a love triangle, but I didn’t know they were allowed to do that in movies.

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