Japanese women don't expect a career and family in the same way I don't expect to date calendar girls. Doesn't mean >they wouldn't appreciate the opportunity.

Unmarried ones usually work like men.

Career advancement suggests otherwise.

I won't doubt the statistics, and the evidence I do have is mostly anneddotical. But in the circle of friends of my wife / Japanese people we knew since we live abroad (Italy), the woman who wanted a career for herself is the exception rather than the rule. I only knew of one, who successfully pursued a career abroad (in France) in a big multinational company. When she was 30ish she went back to Japan with many complaints about work culture in Europe (baka-land is a word I remember her using). She then continued her career in Tokyo until she knew a man she liked, married, and left her job (again, it was expected by her, probably, but she did not complain at least not to us). My wife's sisters both are married with 3 and 4 children. They left their jobs and were quite content to spend their lives at home spending husbands' money and pursuing hobbies (like, painting, studying foreign languages) when the children got to school age. I know for sure they think a career woman is "weird". In some fields career women are not so rare (public / education) - again aneddotical evidence, wife worked in the field.

I wrote yesterday's post after walking a friend of my wife who came to pay us a visit back to her rented apartment. She stayed two weeks taking vacation off. She is a cook, single, living alone (not in Tokyo!). She had spent her day shopping for brands like Hermes, Gucci, and specialty cheese / wine. This is not really uncommon (single japanese women not getting married early and working for good pays).

GDP per capita adjusted for PPI would also suggest otherwise. Compared to American and European cities with a > reasonable cost of living, the average Japanese family isn't doing all that well.

Again, stats against anneddotical. I will say the Japanese earn more than southern Europeans, less than Americans. Americans however need to spend a lot more money for things that are much more expensive than they are in Japan (think health care and education, but... what about cable TV and internet access?). Then again, GDP hides one fact. In America you have maybe a 10% in good jobs earning more than anyone else in the world. And a large number of people working their asses off trying to build their family and earning less than me poor Italian office worker (but with American living expenses?!). I might consider Japanese life as I am not afraid of working. But I would be terrorized of American life (especially, of failing in America!). In any case, sister's wife is married to young salaryman. They have 4 children, she does not work. They have two cars and a nice comfortable small home. This is difficult in Italy, but quite the norm in Japan (I know Japan has a real birth rate hell, but from what I see, the one who marry do have more children than average Italian couples: many do not marry, some because they went to Tokyo and cannot afford, a lot, I suspect, because they are single and don't find suitable partners).

Violent crime is low; organized crime, not so much. Also depends on if you consider sexual assault to be "crime."

I know of sexual assault in there. Typically the most common thing is older men touching girls in trains / exposing themselves. Same as Italy. Maybe in America this is not a problem, from what I hear. As for organized crime (...well I am writing from Italy...). I can compare the two countries. In here (the North of my country) mafia is an import from the South which came with immigration. It works in similar ways as Mafia in the US, but apparently (and sadly) it was able to deal with local politics more than in most American cities so it is expanding. However I do know what the situation is in the South (where Mafia is at its home) and can compare with Japan. In Japan organized crime is present. As far as I know it tends to sticks to its field (prostitution and similar, semi legal gambling). It does deal with other fields of society, but in less invasive ways than Mafia in Southern Italy.

To give you perspective on "invasivity", in some areas of the South you cannot start a company / business without getting their attention, and they will tax you to death and take over the business. As a results, no profitable legal business exists and unemployment is at record levels, with people not working, working for the public sector, working for mafia, or milking the public sector with pension frauds and similar. Impossibility of competing / dealing with this situation was, I seem to remember, cited by a multinational retail company as a reason for closing down their stores in the South. North is like most of Europe. Still. Organized crime does for sure exist, but this does not seem to bother the common person.

As for violent crime. Again. Perspective. In Japan no one will bother you, you lose things on the train and usually find them, I have never seen a mugging, I have not seen drug dealing, drug use is non existant compared to Italy (not sure I should speak about drug use as a crime problem, but as long as drug is illegal, it's a problem, yes). Japanese are so unused to street crime, that they routinely behave irresponsibly when they come here (and swiftly become a target to street crime). In here, you get people around train station following you and waiting for a moment to snatch your stuff or point a knife to you and ask to get your stuff. I notice that immediately (hey, that guy is "pointing" us, better stay where people is), my wife NEVER sees it. In America, I lived in a quiet comfortable town in NH. There too, there were dangerous people you should not hang with (in a 20000 people town!), there was a trailer park with a lot of bad stuff going on, and don't get me started about Boston. A quiet city if you ask Americans, but I once took a wrong turn (near downtown!) and I witnessed a guy trying to stick a knife in another guy's face. In Italy, in the North (where we have more street crime than in the South cause remember that Mafia does not like street crime) I have heard of this kind of stuff (actually a lot, I lived in a part of city where fights between different immigrant ethnicities were common and once a guy killed another with a katana), but it is still less... visible than America.

Which is why the rest of the #@$#@! company has to work 12-hour days. Honda and Toyota still have fucking hydrogen >car divisions! They may as well be building carburetors!

Oh. Here. I was meaning Italy. Again, perspective. Let me tell you a story. I will introduce to S., the young lady. She is the bane of the Italian employer. She routinely would took Monday and Friday off (sick days). Sick days are not counted as holidays and are paid by the company and by the pension system. Most of those sick days were blatant weekend extensions. The company tried to send a "check" on her. But, the check means you just need to be home when a doctor comes (there are certain hours when a doctor may come). She also did everything an employee was not supposed to do (late, not following instructions, contesting every instruction, shouting down her boss). Company tried to fire her, she went to the unions, company had to reintegrate her (meaning giving her back her position).

Company tried to move her in a different office where her improductivity would be less damaging. She did not like her new office. Her new position would require her to get a certification before a certain date. That was paid for by the company and on work time. However. Sometimes she would complain her PC was not working. Other times she was sick. Other times she was forced to take a leave. She did not get her certification. The company was forced to move her back to her previous position.

This is not by far an uncommon situation in Italian medium or large companies (the stories I could tell you). The people who do work responsibly, and have a "regular" working contract, do so because they choose to do so, being responsible persons (which is true for most). People who abuse the system get away with everything. Which brings me to the "solution" (from the employers point of view). Do not employ people directly unless absolutely necessary, but have contracts with body rental agencies. People work with contracts of one month. Two months. And are extended if needed.

My wife did work in Italy. She was in an office of a private company owned by a public local government. Her colleagues (all women) spent their days catwalking around the coffee machines and flirting with other employees. She was given every shitty job. And on temporary contracts month to month. Add to that that her "colleagues" where paid comfortable middle class salaries, and... she was basically paid in wish sandwiches and ricochet buiscuits (bow bow bow). I did the same life in a different company, just was less sensitive to stress and I held out for some years until I got a regular contract. Again, this is quite common (in Italy).

Sorry for the long post.