Is life in Japan good? Compare and discuss.

[caseylim]

Hi, I made this thread to find out about life in Japan. As you know, some of us don't know the 'real' Japan quite well. I think this thread will determine some of us whether to live in japan or not live in Japan.

I never been to jap and other countries expet singapore and vietnam.

[Praetorian]

Well, they're 9th on the quality-of-life-o-meter...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDI Although I can't speak from experience, the top 30 countries tend to be very good to live in. :)

[caseylim]

OK, lets talk about the cost of livig in Japan first, then move on to social, and physical.

How much does a normal loaf of bread(400gm, found in supermarkets not bakery) cost in Japan? malaysia- rm2-3/ usd 0.6-0.9

[koku]

i'd be more interested comparing the quality of life as to jobs.

per say as a JET or something.

Anywho, carry on.

[caseylim]

Well, Azreael-san said he earned usd30k-35k per annual. lets assume 33k usd, 330k yen per annual, 330/12= 27.5 k per month. average price of a ramen= 300 yen, 27500/300 = 91.6667 ramen per month.

1 month 30 days, 91.667/30= about 3 cups of ramen per day, where does he get capital for other spenditure?

[nice gaijin]

You can get a loaf of bread at a hyakkin for (you guessed it) 100 yen. A normal loaf of bread at a conbini or grocery store would be 200 yen and up, and bakery bread would obviously be more.

In general, the cost of living in Japan is pretty high; but that depends on your lifestyle and where you are living. If you live in a metropolitan area and eat out all the time you are going to blow through money pretty fast. If you cook for yourself and live in a more rural area you might not.

you have to be more specific when you ask about the "quality of life" or the "cost of living"

[caseylim]

Umm, I was thinking to start with cost of living since money matters on the quality of live right?

Well, in Singapore, things are priced quite ok but too bad they had to little land. A small apartment cost about usd 200k. What about Japan? I choose singapore as a comparison because it's the most developed country in outh east asia.

let's start with normal city lives like in those animes like ichigo 100. yeah, how mush does it cost for a 2 storey house 22x80 sq feet in a normal city? Because I see some families in anime stay in apartment and some in houses.

[koku]

city life. JET pay. Willing to cook at home more often in order to save money but woud like to have weekends where you go out and some weekends of drinking or something?

Is that too extravagant for a JET employee?

[nice gaijin]

sounds reasonable. A Canadian acquaintence was able to live comfortably and even send a few hundred bucks back home a month.

Unless you are independantly wealthy, I'd say a house in the city is right-out. Don't look to anime for quality of life, or dramas, for that matter. It's a hell of a lot easier to draw someone living in a house than make it a reality, especially for a foreigner.

[caseylim]

Yes, I agree with that. Anyway what priveledges does JET offer?..opps seem out of topic but can I ask does JET offer in other asian countries?

What do you mean by city life JET pays? Is it the food, accomodity, or what? IMO, those that stay in houses in tokyo are super rich while those that stay in apartments in tokyo are average and those that stay in dorm are poor . Is this the caste system in tokyo. OK, lets talk about tokyo first?

[nice gaijin]

JET is a program with the Japanese government for foreign native english speakers to teach english in public schools. It does not offer Jobs outside of Japan, you'd have to look into other government-run programs in the country you want to work in.

kokujin was setting up a scenario, asking whether life in the city with a JET income would be comfortable.

There are very few houses within Tokyo, and yes those that do live in houses are insanely rich. If you have to ask, you can't afford it. Average Tokyo dwellers live in small apartments, (about 200-300 sq ft maybe, but that's just an estimate from visiting a few) and pay 60,000 yen/month and up. As a foreigner, actually getting an apartment on your own is another story. Dorms are for students. There's not really a caste system based on where you live, unless you really want to categorize people like that. No one would look down on you for living in a small apartment in Tokyo, because practically everyone lives in a small apartment there.

Personally, I would not want to live in Tokyo.

[caseylim]

So which area has the best life in Japan? Don't tell me it's those villaging prefectures where they do agriculture or those industrial places? Actually, I dont know Japan much so I set this thread to get more info. IS Tokyo like those city with skyscraping buildings, commuters, and others. no housing area, no playgounds, no baseball/tennis courts. Is it something like New York?

[General_Admission]

Well, they're 9th on the quality-of-life-o-meter...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDI Although I can't speak from experience, the top 30 countries tend to be very good to live in. :)

Doesn't look like a very good way to measure how good a country is to live in. It's based on 3 factors: life expectancy at birth, literacy rate, and GDP.

That is grossly simplified to the point of being completely ridiculous.

Anyone can go on wikipedia and draw up a simple ranking system like that.

I would make mine

'Ability to earn millions at the expense of others'
'Best Schools'
'Most National Parks'
'Infrastructure'
'Superb Military Power read: Portection'
'Best laws supporting the individual and not to make everyone mediocre'

the list goes on and on.

[koku]

i'd group it on


-Fun stuff to do(clubs, events, a social atmosphere of people). great Night life.
-Overall wealthyness of the place. Serenic architecture is nice(I love the way some Japanese places look at night).
-SAFETY.
-Opporntunites for wealth, sucess, and growth.

I think those 4 :P is great for me.

[CorSec]

Well, Azreael-san said he earned usd30k-35k per annual. lets assume 33k usd, 330k yen per annual, 330/12= 27.5 k per month. average price of a ramen= 300 yen, 27500/300 = 91.6667 ramen per month.

1 month 30 days, 91.667/30= about 3 cups of ramen per day, where does he get capital for other spenditure?

You made one simple mistake: $33,000 is roughly equal to 3,300,000 yen. (A yen is roughly one penny) You had one yen = $.10, so he would be making $3,000 per year. Yes, at that point you couldn't afford anything.

Therefore, he gets 275,000 yen per month, which is 9,167 yen per day. That's 30 of your 300 yen ramen per day.

[Illusion]

From www.jetprogramme.org :

C. Remuneration
Those who pay tax in Japan receive approximately 3,760,000 yen per annum, in monthly payments. Those exempt from Japanese income tax, based upon a tax treaty between Japan and the participant's home country, receive approximately 3,600,000 yen per annum in net payment. Hence, all the participants, including those liable for Japanese tax, are paid 3,600,000 yen per annum. A part of the cost for mandatory health insurance and pension fund (about 40,000 yen per month) is borne by each participant and is deducted from the monthly payment of 300,000 yen. This remuneration is a sufficient amount to cover average living expenses in Japan.

[koku]

wonder if i could live comfortable AND pay some major loans :P

probably not eh.

[Varia]

In my opinion, quality of life in Japan is much higher than it is here. Although we have more non-physical luxuries (physical ones being clothes dryers), such as no gender barriers, and an overall greater right of free speech, Japan, while somewhat lacking those, functions very well as a society. Everything is neat, properly ordered, on time, high quality, and everyone puts their heart and soul into everything they do. Everything is fresh, everybody always has something to do, somewhere to go. The overall efficiency level of Japan is, in my opinion, much greater than that of America. Of course there are exceptions, but on a general level, that's how things go. If Japan's geography wasn't so horrible, I think it would be well on it's way, if not already, the #1 country in the world. Japan cannot support itself without outside sources, and as such, cannot grow much more than it already has.
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[nice gaijin]

I think I'll let Az or Pierrot address the concept of things being efficient in Japan..

[Varia]

I, too, have been to Japan. I think I have a fair understanding of how things go on over there.
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[nice gaijin]

I've also been there, and that's not what I've seen, nor is it story i hear from everyone who's spent a lot of time working there.

[Varia]

Well, then, what do you think about Japan?
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[nice gaijin]

I believe this thread is about the standard of living in Japan, which is what I've been posting about; not my opinion of the country as a whole. If you wish to start your own thread about that, go right ahead.

[Varia]

You can't really judge the standard of living without looking at several aspects of the country.

I guess what I meant was, "What do you think about the standard of living in Japan?".
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[koku]

just when it was getting good. :( this is where Jay would come and make a popcorn reference.

[nice gaijin]

I'm not an authority on this since I have yet to live in Japan for an extended period of time (again, Az or Pierrot would know more about that than me), but from what I've seen and read and the people I've spoken to about it, it's a difficult country for foreigners to live in without assitance (at least at first), be it from a friend or a guarantor or a government agency. Unless you are already wealthy or on your way to becoming a successfull businessman, the best you can hope for is to live comfortably and maybe put some money away into savings.

The difference between the cost of living in Malaysia and Japan is considerably different from America and Japan. Here's an opinion from a malaysian friend of mine:
Jepun ialah salah satu negara yang termahal di dunia. Saya akan bagi bandingan. Seorang Jepun yang tidak mampu beli rumah and kerata di Jepun dapat beli satu tiga-tingkat banglo dan milik tiga mercedes.

[Dana]

I think there are pros and cons to living in both countries. Japan is more convenient for someone without a car, though outside of cities the convenience kind of dies a slow horrible death. People are generally comfortable financially, though I think its because they make some huge sacrifices. Family life seems to be good in Japan on the whole.

But all the things that come off as being good have a kind of undertone that, as an american, I can't get used to. These people spend money like drunken sailors on any new fad that comes along. But soooo many people work horrendous hours, it makes me want to die just thinking about it. Even the school kids seem to never get a break. Family life appears to be good, but I don't like that women are expected to stay home with the kids. I am sorry but I want a career, as well as motherhood. But that is just my culture poking through. Its very hard for women to get jobs that they can advance in since most employers assume that once they get marreid they will quit to have children.

If I had to choose, I would want to live in America. I know I am biased because I am American, but I lived in Finland before too and I could definitely see myself living there permanently. Japan definitely has a high standard of living, but its a different standard to America. What I value, things like being able to afford a big house with a yard and being able to drive on a freeway without paying 60 bucks, might not be all that important to Japanese people. So I think its just all in how you look at it ^^;;

As for efficiency, the Japanese are extremely efficient in things like being on time for trains and busses and such. But for anything you have to do in the beuracracy, its a living nightmare. There is so much red tape it can make you want to rip your hair out.

EDIT: As for living comfortably as a JET, its highly doable if you choose to live in a smaller city. There are many places that are very convenient for Tokyo or Osaka or any other given city that are considered far enough out to warrent lower apartment prices.

I pay 64000 yen a month for a very small apartment, but I am doing just fine. I travel nearly every weekend, and I am paying my college loans and credit cards. I have internet, a cell phone and a land line and I am in two clubs, all of which have a monthly fee. Even with all this I have money to spare every month and sometimes send extra money home to put into my credit. And I make less than the average JET does!

[Praetorian]

Doesn't look like a very good way to measure how good a country is to live in. It's based on 3 factors: life expectancy at birth, literacy rate, and GDP.

"The UN Human Development Index (HDI) measures poverty, literacy, education, life expectancy, and other factors."

It's how the actual United Nations measure it, not some random schmuck who felt like making a list. Ofcourse, the HDI, for example, does not reflect political participation or gender inequalities. However, upon checking that list it seems pretty much correct.

Are you perhaps jealous that your country is not in the top 5/10/20, while in your opinion it deserves to be?

[Invictus]

Life for me is good. I have enough money to get what I need and save what I want, my job is fun, my social life is decent, the weather is okay, the landscape is cool, et. al. Of course, as I love to say, whether or not life is good depends greatly upon whether or not your attitude is positive.

[caseylim]

Quote:
Jepun ialah salah satu negara yang termahal di dunia. Saya akan bagi bandingan. Seorang Jepun yang tidak mampu beli rumah and kerata di Jepun dapat beli satu tiga-tingkat banglo dan milik tiga mercedes.

Translation: Japan is one of the the most expensive country in the world( I think he meant one of the highest cost of living country in the world). I will make a comparison, a japanese that couldn't afford a house an d a car in japan can own a 3 storey bungalow and 3 mersedes.

I think that is wrong, it depends on location. The houses in city are expenseive compared to village. So you can see bungalows in the middled of a paddy field in malaysia. Besides, import cars are more expensive because the gov. charge high tax on them to help support local cars. PLs, buy Malaysian cars, help us.

I think the life in tokyo would be a bit similiar in to singapore. Singapore is a small country and lands are expensive. So our singaporeans neighbour buy malaysia land and build bungalows there cheaply. Since singapore and malaysia is separated by a 500m bridge, so it wont cause convenience. Too bad Japan does not have any neighbouring countries to use their land, they're in the middle of the ocean.

I could say that I think Malaysia is also one of the most liveable country in the world. A research has prove it. if you could earn at least rm3000(about 800 usd) permonth you can afford a house and a car in the city. You can led a normal live. So, you fogeigners, pls apply" Malaysia as my second home programe", it's a program to encourage more fogeinners to invest in mAlaysia.

more info. http://www.malaysia-my-second-home.com/why-reside-in-malaysia.html

[Azrael]

Define "good."

It all just depends on you, where you end up, and how you deal with things. In some ways, personally I feel like my time here is somewhere between college and the adult world.

Japan, while somewhat lacking those, functions very well as a society. Everything is neat, properly ordered, on time, high quality, and everyone puts their heart and soul into everything they do. Everything is fresh, everybody always has something to do, somewhere to go. The overall efficiency level of Japan is, in my opinion, much greater than that of America.
Wow.

I mean no offense by this, whatsoever. But man, you're really stuck in The Matrix.

[Kiljou]

Define "good."

It all just depends on you, where you end up, and how you deal with things. In some ways, personally I feel like my time here is somewhere between college and the adult world.


Wow.

I mean no offense by this, whatsoever. But man, you're really stuck in The Matrix.

There are no... chopsticks.

[nice gaijin]

caseylim, how can you draw comparisons between singapore and a place you have never been to and admittedly everything you know about is from anime?

I think the life in tokyo would be a bit similiar in to singapore. Singapore is a small country and lands are expensive. So our singaporeans neighbour buy malaysia land and build bungalows there cheaply. Since singapore and malaysia is separated by a 500m bridge, so it wont cause convenience. Too bad Japan does not have any neighbouring countries to use their land, they're in the middle of the ocean.
well, they did kind of dominate manchuria for a decade or so about 60 years ago, but that didn't go over real well with the locals...

I could say that I think Malaysia is also one of the most liveable country in the world. A research has prove it. if you could earn at least rm3000(about 800 usd) permonth you can afford a house and a car in the city...
That's exactly my friend's point. The cost of living in Japan (especially Tokyo) is staggeringly different from Malaysia. $800US/month will barely buy you sardine-can apartment in Tokyo, let alone a house, and a car.

[Pierrot le Fou]

Life in Japan is filled with disappointment and the necessity to swallow your pride and let shit slide that you wouldn't in your home country. If you are the type who can handle swallowing your pride and biting your tongue on a daily basis, then life here can be wonderful (assuming a well-paying job and all that). It is incredibly different from the US in so many ways. The bureaucracy is actually worse than that of the US (which is shocking in that it's possible to be worse than the US with red tape), and the cost of living is obscene.

The economy is in shambles, and the working world rewards blind obedience, and punishes creative/productive thinking. Being efficient is punished, because getting done early means you haven't done enough work that day. If you are at work for 12 hours, and do 3 different jobs that should take 1 hour each, but stretch them out to 4 hours each (.25 job/hour), you will be considered a better employee that the guy that finishes 4 jobs that should take 3 hours in 8 hours altogether (1.5 job/hour). Why? Because you came in earlier and stayed later.

That's Japanese efficiency.

We all have places in the world that we can tolerate the downsides because we enjoy the good sides so much. That place is not Japan for me. The downsides are obscene, and I am sick of being treated like an ignorant outsider despite having lived here for 2 years and being able to speak the language. I am sick of people wondering why I don't want to live here, and pretending that somehow I don't get stereotyped by the color of my skin the second I walk in a door. It's ridiculous at times. Life here can be wonderful, but it ain't for me.

[koku]

Life in Japan is filled with disappointment and the necessity to swallow your pride and let shit slide that you wouldn't in your home country. If you are the type who can handle swallowing your pride and biting your tongue on a daily basis, then life here can be wonderful (assuming a well-paying job and all that). It is incredibly different from the US in so many ways. The bureaucracy is actually worse than that of the US (which is shocking in that it's possible to be worse than the US with red tape), and the cost of living is obscene.

The economy is in shambles, and the working world rewards blind obedience, and punishes creative/productive thinking. Being efficient is punished, because getting done early means you haven't done enough work that day. If you are at work for 12 hours, and do 3 different jobs that should take 1 hour each, but stretch them out to 4 hours each (.25 job/hour), you will be considered a better employee that the guy that finishes 4 jobs that should take 3 hours in 8 hours altogether (1.5 job/hour). Why? Because you came in earlier and stayed later.

That's Japanese efficiency.

We all have places in the world that we can tolerate the downsides because we enjoy the good sides so much. That place is not Japan for me. The downsides are obscene, and I am sick of being treated like an ignorant outsider despite having lived here for 2 years and being able to speak the language. I am sick of people wondering why I don't want to live here, and pretending that somehow I don't get stereotyped by the color of my skin the second I walk in a door. It's ridiculous at times. Life here can be wonderful, but it ain't for me.


Being a minority is FUN!

I'm sure you're already basking in the benefits.

[Varia]

I mean no offense by this, whatsoever. But man, you're really stuck in The Matrix.

Of course there are generalizations involved, but in general, it's a pretty get down to business place. It's either you get motivated enough to study hard and get a nice job, or live with your parents for until god knows how long while having a part-time job at the local convenient store.

Because I don't really remember what I was trying to shoot for in this post, I'm going to stop now so as to retain at least some sense of dignity.

EDIT: In response to efficiency: Efficiency doesn't have to come about through conventional, beneficial ways. Concentration camps were efficient, weren't they? So, although on an individual level the system is lacking, as a whole, it is functioning well. But that's going to be changing within the next few generations due to the new ideas of the youth. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. My guess is that the country will lose some of its power, but the people will be happier, which is the most important thing. But only to a certain extent, because many people would be happy sitting on their asses watching TV all day. I wanted to tie in something clever sounding about the American population and sitting on one's ass watching TV all day, but I couldn't think of anything. To say it bluntly, many Americans are lazy and inefficient.
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[Azrael]

Basically, just read Pierre's post. Japan is anything but efficient. Work longer, not harder.

Recently, I re-adopted a way of life I'd forgotten since coming - "I must accept that which I cannot change or control." Since doing so, I enjoy my life here a lot better than I did a few months ago.

The only way I see myself staying here though is if I get offered a job with an obscenely high salary, and there's some super-hot Japanese model who wants to rock my world on a nightly basis but doesn't want to leave Japan. If both conditions are met, then I'd consider staying in Japan.

[Varia]

Yeah, you've got me there. The salary man way of working is pretty stupid. But if you have to sit in the office for 4 more hours to pay the bills then that's what you have to do. But it is pretty hard to put your heart and soul into something when you no longer have them. I lose on this one.

But on the opposite side, regarding things that a Japanese person likes, they will put unknown amounts of effort into what they are doing. Moeko's owl, for example. I bet a larger amount of Japanese people do things like that than Americans do. Because they spend a lot of time at work and school, they use their free time more efficiently. I'm sitting here in front of my computer every day because I can't motivate myself enough to go and find something interesting to do. On the other hand, my Japanese friends are busy with being the first place high school baseball team in Gifu, being the most stylin sumbitches on the block, going to karaoke all the time because they believe that if they try hard enough, they will become a pop star. Although they tend to pursue superficial things (well, who doesn't?), the Japanese I have met do it on a level that I have never seen here.
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[Pierrot le Fou]

But that's the whole thing -- it's NOT 4 more hours to pay the bills, as they don't get paid by the hour. It's 4 more hours of 'face time' not to mention coming in on weekends and holidays to make it seem like you care about your job by spending your free time there. THat has nothing to do with what needs to be done to get your work done, as I guarantee that coming in on Saturday when there are no students won't aid a teacher in their educational duties, nor will staying there after school if all their lessons are planned and they have no clubs, nor will coming in during a typhoon.

But they have to do it anyway.

That's horribly inefficient. The reason that humans don't tend to work 7-day weeks is because working Sunday is not a 16.667% increase in efficiency/productivity, but rather far less than that, because humans need time to refresh themselves and pursue their own interests. Furthermore, the concentration camps were anything BUT efficient, because they were killing people who had the potential for greater efficiency. But really that's a non-sequitor.

[Varia]

I meant they were efficient at killing people.
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[Pierrot le Fou]

Well, I'm glad that had lots of relevance to the discussion of business efficiency in Japan.

[Kustom]

Some hard facts about international productivity:

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/31/7/29880166.pdf
[Edit:wrong Url]

You don't have to read it, I'll summarize for you:

US:
GDP/hour: base 100
Average hours worked per year: 1824

Japan:
GDP/hour: 73
Average hours worked per year: 1789

Whoever tells you Japanese people are more hard working is uninformed or lying. An American gets more work done in 3 hours than a Japanese in 4. And they work about the same hours, although I'm not sure how the OECD came up with that. If they were working more, it would bring down their productivity per hour even lower...

What you want to say is that they are perfectionists (I'd say stubborn). They won't spare any effort to put your omiyages in four different plastic wraps, even if your plane is leaving in 5 minutes and you look like you might have a heart attack soon. If you ask for information and the person doesn't know it, he'll spend the whole afternoon looking for it, even if he has to call all of his colleagues and raise hell... This is somehow great, but you have to be really careful about what you ask if you don't have all day...

[nice gaijin]

so, to recap:

Americans are lazy, and inefficient
Japanese are hard-working, and inefficient.
We're even more efficient at being inefficient...

and the germans are the most efficient at genocide... nice parallel you're drawing there.

also, just a little article about the national debt- http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/editorial/20050904TDY04006.htm
The Yomiuri Shimbun

The government is using about 1 billion yen in taxpayers' money every single hour to pay interest on government bonds. This amount of debt-servicing is nearly equivalent to the sum of money needed to build a primary school.

The combined total of long-term debts incurred by the national and local governments is expected to exceed 770 trillion yen at the end of the current fiscal year. How should this nation deal with the world's largest fiscal deficit? Needless to say, overcoming this crisis requires reform that will entail pain in the form of cuts in annual government expenditures combined with efforts to secure revenue.

However, there is no denying the campaign manifestos of the ruling and opposition parties are inadequate in addressing the issue. The Liberal Democratic Party's manifesto says the party will strive to achieve primary balance as a step toward fiscal health early in the next decade. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Japan's manifesto pledges to accomplish the goal within eight years. But neither party is clear about the specific methods to be adopted to achieve these targets.

To curtail government expenditures, the LDP's manifesto only promises to implement such measures as reducing personnel costs through a cut in the number of government employees. Other measures mentioned include a reduction in funding for public works projects. But the manifesto incorporates few specific steps to achieve these targets. The amount of reduced expenditures cited in the LDP's manifesto is too modest.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Japan is fairly boastful about its pledge to cut expenditures and secure revenue. The leading opposition party's manifesto promises to reduce government expenditures by 17 trillion yen annually while also increasing spending on high-priority policies by 7 trillion yen. This means that the DPJ's manifesto pledges to curtail annual government expenditures by 10 trillion yen.

===

Promises doubtful

However, questions can be raised about policies incorporated into the DPJ's manifesto. The opposition party promises to reduce personnel costs for national government employees by 20 percent. However, it is questionable whether the DPJ will be able to achieve such goal as a party backed by Kokko Rengo, a national federation of labor unions at government organizations, independent administrative corporations and public corporations.

The DPJ's also pledges in its manifesto to halve the number of large public works projects directly supervised by the central government. It is easy to see this target is difficult to achieve if one stops to think about the need to improve the functionality of large cities, including a Haneda Airport expansion project in Tokyo.

The DPJ also promises to dispense with expressways tolls. What can be done to repay the 40 trillion yen in debts incurred by four highway-related public corporations if the opposition party's plan is implemented? Dispensing with highway tolls means no revenue will be gained by operating expressways. This would eventually force the government to use taxpayers' money to maintain expressways nationwide.

The DPJ's pledge contrasts with the government's current plan, which will seeks to repay the debts through highway tolls. Some critics also say the party's policy runs counter to efforts to reform the system governing annual government expenditures.

===

Details needed

Both the LDP and the DPJ say little about cuts in social security costs and tax grants to local governments. Expenses in these two categories account for a good portion of the government's annual budget. Given this, it will be impossible to rein in government expenditures if nothing is done to reduce social security costs and tax allocations to local governments. The LDP and the DPJ should present specific measures to deliver on their promises as soon as possible.

To secure government revenue, the LDP and its coalition partner, New Komeito, pledge to fundamentally reform the tax system by the end of fiscal 2007, including the consumption tax. Meanwhile, the DPJ promises to introduce a new consumption tax whose revenue will be used exclusively to help finance the state-run pension plan, a move that will, in effect, raise the consumption tax rate, which stands at 5 percent today.

It will be indispensable to increase the consumption tax to cover snowballing social security costs. We hope the political parties will debate how much the tax rate should be raised during their campaigns for the Sept. 11 House of Representatives election.

Both the ruling and opposition parties are evasive about discussing hikes in tax rates other than the consumption tax. The state is in dire fiscal straits, as shown by the issuance of government bonds worth more than 30 trillion yen annually. Under the circumstances, it will be almost impossible to replenish the depleted state coffers solely through cuts in government expenditures.

The political parties should tell the public it is inevitable that they will have to shoulder greater financial burdens to reform the state finances, although such efforts merit attention to the condition of the economy.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 4)

[Arilou]

Seriously, japanese work a lot more but are less productive/hour than americans, americans are in the same relationship to europeans btw.

[Kagemitsu-Daigo]

What about other jobs outside of jet? Does anyone have any experience with them?

I'll be damned if I work 12 hours a day. Question; since the Japanese work so long, is working a parttime job like working a full time job here (in the US). If so then I would just get a part time Job.

[koku]

But that's the whole thing -- it's NOT 4 more hours to pay the bills, as they don't get paid by the hour. It's 4 more hours of 'face time' not to mention coming in on weekends and holidays to make it seem like you care about your job by spending your free time there. THat has nothing to do with what needs to be done to get your work done, as I guarantee that coming in on Saturday when there are no students won't aid a teacher in their educational duties, nor will staying there after school if all their lessons are planned and they have no clubs, nor will coming in during a typhoon.

But they have to do it anyway.

That's horribly inefficient. The reason that humans don't tend to work 7-day weeks is because working Sunday is not a 16.667% increase in efficiency/productivity, but rather far less than that, because humans need time to refresh themselves and pursue their own interests. Furthermore, the concentration camps were anything BUT efficient, because they were killing people who had the potential for greater efficiency. But really that's a non-sequitor.


how BAD can you seriously slack off though compared to american jobs? Are you under the constant worry that "the boss might be a lookin'"?

Yes you waiste time but if you're only spending a quarter of your hours working....I have to wonder if it's hard to do.

Of course I'd rather get the work done in 7-8 hours and get the hell out.

[Kustom]

Seriously, japanese work a lot more but are less productive/hour than americans, americans are in the same relationship to europeans btw.

This is only partly true. Recent statistics put the euro zone productivity at 91% of America. Within the European Union, some countries are more efficient, namely Norway at 128% of the US, Luxembourg (124%), Belgium (113%), France(107%) and Ireland (104%).


how BAD can you seriously slack off though compared to american jobs? Are you under the constant worry that "the boss might be a lookin'"?

Japan's productivity per hour is 73% of the US. That means an average American worker gets more work done in 3 hours than an average Japanese in 4. And it takes him almost twice the time to do the same work as a Norwegian...

There is a world of difference between looking busy and actually doing something. Japanese employees excell at the former; I never thought of them as "hardworking" unless you focus only on the number of hours they spend at the office. They're just as lazy as we are; only because of social pressure they have to be physically there...

[kitsunepixie]

I’m a new CIR placed in Fukuoka (on Kyushu) and I must say that I have very little complaints about my own standard of living here. I absolutely love it, though I’ve only been here since late July. I’ll speak mostly of living expenses since most of you seem interested about that aspect of life here.

Now, for comparison’s sake, I’m originally from a small city in Illiana (the western edge of Indiana), which has very low living expenses. I studied abroad in Tokyo from 2002-2003 and had with a gross monthly stipend of 80,000 yen a month. At that time, I lived in an international house with relatively small rent (15,000 yen/month), but heating was sky-high during the winter (over 10,000 during the coldest months) for my tiny dorm because the insulation was so poor. It was quite challenging to survive in Tokyo with such a small income, but overall I think it was a very good experience for me. I ate out only on the weekends and never extravagantly (i.e. more than 1,000 yen a meal…), and became quite familiar with the cheapest places to buy groceries and how to make Japanese food (cheaper than making American comfort foods…).

Now, back to Fukuoka…it’s been named THE best city in all of Asia to live and work by many polls, and everyday it becomes more apparent to me why. It’s got basically all the stuff that I loved about Tokyo but with less of the annoyances. People are friendlier here, so if you don’t like drunken language leeches you may not appreciate that. It’s busy and populated, but you can also get away to go to the beach, mountains, and hot springs pretty easily. My own apartment is just a 10-minute bike ride to a cute beach with little outdoor restaurants that play reggae.

My housing situation is very nice. I live in a HUGE prefectural housing project apartment with 3 tatami rooms (one I use as a living room, the other a bedroom, and the last one an exercise room), a full bath, toilet, kitchen, and outdoor storage unit. I pay only 11,400 yen a month for that. I’m not kidding. I’m sure the other Fukuoka JETs who are not prefectural employees pay way more, though, and probably have much smaller apartments. Groceries are a lot cheaper than in Tokyo since there’s a lot of agriculture in Kyushu, but it’s still more expensive than Indiana. Note that produce does not last very long in Kyushu because of the climate. I heard that Kyushu wastes more food than any other place in Japan, but it’s because it’s hard to keep food for very long here. If you buy produce, then you should eat it ASAP. Eating out is also cheaper here than in Tokyo. I also find myself buying a lot of cute clothes here…:)

Minor gripes: Public transportation is pretty expensive in Fukuoka, even when compared to Tokyo, but at least it’s convenient. Compared to my hometown, where you’re pretty much screwed up-down and sideways if you don’t have a car, at least you can get around pretty easily. Yeah, the subways and trains stop at midnight, and it’s hellaciously expensive to take a cab if you’re out partying too late, but if you know the city pretty well you can bike or walk back (stick to the main streets if you’re a lady). Riding a bike during the rainy seasons really leaves me wishing for my car, though…;)

Westerners are not as common in Fukuoka as in Tokyo, so you have plenty of funny experiences. This Saturday I went to an underground rock concert with my friend Joyce, a Japanese-American ALT whose student invited us out to see his band play, and the last band of the night made a big deal of there being a foreign girl in the audience (I made sure to point out that my friend was a foreigner too since she says she wants to feel special too, lol). They asked me where we were from and when we told them they started chanting “YAY YAY U.S.A.” and requested that we take a group picture with them.　 Wherever you go, though, there are also going to be creeps. For the most part, I am impressed everyday by how nice people are here, but yeah…there are definitely plenty of weirdoes, too. Just Sunday I went to the library (very busy place) and had a conversation with the cutest little preschoolers, then right after that had a fat, sweaty, otaku-looking guy say “AIMU SORII” and try to rub up against me…IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LIBRARY. Being a blonde female in Japan definitely gets you a lot of unwanted attention, so be wary.

All in all, Fukuoka is a great place to live. Many JETs before me have actually stayed longer than their contracts because they don’t want to leave. I originally requested Osaka, but I’m not terribly disappointed to be where I am. They have a funky dialect here (Hakata-ben) to keep me occupied. I do like how people in Osaka stay walking on the right side…everyone in Fukuoka just walks all over the place, lol.

I love my hometown, but I also love living in Japan. There are pluses and minuses to both, so it’s difficult to choose between them.

Also, in regards to Japanese versus American/European productivity, I was a bit surprised about office life in Japan, since I heard horror stories about all the late hours followed by enkais that office workers are subjected to day after day...From my fellow CIRs' experiences, which I can't really generalize for all Japanese companies, I find that the workers do tend to spend a lot of time just...well, lollygagging. But yeah...they take a lot of smoke breaks and walk around carrying their coffee cups, a lot like that little guy with glasses from Dilbert. Then they have to work overtime because they spent too much time just walking around the office saying, "Oh, it's so hot and humid out, isn't it?" But this is office life. It's like having a second family (or, for some, the only family one has if they live away from home). My own office is mostly made up of new female college grads in their early 20s (like myself), most who still live with their parents, so we don't go drinking at hostess bars after work or take smoke breaks every 15 minutes. We do look up from our computers every once and a while and talk about fashion and how cute Johnny Depp's new haircut is, so those are our vices.

[Pierrot le Fou]

I'll let you enjoy the honeymoon before spoiling it all for you, but in a few months, remind me to tell you to look back at this post. Hell, a couple years even would make it more interesting.

[Dana]

Oh one thing I have noticed while in the teacher's room at school is the surprised way everyone reacts when I hand people work I have finished. A common scenario: English Teacher hands me about 120 assignments to mark, I sit there and mark them and hand them back to her in about 45 minutes. She says in a shocked voice, "You are already finished?? I thought it would take a couple DAYS."

Meanwhile I am like... yeah, I actually get to get the heck outta here at 420, unlike you sorry lot. Man I really do pity their situation sometimes!!

[kitsunepixie]

I'll let you enjoy the honeymoon before spoiling it all for you, but in a few months, remind me to tell you to look back at this post. Hell, a couple years even would make it more interesting.

Oh, I already know what to expect, so don't worry about spoiling it for me. Note that I did live in Tokyo for a year before. That was certainly a very up-and-down part of my life, but I have no regrets. If I would have remained at home, I would have had ups-and-downs too but none of the same experiences that I had in Japan. This time I came with more realistic expectations in mind, and so far, my worst fears have yet to be realized. I conceded that it's still quite early in the game, so we'll see...you may just hear about a crazy American girl who hijacked a subway train in a few months.

[Pierrot le Fou]

Again, one year living in Tokyo is not the same as the JET program working as a public servant. I won't spoil it for you. Just remind me to tell you in a few months.

[Mechz]

Work longer, not harder eh?

My kind of country! I'm lazy as hell, but I can do a meaningless task for hours as long as its easy.

[Puchu]

...I'm the kind of person who, if I'm into it, does things fast (yet properly), but if I'm not into it, I won't do anything at all... I got this.... "high scool students' Japanese in twelve months"-book to study from my exchange organization, but it's so boring I don't want to do it. And if I actually work at it, I can do a month in a day... or more like a month in three or four hours. I finished my english grammar workbook (20 lessons) in three days. and english is my second language as well... mwahahha..
yeah, the work longer, not harder thing pisses me off a bit. I mean, my school is a "high level" school, so were told to study AT LEAST 3 hours a day.
this on top of school being from 7.30am to 5pm+bukatsu till 6.30pm. (7 in summer, 6 in the winter months). so, come home at 7, eat, ofuro, homework till 11 and up again at six. unless you want some spare time as well, then you'll have to sell your soul to the devil, or something like that....

I just... stopped studying at junior high, cause school was too easy, and I still got straight As, so forcing me to study for three hours every day... that would create a monster, so basically, I just lock myself in my room, and read manga while saying that I'm studying. hey, it is studying in a way, I mean, I am reading it in japanese, after all.....
My philosophy: do it quick, and then slack of for the rest of the time. doesn't work too good in Japan.

..and Norwegians are that efficient? o___O;; wow, I didn't know... oh, now I'm gonna get all nationalistic and stuff again.... -___-;;