What's the difference between Japan and India in terms of attitude towards life?
I'm an Indian married to a Japanese man. For one, let's get this out of the way: Japan is nothing like people imagine it to be. It's just a simple country the same as China or Singapore with more development and a lot of hard work.
1 . Work
The Japanese life revolves around working. My husband and friends work for over 12 hours a day and it's common for them to work 18 hours a day too. There's no life outside of work. The company expects you to forget life and dedicate it to the company joining day on. This is the norm. They work until they're too old to move. Once university is over, life is over. People get stressed and over worked but can't complain. The company often forces people out to drink, not that they're dragged out but it's understood that you can't refuse. You don't really get paid for overtime but you can't leave until your seniors have finished working and also leaving on time is considered leaving early, you look disinterested in work. It's an other unsaid rule to not leave until it's late enough. You have 10 free leaves from work in a year but you aren't allowed to take them. Rather, it's understood that you can't take them.
- Family and values
For some reason, family isn't given as much importance as it is in India. Of course it is important but not half as much as work is. You can't take a day off if your husband/wife is sick. Women sometimes do get a day off when their child is sick but not often. Values are terrible and I can't make it more clear. Japan has lost its morals and values completely and this is what shocked me the most as an Indian. They think it's okay to become a prostitute and highschool girls often sleep with random old men to buy clothes and stuff. Men think visiting prostitutes is the same as going out to play golf. There's nothing wrong with it. Many housewives part time as prostitutes and many allow their husbands to go to prostitutes because they don't want sex.
- Culture and religion
Japan no longer has the same Culture as it did but has still retained a lot of its Culture unlike India. India has lost its Culture to semi-communism and mixed Cultures along with other impurities that destroyed us while Japan on the other hand, no longer has religion(in the traditional sense). 80% of Japan doesn't have a religion but they still follow their Culture by visiting shrines and praying to a God even if they don't believe in it. There are very few Buddhists left and Christian missionaries do their best every day by attacking people who are Buddhist because they do believe in God and it's easier to attack someone who has faith and to convert their faith than to begin from scratch with someone who has no faith at all. Today there are some Japanese Christians too but none that actually believe in the god the way Christians do. They lack the passion and are too intelligent and logical to fall for religion. Unlike India, they will never have religious conflict and will never have country shutdowns for something like this and lose revenue. The best part about Japan is that Mr.Abe is a great man who is very intelligent and won't allow religious books to decide the laws of Japan like India does. He wants Japan to go back to its former glory and we love it. A lot of Americans here are upset about it for some reason and bring up the rape of Nanking; but again, do they have the right to argue when they built their country on another's land by raping and murdering the natives? Most of the angry Americans are those who came her for church missions. The Japanese see them as retards and accept the Bible they offer but we often see a bunch of bibles in the dustbin at work on mission day. I too have done this countless of times because that's become part of the daily life now. I have truly grown to respect their unwavering intelligence.
- Life
People are not as kind and compassionate as those in India. In India, if you fall down, 5 people will crowd around you to help you up but in Japan no one will notice even if you die on the streets (this actually happened to a man who suffered from a heart attack and passed out on the corner of the street and was only reported the next morning). Helping Japanese people you don't know is NOT A GOOD IDEA even if they're old and frail. It's common for them to ignore the person (foreigner) offering to help and think they're weird and walk away. I don't know why this happens but there are definitely some people who do accept help. This might be because the Japanese are shy and reserved and wouldn't want to take part in a conversation with someone they don't share languages with. If you are a foreigner, never try to talk with the old Japanese. If you offer to help they might even get offended. They don't really like foreigners and with good reason. Japan is a peaceful, clean and well-organised place and the only people out of order here are foreigners. There are a lot of Bangladeshi and Pakistani people in Japan who claim to be Indian probably because they're ashamed of their country for some random reason that I don't understand. They do a lot of weird stuff. This one time my husband and I went to Universal Studios Japan and there were 3 Bangladeshi men climbing up a light pole. The security guard brought them down and asked them where they were from and started writing notes or tickets and they said they were from India and another (I think he was Pakistani) guy said that they were lying and that they were from Bangladesh. I don't know why this happens but many shopkeepers do this to sell Indian items and that's okay as long as they don't embarrass us.
Japan is a wonderful place but it can get depressing for an Indian. This is mainly because India is very lively and bright. Everyone is happy or playful and easy to talk to in India but in Japan, it seems like life is lost and my husband says the same thing. We both want to go to India and I for one can't wait to go back. Most of the Indians (and almost all the foreigners) I know came to Japan because they liked anime and believed Japan would be like that. Japan has a beautiful Culture but if you come here for cartoons then you're going to be disappointed and that's why almost all the Indians I know want to go back to India where life is free and happy. If you're from an already depressing country like Britain, Japan would feel like a happier country but as an Indian, even looking out the window at an extremely uniform and grey view of apartment complexes is painful and I just want to go back home where you'd often hear children playing and making a little happy noise. I hated it back at home but that's one of the things I miss the most now.
