One of the saddest articles I've ever read (crazy Japanese)

[UglyCasanova]

Link

How does one become this utterly pathetic?

 

[MJinZ]

Normal. In Japan.

 

[eits]

holy shit...

/facepalm

 

[Hacp]

The reason is because jobs don't pay well for younger people thanks to the great recession. That means most of the men can't afford wives. Japan is a great example of why the womens rights movement is bullshit. If women want equal salary, they need to start marrying down.

 

[lxskllr]

I wonder what the normal Japanese(do they exist?) think of these people. Do they laugh at them, or is it completely normal?

 

[JS80]

You mean these same people? http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2101618

 

[Toonces]

I wonder what the normal Japanese(do they exist?) think of these people. Do they laugh at them, or is it completely normal?

They're called 'Otaku' and regular Japanese people find them as weird as you do.

 

[Patranus]

That was depressing.

 

[Locut0s]

They're called 'Otaku' and regular Japanese people find them as weird as you do.

This.

 

[Locut0s]

There is a great book written by a western reporter who lived and wrote for a Japanese newspaper for over 20 years that I highly recommend to ANYONE interested in Japan. While a little OT it does cover some of the sexually strange aspects of Japanese culture, though mostly it covers the Japanese underworld. It's a touching read and an all-round VERY good book.

Tokyo Vise:
http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Vice-Ame...3309961&sr=8-1

 

[OCNewbie]

m4l

 

[Schadenfroh]

This is what happens when your country's women go after American men.

 

[Kirby]

As if it wouldn't be popular with most of AT.

 

[Toonces]

This is what happens when your country's women go after American men.

Hey!
I'm Canadian

 

[Schadenfroh]

Hey!
I'm Canadian

The Japanese women thought you were an American.

 

[Toonces]

The Japanese women thought you were an American.

Touché.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I actually took a class on East Asian History and Politics and we did a unit on Japanese culture. For the quick explanation, Japan has always had a strong sense of masculinity with the Samurai and the suicide at failure which later evolved to the kamikazi die for the emperor stuff during WW2. Japan basically believed the rest of the world was inferior to the Japanese race and after losing WW2, it was a big hit on the egos of the people, especially the men. That later evolved into a culture where so many of the men want to attain their sense of masculinity back where they start drawing anime that basically depicts the domination of helpless women. Ever wonder why its a clumsy little school girl getting gang raped by 20 Japanese guys?

 

[mmntech]

They're called 'Otaku' and regular Japanese people find them as weird as you do.

I guess it's no different than the nerds here who have spent decades trying to find the "nude raider" code to see Laura Croft's jugs.

That said, I've always been told Japan is more sexually open than the West. I'm not entirely convinced that's true. Seems to me there's a lot of bottled up angst among young Japanese. Men in particular.

Also women's attitudes have changed greatly but men for the most part have stayed traditional. That's part of the reason why women are delaying marriage there. They want careers and independence but their husbands still expect them to stay home and clean. It's a trend across East Asia but it seems more pronounced in Japan. I think that's what makes it so fascinating to outsiders. Japanese culture is a bit quirky, by Western and Asian standards.


Love Plus has spawned a boatload of its own urban legends. I doubt this is a major trend, like the article makes it out to be. It's still sad though. Putting all that emotional effort into something that can never love you back. It's high school all over again.

 

[goog40]

They must not have readily available H&B in Japan if they're blowing money on that.

 

[Barfo]

They must not have readily available H&B in Japan if they're blowing money on that.

I bet japanese men wouldn't know what to do with H&B.

 

[Locut0s]

I guess it's no different than the nerds here who have spent decades trying to find the "nude raider" code to see Laura Croft's jugs.

That said, I've always been told Japan is more sexually open than the West. I'm not entirely convinced that's true. Seems to me there's a lot of bottled up angst among young Japanese. Men in particular.

Also women's attitudes have changed greatly but men for the most part have stayed traditional. That's part of the reason why women are delaying marriage there. They want careers and independence but their husbands still expect them to stay home and clean. It's a trend across East Asia but it seems more pronounced in Japan. I think that's what makes it so fascinating to outsiders. Japanese culture is a bit quirky, by Western and Asian standards.


Love Plus has spawned a boatload of its own urban legends. I doubt this is a major trend, like the article makes it out to be. It's still sad though. Putting all that emotional effort into something that can never love you back. It's high school all over again.

As I mentioned above read Tokyo Vise, it's a fascinating book!

As far as Japan being more sexually open than the west I think what you are seeing is a culture that views sex very differently than the west. Because of this some aspects of sex and sexuality are treated very differently and to the west it seems much more open. For example love hotels, porn shops, hentai, message parlours and the like much more out in the open than they would be in the west simply because Japanese culture doesn't try to hide sex as an evil thing the way the west has done. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's open sexually in the same ways that the west is. As you mentioned gender inequality is a problem in Japan and until fairly recently the laws against pornography were fairly strict which is why you see so much tentacle hentai pr0n and other odd fetishes.

Japan also has the long running Geisha tradition which lives on in Host and Hostess bars to this day which is much more about being entertained by someone of the opposite sex than necessarily about sex. These are bars that men and women go to in Japan and pay to flirt and drink with members of the opposite sex. Sex in this case is not involved in any way. The men and women at these clubs are essentially professional flirts who sit with you, get you to pay for drinks, laugh with you, talk about your interests, how your day went, etc etc...

 

[Locut0s]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_and_hostess_clubs

 

[Jeff7]

But wait, there's more.

 

[zoiks]

So how do you have sex with her? Drill a hole in your PS3 and insert your penis in it?

 

[zinfamous]

Oh. I thought this was going to be about the Japanese popularity of group anonymous suicide.

Or the pillow people.

Normal. In Japan.

also, this.