{"id":1294,"date":"2018-11-01T03:16:06","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T18:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/?p=1294"},"modified":"2018-11-01T03:16:06","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T18:16:06","slug":"you-have-to-be-the-same-as-everybody-else-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/en\/cultural-difference\/you-have-to-be-the-same-as-everybody-else-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"You Have to be the Same as Everybody Else in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Japan, you don’t want to be “unique”<\/strong><\/span> because that means you’re different from others, and you’ll be considered as “strange.”<\/strong><\/span> Yes, it is very sad but that’s the truth<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

When I was a kid, my mom got me paint for art class. She got something very cute, but it wasn’t the same one as the rest of my classmates had. I still remember I was so mad at my mom because I didn’t want to be different from others. Now I think back and feel how stupid I was to react poorly just because the box was different. I was like 6 at the time and already aware that I was supposed to be the same as everybody else.<\/p>\n

This is very interesting because Japanese people can be very competitive when it comes to education<\/strong><\/span>. They want to be “different” and “outstanding.”<\/strong><\/span> But everybody’s path should be the same<\/strong><\/span>, meaning you’re supposed to go to a good high school to get into a good college to get a good job. And if you’re a man, you should keep the good job to take care of your family. If you’re a woman, you should get married before 30 and have kids soon and become stay-at-mom. This has been changed over the years, but it still exists in Japan.<\/p>\n

Nobody says anything if you choose the different path, but you feel isolated<\/strong><\/span>. Well, I chose completely different path from others, and I didn’t like how I felt. While I was in Japan, I was asked “Why are you going to quit such an amazing company?” “When are you going to get married?” “When are you going to have a kid?” “Why do you want to live abroad?” “Why do you want to go back to school?”<\/p>\n

Since I moved to Canada, I had never been asked such questions<\/strong><\/span>. Though a lot of people asked me why I left Japan. Nobody cared if I was married, if I had kids, or if I had a good education. Everybody was more interested in my decision to leave Japan and start a new life in Canada. They gave me compliment or even said how brave I was<\/strong><\/span>. I have experienced the same in the states<\/span>.<\/p>\n

People in North America don’t judge you based on your marital status or social status not as much as they do in Japan.<\/strong><\/span> I’m speaking from my experience, so I know it doesn’t apply everywhere in Canada or the states. Anyway, this is one of the reasons why I’m so happy being in North America<\/strong><\/span>. I don’t need to deal with those judgemental eyes.<\/p>\n

So if you’re Japanese, there is a certain lifestyle that you most likely follow. I\u2019m not saying this is wrong, but I can say it’s not for everybody. Obviously it wasn’t for me.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong. I love Japan.<\/strong> <\/span>Japan is always my home. But do I want to go back to Japan? Not at all! I just love North American cultures where people choose their paths by themselves, not by society.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If you have a chance to visit Japan, be ready to see Japanese people who wear similar outfit with similar makeup or hair style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Japan, you don’t want to be “unique” because that means you’re different from others, and you’ll be considered as &#8… Read More“You Have to be the Same as Everybody Else in Japan”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"1294","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/unique.png","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9h0T5-kS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1294"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1296,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294\/revisions\/1296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}