The first problem is language. Even though the Japanese spend a fortune on English education, both in the public and private sector, very few people can actually communicate.
This is because nearly all of the language education focuses on rote memorization, and oftentimes students who go 'outside the box' and learn to speak properly are punished.
My fiancee, a Japanese national, was bullied in high school for her 'weird' English... because she was the only student in the entire school who took advantage of the American teacher provided through the JET program.
Friendships are the second problem. Japan is a country where your friends are dictated by and large through group affiliation, although that's slowly changing. Making friends by talking to, say, the stranger next to you at a Starbucks is pretty unthinkable.
Third is arrogance; the idea of 'when in rome...' doesn't seem to exist here.
For example, I once had a group of Japanese 'friends' insist that it was totally okay to be amazingly rude by American standards, because their actions were fine by Japanese standards. Things like making plans and then never showing up, 'forgetting' to pay for their fair share of the beer, etc.
Fine logic, except we all happened to live in California at the time. Needless to say, I don't associate with these people anymore, but it's worth noting that few of them stayed in the country, and that even the two that kept on in the U.S. spend all their time with 'Japanese' friends, and have made zero effort to really integrate into the local culture.
I think your third point can go for any group living in a foreign country. I've seen foreigners living in Japan do this kind of thing as much as I've seen first and second generation Americans do it, regardless of where they came from. The common thread was that they mostly only associated with others who didn't integrate.
I don't think it's a cultural thing - some people just decide to stay outsiders, and a subset of those people are rude by anyone's standards.
I think integration is definitely a cultural thing, since in my anecdotal experience, the level of integration seems to vary wildly with country of origin.
When I was in grad school, the Chinese students formed their own secret society to the extent that non-Chinese might never even know their name. Indians also had a secret society, but unlike most of the Chinese, they individually interacted with the outside world. Israelis, Russians, Koreans and various flavors of African all integrated more or less completely with the outside world.
In concrete terms, Chinese math students joined the Chinese soccer team and had Chinese advisers. Indians had secret Indian parties, but they played on the Math soccer team. Russians invited people of every nationality to the Russian vodka drinking parties.
Russians invited people of every nationality to the Russian vodka drinking parties.
Yes, but Russians have been using the ploy of "getting the foreigners drunk" for centuries! This has been a key element of their government's diplomatic strategy forever, and I hear that it's often used in business.
People certainly tend to group themselves by culture, but I don't think any particular culture lends itself toward failure to integrate any more than individual personalities do.
Similarly, where I went for undergrad, Koreans tended to have their own groups. Clearly they don't do that everywhere, and not all of them did - there were just enough of them that didn't want to integrate that it was easier for others to choose not to.
A segment of any group does it if they're a large enough minority - it wouldn't be fair to criticize one particular culture for it.
I saw a survey recently that said the number of young Japanese who have no desire to live abroad is going up quickly. The very next day, I read an article about a big auto show in China, where one of the senior designers at Honda complained to a reporter that his young engineers were only interested in designing cars for the Japanese domestic market's needs.
Hard to say where it's going, though those are certainly disturbing ancedotes. I'm dropping down the rabbit hole; I start Japanese lessons in Tokyo next month, after years of dabbling in my spare time. I think there's going to be big opportunities for cross-cultural folks there.
When do you get here? I'm heading back to the U.S. on the 15th of August, because my business partner and I really want to be in the same time zone when we launch.
If you get here before that, I'd be happy to show you around a bit. I speak the language pretty well (patio11 will back me there), and I'd love an excuse to hit a rooftop beer garden with a fellow HNer.
Back to squashing bugs and rolling out my shiny new search parser...
There seems to be a significant business opportunity here. An institutionalized program of language immersion/internship could be designed to address all three problems.
The program would obviously address Problem 1 and Problem 3 by being structured to ensure that new "interns" are immersed in an environment with new norms for language and culture.
Problem 2 would be addressed through a school-like structuring of the program -- everyone knows how to make friends in school, even if it's the introvert's 1 true friend. At the very least, people have the shared experience and come away with a circle of acquaintances. Structure the program so that this circle includes lots of natives.
The advantages of such a program would be obvious -- highly valuable cultural and language skills. If spending a year abroad working as a server is attractive because it's less work and just as much pay, then such a program would be even more attractive as it would have all the benefits of a working vacation year abroad combined with those of internship. Those providing work to the participants would also benefit by getting labor below market value.
Number one and three seems like common problems for people from large cultural environments. French/US/etc live in, more or less, a complete world without traveling internationally or learning languages.
The second seems just weird, but Japan's weird culture is what captivates gaijin. :-)
This is because nearly all of the language education focuses on rote memorization, and oftentimes students who go 'outside the box' and learn to speak properly are punished.
My fiancee, a Japanese national, was bullied in high school for her 'weird' English... because she was the only student in the entire school who took advantage of the American teacher provided through the JET program.
Friendships are the second problem. Japan is a country where your friends are dictated by and large through group affiliation, although that's slowly changing. Making friends by talking to, say, the stranger next to you at a Starbucks is pretty unthinkable.
Third is arrogance; the idea of 'when in rome...' doesn't seem to exist here.
For example, I once had a group of Japanese 'friends' insist that it was totally okay to be amazingly rude by American standards, because their actions were fine by Japanese standards. Things like making plans and then never showing up, 'forgetting' to pay for their fair share of the beer, etc.
Fine logic, except we all happened to live in California at the time. Needless to say, I don't associate with these people anymore, but it's worth noting that few of them stayed in the country, and that even the two that kept on in the U.S. spend all their time with 'Japanese' friends, and have made zero effort to really integrate into the local culture.