Absolutely. A society that as ground-rule defined to care for each other and care for the environment they live in. People care for the ones next to them, they care for their environment, more so than any other nation in the world. They care about their health and well being of their bodies more so than anyone else. Honesty and moral values are celebrated to such degree that laws and regulations often times even overshoot, such as the arrest of Nissan's Ghosn. Japan is a leader or within the top 3 in most high tech sectors. Education and literacy rates are top-notch as measured in international aptitude test comparisons. Health care is top-notch. Transportation is top-notch. Check out Japanese tourists when they get to the foreign airports to wait for their flights back home. They can't get their butts fast enough back to Japan. The overall sentiment among Japanese tourists is "it's nice to explore other countries every now and then, but hell, I love my country and I can't get back fast enough to eat healthy food and breath clean air". Where are all the Japanese emigrants that left Japan to seek greener pastures? They don't exist. The last large emigration stream occurred more than a century ago when disenfranchised farmers were welcomed in Brazil to turn rain forest into farmland. Hence the surprisingly large percentage of Brazilians of Japanese origin.
Does Japan have an aging society problem? Yes, but not to the degree as American media often like to blow it out of every proportion. The main issue is of women who have a hard time to balance work-life and childcare. But even that is changing rapidly. Anyone who lives in Tokyo will nowadays often spot men who push baby carts in the morning or drop off their toddlers in kindergarten in the mornings. Japan as always is greatly misunderstood and developments are confused by those who do not expose themselves to Japanese culture but instead live outside and just pick up tidbits from media. I lived in Japan for more than a decade, speak Japanese and am married to a Japanese. We currently live in HK but travel to Japan every 3 months or so. We are in HK at the moment because we pay 15% income tax and 0% capital gains tax and its a heaven for easy and quick money. But we pay a price and we will soon leave HK because the quality of life here is alike a shithole.
Does Japan have an aging society problem? Yes, but not to the degree as American media often like to blow it out of every proportion. The main issue is of women who have a hard time to balance work-life and childcare. But even that is changing rapidly. Anyone who lives in Tokyo will nowadays often spot men who push baby carts in the morning or drop off their toddlers in kindergarten in the mornings. Japan as always is greatly misunderstood and developments are confused by those who do not expose themselves to Japanese culture but instead live outside and just pick up tidbits from media. I lived in Japan for more than a decade, speak Japanese and am married to a Japanese. We currently live in HK but travel to Japan every 3 months or so. We are in HK at the moment because we pay 15% income tax and 0% capital gains tax and its a heaven for easy and quick money. But we pay a price and we will soon leave HK because the quality of life here is alike a shithole.
