Japan ranked #10 as best countries to live in

[IkemenTommy]

[Samurai_Jerk]

Hmmm. Seems they left out part of a sentence there. Japan is a great place to live...

If you are Japanese!

While I don't think Japan is a top ten place to live either, I have to agree with nottu and FGL that being a (Wetern male) gaijin here can be great and is better in a lot of ways than being a local.

The older I get though, the less appealing Japan becomes. Of course that seems to be true of just about everything except single malt Scotch and Cuban cigars.

[IkemenTommy]

I think you type faster when you're angry!

Actually unfortunately Tommy has it backwards and the strong yen is costing me vast amounts of money these days... The yen is way over valued, it will correct in time.

Oh shit. Sorry about the Don Perignon you paid for while I was there the other weekend.

I owe you a beer or two the next time. One for Cyka too if she hasn't been on KIX's permanent excrement list from entering into Japan ever again.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

[IkemenTommy]

happy now?

I was hoping you would give me a blow job instead.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

I think you type faster when you're angry!

Actually unfortunately Tommy has it backwards and the strong yen is costing me vast amounts of money these days... The yen is way over valued, it will correct in time.

not angry at all. and you're welcome for the laugh.

i kinda wish japan had chewed me up and spat me out. unfortunately my time there just made me more valuble to my company and as i said, they keep sending me back there.

i will say though that i'm enjoying it a lot more as a visitor again rather than living there.

and hey, a little red never killed anyone. someone just gave me one the other day because i wrote to Greji in a post that goats can't get visas.

we'll have to go drinking next time i'm back in my old 'hood. you're one of the only people i know sensible enough to be in kansai!

[Cyka UchuuJin]

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

And fuck you to the coward that gave me the red who dared not to speak out on here. Seriously go fuck yourself. It was probably some loser piece of shit Engrish teacher in some bumfucked inaka

Hey, it wasn't me....I've only ever red-dotted one person (it wasn't you) and that was for a really silly post.

FWIW, though, I am a bumfucked loser, who's such a loser I can't even be a piece of shit Engrish teacher.

[FG Lurker]

Off the top of my head I can think of quite a number of foreign companies that do very well in Japan:

Mercedes-Benz
BMW
Audiophile level audio companies
Apple
SAP (growing)
IBM (still has a decent big iron presence here)
Microsoft
Cisco
Costco
...

There are also a lot of foreign companies that most people have never heard of who do very well here. Generally they dominate their markets worldwide and this extends into Japan. I used to work for a German company like this.

Dell and HP are both making big inroads into corporate offices here and are changing the way that businesses buy computers.

but look at the number of international firms who've moved their asian hq to singapore, hong kong, (and now very much so the middle east)

I'm sure each company lists a few different reasons when they make such a move but there is only one really big reason for the majority of them: The rising importance of China to any multinational. As companies become more China-focused more and more will have their Asia HQs in HK or Singapore. The next step beyond that will be to have Asian HQs right in China, probably in Shanghai.

i don't know what your field of work is in japan, but i still maintain that japan is a great country to live in if you are japanese only.

I know this wasn't directed specifically at me but I still have to disagree. Japan is a great place for gaijin who can make it work for them. To make it work you need to speak quite good Japanese, have a reasonable understanding of how the typical Japanese person thinks, have a decent income, and be very happy never fitting in or being fully accepted. This fits me perfectly. I love being able to move in and out of Japanese society at will and work both sides of the equation.

not angry at all. and you're welcome for the laugh.

That's good, anger's not good for you.

we'll have to go drinking next time i'm back in my old 'hood. you're one of the only people i know sensible enough to be in kansai!

Sure! Just don't expect too much, I'm a fat nerd with no social skills.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

FGL, am on my iPhone and quoting is a pain in the Arse.

You are correct that there are quite a few foreign companies that do well there besides the no brainers thAt tommy listed thAt do well anywhere. A lot of the companies though in your list do well because they have a jv with a local j- company. Apple, for instance, has 80% of that metal plate on the back of iPods sold in japan manufactured by nakamura steel company. Rolls Royce avionics works with sumitomo to make part of their engines. But you Are right, china is on it's way up and that is going to hurt japan.

You are also right that there Are some relatively unknowns doing very well. Our company has been exporting to japan since1961 and it is our 4th largest Market, with isetan as one of out lArgest clients. But they also 'punish' us in a wAy because we have refused to manufActure or go jv with them. So they have a set figure every year they buy from us, even if they have a higher demand.

I agree Japan can be great if you have a bit of a nest egg going in, can speak Japanese, and are ok with being an outsider eternally. Kenya is a bit the same way. And you will find lifers all over the world, although I think japan probably has a lot less than most.

And unless the powers that be change the site name to ilovejapanandeverythinginit.com, I will still comment on the fucked.

[FG Lurker]

A lot of the companies though in your list do well because they have a jv with a local j- company.

I agree that Japan is a tough egg to crack for most foreign companies. The ones that manage to find their way in though often do very, very well. Apple is a good example, Japan has been their second largest market for much longer than I have been in Japan. Even when NEC dominated the PC market here Apple did well. A lot of companies do go the joint venture route, especially if they have a product that is available from multiple sources or if they don't have the money/manpower to develop Japan properly on their own.

And unless the powers that be change the site name to ilovejapanandeverythinginit.com, I will still comment on the fucked.

Everyone needs to vent from time to time, even those of us who basically enjoy being in Japan. Honestly though, many of your recent posts have been very bitter.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

I agree that Japan is a tough egg to crack for most foreign companies. The ones that manage to find their way in though often do very, very well. Apple is a good example, Japan has been their second largest market for much longer than I have been in Japan. Even when NEC dominated the PC market here Apple did well. A lot of companies do go the joint venture route, especially if they have a product that is available from multiple sources or if they don't have the money/manpower to develop Japan properly on their own.


Everyone needs to vent from time to time, even those of us who basically enjoy being in Japan. Honestly though, many of your recent posts have been very bitter.

i think apple is one of those exceptions to the rule. as soon as the ipod came out, the world was hooked. and some very clever person caught onto the japanese love of all things small, cute,and collectable. i know at least 6 girls in japan who bought every single colour of the original ipod mini.

apologies if i have seemed bitter in recent postings. i don't have as much online faffing time as i used to so i suppose my eye and online time has drifted to the more controversial issues. and morons like debito.
but as soon as someone starts a NSFW random photos of j-dudes with freakishly large willies, i will be all over that with more praise than you can shake a stick at!

[CrankyBastard]

Everyone needs to vent from time to time, even those of us who basically enjoy being in Japan.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to FG Lurker again.

[nottu]

[nottu]

[wuchan]

[kurohinge1]

...

Norway takes the number one spot in the annual United Nations human development index released Monday but China has made the biggest strides in improving the well-being of its citizens.
The index compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) ranks 182 countries based on such criteria as life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. . . .
. . . The top ten countries listed on the index are: Norway, Australia, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Japan.

The United States ranks 13th, down one spot from last year.

more. . .

I query the point of the HDI but I had a laugh at this:

Economist Bryan Caplan has criticized the way scores in each of the three components are bounded between zero and one, so rich countries effectively cannot improve their ranking in certain categories, even though there is a lot of scope for economic growth and longevity left, "This effectively means that a country of immortals with infinite per-capita GDP would get a score of .666 (lower than South Africa and Tajikistan) if its population were illiterate and never went to school."[9] Scandinavian countries consistently come out top on the list, he argues, "because the HDI is basically a measure of how Scandinavian your country is."

(Norway has been at the top for 7 of the past 9 years, with Iceland having the other 2)

And I'm sure there's no truth to the rumour that Japan jumps up 3 spots whenever Greji is out of the country.

[FG Lurker]

Most employees in the office are japanese and ALL the bottling and distribution is done by japanese companies.

The bottling equipment is provided by a French company though, or at least it was a few years ago. The name escapes me now, I used to do some consulting for them.

[IkemenTommy]

You could come up with some better examples like FGL.

I came up with that list on the fly. That is why I said "partial list." Yes the list would go on and on. If you are interested, then go to the American Chamber of Commerce and do the research on your own.

[Greji]

but as soon as someone starts a NSFW random photos of j-dudes with freakishly large willies, i will be all over that with more praise than you can shake a stick at!

That's easy. PM Take, but don't look for a lot of albums...

[Osakadave]

My main issue with Japan is that I've become allergic to the air (it appears)!

Anyone else find this? I never had allergies before living here. Now every couple months I turn into a sneezing out-of-sorts mess. What is that!?

My asthma doc often mentions that most of his patients who are here more than a few years develop the good old sugi allergy.That's prolly what's up.

[Catoneinutica]

Interesting thread! Being a clever gaijin in Japan, particularly a clever white gaijin, makes you a big fish in a small pond. The debate between Cyka and Lurker, as I see it, boils down to this:

Lurker: You're a big fish.

Cyka: It's a small pond.

And both of you guys are absolutely correct! The natives generally treat quite well, there are sexy li'l vixens everywhere, and they sometimes smile at you, and it's easy to find business opportunities because the Nipponesers tend to be so rigid and risk-averse.

On the down side, those sexy li'l vixens tend to be dull and predictable, good for a pump-n-dump, I guess, but off-limits if you're married and are actually rather fond of your wife; the architecture runs toward the ticky-tacky; the weather is soupy at least half the year; there are no good English-language universities (TUJ and Sophia have struck me as pretty damn substandard); a lot of services are almost entirely unavailable, even in Tokyo (ever tried having a wind-up clock repaired or a painting cleaned?); and, let's face it, the place is getting poorer and poorer as well as more and more solipsistic - it sometimes feels like you're living inside the head of an autistic child.

As Cyka notes, there are many, many other good countries in which to be an expat. Jim Rogers likes Singapore; Latin America has a lot going for it as long as you stay out of trouble; Spain has a great climate and culture, with hot chix galore; ditto for the Czech Republic, Poland, and Russia, if you don't mind the winters. Indeed, Prague, for example, has it all, IMO: relatively low living costs, great restaurants and coffee shops with lots of ambiance and friendly locals, a good English-language university, great architecture.

I prefer living in Japan to living in the US, but it's not a binary thing; there are a lot of other interesting places out there, as Cyka, a true global expat, reminds us.

-catone
-unusually boring and long-winded

[IkemenTommy]

[Cyka UchuuJin]

[quote="Catoneinutica"]Interesting thread! Being a clever gaijin in Japan, particularly a clever white gaijin, makes you a big fish in a small pond. The debate between Cyka and Lurker, as I see it, boils down to this:

Lurker: You're a big fish.

Cyka: It's a small pond.

And both of you guys are absolutely correct! The natives generally treat quite well, there are sexy li'l vixens everywhere, and they sometimes smile at you, and it's easy to find business opportunities because the Nipponesers tend to be so rigid and risk-averse.

On the down side, those sexy li'l vixens tend to be dull and predictable, good for a pump-n-dump, I guess, but off-limits if you're married and are actually rather fond of your wife]

fantastic observation and you're right on all counts. when it comes to expats, you've got the 'career' ones, who usually spend 2-4 years somewhere and then move around as part of their company contract. in general, those people don't really put too much into trying to fit in because they know they're going to be leaving. with that you always have the occasional career expats that go somewhere on a first or second contract and fall in love with the place and then stay. and you've got the 'wandering soul' types who move somewhere because they want to see and experience as much of the world as possible but then finally find a place to start growing some roots, usually because the travelling has gotten old or they fall in love with a local.

japan is not an easy place, and i think it's somewhere that you know pretty much from the get go that you're either going to love it, tolerate it until your company moves you on, or put in immediately for a transfer. very rarely have i met anyone that says 'it grew on me so i stayed'.

does anyone know what the ratio is of 'transient' vs resident gaijin? i guess i always had this thought that tokyo is much more full of the transients because of all the financial houses and asian hqs and kansai/other having more 'resident'.

[nottu]

[samuraiwig]

very rarely have i met anyone that says 'it grew on me so i stayed'.

That was me. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would say the same, although often it will have been a J girl/boy that grew on them more than the country.

Catoneinutica: Great post

[nottu]

[FG Lurker]

Interesting thread! Being a clever gaijin in Japan, particularly a clever white gaijin, makes you a big fish in a small pond. The debate between Cyka and Lurker, as I see it, boils down to this:

Lurker: You're a big fish.

Cyka: It's a small pond.

This only holds water if you limit yourself to the gaijin population and/or to Japan itself.

The main competitor I have for my current business is a much larger Japanese company. The next business that is in the planning stage has nothing to do with being located in Japan and the competitors I will face are US-based.

So in my own situation I am neither a big fish nor in a small pond.

As for living in Japan I think it is as good or bad as the individual makes it to be. Some people can't accept the downsides (never being fully integrated or fully "equal" (whatever the hell that means!)) but for me these are great points. I wouldn't want to live here if I had to be a fully integrated member of Japanese society, being an outsider is far better IMO.

[Ketou]

As for living in Japan I think it is as good or bad as the individual makes it to be. Some people can't accept the downsides (never being fully integrated or fully "equal" (whatever the hell that means!)) but for me these are great points. I wouldn't want to live here if I had to be a fully integrated member of Japanese society, being an outsider is far better IMO.

I definitely agree with that. Having worked in a Japanese office I can honestly say, thank Lucifer I can just opt out of that shit at anytime.

[Catoneinutica]

I definitely agree with that. Having worked in a Japanese office I can honestly say, thank Lucifer I can just opt out of that shit at anytime.

I too am profoundly grateful not to be Japanese because it frees you from the straitjacketed, lobotomized J-way of doing things. Call it being a "big fish" (you definitely have the asymmetrical-information advantage, and you're definitely something unusual here), or call it being a nimble little mammal among the big, lumbering dinosaurs.

And, like you, the possibility of opting out is something I'd hate not having. I like it here for the most part, but it can get claustrophobic, and there seems to be an increasing atmosphere of, would the last gaijin leaving please turn off the round fluorescent light?