Submitted by grandlewis t3_10hf5pi in todayilearned
Yet, so few Japanese people are interested in traveling overseas using their powerful passport. And this isn’t something that started with COVID. Only around 20% of Japanese people are passport holders and for many an overseas business trip is their first overseas experience. I suppose it’s sort of logical as Japan’s powerful passport is due to the safety and stability of the country and to many Japanese people traveling overseas, regardless of destination, is considered a safety risk
It has a lot to do with the lack of time for holidays and the fact that so many people all go on holiday at the same time which jacks up the prices.
You also have to factor in the fear many have of interacting with foreigners, the fear of crime/terrorism, and the amount of time it takes to get from Japan to countries they might like to visit.
Makes sense although lack of holidays isn’t really an excuse since we actually do have many. All your other points makes sense though. If Japan was accessible by land I bet a lot more people would have passports
There are lots of national holidays but they are a bit short for international travel unless you count Golden Week, that's a nightmare time to travel. I'd rather stay in the city where it's nice and quiet lol
Otherwise, a lot of personal holiday time goes unused.
Well that doesn't really explain their lack of domestic travel. I've had many Japanese students that were shocked I took the shankesein to different places each day. Even 3 hours away.
It's like you guys have a bullet train across your entire country of course I'm going to use it.
So yeah I'd say it more has to do with culture and work culture. As the Japanese I talked to even found my domestic travel around Japan odd.
Taking the shinkansen every day can be very expensive.
Also, many students don't have much free time or energy after school (sometimes six days a week), homework, club, juku, and any other after school activities.
My son is a student and he likes to travel on the trains but he can only really do it once a week by getting up at 4am on Saturdays.
They can also be xenophobic society. Why learn about other cultures when ours is superior mentality.
No, not even close. Many Japanese people actually aspire to travel to other countries, but are afraid of not being able to speak the language, understand customs, etc not to mention it can be pretty far to get to many places outside of Asia (even Singapore is a 6 hour plane ride from Tokyo and so many people have to travel hours just to get to their nearest airport). So the mentality then becomes, "why leave and go somewhere that's going to stress me out when there are all these places within Japan that I have yet to see and be understood?"
now THAT is a wild generalization.
dont forget their work culture, its normal for many of them to sleep overnight in the office or come way eariler to work just to look good in front of bosses, taking vacations would work against that
No, that’s not normal and very much an anomaly. I’ve worked in Japan for the last 15+ years
But that guy read a TIL once and now knows the ins and outs of Japanese culture!
That guy’s a noob! I learned everything about Japan from this episode of some anime my friend made me watch in high school. I don’t remember what it was called, but it had a floating turtle and some boy living with a bunch of girls.
Also, fun fact! In Japan, a fish in your shorts is 8 years of neither good nor bad luck! The Japanese are very superstitious.
Why do many Koreans travel overseas then? It's the same or even worse situation work wise.
This. On average its what 10 days off per year? Not including golden week where some businesses obviously don't close. They do want to travel its just the time off isn't there.
Okay so japanese people should not be so racist is that what you are trying to say?
Have to say I've met a few groups of Japanese natives who put it to use while working,
One thing most of them had in common they always opened up when they recognized the Evangelion shirt I would always wear.
There were so many Japanese Tourists running around the world back in their economic heyday, that one of the most done to death jokes in 1980s movies was "the Japanese Tour Group blundering into somewhere they shouldn't be."
Even during the doped up bubble economy days it was just the rich people being very visible overseas. Most of my Japanese relatives never left the country during the 80’s. The thing is Japan never really had much of the lower middle-class travellers who are willing to make some major compromises on their travels
I watched a YouTube clip talking about that. One of the reasons is that there are only (I think) 4 passp ok rt processing centers in Japan and they're all in Tokyo and you have to make multiple visits to get one. The bureaucracy doesn't make it convenient even for Tokyo residents to get one. So the people with the passport tend to be business people who need it.
not true, you can get a passport in every city
I misread it. It was talking about Tokyo. There are only 4 passport centers in Tokyo: Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Yurakucho, and Tachikawa. Sounds like plenty but Tokyo is a city of 14 million people. There are fairly onerous documentation requirements like family register (koseki 戸籍) that I think you have to visit another government office to print and the minimum wait time is 6 days, not counting weekends and holidays. So it takes a minimum of 2 separate trips on weekdays (closed on weekends) because there's no expedited processing option. That inconvenience is one of the reasons why only 21% of the Japanese people have a passport.
does this have to do with the anime addiction? people don't wanna leave after work/school to go to Tokyo because there 1) is so much anime to consume and b) Tokyo has lots of anime stalls (so on the way to the passport processing centers they have to walk by lots of anime vendors and they can't control themselves and get sidetracked = lower % of passport people bc they don't make it before closing time).
The number of students going overseas is going down too. The current generation is more inward oriented than their parents or grandparents. A real shame. The lack of perspective and knowing what’s out there really limits progress here.
Japanese people are older, travelling abroad requires energy many don’t have.
Hawaii disagrees.
That's no different from other countries.
Too bad about the xenophobia though. Just browsing the Japan sub and through other sources, it seems that way.
For those looking to live in Japan, I recommend This guide I came across it maybe 10 years ago, very inspiring. Even better if you're into photography.
Japanese don't like foreigners. Full stop. Not just outside their country but they dislike immigration and its very difficult for foreigners to even rent accommodation in Japan. Very discriminatory.
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