50 Facts About Japan

Lists of facts about Japan are almost always half misleading or straight up inaccurate, and half basic facts that everyone already knows. (Did you know JAPANESE VENDING MACHINES?!) So we've been trying to collect interesting facts about Japan that are actually true for years, and we finally reached 50!

This video took the most time to make out of all our videos so far--more than 250 hours!! We put weeks into researching facts, tossing ones that either weren't true or as interesting as we first thought, and verifying the necessary ones with statistics from official sources (do you know the pain… of trying to translate 100+ page government reports…). Those sources are in the description box. We called agencies to ask them questions directly. We visited museums. We drove all over the place and filmed a lot of B roll (oh so much B roll). So here it is, basically everything we know about Japan (well, maybe not everything). Some of you may recognize a couple facts in here that we've talked about in past videos! I really hope you guys enjoy this video!!

Thank you so much to all the people who upload images, sounds and EVEN VIDEO OF A RARE CAT HOLY CRAP to Wikipedia!! You’re the real MVP. There were a lot of things there was little possibility of us ever being able to capture on film ourselves. Thank you to you guys for being patient with us as we take our sweet time making these videos. And thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring this and helping us pay for groceries while we spent an entire month working on a single video. orz

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[RachelandJun]

Lists of facts about Japan are almost always half misleading or straight up inaccurate, and half basic facts that everyone already knows. (Did you know JAPANESE VENDING MACHINES?!) So we've been trying to collect interesting, hopefully lesser known facts about Japan that are actually true for years, and we finally reached 50!

This video took the most time to make out of all our videos so far--more than 250 hours!! We put weeks into researching facts, tossing ones that either weren't true or as interesting as we first thought, and verifying the necessary ones with statistics from official sources (do you know the pain… of trying to translate 100+ page government reports…). Those sources are in the description box. We called agencies to ask them questions directly. We visited museums. We drove all over the place and filmed a lot of B roll (oh so much B roll). So here it is, basically everything we know about Japan (well, maybe not everything). Some of you may recognize a couple facts in here that we've talked about in past videos! We're so excited to finally finish this video and we really hope you guys enjoy it!!

Thank you so much to all the people who upload images, sounds and EVEN VIDEO OF A RARE CAT HOLY CRAP to Wikipedia!! You’re the real MVP. There were a lot of things there was little possibility of us ever being able to capture on film ourselves. Thank you to you guys for being patient with us as we take our sweet time making these videos. And thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring this and helping us pay for groceries while we spent an entire month working on a single video. orz

[RachelandJun]

Corrections:

16. The pie chart shows 801 and 306 as average ages but they should say “all older than.”

26. The numbers are backwards in the first shot! Osaka did buy a 60 Hz generator and Tokyo bought a 50 Hz generator, as explained immediately afterward. 60 Hz is south and 50 Hz is north.

You can go over something a million times and there’s always something you overlooked. 😩 Thanks to everyone who spotted these!! If you see any other errors let us know so we can correct them!

[keah]

I want a comic now where a badass sword wielding anime character, in the middle of some epic battle on the streets of Japan, is stopped by the police and given a fine for having an unregistered sword.

[jiro]

In Japan
Police: hey is that a sword?!
Me: yeah
Police: you'll have to go to-
Me: its 14 cm
Police: carry on

[tradgothmiku]

It seems so strange to me that houses have a negative value by the time they're 30 years old!!?! The most expensive houses where I live are almost 200 years old!

[Silentgrace]

Okay, story time on number 35.

I was a young, naive exchange student, with maybe a month left in Japan while I was studying abroad. All was going pretty darn well that day. One of my classes was cancelled, and I had been up late the night before finishing an assignment, so marched my merry self back to my dormitory, was sending my daily photos to my friend in the US, and preparing to take a nap.

Out of the corner of my eye came one of those mother flipping centipedes crawling around on my curtains, easily a foot long. Again, being the naive American I was, the biggest insect I'd personally witnessed at that point were locusts and wolf spiders. I shrieked and then, crying, proceeded to message my friend about the atrocity as if she could fly over at hyper speed to kill a bug for me. My Japanese was rudimentary at best, but there was no way I could sleep with that bug in my room, so I had two options: wait upward of four hours for my neighbor to return from class to either kill it or help me ask someone to kill it, which could give the demon ample time to hide until it could kill me in my sleep, or utilize the magical powers of Google Translate to attempt to get my dorm parents to help.

Cue 20 minutes of me trying to explain to my dorm dad that there was a huge bug in my room that needed to die, partially based on us tip tapping words and phrases into cheap little flip phones and showing one another because we weren't sure if we were saying the word right (me with Japanese, him with English). Once he finally realized what I was saying he motioned to give me a little vacuum cleaner that A) couldn't sweep up something that big, and B) I'm such a cautious person in general I couldn't move fast enough to suck it up without it running away. Instead of risking such horrors, I lied and told him I was allergic xD Which he took super seriously and grabbed some heavy duty bug spray and a larger than life fly swatter, to join me on the epic quest of ridding my room of this bug. Needless to say he didn't get what I meant by "big bug" when I was telling him, because he was horrified too when he saw the thing! But within minutes the beast was finally dead. My neighbor later pointed out that my room was probably the perfect temperature for bugs to feel comfortable at, because while the rooms had AC I was perfectly used to my family and college dorms keeping buildings at a solid 80 degrees, so needless to say I spent my last month burrowed under blankets and in sweaters to make my room nonviable for life of any kind.

And thus, the story of how I nearly died in Japan comes to a close .u.

[_phong.huynh_]

Burglar: * sneaks through the kictchen window *
Japanese Residents: *so you've chosen death*

[zigmas]

Those 11 minutes passed really quickly.. Interesting facts!

[forgivemeforexisting]

*32* * Husband wakes up, proceeds to kitchen.* *Honey there's bamboo in the kitchen!* *No there isn't!!* *Wife proceeds to go into the kitchen and walks straight into some bamboo.*

[ratman]

I can imagine the cicadas in video games saying “ITS SUMMER! ITS SUMMER! ITS SUMMER!”

[spriggsyspriggs]

I had noticed that 50/60 Hz mistake but I didn't care. It happens! You guys are great and I love learning a little more about Japan!

[joakim]

Hah! You think 4 am is early sunrise?

IN NORWAY THE SUN NEVER GOES DOWN IN THE HEIGHT OF SUMMER

[anishagurung]

I love Rachel's voice here, you can really tell that she is enjoying telling you these facts. You can hear that she is smiling and it is making me smile!! :)

[cait_o_saurus]

This was such a great video! I'm a massive fact nerd, and I don't think I knew anything in this video before. You can really see how much time and effort you guys put into this thank you so much!

[theRNIN]

The reason kitchen knives are sharper than katanas isn't due to a lack of sharpening methodology in katanas. It's due to the fact that a katana needs to be sharp _and_ flexible, so it doesn't break when cutting. A harder steel can hold a sharper edge, but a harder steel also is less flexible and breaks more easily. So katanas have to compromise between sharpness and flexibility. They're still plenty sharp though. (One way katanas accomplish this is through differential hardening.)

Kitchen cutlery doesn't need to be as flexible as a katana because it isn't exposed to the same longitudinal stresses as a sword. You can pretty much focus on sharpness without worrying about flexibility.

Thanks for the awesome video!

[astroxl]

Average Japanese person: Knows 6 different cicada species
Average American person: Doesnt even know what continent we live on or How many states there are.

[tomokotomoko]

Wow!! 50!! よく集めたねー！すごい！👏👏 My daughter's kindergarten bus was 'Pikachu'! 😊

[dreammfyre]

That 50/60hz thing is seriously mind boggling.

[arcticsnow]

I'd like to see a video of you guys sharing Japanese folklore or mythology or just stories told to kids to teach them or scare them.

[DrMcNinjaSixthGun]

I will find those native cats!
I want a full video of Jun slicing things with that knife he sharpened.