The Dark Side of Japan

Something that’s been around for a long time in the country is the Japanese yakuza or Japanese organized crime group. Yakuza have been in existence for over 300 years, tracing back to 1612 when they started to attract the attention of the government. They are organized into families and group members for mutual protection, having similar rituals and format to the samurai. In fact, it was believed that yakuza are descended from gangs of ronins or wayward samurais.

[etienne]

Disapperances are usually to avoid debts and taxes.
In japanese law, if the state can t find you for 5 years, your debts are cancelled....
That s why so many "disappear", with agencies helping you to do it.
Since each districts don t exchange files, it makes it easier to just move around until your debts are cleared.

[johndaut]

I once was offered an engineering job for Toshiba in Houston, Texas. 12 hour work days 6 days a week. There are no benefits for 1 year and 1 week of vacation after 2 years. Must wear white dress shirts with black tie, black slacks, and tied black drees shoes. Would also must wear a little white billed cap. They only offered me 5% more than I was getting with full company paid benefits. I thanked them and declined.

[badlywornshoes]

I lived in Japan for work for a couple years and as a foreigner, I was never once asked to conceal my tattoos or barred from public bathhouses, springs, ryoukan or capsule hotels. It's likely that this only applies to native Japanese, however I've spoken to my friends who are Japanese and live in Japan and indicate that this hasn't really been a thing in Japan since shortly after the 2010s. Just as in our country, the new generations push back against tradition.

[dimensionx]

The reason Japanese people seem to be "obsessed with cooling down and staying cool" may be due to the fact that most Japanese dont like offensive odors. They often do not wear cologne or use special scented deoderant unless it is considered a non-offensive scent. The reason they would want to stay cool is to avoid sweating and creating any offensive or unwanted odors being deemed "Kusai", so its not that strange when you think about it. Acceptable scents may include minty or linen preferably neutral with no scent at all.

[TheBlaert]

For major repairs on our massive milling machines at work we were sent engineers from their headquarters in Japan. These dudes insisted that absolutely everything was spotless before they would work at them (not easy in a precision engineering company). I've honestly never saw more professional and efficient workers in my life. And super friendly too

[Hyunny...]

A lot of these comments are "Oh I visited Japan" or "I worked collaboratively with a Japanese company once" as if they're testimonials but you have to understand there's a massive difference between interacting with the customer service side of Japan, and actually being in the society. I worked and lived in Japan and there are plenty of things I like about it, enough to be going back for my graduate studies, but also there's so much you don't experience about Japan as merely a tourist.

The bureaucracy is brutal, people are polite but cold often which makes socializing difficult, working conditions are brutal, and there are endless rules and expectations imposed upon you.

[Agathoarn]

Bro, if you did a "Dark Side of America" video we'd be here all day

[vhsmemories]

Fun fact. In the pokemon games, the games always have a mother that sees you off on your journey. Most of the games you never see the father, or he is never talked about. That is because he is a saleryman. He is never home and works just like the people in this video.

[JimmyMidnite]

Maid cafes and an aversion to tattoos is the “dark side” of Japan??

What about the hikikomori? What about everything associated with idol culture? What about their bullying epidemic, a result of their collectivist mentality? What about their aging population? What about the decline of their employment-for-life system?

[Gnba]

I went to Japan some years back and I have quite a few tattoos, I wasn't able to go to the communal onsen in one hotel but other than that I wasn't treated any differently anywhere. I look very western so I think they don't mind as much when you're clearly a foreigner. I visited a traditional ryokan twice and went to onsen in private where I could. I also travelled in the Tokyo underground during rush hour and didn't see any shoving of people...might've just gotten lucky though.

[NakiriX]

as someone who was born in japan and has lived there for most of their life, the only major problem today is the poor workers at maid cafes, while they might be responsible for the weight cause they did sign a contract you cant help a panic attack. the other things are changing for the better. like cellphones needing a shutter sound, work culture is improving as more and more see the outside world and all the protests against the employer, there have been protests against the karoshi culture, the younger generation are fighting the elders against deportation and in general discrimination against people who arent native. yakuza are on a steady decline and more public baths and people in general accept tattoos. as for the "nuclear water" its tritium inside, hydrogen with 2 extra neutrons, tritium as far less dangerous than you think as it can quite literally be washed out. for example at illinois theres a leak and ground water levels reached 1600 pCi/L, that would be 0.3 millirems of radiation in a year, for conext the average american absorbs 1000 times more radiation from natural things. even getting a normal chest x ray has more cancer potential. now about the amount of what fukushima wants to release basically at once that has yet to be studied but tritium isnt as dangerous as you think it is

[gcaesar-es]

I went to Japan a few times years ago on business, and it was not what I had expected at all. How so? Everyone was extremely nice, polite, friendly and, my biggest surprise, chilled out. And that included in the office too. The ways of working were a touch old-fashioned by Western standards, but no one seemed to really take that too seriously. I loved Japan and would love to go back.

[benbomer]

I once visited a sinto early one morning. At first I was refused entry, but I talked my way in as I needed a quick shower and fresh clothes before a meeting. Little did I know, there was a yakuza meeting about to start there. True to my word, I was in and out in 15 minutes.

[Oppyse]

On a recent trip i stayed atca 5 star hotel and had a long talk with the head manager.
Asked if his salary men do work 12 to 18 hours a day, his answer was eye-opening.
"Yes they do. Then they get drunk and come into work and are basically no good for the first 4 or 5 hours."
Im not judging. Just repeating

[brasso]

I’m surprised no one mentions the huge amount of sex trafficking in Japan with it increasing red districts and foreign sex workers from Thailand and Philippines.

[darkrainbows]

putting the bad things aside, japan is still a lovely country to live in. I was there with my family for 5 years and it was a wonderful experience

[gabrieltoscano]

I just got back from japan and was having a conversation with a friend today where they mentioned that the photo sound on japanese iphones can't be turned off! crazy that it was mentioned here too. It's a shame that horrible people made things come to that but I'm glad that it helps protect others!

[Oskarpowergaming]

Nice video, it’s good to bring awareness to things like this

[tadesubaru]

The fact a "japanese strike" is literally WORKING OVERTIME until you ruin your corporation's sales rather than simply not working to achieve the same thing says enough about the working culture

Edit, apparently japanese strikes are an urban legend in Spanish speaking countries and don't actually happen in Japan; most people might think they're real but we still use it as an idiom, meaning "to invest even more effort just to piss off someone else", aka malicious compliance (we don't have a word for that in Spanish). Still, even if actual japanese strikes aren't a thing, it doesn't make it right that people are this extremely overworked!

[TELA-GAMING]

I think the fact they actually have a place called "Suicide Forest" speaks volumes.

Also, I think it's cruel to put watermelons into cages.