Why Japanese are the Most Unwilling to Help Others in the World

▼World Giving Index 2021▼

It’s very sad, but last year in 2021, it was presented by the Charities Aid Foundation in the UK that Japan ranked the lowest in the “World Giving Index.” And not just close to second from last, I mean dead last.

Why is it that the Japanese, who call themselves the people from the "land of harmony," are the most disinterested and cold-hearted people in the world?

So today, I will explain more on what this ranking is and how horrible the ranking of Japan is. Then I will talk about some of my opinions on why Japanese people are the coldest people on this planet.

By watching this video, you will surely be able to deepen your understanding towards the characteristics of Japanese people, and it’s especially recommended to those who are willing to study or live in Japan one day. Today’s story might change your image of Japanese people completely.

[Time codes]
0:00 Let's START!
1:35 The "World Giving Index"
3:50 Why Japanese People are So Cold-hearted
15:42 Today's Conclusion

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#worldgivingindex #japaneseculture #socialproblemsinjapanese

[dirkdiggler.]

Once I was sitting on a train in Japan. An older lady fell while boarding the train. I got up to help her up, no one else did. Once she was up and daijobu, I turned around and someone had taken my seat.

[peterstation]

When my dad recently went to Japan he saw an old man have a heart attack and no one did anything just walked around him and my dad can’t speak Japanese but began to help how he could and got people to notice. It was the strangest thing to hear cause I’d assumed the opposite for awhile.

[AdamYJ]

I have to say, sometimes the “Land of Harmony” just sounds more like the “Land of Conformity”. There are some things about that country I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand.

[kae]

I realized this mentality when a well known Japanese entrepreneur donated to help a child with an illness get treatment overseas. There was a lot of criticism from Japanese commenters along the lines of it being favoritism or unfair to other patients on the waiting list, and that he should donate more fairly. Geeez

[andrewpowell]

I worked in Japan for six months and my boss was one of the coldest people I’ve ever met. She fired me and I had little money to get out of Japan. It was the middle of winter and I had to be out of my apartment at a specific time on the button. I was left to fend for myself with all my belongings. Fortunately, a foreigner helped me out.

[badateverything]

When the rest of the world went into lockdown, Japan stated that no foreigners would be allowed to enter the country (makes sense), even if they were residents (makes slightly less sense, but they are just trying to protect their citizens), but Japanese citizens could return to the country. Essentially, a Japanese citizen was allowed to go on holiday abroad (to a country that was allowing foreign visitors) as many times as they wanted as long as they isolated, but a foreign Japanese resident wouldn't have been allowed to return to be with their children, return from a funeral or anything else. It took months for the government to allow foreign Japanese residents to enter the country, but even then you couldn't leave, or get on a returning flight with the guarantee that you would be allowed back in. Foreign residents, people with jobs, homes, lives and sometimes, families, were treated like tourists.

That being said, my experience with Japanese citizens was exactly what you mentioned, they were lovely and incredibly helpful during the pandemic.

[Shijaru]

A middle ground needs to be found. Japan is known for certain shitty things like a toxic work culture, shitty justice system or extreme collectivism. Seniority instead of merit isn't ideal. This reminds me how anime tends to portray the opposite of what you talked about in this video. It's been said by others before, but I believe that manga, light novels and anime are sometimes the cries of help by the authors. They wish their country was better but they don't have the power to change it, so they portray an ideal Japan in fiction.

[CozmoNurse]

When I was visiting Japan, we were in Osaka and my friend and I were taking a train to Hiroshima. My friend's mother and aunt walked us to the train station and after we got on the train the two elderly women were walking back. A man rushing to catch a train, knocked mama-san down in the intersection and broke her hip. He turned around and looked at her lying on the ground, then turned around to continue running for his train.

That incident forever changed my view of the Japanese people as a humble and deferential people.

[missdutch]

What a funny coincidence. I just read a thread on Twitter about the Japanese unwillingness to help and its connection to the Japanese shaming culture aka being shamed for acting different and then kicked out of the group. So the same here, but I guess the thread used a bit more rude words than this video

Such a shame. That the Japanese people jump right in to help foreigners shows they're not cold people at all. It's their own collective culture that's stopping them from helping each other

[strife]

Nobita literally made a video about this two days ago. It really revealed a part of Japanese culture I always thought about for a long time but never knew if it was just my experience or part of the culture.

[leeccdoo]

I don't care if I may look like an "outsider" just for helping someone, one small act of kindness is still enough to change or save someone's life. ❤

[kayskreed]

It's interesting how extreme collectivism can result in many of the same issues as extreme individualism although the reasoning behind it may differ, i.e. "Don't stand out" vs. "I don't care, not my problem." We see this with the bystander effect but in other areas as well. I think the moral of the story is that balance is preferable.

[inquisitionagent]

Fascinating how a culture obsessed about being perceived as polite and respectful is also rife with such cold-heartedness. Ofcourse I dont mean this as an insult to the Japanese people. It's more of an observation on the wider culture and how contradictory it can seem to an outsider.

[HD]

The more I learn about Japan, the more I feel like "Awesome to visit, awful to live in" defines it.

[brinkiTOgo]

EDIT: Just to be clear, I don't want to generalize japanese people. I just told a story that depicts a social problem in Japan which we encountered in different ways during our stay. But every society has its problems, not just Japan. I really enjoyed living in Japan and found many things I liked about the people's mindsets.

I lived a year in Japan with my girlfriend. One day she visited a mall and saw a man physically attacking a woman (who was his girlfriend supposedly), dragging her through the mall while she was screaming. The other people just passed them without helping that woman; my girlfriend confronted the attacker and called the police and informed the mall manager. Something like that would be unimaginable where I come from.

Apart from that I always found japanese people extremely helpful if I asked for help or directions.

[cplxvsy]

My story the same as everyone else’s. Friend and I (Americans) spent a weekend in Tokyo. We saw an old man stumble and fall backwards in the middle of a busy street. He was well dressed, clean, so its not like he was untouchably homeless. We waited a moment since we are not experts in Japanese emergency response or anything. Two beats passed and we realized nobody was going to go to him. He was out cold in the street. We rushed to him and aggressively accosted passersby to call their 911 equivalent. Left the encounter with a serious sense of the amoral nature of Japanese society.

[ShinChara]

Isn't it selfish to try to hide in the crowd when someone else needs help? If the point of collectivism is group survival when there's a disaster, people not being willing to help each other seems counterproductive.

I live in Tornado Alley, so I would know.

[zulfikaraliAkbar]

As an Indonesian living in Indonesia, I can confirm during this pandemic years more people are willing to donate and help each other to the point that they are willing to send daily groceries to the families in isolation if that family get positive test of Covid. And lastly, imo natural disasters doesn't have correlation with willingness to help, because Indonesia also home to many natural disasters (Flood, Earthquake, Volcanoes, etc).

[justicevanpool]

"Land of Harmony" means "Land of Conflict Avoidance", so much to the point that people will do anything to not recognize a situation, often even when it's life or death.
About a year ago a sumo wrestler died from injuries simply because no one could bring themselves to act in an urgent manner. People were just standing around talking about what to do because no one wanted to be the one to stand out and "be trouble".

The same happens at schools for bullying, worklpaces with sexual harassement and verbal/physical abuse, gyms with psychological outgrouping, you name it.
People are taught to not have their own independant sense of values, everything is based on a group-orientd gut feeling of conflict avoidance and belief in the status quo. "Everything is fine and don't act like it isn't or you are the problem".
People will pretend to care for you, but will drop you like a hot potatoe without a sign if they sense you are in any way associated with "trouble".
Maybe one in 10, 000 are not like this. Generally those people are not from the primary culture, like Okinawan's or a non-traditional religious group, or those who have lived for an extended period in another culture which has a deep-rooted element of compassion away from other Japanese.

[joanforest]

Very interesting. On one of my trips to Japan, I was supposed to fly back to Tokyo from a small regional airport. I got there early and the airport wasn’t open yet. I sat down on the edge of the road, waiting. A couple in a car drove up, saw that the airport was closed, then the woman got out, bought a can of coffee from a vending machine, gave it to me, then they drove away. I still have the can. A happy memory.