Happiest people in the world... not the Japanese

Not really a surprise when you look around you during rush hour on the JR station... let me refrain from posting photo's.

What should the Japanese do to become happier?

Japan may have a relatively high standard of living and the longest life expectancy in the world, but it does not have the happiest people. According to a new Gallup poll of 148 countries, Japan ranks somewhere in the middle of world happiness levels. The recent poll showed just how little economic levels connect with life satisfaction.

Latin American countries with relatively low levels of economic development dominated the top 10 happiest countries. In Asia, only Thailand and the Philippines, with economic levels significantly lower than Japan's, broke into the top 10. Panama ranked No. 1 followed by, in order, Paraguay, El Salvador, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Thailand, Guatemala, the Philippines, Ecuador and Costa Rica.

Read the whole article here

Click to expand...

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose

-- Kris Kristofferson --

The more I read about the Edo-period it becomes quite obvious japanese people were happier then. The idea of oppressive feudalism restricting and limiting peoples creative and spiritual lives is mainly constructed by western powers and used as a sort of brain wash during the japanese economic wonder after WW2 in an attempt to psychologically control what was viewed as a dangerous form of independence of the japanese mind.

In reality, I don't think japanese culture might ever have been truly suited for western global capitalism and this is the source of the unhappiness. I think that a future world with different economic systems where population growth and economic growth is not desired will have Japan rediscover the lost lifestyle treasures of the Edo period and implement them into a forward facing, modern context which lies at the front line of science and creativity where social stability is not tied to obsolete concepts such as GNP.

The people of Rome never thought their world order would end, neither did the British Empire. People always believe the current age is some sort of ultimate, final stage in history and can't imagine other types of solutions and models. At least this is true for westerners. In fact I think most westerners actually desire Japan to be frozen in time forever as a depraved mass consumption country because this sort of cultural necrophilia is what appeals the most to the general perverted western mind in that it makes Japan accessible on a level suited to the westerners needs rather than the needs of the japanese. People even seem to get angry if I use arguments such as "Japan was happier during the Edo-period" since it's seen as trying to "deprive them of their japanese dream", that is - their illusion of "integration" in or "connectedness" to a society through existing in a peripheral state of global market economy where they can consume Japan.

Davey said:

What should the Japanese do to become happier?

Click to expand...

Less work , more beer , sex and internet time, LOL.

Uncle Frank

They need to drop the damned formalities for one. Its hard to tell if you made a friend or not when they keep calling you by your last name with an honorific title, plus using formal language, etc.

Basically the Japanese have put themselves in the position of the king in the tale of The Miller and the King. They think its cool and classy and royal to be so formal, but all they do is isolate themselves from genuine warm friendships.
All this formality makes it tiresome to get to know people, and I find it a primary reason why Japanese don't know their neighbors. Getting to know one's neighbors invites chores of formality and duties. My neighbor drives me nuts with gifts of veggies from her farm. She is so overboard that I cannot consider it kindness anymore but rather a concern of falling behind in duty. I cannot warm up to that. Which brings me to my next point:

They need to get rid of a great big wad of pointless rituals and randomly invented duties. I could not have imagined on my own a society of people who move, move, move but never think about where they are going or what the outcome of the moving will be. You should see my wife freak out if I put a dish in the sink after she has already done dishes and I forget to wash it myself. I screwed her ritual if I do that. Most of my classes begin with a bow and a formal greeting. Its damned mind numbing. They have a "proper" way to hold chopsticks. A "proper" way to place your shoes at the doorway. Words like "onegaishimasu" that can be uttered with no thought or heart in them at all, so that after a while there truly is none anymore.

Last they need to stop micromanaging everyone's lives. Kids go to school after school and don't learn so much about life at either. I also see the zero tolerance for drinking and driving as micromanagement. Even before that came, the number of accidents for DUI was like 4 percent, but most of those were surely over the limits. Now everyone is too scared to DUI to go out and have a drink, or too poor to afford to call a cab every time. Result? No recreational drinking and no sex either, and those used to be about all there was. Now there is just nothing.

But none of this is going change until the Japanese grow spines and learn to stand up for themselves.