thats funny i see open displays of affection all the time in japan, including one time when i saw a girl giving her boyfriend a blowjob in his cars at the toys r us parking lot here in nara. maybe its not so common for strangers to kiss each other as a greeting but its the same in canada. as for hugging, when i met my 40 something year old friend here in japan, the second day we went to kyoto, we took a picture and he went to put his arm around me for it, but i thought japanese didnt do that..so i look like an *** in the picture hahaha. i think it all depends on the person. the morales of Japanese youth are very different from what society would like it to be.