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Would you rather live in America or Japan?

United States of America or Greater Nippon?


  • Total voters
    323
Nihon ni sumitai, I'd like to try. But one usually needs a college degree or some extra special skill in order to survive there. And I'm not sure I want to go back to college and obtain one.
 
titmouse posted
america isnt as bad as the media makes it out to be
however we ARE the melting pot. so many different ppl coming together causes strife

I don't think America is bad at all. It would depend on where you live. My parents still usually don't lock their doors during the day, but they live in a medium sized town, not a city.

People lock their doors here in Tokyo, and my wife doesn't like me to leave the bedroom window open at night (though personally I would like to see a Japanese burglar try and come in through the window. I would have no compunction about reminding him about the law of graivty:D).
 
titmouse posted
I don't think America is bad at all. It would depend on where you live. My parents still usually don't lock their doors during the day, but they live in a medium sized town, not a city.
People lock their doors here in Tokyo, and my wife doesn't like me to leave the bedroom window open at night (though personally I would like to see a Japanese burglar try and come in through the window. I would have no compunction about reminding him about the law of graivty:D).

yeah....
living in a small town doesn't really count as a fair comparison.
 
I don't consider a population of 60,000 small, but I'll let you judge that for yourself. I have lived in some very small towns, but I still usually locked my doors when I went out for the day (not so many neighbors around to keep an eye on things).
 
ofcourse in Japan. thought i have never been in japan either in USA, but it's just the way it is. altought i guess it would be easier to adapt to the USA society, but oh well, my dream is Japan. :}
 
I always find it curious how people having never been to Japan are quick to decide that this is the place for them. In reality it is my feeling that only a certain breed of foreigner can really chug it out here for the long run.
 
defintely Japan , crime rate is very low compared to US
quoting a statistic like that without any sense of context or relevant information is a misuse of the figure. Crime statistics is aren't an accurate representation of what life is like... anywhere.
 
Maybe more specific information is needed, but you can't tell me that you feel safer walking around in our city compared to when we were in Japan... It is significantly safer over there in a majority of areas compared to a majority of areas here.
 
crap, lost my response. cliffnotes version.
but you can't tell me that you feel safer walking around in our city compared to when we were in Japan...
Safer from what? assault? being shot? pickpockets? being falsely accused of a crime myself? I've never been the victim of assault in either country, but that doesn't mean I'm not still vigilant. I HAVE been falsely accused of a crime in Japan, so should I be more worried that it would happen again? If I were a girl, should I feel more or less safe from sexual assault on the train? Should my perceived safety be affected by the fact that trains are far more common in Japan?

Japan and the US are very different countries, and there are a lot more factors to crime than the mere number of incidents. How do you even begin to establish an equal scale with which to relate the two? Use samplings of areas with similar population density? Categorize by types of crime? What about things that are illegal in one country and not the other, do they still count? Do you think Lotusflower took any of this into consideration when she posted?

Statistics without context is data. Data is not information, and inferences made from data alone are uninformed ones.
 
Ugh, hate it when I lose a whole post or email like that.

I absolutely agree that categorization of what is being compared in regards to "safety and crime" is critical in any comparison. I'm not going to guess what Lotus was thinking though, just because I can't read minds and there was not enough information posted by s/he to be able to make any sort of remote conjecture.

When I am speaking of safety, I'm speaking mostly of physical safety from violent crime or theft in general. I would never be so foolish as to walk through many downtown areas around Sacramento at night, the same goes with San Francisco or L.A. However, there are only a couple spots I would even be concerned about being robbed or violently attacked in Japan. A majority of Japan I have little to no concern walking through even at 1am totally alone in the dark. Does this sort of violent attack happen in Japan? Certainly. However, the chances I'm going to get shot, robbed, or be the victim of some sort of gangbang is pretty damn low in Japan compared to the US. Even the occasional maniac with a katana situation is fairly low. I'd go as far as to say in China I generally felt safer from violent crime like this compared to many places in the US. (I'm comparing violent muggings here)

Now on to false accusations, sexual crime, and general trust in the police. I don't trust the police in Japan one bit; however, I also don't trust the police in the United States either. In Japan this quickly gets into the realm of human rights issues. As for sexual crime, I don't think I have to worry about this too much, as long as you don't concern the chance of being falsely accused in a train because some panicky lady assumes it was me who grabbed her and not some pervy drunk businessman. (In a crowded train I always purposefully have my hands visible and above my shoulders to avoid this sort of thing the best I can. Call it paranoia but, I already know foreigners are seen with a suspicious eye.)

I guess I could look up some statistics yes, but I don't quite have the time to do that for a forum posts and have other preparations to do. I already waste too much time on here :D
 
crap, lost my response. cliffnotes version.
Safer from what? assault? being shot? pickpockets? being falsely accused of a crime myself? I've never been the victim of assault in either country, but that doesn't mean I'm not still vigilant. I HAVE been falsely accused of a crime in Japan, so should I be more worried that it would happen again? If I were a girl, should I feel more or less safe from sexual assault on the train? Should my perceived safety be affected by the fact that trains are far more common in Japan?

Japan and the US are very different countries, and there are a lot more factors to crime than the mere number of incidents. How do you even begin to establish an equal scale with which to relate the two? Use samplings of areas with similar population density? Categorize by types of crime? What about things that are illegal in one country and not the other, do they still count? Do you think Lotusflower took any of this into consideration when she posted?

Statistics without context is data. Data is not information, and inferences made from data alone are uninformed ones.

Well done for this nice classic predictable answer like trying to defend! so... well, Japan is pretty much safer than USA and thats called common known fact
or some fancier english word. you dont have to categorize, check densities, do experiments or whatever.
i dont know why you get offended by that, trying to cover it with excuses and stuff.
if
it was for Greece instead of US i would again agree that Japan is safer too, even tho i havent been there but for these years of searching some stuff and participating in forums, i think i can tell. and data IS information man.
 
I cant really decide without having lived in both those places.
Plus, maybe I would like somewhere else better
 
Well done for this nice classic predictable answer like trying to defend! so... well, Japan is pretty much safer than USA and thats called common known fact
or some fancier english word. you dont have to categorize, check densities, do experiments or whatever.
i dont know why you get offended by that, trying to cover it with excuses and stuff.
if
it was for Greece instead of US i would again agree that Japan is safer too, even tho i havent been there but for these years of searching some stuff and participating in forums, i think i can tell. and data IS information man.

While I can barely read what you wrote, I'm almost certain you missed a great deal of what NiceGaijin was trying to explain. I highly recommend you read much more carefully before being so critical.

Moreover, if your reasoning is "everyone seems to know, and even though I've never been there, it must be true" then you kid, need to seriously consider a class that involves critical thinking or basic logic so you see how absurd and foolish that statement was.
 
However, the chances I'm going to get shot, robbed, or be the victim of some sort of gangbang is pretty damn low in Japan compared to the US.
It's possible to put yourself in a situation in both countries where you are just as susceptible to being the victim of a crime. Statistics can't predict the future.

The three crimes you quoted are good examples of contextless generalizations. There are less guns in Japan, so there are less gunshot wounds. They are also illegal, so any citizen carrying one is a criminal. If we rely on statistics, perhaps it'd be more effective to look at stats for HOW guns are used in crime. Robbery, as in being mugged? How about being extorted? As for gangbangs, how many gangs in Japan operate that way? We're getting into the different approaches to criminal activity in different cultures, and comparing them without context just leads to generalizations and misunderstanding.

For the record, I walk around downtown at night without anxiety or needlessly scaring myself or others into thinking I'm going to be victimized, but I remain vigilant of the situation around me, which is usually the situation in which I've put myself. This applies everywhere.

data IS information man
No, it is data. Or to be more succinct, data is not knowledge. What kind of understanding could you hope to have of any raw data if you don't know how it relates to anything else? I suggest you take a look at Information Anxiety, by Richard Saul Wurman.
 
Well done for this nice classic predictable answer like trying to defend! so... well, Japan is pretty much safer than USA and thats called common known fact
or some fancier english word. you dont have to categorize, check densities, do experiments or whatever.
i dont know why you get offended by that, trying to cover it with excuses and stuff.
if
it was for Greece instead of US i would again agree that Japan is safer too, even tho i havent been there but for these years of searching some stuff and participating in forums, i think i can tell. and data IS information man.

I'm not going to comment on overall safety because safety is basically relative. I lived most of my life in the USA and not once have been the victim of any sort of violent crime. Hect I cannot even remember getting anything stolen. But since being in Japan, I heard a knife fight going on and later saw blood splattered all over the scene, (never seen that in America), and have had my bicycle stolen several times. So what does that tell me? It's all relative, period. Do I feel safer walking around Japan at night? Sure, but sometimes I wonder how much of our feeling about safety in the US has been offset by the media that likes to sensationalize things and make the country/world seem a lot more violent than it actually is.
 
It's possible to put yourself in a situation in both countries where you are just as susceptible to being the victim of a crime. Statistics can't predict the future.

The three crimes you quoted are good examples of contextless generalizations.

Now I think you are just picking for anything, and I think you're missing the point in an attempt to be a bit TOO specific without even the tools at hand. :D

Of course they are contextless generalizations, they are simply examples of possible violent crimes. Neither of us are jumping into research studies or statistics so both of us are generalizing just as much as the other. If you want to switch in "stabbings" for "gunshot wounds" be my guest.

My point wasn't to itemize each specific type of crime, my whole point is that in general I feel much safer from violent crime and muggings walking alone through the streets of Tokyo at night than I do the streets of other major cities in the United States.

Now, you can break that down even further if you want, but then you almost should have a serious research and statistic based thread mixed with a bit of philosophy for spice if you are going to go THAT deep. If you want to look up statistics for the types of crime I listed and try to compare violent crime in a city like LA compared to Tokyo, go for it. I'd be very curious of the results myself to see the differences. That is a separate thread if you are going to go to that extent.

Nothing is wrong with detail, but if you are focused exclusively on each little pinpoint to where you miss the picture as a whole, then you might need to take a deep breath and take a step back.
 
I've lived in both countries, and prefer my own.

1. More freedom here, less pressure to conform.

2. Law-abiding citizens can arm themselves equally to the criminals. I've never been a crime victim in either country, but at least here I know that if someone breaks into my house at night, I can defend myself and family.

3. More space, less traffic, fewer crowds. (Not true everywhere you go.)

4. Our kids never had to worry about being treated as half-breeds at school. We've never been discriminated against here because we're an inter-racial couple. (Wife is Japanese, I'm white.) This was not true when we lived in Japan, where most landlords wouldn't rent to us and some establishments wouldn't serve us.

There are some very good things about living in Japan (the food) and the Japanese people; but some things were hard for me to live with.
 
Those are some very good reasons Roland. I'm still torn between the choice myself, but I'm lucky that I don't have to make it for some time. I think I'll know depending on the situation I'm in.
 
Now I think you are just picking for anything, and I think you're missing the point in an attempt to be a bit TOO specific without even the tools at hand. :D
Of course they are contextless generalizations, they are simply examples of possible violent crimes. Neither of us are jumping into research studies or statistics so both of us are generalizing just as much as the other. If you want to switch in "stabbings" for "gunshot wounds" be my guest....
...Nothing is wrong with detail, but if you are focused exclusively on each little pinpoint to where you miss the picture as a whole, then you might need to take a deep breath and take a step back.
I wasn't asking for detailed statistics in earnest; I was using those questions to illustrate just how vague and non-informative a statistic out of context can be.

in general I feel much safer from violent crime and muggings walking alone through the streets of Tokyo at night than I do the streets of other major cities in the United States.
That's a perfectly valid way to feel, but is it because of crime statistics that you feel safer in Japan? Too often we seek false comfort in information taken out of context, and we lose sight of any real understanding of how or why the "facts" are what they are. As others have pointed out, perceived happiness includes a lot more than perceived safety, which includes a lot more than how many crimes are committed in a year.
 
Oh, I already completely agree that information out of context is dangerous. Random statistics or comments made out of context without attention made to under-appreciated semantics can be very dangerous.

I'll agree on your last statement on the above post as well... to an extent. There hasn't really BEEN any facts or hard information posted though, so it is really hard to worry about things going too far yet. Feeling of safety (which is only accurately measured on a relative scale anyway), and the actual percentage of the chance of a crime occurring (maybe even harder to judge due to so many factors) I expect, as most would, show a great discrepancy in the final results. Add in type of crimes, and other factors and you quickly have possibly the most complex social study ever conducted.

However, ultimately on an issue like this you have go both by life experience and general results based on a variety of data that may be present when you make your choice to step out that door. This goes for anyone.

No matter the results, I still would feel far safer walking through Tokyo at 1am than downtown LA at 1am. I'll leave the hard research and statistics as to why for someone else though.
 
Although it may not be related to this topic, I really like hearing good things about Japan.
I was born and raised here in Japan and I am really proud of this country.
I just want to say "Thank you" for all who are interested in Japan :)
I wish I could show you all around my living area in Tokyo and have fun together~.

sorry if my English is rubbish..
 
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