Quote Japan
Interesting, odd, outrageous or informative quotes about JapanUntrue Japanese stereotypes reinforced by Shutting Out the Sun
- “juku, or private “cram schools”, where students often study until ten or eleven o’clock every night” Most Japanese kids do not have juku 5 nights a week (let alone the 7 nights that “every week” could mean), if only because few parents could afford. Needless, you do not see trains full of returning teenagers late at night either.
- “These young adults depend on their parents after they grow up, and really live in a parastic state. Even at thirty or forty years old, the parents support them. This state is very specific to Japan. It doesn’t exist anyplace else in the world.” …apart from Italy,Greece,Spain,most of Latin America, not to mention the well documented recent trend in the USA and UK.Tamaki Saito, quoted in Shutting Out the Sun. I still haven’t worked out whether Michael Zielenzieger’s tendency to accept such statements and wildly inflated statistics plucked out of the air like 1 million hikikomori is due to his obvious ignorance about Japan orjust the more general human tendancy to accept anything that supports what you already believe
- “At age five Hiro was packed off to juku, or cram school, like other children” This misleadingly suggests that most Japanese 5 year olds go to cram school, whereas it is actually a tiny minority, probably far fewer than the American children submitted to flashcards before than can talk. One of many examples of inaccuracies and colourful language where none is needed in “Shutting Out the Sun” pg 35
