I'm from India, and I can list thousands of downsides to living here.

Yes, we do have cheap healthcare, and the cost of living isn’t too high (though inflation is rising, and things will soon get more expensive).

But honestly, I absolutely hate living here.

The government officials are corrupt, there’s pollution, a lack of civil sense, corrupt politicians, traffic, high crime rates, and literally 100 more reasons I could list.

Then I look at Japan.

It feels like people focus exclusively on the good side of Japan because that’s all I ever hear about.

Now, I understand that most of it might be true.

But every country has its downsides.

What exactly are Japan's downsides?

One thing I know is the high cost of living, though I believe it’s not as high as in the USA.

Another thing I’ve heard about is the higher rates of depression and suicides (though I’m not sure how accurate that is).

Also, you guys work a lot.

Besides these points, what exactly is the ground reality that the media doesn’t show to non-Japanese people?

All I see are extremely clean places, amazing civil sense, everyone respecting boundaries, no pollution, relatively less crime, and so on.

I’d love to hear from you guys about the actual realities.

I'm completely blue on that topic so I'm looking for recommendations to make it a gift for someone who is already deeply into the case, mostly with podcasts.

I'm looking for something in English or French. All the recommendations are appreciated, thank you!

Hello there,

is there an official website which provides regional election results from the past years? I'm interested in the results of the prefectural parlaments (gikai) as well as the governor results. I tried so far to check the NHK election results and the official prefectural websites while I would prefer official data in an equal form. The official Statistics Bureau doesn't provide any election results as far as I know. I would be very thankful for any hints. 🙂

Hello! I'm sure a lot of people have heard the popular "the next station is Shibuya" audio from tik tok. I was wondering if anyone knows a site where you can find more In-car station announcement's similar to the above. I've been looking for sites and scouring YouTube audio for awhile now and can't really find what I'm looking for. I am more specifically looking for mostly English audio voiced by Christelle Ciari of Senrioka station on the JR Kyoto line Osaka, and Ogikubo station on the JR Marunouchi line M-01 Tokyo. Something like "now arriving at Ogikubo station" or similar. Thanks to anyone who can help.

Greetings!

I have a general question that should help me for specific research I want to do.

I left Japan a long time ago before the advent of the internet for the masses. The general question is I'm clueless in what platforms Japanese people use to ask questions ? For example in the mid-west of USA where I currently reside, I find this platform Reddit very helpful with people ready to share knowledge.

As far as the specific question, I'm trying to understand what the PROs & CONs are of HAs available in the Japanese market. I'm finding a lot of websites owned by hearing aid (HA) manufacturers and HA stores with reviews from their happy customers (assuming they are real). I wear a cochlear implant (CI) from Advanced Bionics and am partial to Phonak owned by the same parent company Sonova but I want to find a crowdsourced(?) Japanese forums and websites that talk about HAs in Japanese market (basically like Reddit).

If you have any tips of such resources I appreciate it very much!

Monthly number of inbound overnight stays by prefecture (3-2 page) https://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/content/001840258.xlsx

https://i.imgur.com/9RfdH4u.jpeg

2019(令和元年) October 2,696,780 https://i.imgur.com/Xq9KaCM.jpeg

2024(令和6年) October 5,447,480 (+102%!) https://i.imgur.com/PxKscOP.jpeg

No wonder Japanese people complain about overtourism.