Three things not found in Japan

The check-in line for SQ was so long that I came up with this:

If you live long enough in S’pore (or KL) and you go for a short trip to Japan like I did, you will notice the lack of 3 things very clearly:

1. Beggars
2. Wi-Fi
3. Trash cans

I know they are unrelated, but I guess these 3 etched rather clearly to my mind. Much of it has to do with the general stereotype of Japanese that Hong Hsien explained to me: pride, consumerism, and conservatism. Let’s make these assumptions for now, and see how it can be explained.

A society can have no beggars by either having good social welfare, or, by stigmatizing begging. On first impression, the lack of beggars in the heart of Tokyo would have signified affluence, even as multiple reports from around the world reports an M shape society, a rise of freelance workers (avoiding tax), and a lot of aging poverty. But the hypothesis is that the nation is too proud to beg.

This leads to also the other stereotype that Japanese consumes a lot, without any urge to save. With extremely low interests rates, the people are pushed to spend and continue to fuel the economy. Case in point is the phone charges that typical Japanese pay, alleged to be close to 70USD every month, with the bulk of it being data charges (2.5G). Thus, there’s no need to build a Wi-Fi network akin Wireless@SG.

Given a mixture of pride and consumerism, it is also said that as they make and buy so many products, and living in a place with so many natural disasters, there’s a clear environment-consciousness amongst their people. Most of the companies we visited articulate some form of environment technology leadership. Therefore, even when the city don’t provide trash cans, people don’t mind putting the trash in their own bag, bring home, and then throw.

And this is my long shot of trying to explain some observation and stereotypes on the highest level of a country in my first visit.

Back to eating my HORI Corn Chocolate 🙂