In all of the articles, essays, posts, and books I’ve read, I’ve noticed that there are a few traps that people regularly fall into when they talk about Japan. These few cliches have bothered me more and more over the years as it’s become increasingly apparent that they’re borderline harmful.

I don’t want to criticize others too much because Lord knows that I’ve done some pretty crap writing, but I really want to acknowledges these cliches so that we might get past them.

“Weird Japan”

A lot of people talk about Japan as “weird Japan,” a place where all the people are strange and do wacky things and nothing makes sense. I wrote about the dangers of focusing too much on “weird Japan” last year, but a few things have happened recently that make me want to bring it up again.

Last year, one of the more reported-on stories about Japan was about a small group of people in Tokyo. These people took body modification to the extreme by injecting saline into their foreheads to make what essentially looked like a giant bagel on their face.

It’s definitely a weird and interesting phenomenon, but the way that most outlets reported on this was sadly predictable and really disappointing.

It’s a new trend! Everybody’s doing it!

There were maybe a handful of people doing this in Japan, but lots of Western media outlets were quick to declare these “bagel heads” a “trend” in Japan, as if everybody and their grandma were sticking needles into their foreheads and letting the saline flow. Those kooky Japanese people!

More recently, Kotaku wrote about a hair salon in Osaka that created a hairdo that looks like a tomato. The author stresses that this hairdo is “not mainstream” and it’s hard to imagine that more than a few people in Japan have this haircut.

As if on cue people have begun declaring this one-off hairdo as “Japan’s Newest Hairstyle Craze.” What a weird country! People style their hair to look like a tomato!

There are certainly weird things that happen in Japan, but taking individual occurrences and pretending that they’re some kind of new, national craze is really disingenuous.

Instead, focus on the larger societal and cultural differences that actually set Japan apart from the rest of the world. As one Tofugu commenter so eloquently said:

After a while, it’s not weird [in Japan] in the obvious ways. It’s actually way weirder than that.

Going to Extremes

As you start to get interested in Japan, you’ll start to meet people who are really excited about the country. Isn’t Japanese food great? Aren’t Japanese toilets cool? Japanese culture is the best. I want to move to Japan!

On the flipside, there are plenty of people who love to gripe about Japan. As somebody who has trouble writing a lot (my essays for school were always under the minimum word count), I’m still blown away that Kotaku ran a 15,000 word rant about what sucks about Japan.

Neither perspective paints a complete picture.

Sure, there’s a lot to like about Japan, but there’s plenty that should cause concern, too. For me, things like Japan’s its flawed legal system, and its high suicide rate make me see Japan in a different light.

Raging against Japan isn’t helpful, either. For the most part, the bad things Japan have some sort of twisted logic behind them that fits them into a bigger context. It isn’t always something you have to like or agree with, but understand why the bad things are bad is incredibly helpful to seeing the bigger situation.

I think there’s a lot of value in a more nuanced approach. It’s not always exciting as going to the extremes and won’t elicit as strong of an reaction from people; but I think that through moderation, you’re a lot more accurate and learn more.

I won’t pretend like I know the One True Way to Talk About Japan, and I hope that people call me when my writing isn’t accurate or is misleading. But I think that these are things that really plague the dialogue about Japan and, once we get past these tired tropes and cliches, we can learn a lot more.

Bonus! Our wonderful illustrator Aya has whipped up a high-res wallpaper version of her illustration for this post, which you can find here.