How has Japan changed for the better since you have been here and how has it changed for the worse?

Most of my income is generated in the UK and Japan used to be much more expensive than my home country. Now it is much cheaper. For the worse? More immigrants and tourists?

More restrictions on spending for many people. Substantial wage increases are needed.

Japan's become very poor due to endless BOJ money printing and Ukraine global proxy war destroying demand for all currencies to include US$ & Yen in last 5 years.

Naturally, the poor and uneducated suffer the most from the collapse in the yen's purchasing power, sadly making society far worse off than just a few short years ago.

No surprise Japan's Aging & Depopulation's Accelerating

Improvements:

It's become quite affordable to buy a home compared to most Western countries.

Business practices and culture have slowly improved over time, but inefficiencies such as everyone and their dog having to hanko everything before it can move to the next step remains, slowing down action and innovation. This keeps Japan lagging when it comes to agility, enabling Korea and China to overtake it in the speed of technological progress.

It's much easier and cheaper to get an interesting variety of foreign imported food than it was in the late 90s.

Internet speeds and infrastructure are excellent.

Accessibility has improved markedly for people with disabilities, especially around stations and public buildings.

Urban landscapes in many areas have improved, especially in central Osaka. It's not exactly how I would've done it, but it's better than before with some greenery.

For the worse:

From an aesthetic perspective, Japan has slowly been losing its "Japaneseness." That's not only due to the new buildings and the like that make downtown areas look like pretty much any other city in the world; the kind of tacky charm that was common well into the late 90s/early 2000s has been subsumed by a generic look that could be in anywhere in the world. There's still plenty in local neighbourhoods, but many of the shotengai in major areas are simply becoming rows of chain stores and the like catering to the tourist market.

The aging society: Japan's a pretty crowded place, and there isn't much sense trying to squeeze more and more people into it with a high birth rate. But there don't seem to be a lot of incentives for Japanese people to marry and have a couple of kids to at last maintain the population level or at least slow the decline. As a result, the younger generations are likely to be hit with increasingly heavy pension and health insurance levies to keep the systems running unless people are willing to accept lower living standards for some time, or accept higher levels of immigration. Bit of a devil's bargain, really. For the former, the disadvantages are obvious, and for the second, the Japanese only need to look to Europe, the UK, North America, and Australia to see that multiculturalism isn't the utopia it was promised to be. If I were Japanese, I wouldn't want that, and it would further erode the good parts of Japan that we take for granted, most notably low crime, public safety, general cleanliness, and politeness (even if superficial) that keeps things running fairly smoothly.

The language industry: While never a paragon of virtue, over the last couple of decades conditions have been deteriorating steadily, and the rising cost of living has exacerbated the problem because the low wages have even less purchasing power than they did before.

Social media: Too numerous to list, but just having to navigate around people staring at their phones while they're walking, riding a bike and even driving is, well... yeah.

Better: better housing, more opportunities for women, inaka far less cut off due to Internet+online shopping+more shinkansens, easier to get DIY stuff, more respect of individuals/less pressure to be kaisha ningen or do group stuff, more understanding of neurodivergence etc.

Worse: Lower wages in real term, more old people, fewer young people, fewer marriages, more shuttered shops, people far more pessimistic, what feels like fewer folk going overseas, more chain restaurants and fewer independents, less regional character, more universal blandness, noone reading books on train

Japan became much better than when I arrived where the "No gaijin" was prominent at fudo-sans and other businesses.

It became much better which this behaviour becoming a rare sight.

Now with the constant fake " over tourism" and constant blame the foreigners for everything from rice shortages to rising prices, we are back to seeing the "no gaijin" signs and a return to the xenophobia of long past decades.

The depopulation and aging of Japan makes it more environmental, fewer cars and less traffic in general including on most ski slopes except those with tourists.

Always amazed at the increase in homes having no cars now, as occupants are too old to drive anymore.

Inflation and not just in Japan but basically across the entire world has clearly acted to negatively destabilize society almost across the board - including Japan.

Currency purchasing power destruction's the root cause of inflation, due to excessive money printing by Central Banks to fund Govt. spending, that jumped due to Covid and still unresolved global proxy war in Ukraine.

HopeSpringsEternal

The depopulation and aging of Japan makes it more environmental, fewer cars and less traffic in general including on most ski slopes except those with tourists.

> Always amazed at the increase in homes having no cars now, as occupants are too old to drive anymore.

You should get out more especially out of Tokyo. The problem is there are many drivers 80+.

Better: Some are personal and some are general. Taxis will actually stop for me now. Took a decade or so for that to happen. Real estate agents will readily show rental units and there's not a lot of "No foreigners/Chinese/black people" anymore. More places accept pets. Formerly exorbitant move-in fees for rental units have come down to more moderate fees. People don't cross the street or avoid sitting next to me on public transportation as much as before. You cannot smoke in restaurants, bars, etc like before. Men are actually starting to help with housework a bit. Ridiculous working hours have been cut somewhat and women don't always have to serve beverages in the office. Women and men are starting to be able to take maternity and paternity leave without getting stigmatized. The amount of suicides have come down and people are starting to treat mental health issues more seriously. Less people drink alcohol or smoke and those vending machines have been removed from streets. Lots of mixed-race people are on the sports teams or in the spotlight in different sports, nationally and internationally.

Worse: Bonuses have cratered. The yen rate is shockingly low and the government seems to like it. There are not enough trash cans on the streets. The young men don't seem to know how to talk to women. A large amount of women and men don't want to get married or have children so the birth rate is in the tank. There's a preoccupation with tourists' "manners" and trying to charge them for anything possible. The rural areas are suffering from depopulation and the nation is graying at an alarming rate. Taxes are increasing for almost everything.

One thing people keep saying is worse is the value of the yen.

But it seems most saying this don't really know what Japan was like previously.

Until 1985 or 86 the yen was well over ¥200 to the US dollar, even when I arrived it was ¥160 to the dollar.

From 1990 to 2010 the yen was an average around ¥120 to the dollar, with it going as low as ¥160 and briefly as high as ¥81.

So this isn't anything new

I came here during the bubble economy. I wish I could go back to those times. Everything seems to be going downhill. The growing poverty is truly shocking.

wallaceToday  12:42 pm JST

HopeSpringsEternal

The depopulation and aging of Japan makes it more environmental, fewer cars and less traffic in general including on most ski slopes except those with tourists.

Always amazed at the increase in homes having no cars now, as occupants are too old to drive anymore.*

You should get out more especially out of Tokyo. The problem is there are many drivers 80+.

Yep, but local areas far easier to navigate than urban areas, where police won't easily re-authorize driver licenses for the elderly.

Without a car, life's tough in local areas, whereas in urban areas public transportation and taxis are far more plentiful. Should have noted that many of these home that no longer have cars, also no longer have occupants!

Also worth noting, the local areas are the places REALLY Depopulating rapidly, so driving is becoming far easier with fewer cars on the road every day = like golf courses and ski slopes too!

Yep, but local areas far easier to navigate than urban areas, where police won't easily re-authorize driver licenses for the elderly.

You know so little about life outside of Tokyo but claim to know it all.

Without a car, life's tough in local areas, whereas in urban areas public transportation and taxis are far more plentiful. Should have noted that many of these home that no longer have cars, also no longer have occupants!

In our city, people without a car can use a community taxi, and the city issues taxi coupons to reduce costs.

It's Japan, it doesn't change. It just gets more expensive.

Some days are diamonds....I find the same thing, say oldies driving on the road, is one day a source of amusement, another day a source of frustration.

Years ago in Osaka, I would see old men fishing in a drainage ditch for carp.

Some days, "orrr...trying to get out of the house for a while "

Other days "Look at these fools fishing in a ditch for a fish you cant eat "

Much better environment, housing and infrastructure. Downside: more and more dumb rules, many based on “manners,” which can be discriminatory, intolerant and even oppressive in nature.

So much easier to get around. Online maps help given the lack of street name signs, clear addresses on homes and so on. My local trains added multiple languages to the signage; their app even has English.

The flood of tourists has made locals look askance at every foreigner. Many people in my area have seen me around for decades but now I get lumped in with all the obnoxious tourists. Oh, well. I keep trying not to stand out, and follow the rules both stated and understood. I also avoid groups of tourists and strays. lol.

In the last 10 years for me personally:

Better:

more places like Kaldi popping up conveniently for us non-rich folks to enjoy shopping at and buy stuff from that's reminiscent to our home countries. Places like National-Azabu just didn't cut it for the average Joe in Japan.

no longer need to breathe in someone's smoke while indoors, can enjoy the smell of food instead

ability to go cashless in most places now. Also the ability to pull out cash at the conbini ATM for free for up to a limited amount. This is huge for me since I opened an account with SMBC back when I lived somewhere I had access with them and now I don't have one nearby so I need to make transactions at a conbini.

Mujirushi's public water stations. This comes in handy to stop me from buying drinks at the vending machines, saving a little extra.

getting a new phone and sim card is a breeze now compared to when I first got my phone at Docomo where they had me wait 3 hours, had me download a bunch of free trial bloatware, told me to come back in a month to uninstall the bloatware so I don't get charged for the subscription and have me wait another 2 hours.

there is a lot more, but the list will go on too long :)

Worse:

noticeably more littering on roadsides

parental discipline becoming harder with all the vague rules on what is considered "harassment" in Japan. Noticeably more parents letting their child scream and cry in public spaces without taking any action to stop them.

more and more buildings/ trains are no longer kept cool during the summer, but for some reason they are still blasting the heat despite everyone wearing their coat.

a lot of government websites haven't been updated, making it hard to navigate with smartphones.

noticeably more children/ teens with poor eyesight and either wearing prescription glasses or can't see very well in the dark while riding their bicycle.

I'm not in Tokyo, so my experience may be different from a lot of people. My salary has doubled in the last five years and I have earned a good reputation in my field. I'm got a great, spacious house in a nice area, and my family are doing well.

Since coming here in 2006, my personal situation has improved except that I'm now fully a family man and I've no independence any more.

However, Japan, as a whole has changed a great deal, especially since the pandemic. Its slowly becoming more diverse and its no longer a suprise for people to see foreign people, even here. I feel English as a commodity has lost rather than gained value over time, and you now have to have a deeper skillset than simply being an English speaker. I do sometimes think Japan has lost its magic to some extent, but perhaps because my personal life is less exciting than it once was. However, I still love it dearly.

Mostly positive: no smoking in restaurants, better choice of beverages including craft beers, more gyms and an ever so slightly bigger emphasis on work-life balance after more young people said to hell with this 14-hour-day stuff post-bubble. Tokyo is still a tiring place to work, but burning yourself out used to be the honorable goal. Not anymore. Lastly, feels like more dogs. Dogs make everything better.

Toilets are better now than in 1960s'

I am no better than I was then.

Japanese people are more tolerant now.

Foreigners less so.

JMHO

I feel English as a commodity has lost rather than gained value over time, and you now have to have a deeper skillset than simply being an English speaker.

Which should be a good thing, shouldn't it? But seeing the amount of old salarymen or girls in their 20's still trying to train their English with me in various bars and izakayas round Tokyo, I think English as a commodity still has a lot of good years ahead of it.

As for how Japan got worse, or at least Tokyo, it's definitely in the tearing down of old neighbourhoods or stores to build... Yet another luxury brand shop. How many Louis Vuitton and Chanel does this city need?? Every new city project seems to be aimed at the Chinese 成り金, which is making the city a little bit more boring with every new building.

Also, the idol culture is out of control and is a cancer on the music, movie and entertainment industries.