I have never been to Japan, but part of the attitude towards tattoos is that they have long been associated with the criminal underworld. They were used to brand criminals. At one point they were made illegal.
Interestingly, historically firemen were tattooed as a form of protection but I guess the negative aspects made a bigger impact.
Totally… lots of examples of this… just ask Germany
I think the word is “niche”. Yeah, Japan is famous for many things, Karate, Geishas, Robotics, Anime, etc, but those are not the common norm here. Not every girl in Japan looks like a Geisha Anime Doll that knows Karate and is super efficient in Robotics.
In Japan very few people actually knows English, and is a small island that makes it hard for any Japanese only speaking person to be aware of what happens in, pretty much any other country, they depend exclusively on public media translations to get their news.
Have to keep in mind that other countries like USA speak English, As of 2019, there were 55 sovereign states and 27 non-sovereign entities where English was an official language.
Spanish another bunch of countries. But Japanese… only the people from this tinny island speak it.
Which means, their culture is pretty separated from the rest of the world, they have even their own standards for electronics, they even have their own “ISO” standards called JISC.
What the world knows as an N95 mask, in Japan although we can get N95 masks, they have their own set of rules and tests that they have to pass, FDA approved means nothing here if it doesn’t pass their own set of rules and standards made by them. The Japanese take pride in being “different” from the rest of the world, they don’t see themselves as “special” or “superior” at all, they are just “not the same as everyone else”.
Of course, as you might already know, not everyone even in such a homogenous country is made the same, and there is people who wish for a change, or to alter the common standards, people who in their head have established a relationship with their environment that pushes them to believe that “there could be another way” “a better way” a more “comfortable”, “efficient”, “kind”, “smooth” or whatever your perception of a positive priorities make sense. As in everything, specially in such a closed country, there will be people who is raised the same way who came to the same conclusion, based on their own history, art, science, movies, songs, or even just the shared personal struggles of everyday’s social interactions, there are many who would decide that they want to dive deeper into a “lost” art, or a “radical” point of view. Something that will fill their days with a “different” or unique purpose in which they will feel “liberated” from the everyday lifestyle that they believe everyone else lives.
Maeda Keroppi (follower of VivoKey Japan and Dangerous Things), one of the most well known body modder Japanese, known for his beagle forehead mod and many other things has a public twitter account.
And from the 125.8 million people who lives in Japan, his twitter follower base is just 11.4K, and this includes many Non-Japanese followers.
Even if everyone of that 11.4K where Japanese people this is just 0.009 of the total population in Japan. I would hardly consider that “massive”.
Japanese are very private with their emotions, and inside everyone’s mind there is many things that make no sense for a more open culture, but if you get to know them and their reasons, they kinda… make sense somehow… per example
You see this person and think, oh well he might be a little “unique” somehow…
But turns out that he lost his wife to cancer, he read somewhere that cancer is represented by a pink ribbon, so he embraced the pink color and in order to remember his lost wife he decided to dress on her clothes or clothes that reminded her, but he didn’t fit the outfits, so he decided to honor her memory by making his own clothes out of things that remind him of his lost wife. (This is not real, nor I know this guy) But it kinda would make sense and it’s not totally an impossible story to happen on this type of society.
Then you have other famous people like 51 year old introvert that majored in Mathematics, Hideaki Kobayashi aka “Sailor Suit Old Man.”
Or the Japanese resident Australian stunt actor, professional wrestler, singer and YouTuber Richard Magarey aka Ladybeard going around their daily life with this alternative “persona” of a 15 year old Japanese school girl.
In Japan traditionally there was theatrical plays called Kabuki in which man used to portray female roles, so cross-dressing has been a part of the actual Japanese culture…
Such things impulse Japanese people who defy the “normal”, and this is been always like this, almost 100 years ago, in a time that everyone wore kimonos on the streets, they started to see “modern girls” or as they call them “moga” in the streets, girls with short hair, pants, and outfits that they saw on movies, and this where the crazy people back then.
I mean, we even have full Japanese, “Chicanos” (Mexican descendent Americans) who know very little of Mexico, or Catholic religion but they still wear and tattoo themselves with images of Virgin Mary, eat rice tacos and ride low-riders.
To be honest, I’ve never seen the school girl cross-dressers, nor this j-chicanos, nor someone with tattoos (except the guy who put my microchip implants), nor someone in some BDSM party. But what type of international “news” is to show the old boring Japanese life of a guy that works from 9 to 6, eats cup noodle ramen and goes back to sleep, this is a way more common view of Japan.
Just people trying to put their hours in and finish their daily work responsibilities to be worth their next paycheck. Not every dreamer’s cup of tea, but for them is good enough and not calling unwanted attention on them. They all enjoy little things like reading books, watching some sports, drinking with co-workers, gambling in pachinko and knowing that their life is lived with “purpose” by providing to their families by working on the most stable company they can be hired, instead of venturing into the unknown and leaving their families expectations with an uncertain future because their lack of stability on a niche job. Or at least they try…
When a Japanese applies for a job is normal to research the company you want to work on, how old is being standing, what is their value, and how stable it has been, the oldest, largest the company it is, the better, rarely someone wants to venture on small startups.
But then again, by influence of foreign countries, a little more Japanese try their luck at some startup, some do somewhat good, some just lost time and money in the eyes of others.
And you can see on that photo a reality of Japan
More than 67.4% of the population won’t have children in a society where the working class pays for the pension of elder people AND their own children, the mayor part of the focus is more on survival than to “express” how they “feel inside”. So those rare cases of “interesting” people and gatherings are more of a distraction, a temporary theatrical show that entertains them before they have to go to work again in “real life”, and they are appreciated as a form of interesting entertainment. Due to their normal life monotony, Japanese people is very curious about anything different, being among their own or foreigners, they love a little chitchat with someone different, but when the day is over, they didn’t really change anything much inside them, and just go to continue their normal lives now with an interesting story to tell on their next lunch break or drinking party at work.
So in reality, it isn’t that exiting, and like @amal said, Japanese are still just humans. A little limited by their lack of knowledge of foreigner language and culture and too busy trying to make a living while they can.
All this is obviously just part of my limited experiences, observations and comparisons with some Mexican or some American culture I got to know growing up.
Wow - thanks a lot for those insights! I had a co-worker who studied Japanese and went there several times, but that’s not really comparable to someone who actually lives there…
I just realize that I’ve been raised as a western european far too much to really understand such a mindset… but if it works for them, I guess it’s okay. Still, a little voice in my head tells me something about individuality and self-realization and all that stuff, and that this is important, but I guess that’s just my personal point of view and maybe wouldn’t work for people in Japan.
But if people get more open-minded and all when they are able to communicate with other cultures (by the means of speaking English or another wide-spread language, for example), doesn’t that show that living a somehow streamlined, “conservative” life is some kind of restriction born out of isolation? Or is it rather an ability to focus on “necessary” things and tradition, without being distracted by what other people do?
We all are, and that’s why I think it’s so interesting to find out more about the differences between cultures - while still keeping in mind that there is no single “right way” for all societies. This forum taught me a lot about US culture (and a bit about finnish as well^^), and when I was in Mosambique, I learned a bit about the culture there, and it’s all so different… and yet, we’re all human.
Being open-minded means welcoming new ideas, arguments, and information that you typically do not align with . Open-mindedness is a positive character quality and it enables those who use it to think critically and rationally.
In this case, I believe the Japanese are very open-minded, you see them going everywhere and living in many other countries and trying to always adapt to other’s culture and rarely arguing that “THEY ARE JAPANESE” so they won’t participate on other cultures normal interactions. I’ve seen Japanese in Mexico greeting people with a kiss on the cheek, I’ve seen them in Japan talking to foreigner and asking so many questions and interacting with them. As part of the show, yeah, as part of the vacations, yeah, because they choose to expose themselves to this situations.
As a worker in a company?, nah, they don’t be kissing everyone at work, they won’t be talking to their elders as they see foreigners do. I actually have rarely meet someone who is “afraid” of tattoos, and meet many people who think they look cool, but won’t go put one because the image is very unsanitary, and unnecessary, and even they understand that that is their own view, and won’t dare to flash their own little tattoos to other people in a conservative public space.
They even sale tattoo seals of all sizes
The problem in Japan being so “traditional” or “old school” on some aspects is exactly that, the leaders of this companies who imposed this rules 20-30 years ago… they are still alive and they are in many cases still the leaders of the same companies, and for them any type of change is almost a betrayal to the policies that have brought them to where they are, they are not willing to sit down with a stranger or an employee to discuss their points of view for the company they own, that’s why in Japan many companies have a dress code, including makeup and hair for girls, largest, oldest company usually also means old board of directors that like it “the old way”.
Nikon, Sony, Toshiba, the whole Transport companies
Try to reach one of them and tell them it’s ok to hire someone with horns implants, tattoos, split tongue and rainbow color hair…
So in Japan getting a tattoo, body-mod, etc, means that you will limit yourself even more on the options you could have as part of the society because you are directly choosing something that you know is still tabooed around the society you live in, some are ok with that, I got my job, I got my friends who understand me, and I would never work for a company that:
“makes me wear a suit, that pays half of my pension and my health insurance and gives me huge bonus two times per years and pays me vacation days and lets me rest on every single holiday that the country has and gives me presents on life events like marry or getting a child, who will do anything to not fire me without a heavy legal reason to do so, and will increase my paycheck every year just for continuing working with them”
I rather be myself and work every single holiday, without paid vacations, in risk to be discharged at any time the little boss has a tantrum, getting paid minimum salaries without increment, etc, etc u get the idea.
Step 4
I thought it was mind control world domination? I always get those 2 confused
Success! Now… to keep it…
Next order of business is to figure out how to take advantage of the “product shelf” on YouTube videos… no idea what i’ve gotten myself into hahah
Now make it a thing to wear a different DT/VK merch article every video!
A little bump
plus a new video, lets monetize this bitch
Now, when you say bitch, you realize it is Amal who gets the money from the monetization?
Are you calling Amal a Bitch?
“He” forgot the comma. It was supposed to be…
“Let’s monetize this, bitch!”
So “he” was calling us bitches.
And
OR
Let’s make this video earn it’s keep and make it our bitch…
Just like this new one
Don’t forget about this one:
The card looks thinner that what I originally thought, I was expecting a PCB of normal thickness…
Now I can see myself carrying one in my wallet. I’d still have to take it out to use it because my billfold is shielded but that’s ok.
Have we got a recent link to all of the videos in a play list? And has anyone figured out how to get it to loop? If someone has, I’ll just start playing it on mute while I sleep.
My playlist linked above is still current, I’ve been updating it whenever a new video was posted.
This one.
If you play it on a PC, there’s just a loop button above the queue area.
Just curious, is it YouTube that forces the videos to be at least 3 minutes to make money off of it, or Facebook?
I know the channel, Jomboy Media, purposely loops his videos, or just says non sense at the end of his video to force them to be over 3 minutes.
I just forgot if that was for Facebook or YouTube, and not sure if that is even a thing anymore.
Cause that is something to keep in mind for future videos if that is still true.
