If I did not read sdrothrock's comment, I really would have a completely different view of Japan and Japanese society.
I often feel a lot of these Western articles on various Asian cultures to be quite disingenuous.
The point of the article is entirely different if this was a common occurrence in Japanese society versus it being based on a tiny, niche, that affects less than 0.1% of Japanese people.
As an analogy, imagine a Japanese article talking about "American family relationships" based on child beauty pageants and Honey Boo Boo.
>I often feel a lot of these Western articles on various Asian cultures to be quite disingenuous.
Half of it is people that haven't lived abroad, and are not familiar with different cultures (or are only shallowly familiar) not being able to image a different way of life and set of values as "normal".
Another half of it is media wanting to paint a story such as that is larger and more impressive than it actually is.
If I did not read sdrothrock's comment, I really would have a completely different view of Japan and Japanese society.
I often feel a lot of these Western articles on various Asian cultures to be quite disingenuous.
The point of the article is entirely different if this was a common occurrence in Japanese society versus it being based on a tiny, niche, that affects less than 0.1% of Japanese people.
As an analogy, imagine a Japanese article talking about "American family relationships" based on child beauty pageants and Honey Boo Boo.