Where Should You Live Abroad? A Guide for Budding Expats

For the complete listing, please go to: http://www.policymic.com/articles/84717/where-should-you-live-abroad-a-guide-for-budding-expats

5. For the (future) business mogul: Japan and Korea

Nothing beats the the fermented ginger and cabbage of Northeast Asia.

Japan remains a big draw for businesses by continuing to build some of the world's best cars and electronics, with names like Honda, Toyota, Sony and Canon. According to a CBS report, American businesses continue to send people over to ensure a hand in the quality products Japan is producing, despite being an expensive place to live.

Just across the East Sea from Japan lies Korea, which also has been a strong draw to American businesses (Samsung, LG, Kia and Hyundai are all based in and around the bustling metropolis of Seoul). With a lower cost of living than Japan, Korea is a rising haven for expats looking for comfortable place to live overseas. Both countries also attract large populations of expat English teachers for public and private schools as well. The downside? Both can be a little inaccessible in the first year, but with patience you'll feel right at home.

Be sure to try the kimchi.

The Divine Wind Vault

http://divinewindvault.blogspot.com

(C)2006-14

5 reasons foreigners find it hard to become friends with Japanese people

5 reasons foreigners find it hard to become friends with Japanese people

By Mike

Lifestyle Mar. 14, 2014 - 06:45AM JST

TOKYO —

With all the controversy surrounding a recent “racist” All Nippon Airlines ad, the Japanese and Western media have both been abuzz with the question of whether foreign people can ever truly become respected Japanese citizens – accepted by their community and deemed worthy of the right to not be the recipient of extraordinary treatment.

But this conversation has been going on a long, long time in the expat community in Japan, with a lot of otherwise Japanophile foreigners finding it hard to befriend the Japanese on a higher-than-acquaintance level. Why? Well, frequent source of opinion and cultural commentary Madame Riri has compiled a few of the reasons:

The “Gaijin Card”

The so-called “Gaijin Card” is a much-talked about wildcard that foreigners can use to gain instant forgiveness for cultural transgressions in Japan. The famously confrontation-averse Japanese will go to great lengths to avoid having a lengthy or complicated conversation with people in English, which means feigning ignorance of the Japanese language or Japanese etiquette can net you all kinds of bonuses in social situations that a regular Japanese person wouldn’t get.

But the Gaijin Card is a two-way street: No matter how hard you try to assimilate into Japanese culture, you will forever be a perpetual “other.” The word gaijin, in fact, is a slightly derogatory but universally accepted label for foreigners in Japan that essentially means “outsiders”, and the Japanese will never stop calling you one no matter how close your relationship or how long you’ve been a resident. There is a whole category of Japanese people that foreign exchange students and long-term expats refer to as “Gaijin Hunters;” Japanese that go out of their way to befriend foreigners, typically for self-serving purposes like free English lessons, street cred, or Hollywood movie-style romance, whether that’s a fair label or not.

Comparatively rare, however, is the Japanese person who will treat you like just another human being. Foreigners must constantly endure having their “outside-ness” “discussed openly in conversation, and I’ve had more than one friendship crumble upon learning a Japanese “friend” had actually been keeping me around for the free English lessons.

The constant praise

On the surface, this seems like something everybody would want. It feels great when people earnestly praise your language skills, your exotic looks, and your unique skill set. It’s another thing entirely when people constantly compliment your most rudimentary skills like using chopsticks and saying “thank you” in Japanese.

These little backhanded compliments are referred to in sociology by the relatively new term of “Microaggressions.” Essentially, when a Japanese person compliments your basic chopstick use or your above-average pronunciation of rudimentary Japanese phrases, asks, “When will you go back to your home country?” or, “Do you like Japanese women?,” these people are essentially re-affirming your “otherness;” Confirming their own stereotypes about foreigners while at the same time presenting it in a complimentary fashion that feels difficult to refute or take offense to.

The mystery

While you feel conflicted about stereotyping the Japanese right after several paragraphs of complaining about the Japanese stereotyping other people, it really does feel like the Japanese tend to mince words. It’s difficult being friends with a person who never truly tells directly how they feel or what they think. The Japanese language, in fact, lends itself perfectly to dodging around giving your true opinion on something, with phrases such as, “sore ha chotto…” (“Well, that’s a little…”) being readily accepted in the lexicon as a legitimate rejection of an offer. No reason ever need be given to reject or accept an invitation or opinion, often leaving foreigners scratching their heads about their Japanese friends’ true intentions and feelings.

The constant planning

Again, to step into stereotype territory, the Japanese seem to be “planners.” That is, you often must go through lengthy e-mail and phone exchanges to settle on an exact time and place to meet your Japanese friend, and sometimes the ultimate meeting time can be months on the horizon. On the other hand, I’ve been the recipient of a fair amount of Japanese frustration because, as a Midwestern American, I tend to plan things off the cuff; sometimes at the very last minute or at the spur of the moment. That’s just how I roll. But I find this often clashes with the methodical nature of planning social gatherings in Japan.

Is either way right or wrong? No. But are the two styles compatible? Uh… Not really, and many foreigners find this lack of flexibility hard to stomach.

It takes time

When I was in college, I found it incredibly easy to strike up a conversation with another student in line at the food court or sitting next to each other in class. After a few short exchanges, a friendship seemed to instantly sprout up out of the ether. Soon enough, I’d be seeing the same people at parties and hosting them in my disgusting college-boy “apartment” (probably classified by normal people as a “disaster area”).

In Japan, striking up a conversation is easy enough, but it takes months or even years for that first contact to bloom into a substantial relationship. This goes back to the deeply-ingrained Japanese philosophy of “uchi” and “soto;” Essentially, close co-workers, family members and long-term friends are “uchi” (“inside”) and everyone else is “soto” (“outside”). Working your way up from soto to uchi thus takes a very long time and a lot of favor giving-and-taking.

This all isn’t to say that meaningful relationships with Japanese people is impossible. On the contrary, I’ve had Japanese friends run to my aid in times of need when other Western friends seemed mysteriously absent. On the one hand, close friendships with Japanese people are extremely rewarding and almost always last a lifetime, but on the other hand, getting to that point can quite frankly be a pain in the ass.

Source: Madame Riri

The Divine Wind Vault

http://divinewindvault.blogspot.com

(C)2006-14

Bitcoin is not a currency

Cabinet: Bitcoin is not a currency

by Reiji Yoshida

Under Japanese law, bitcoins are not recognized as currency and transactions using it should be taxed based on the income, corporate and consumption tax laws, the Cabinet announced Friday in a written statement.

The statement was issued in response to a written question from Upper House member Tsutomu Okubo of the Democratic Party of Japan.

During his daily news conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the Finance Ministry should consider how it can tax bitcoin-based transactions.

“In general, it is only natural for the Finance Ministry to consider how it can tax transactions if they generate a profit,” Suga said.

The Cabinet’s written statement also said the Bank Law does not allow banks in Japan to open bitcoin deposit accounts, broker buying and selling of bitcoins or exchange bitcoins for foreign currencies on behalf of their customers.

Investors have been keenly interested in how the government will regulate bitcoins after Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, the world’s largest bitcoin exchange, filed for bankruptcy Feb. 28 in a major international scandal, claiming its system was hacked and had lost all of its deposits of 750,000 bitcoins (valued at around $500 million) as well as ¥2.8 billion in cash in customer accounts, along with 100,000 bitcoins of its own.

Asked how the government would regulate bitcoins in response to Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy, Suga only said the Abe administration is still analyzing the situation.

“Right now we are studying what we can do under existing laws,” he said, adding that officials will “keep watching” the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings of Mt. Gox.

Financial regulators across the world are now trying to determine if and how they can regulate virtual, Net-based currencies like bitcoins.

Bitcoin transactions have reportedly been used in illicit dealings, such as money-laundering operations.

The administration was also asked if bitcoins can be used to launder ill-gotten money and how this can be regulated, but the Cabinet statement did not address this issue.

“It is difficult to answer (that question) at this stage, because how bitcoins are actually being used and other situations are not clear,” the administration said.

The Divine Wind Vault

http://divinewindvault.blogspot.com

(C)2006-14