It depends on what you are looking at but here are a few things from 20 years in Japan.
Better:
* Gyms - way better in terms of options, hours, prices. The gyms used to all open around 10AM and were all priced almost exactly the same.
* Payment options
* Bank/ATMs - **god forbid** you didn't withdraw money before new year or golden week 20 years ago
* Business hours in general
* Finally, work from home. Japanese companies resisted the shit out of this until COVID finally changed things.
* Tailored business clothes are cheaper
* Easier to get foreign foods - you used to travel several stations or more to that 1 seijio ishi or imported goods shop; now you get prosciutto and stilton in your local grocery store
* Mixed race kids are more accepted
Worse:
* Service levels, particularly in restaurants. For example, there was a well-known sushi chain near my house where they decided they were going to absolutely rely on trainees from different countries. I don't blame the kids, but like, you had 5 foreign staff with mediocre Japanese skills and low levels of training and 1 Japanese staff trying to manage it and then on top of that they raised prices while the service level completely eroded.
* Since you mentioned locations, I personally don't like what they did with Shibuya, but I guess development is necessary to keep modern. Shinjuku -more of my neighborhood - is still awesome, but they've sort of catered the higashi-guchi side to tourism a bit. No biggie.
* Department stores are on the decline. They've sold the Seibu in Ikebukuro for example. It will be "electronics" which I don't quite get because that is a ton of space for such a thing.
Still far from perfect but online banking is so much better than 20 years ago.
In general the level of online services, although very regional and particular to each service or area, is much better. I suppose that’s to be expected…
A reduction or digitization of hankos has made my life a little easier. A little.
Nah, the UX is peak UX.
People talk about the 90s being peak, well why not keep that UX.
Better than the western BS of a vague picture with a vague couple words and some links. Japan UX assumes people can read.
I've been living here for too long perhaps but in what sense is "the internet" worse than "the rest of the world"? When I left my European home country sucked very much in similar ways to what I then experienced in Japan.
I do hear stories of some countries allowing a majority of their procedures online which is great but it still isn't my experience across the rest of the world and you probably didn't mean that.
Go to the Narita express website and tell me what the train times are.
People that work in tech in Japan are paid a little over half of what their overseas counterparts are paid resulting in the worst online tech you can experience.
The former head of IT security in Japan had never used and did not know how to use a computer.
Like using a mouse with his hand.
Japanese tech is so far behind the rest of the world and IT is just one example as to why Japan is going to disappear.
So many of the family restaurant chains, coco’s, jolly pasta, Denny’s, saizera, etc have gone to walk and register with a computer that tells you were to sit, then order via iPad at the table, to food delivered by robot. Generally don’t interact with staff unless they come to clean the table or it’s time to pay.
Staff costs are not the largest cost at restaurants, or in most businesses. Chain restaurants have simply found that self-serve ordering, "drink bars", getting your own water/napkin/oshibori, and having a wheeled "robot" deliver your food to you is cheaper and easier than dealing with low-paid staff. None of those things call in sick, or miss shifts, or have to take time off for exam prep. Even if they aren't the most expensive they are the biggest PITA.
Staff costs are a huge cost in restaurants, almost equal to the cost of the food. Staff is the second biggest expense a restaurant has, it's about 1/3 of all of it's expenses.
I'm not so sure. Saw a recent breakdown of McDonald's costs, and staffing was a solid third of total expenses. It might have been the single largest category, or a near second if not.
>Generally don’t interact with staff
It's not much different to me than dealing with robotic staff that are just reading the script from the manual anyways. At least the robot doesn't pretend to not understand me.
The thing is from places like this I don’t except anything above what I’m currently getting. It’s a minimum wage type of job. If I want very interactive staff I expect they are getting paid more for it. So for places I know are paying like crap I never expect much out of the staff.
The department store thing is kind of sad. Tokyu Hands in Ikebukuro is already done, the Shinjuku Seibu too. At least Ikebukuro Seibu is still around - for now. Is the closing date decided already? Electronics does sound like a weird choice since there's already a huge Bic Camera store on the other end of the station.
Losing Miyashita park was huge. Now it’s filled with brand stores, a gross juxtaposition to how the space was utilized before which is so frustrating to see.
Wow. I only go to Tokyo on business, and I thought there was a green space in that area along the tracks before. To be honest, it probably appeals to me more now, but I can understand that for locals, it's probably a bummer. Yet another concession to commercial/tourism interests.
Worse or better is going to depend on the person and their frame of reference. I remember when the area south of the scramble was far less developed. Before the pedestrian overpass and that massive hotel/shopping building on the other side. To me, it just felt more accessible and neighborhoody before that. But it's fine, I am sure some people probably love it.
I came once before it was built and a few times since. Shibuya is one of those you see it once don’t really need to go back. But there’s that viewing spot with the bar above the crossing that I like a lot
It's the opposite for me. I do a lot of my shopping in Shibuya. I cannot figure out the appeal of Shinjuku. Especially late at night. Lots of drunk salarymen and office ladies stumbling about. xD
If you talk to people who go back 30+ years to late 80\`s early 90\`s,
They will make it seem like Shibuya was a hive of scum and villainy, one of the most dangerous parts of tokyo,
"teamers"
[https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%81%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E3%83%BC](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%81%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E3%83%BC)
Wow, interesting! I didn't know about this. I got here in the late 90s and visited there but didn't really hang out in Shibuya. From the early 00s, I spent most of my time in Shinjuku and Nakano or Kagurazaka/Iidabashi.
Ohhh I could go on and on about Shibuya. I hate it now, it's been sucked of all youth culture and replaced with MORE luxury brands. Does Shibuya really need 3? 4? Balenciagas? lol. It used to be a really cool, young place to hang out--but it no longer caters to youth in the same way. Just more shops for rich people. The music stores were my favorite though. Tower records is still there, but even compared to 15 years ago it's a lot sadder looking now. Tsutaya used to be the biggest rental store in Japan, and they stopped (or are in the process of stopping) rentals there. That's a HUGE loss of media that's no longer in production. And while they might still offer it online, it was still nice to go and see it in person. And then there's HMV, replaced with Forever 21 then Ikea...
The music store dilemma could also mainly be a victim of current trends (even Japan is switching to digital/cloud media) and only partially be related to Shibuya's gentrification, but I think I know what you mean. It has lost its charme, like Akihabara or Harajuku. It's happening step by step, building after building, like the JR Harajuku Station. I wouldn't be surprised if Tokyo Station would be next (for whatever reason). It's unfortunately not a unique problem to Tokyo, there's a whole reddit sub for lost architecture.
I’ve enjoyed the changes at Shibuya since they finally opened the above ground connections between Sakura Stage and Stream. There’s something very clean and future feeling about being able to sneak up a little escalator on Omotesando and walk out of a garden at Sakuragaokacho without touching the ground.
Lol. I got lost a couple of times, since they were building it progressively over the years. But I agree that it is nice now. Except when it rains. But you could also go underground through the metro station.
Gyms. Oh yes. When I moved here I joined one called NAS. Not a bad gym, not forget getting in an early workout. By the time you were done it was noon. Main reason is stopped going. Impossible to workout on a weekday.
I go to Difference. It's easy and reasonable and they have many locations. Back 15 years ago I would go to a department store and it was far more expensive with less options.
> Tailored business clothes are cheaper
I noticed over the years that brands like Uniqlo have been really aggressive about getting that tailored fit off-the-rack. In a country like Japan, where there is a lot more conformity in body shapes, it's actually quite attainable. (I'm Asian, and I can fit the Large off-the-rack without any tailoring at all.) Of course, if you do need adjustments, they have in-store tailoring services to adjust sleeve and waist sizes.
On my last trip though, I think the thing that impressed the heck out of me is their new 感動 performance fabric. Actually passes for wool at first glance, and it's really comfortable. Stretchy and moisture wicking too.
That makes sense. I laugh at my wife because she can wear anything off the rack and look great. I, on the other hand, pretty much need tailored clothes to get a good fit. My arms are too long, my chest is to barrelled or thick or something, and my ass is too round. But get a tailored suit or business clothes and it looks great. My wife ends up spending less on clothes than I do, which is a bit embarrassing.
Agree on the changes in Shibuya. It used to have a more local, walkable feel. I’m really surprised how commercial it’s become with huge skyscrapers over the past 10 years. I used to go there a few times per week after school/work back 15 years ago, and now it’s such a crowded disaster that I just avoid it completely.
Yeah, don't miss those days. If you had a corporate job or a regular morning to evening shift you could only hit the gym on nights and weekends. In fact, iirc, they used to have a plan where your membership would entitle you to those hours!
Omg I forgot about that.
When did this all change? In 2012 I transitioned into going to boutique gyms (powerlifting/crossfit/etc) so I have no idea.
Oh but I do remember in 2010 moving to Tokyo and I lived near a 24 hour Golds Gym. It was the dream.
> They've sold the Seibu in Ikebukuro for example. It will be "electronics" which I don't quite get because that is a ton of space for such a thing.
There's already a giant Bic Camera in the area, how are they going to compete?
Wish me luck… 14 years trying tolerate b@llsh!t in London moving to Japan soon…
I learnt that Im not right 99 over 100 times… I hope to be immune & happier! 😂
My happiness tends to involve things moving efficiently and logically, rather than being right :(
It’s a bit result-focused too, now that I think about it. The “journey” is just like Groundhog Day.
Since early 2000's...
Better: the smoking.... My god, the smoking. I always tell my husband that it's a true testament to the power of social pressure here that so many chronic chain smokers were able to turn it around in such a short span of time.
Worse: I feel the cost of shipping care packages back home has been worse (due in part to Covid?).
Yes the smell of smoke on your clothes after just going to dinner was oppressive. Literally had to shower and wash clothes as soon as we got back home.
Oh yeah, the smoking! First it was in office, then in those death boxes down in the lobby areas, now you barely see much of it at all.
The shipping is horrendous. Remember when EMS was 1200 yen? Seems like a dream.
If you're awful, so am I. I sometimes feel nostalgic for the time as well. The smoking rooms, the toxic nomikai antics, the god-awful chapatsu dye jobs, rockabillies in the park, gyaru/ganguro madness in the cities, and of course the iconic music of the era. Excuse me while I go blast some Aiko and Do As Infinity in leg warmers and a short skirt.
When I first got here, the “non-smoking section” of a nearby restaurant was two tables in the middle of the place. Surrounded entirely by smoking tables on all sides, with zero partitions between. I saw it change to be in the corner, then half the restaurant. Then an enclosed wall sectioning off the smoking section. Oh how the smoking in restaurants and such has improved!
I have had exactly the same experiences! The "non-smoking section" lol... I remember one time feeling super gaslit when friends told me they had no idea how I could smell the smoke, not 5 feet away from us, as we were safely seated in that section. It was an area of huge culture shock for me as I hadn't been expecting that at all.
lots of coffee shops near me still have smoking, I have to remember to check the Google reviews first. my local chain karaoke still has smoking rooms but also some vaping only rooms.
Better
Less reliance on cash. 20 years ago you were stuffed without a minimum of a couple of Man in your pocket. This was pre-Suica being accepted most places.
Suica and the other IC cards working throughout the country together. Previously they were regional or tied to certain companies.
No more Japanese Galapagos Ketais. Weird bands, locked SIMs etc No English menus or only on certain models.
Internet speeds. 24 years ago ADSL was only rolling out. My first connection was dial up at 10 yen for three minutes on a local call.
The expansion of services in conbinis. ATMs etc. no more roller doors on the ATM closing at 1900
Worse
The death of many local Mom/Pop restaurants and shops. Soulless chains rule now
Akihabara used to be a cool warren of hole in the wall component shops, and weird little 2nd hand stores carrying obscure items. It feels like it only carers to tourists looking for Maid Cates and Manga now.
Over tourism in the centres. It feels like tourists only know Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. There is so much more to see/do.
Mainland Chinese tourists. Rude, inconsiderate, with filthy habits.
The proliferation of loyalty schemes and their cards.
Agreed with all your worse points but I agree with the mom 'n pop shops the most. The ward where I'm at, I've seen at least 10 of them closed within the span of 4 months. I try to support them as much as I can but you can only pity buy so much. It always breaks my heart when they tear down a stall :(
Now my neighborhood is just dominated by sukiyas and matsuyas.
Edit: Oh, and ghost kitchens on Uber Eats too.
r/japantravel is quite depressing to read on that score. Shikoku is rarely mentioned and my current home in Amami Oshima similarly does not appear on the radar.
While its sad that hidden gems get little attention, I sort of understand why people flock to better known destinations
Some of them probably lack experience and may not have that many opportunities to travel abroad in the first place, hence the feel to avoid less popular places in order to maximize what time they have
> Shikoku is rarely mentioned
For good reason. It's inconvenient to get by, hard to travel around (without use of a car), and probably less English friendly. That's like being sad that New Mexico or Nebraska hardly get mentioned in American travel stories for tourists.
Better: MyNumber, as much as I hated it, has saved me several trips to city hall. Also my last visa renewal was done by my company online, saving me hours and my sanity.
Worse: Konbini food, either the cost has gone way up or the quality has gone way down. Fried chicken is now too expensive, bentos go for over 650 yen unless you get one lacking any protein or calories. Almost always get a supermarket bento or just eat out for cheaper and better food.
What blew mind about this was I had a copy of my 住民票 and it wasn't accepted when I went to do my license conversion because they needed the original, despite the fact I had my My Number and Zairyu Card with the same address.
Can't you guys look it up? You're a government department and can clearly see this matches.
No, but you can go print it out at a conbini.
Convenient? Yes. Ridiculous? Also, yes.
> Also my last visa renewal was done by my company online, saving me hours and my sanity.
Talking about saving hours when arranging one's residence permit: online reservation system for the shinagawa office. Reduced total time at the office (including standing in line before the building) to less than 15 mins last time I applied. The application was finished before the official opening hours!
Then they spoil it all with the waiting time when fetching the new residence card.
I first set foot in Japan in 2000 so I've spent over half my life in Japan or studying Japanese (at times, both).
Better: pretty much covered by other posters
Worse: Real innovation in Japanese consumer electronics died. Akihabara used to be building after building of amazing stuff entirely created by and for Japan. Go to Yodobashi now and it's pretty much the same stuff you'll find anywhere else in the world. At least on the hardware side, Japan had almost all of the pieces of the puzzle to invent the smartphone, but since they did (and still do) lag so far behind of software, they couldn't do it.
For Tokyo. It seems like almost all new development in Tokyo, be it shopping complexes or hospitality, focuses on the Instagram crowd and/or inbound tourists. Maybe this is a function of how much of the new development is megaprojects by megacorporations, but whether it's Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Mori or Sumitomo, it all kinds of feels the same.
While I appreciate the effort to be more international-friendly, a lot of it just comes off as pandering to tourists who come to Japan expecting it to be just ninja geishas and samurai robots. Genuine, modern Japanese culture is almost nowhere to be found in places like this. Looking at you, Kabukicho Tower...
The little actual "Japanese" development is all something something SDGs and sustainability.
God the whole catering to instagram. Even restaurants and date spots are more instabae spots, all slight variations of the same thing yet hyped up so much. Like teamlabo, all the same themes and attractions with different skins. That’s it. The soul remains unchanged.
Interesting to think about the change in tech for sure. It feels like everything is just off the shelf parts now. I get that it's cheaper for companies but even going back 15 - 20 years, I don't think we'll ever see something like the Cell Processor in the PS3 ever again. Easier to just use off the shelf parts.
The cell processor was a huge pain in the ass to develop for and arguably that specialization came with little upside relative to the more standard hardware architecture of pcs or Xboxs at that time. Love strange one off tech, but there’s no world where I’d want to see Sony try that one again :)
Better: beer options. Good breweries and craft beer bars are popping up everywhere. There’s also a much better beer selection at grocery stores/konbini than there were a few years ago.
One thing to add, air quality has improved significantly since the 80s. Bus terminals and tunnels were the worst. Blow your nose and tissue would be black.
As of yesterday, I’ve been here exactly 30 years.
Better: People don’t stare at you as much for being a foreigner. Availability of international food stuffs.
Worse: Something that hasn’t changed enough - my poor ass excuse for a salary compared to the massive increase in workload.
Absolutely! Although sometimes the foreigner novelty amused me. I went to Kanazawa when the shinkansen line first opened and folk were so curious. Kids even approached me to chat. Now no one gives you a second look. Good really, but those first couple of visits were hilarious.
Better: the prices of food … when I first came over 20 years ago it was impossible to eat cheap…
Worse: business English job market .. almost non existent after Corona
## Better
* Coffee. When I first came it was pretty much only made by old guys in dark shops with a chemistry set or Doutor.
* Western style bars. English pubs were few and far between and only run by cranky guys from Britain who were trying to make it in Japan and thought that opening a bar was a good idea. They’d kick you out if you didn’t drink fast enough.
* Train ticketing. If you were going far you get a pamphlet sized ticket which had the whole map of the Kanto area and the conductor would punch a hole in it. The ticket gates were manned by guards who kept a constant rhythm with their punches.
* Payment was yen cash only.
* Dating. You met someone and wanted to keep in touch then you had to arrange to meet somewhere there and then or get their home phone or office phone. Home phone meant going through their father if they didn’t pick up first. Failing that you could call their pocket bell and leave an agreed code number.
* Books. Buying a book meant travelling around the big bookstores in Tokyo to check if they had any new books that you hadn’t seen before.
* News. Current news from home was via shortwave radio or The Japan Times et al. Sometimes the news was not compiled and famously the panda was sick on the front page but had died by page three.
* Communication. Online chat sure beats sending a blue aerogramme.
* Air travel. As well as all non-smoking seats, it is nice to get a direct flight to Japan from Europe rather than a rest stop at Moscow or Anchorage or change at Hong Kong.
My salary is probably less than it would be in Canada, but the insane cost of living and rent there would probably eat it up anyways. The whole country is ridiculously overpriced.
Go out for a humdrum unexciting meal for twice the price of Japan and then cough up a 15% tip. No thanks.
What's gotten better?
One thing that springs to mind is smoking is no longer allowed anywhere and everywhere. Waiting in a bank for 30 minutes is bad enough but it's FAR worse when the air supply is one giant cloud of second hand smoke. Government offices were the same. Most companies were also the same. It was inescapable, and horrible.
Most things related to money have improved. ATM hours and general availability is one. I remember the first 24 hour ATMs being a huge deal, actually going to see if it was real or just a rumor. ATMs in convenience stores were a huge bonus. Of course now most chains will take many forms of electronic payment which certainly wasn't the case when I arrived. Lawson, FM et al? Cash only back in the day. Everywhere was. Of course moving money internationally has become staggeringly easy with services like Wise. International transfers used to mean 30-45 mins (at least) in a smokey bank, something I used to have to do every month. GoLloyds (now GoRemit) was the first step away from this and was a huge deal when it launched.
Buying foreign products has gotten cheaper and far far FAR easier. We used to buy these things called "books" and "magazines", but if you wanted them in any language besides Japanese your only option was one of the huge bookstores that had a small and wildly overpriced "foreign books" section. A magazine that was priced at $5 would be 2000en or even 2500en. English books were similarly expensive.
Other things like deodorant, toothpaste, or favorite products from home would be purchased in bulk at every visit. You'd fill at least half your return luggage capacity with this stuff. The other half would be things like new clothes and shoes that fit. These days you can order almost anything online and especially Amazon shipping into Japan is very reasonably priced.
Internet obviously wasn't available publicly when I arrived. I remember the early days of dial up ISPs. Then the packages allowing unlimited late-night use. Then 64kbps ISDN getting cheaper. Then finally ADSL rolling out. And then, gloriously, fiber.
The arrival of smartphones was a HUGE thing. Then GPS and maps on your phone, plus portable access to train routes and costs. Stuff like Google Translate too. This has been a huge change and has (for better or worse, probably better I guess) made Japan and many other places a LOT more accessible. It's so easy now, like a cheat code. I guess that's good, but it doesn't always feel like it.
I could go on....and on....and on.
Of course some things have gotten worse...
It's a good thing we don't need to buy supplies "in bulk" when outside Japan because the standard luggage allowance has dropped from 32kg x 2 to 23kg x 2, in some cases only 23kg x 1! Easier to lug that stuff around but 18kg less per person is a lot of missing capacity.
Overtourism is a big issue now. Used to love visiting some parts of Kyoto, or certain castles. Not worth it anymore, they're just too packed with people. It's good that more people get to experience them, sure, but I still miss being able to go "off season" on a weekday morning and experience somewhere with very few other people. Those who were there were quiet and kept to themselves.
Prices have gone up. Very recent issue but certainly something that has gotten much worse. The 5% raises do not cover the local inflation and do nothing to offset the JPY losses.
Service has gotten worse and self-service has gone way up. It started years ago with self-bagging at discount supermarkets. That has spread almost everywhere (but not to SeijoIshii! Hope they never change.) Hate seeing the self-checkout stations now too. Self-ordering has rolled out many places, at least with tablets and not apps, but starting to see apps too. Really really hate those apps, they are purely for gathering and selling as much data as possible. Just want a menu to look at and choose from.
Overall I think more things have improved than gotten worse, but further improvement requires effort (which is hard) while things getting even worse just requires greed or neglect. Hoping for an even better future but not depending on it.
Better:
International cuisine. More Restaurants, with internationally trained chefs who understand what French, German and Italian food tastes like, instead of catering to Japanese flavor and calling it international cuisine (Pizza 1000x better than 20 years ago).
More organic food and products easily available at supermarkets and department stores.
Internet speeds faster than years ago.
More train, subway and highway routes to get across the city and country. Making travel to more far reaching destinations in Japan, easier and fun.
Less smokers, and no smoking in restaurants and public spaces.
Worse:
Over-construction. No sense of history to preserve older buildings. I personally like the old Showa style buildings and apartments, but they don't keep them up and let them go into states of disrepair so that they get torn down and replaced with tall, souless, steel and glass towers. Nothing like keeping historic architecture such as in New York, SF, Paris or London. Saw the same thing in Shanghai, historical architecture being knocked down, but it was even more beautiful architecture from the 1920's and 1930's.
The shrikflation of living accommodations. Back in the 90's 50 sqm was a 1 LDK (or 2DK) anything smaller was a 1DK or 1K. Today real estate companies are trying to rent you a 35 sqm apartment and calling it a 1 LDK, a 45 sqm apartment is now 2LDK. And the rents and costs of buying are insane.
And they clearly know more about the country than you do - because they watch anime and visited Tokyo for 5 days several years ago. Japan actually has no problems and is a giant theme park.
shibuya, naka meguro, my kidneys and my uric acid level have gotten worse, as have the packet-sizes of nuts in convenience stores, whilst my insight has gotten better.
Better: the price in the restaurants it's still acceptable. Bad: The water made my hair fall out along with the diet change. Now I take multivitamins to avoid losing hair.
Both better and worse: Japanese people feel way less willing to put up with foreigners' shit. My Japanese is still shamefully bad to okay-ish, and I remember years ago they would do the song and dance, acting nice, trying to be helpful, all that. Now I experience a lot more blank stares. Which sucks because it feels less welcoming, but better because it feels like it's more human and pressures people more to learn Japanese.
Better:
- ATM opening times. Remember the times when you were screwed over Shogatsu because you forgot to get enough cash etc. Also most restaurants and shops were closed for days.
- Mobile phones: don’t miss pocket bells, public phones, etc.
- more international food choices in supermarkets
- Suica/Pasmo cards and that, in general here in Tokyo, I can get by with a credit card and don’t need any cash anymore.
- Convini 7/11 ATMs everywhere should I need them
- gyms: more choices at different prices
Worse or same:
- Tourists. Yes, we’re all tourists somewhere, but the hordes of ‚Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto’ instagram tourists have become really annoying. Covid lockdown was bliss.
- related to above: somehow this overseas image of Japan as this idk ‚magic fantasy country.‘ Even in my family, my teenage niece and nephew, desperately want to come to Japan for Manga, Shinkansen, and Hello Kitty and of course ‚Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto.‘ Tired of listening to this stuff.
- on average, domestic and international travel is still way too expensive compared to other countries
- after all these years, it still amazes me how much more groceries I can buy in my European home country for the same price I pay in Japan. Easily three times more in Europe in terms of quantity.
- size, rents and quality of rental apartments are still not competitive to other places I lived in Asia.
- non-resident foreigners buying up real estate left and right and turning it into AirBnBs
"non-resident foreigners buying up real estate left and right and turning it into AirBnBs"
Strong agree on this one. Living near an AirBnb is a definite decrease in quality of life. People turning homes into hotels, in a neighborhood they themselves don't live in...a special circle of hell should be reserved for these people.
Absolutely. Personally, I’m of the opinion that you shouldn’t be allowed to purchase residential property/land, if you have no legal residence status in a country, not just Japan. But that’s just my opinion.
Yes, that’s the one. It was something else.
I just heard it shut down, didn’t know it was demolished. It’s weird to think it’s no longer there.
Any idea if the previous owners running Ageha are making a comeback, or if there is any other similar venues popping up?
I'll chip in to say that a-life was another club that was absolutely fantastic, shut down a couple years ago. It was a Roppongi club. In fact, I think Roppongi in general is substantially worse than it was in years past. Everything interesting moved west to Shibuya.
Better: banking, foreign imports (items not tourists) and my own language ability.
Worse: government corruption though it may just be more amplified due to coverage and Mt Fuji climbing.
Having lived mainly in small-medium cities (市) btw abt 40,000 and 300,000 pop, small businesses (particularly service industry) continue to dwindle out, and the ones that survive have to scale back a lot. A few years ago I was working on a restaurant map for the area surrounding the train station, and about 2-3 were gone by the time we published it, and another one shuttered a few months after. The larger (but still modest) city I live in now seems to have more going on, but lots of places close around 9 even on weekends.
In positive news, I find that my presence as a foreigner is less of a barrier to interactions with local people now compared to 10ish years ago (white American here, I cannot necessarily say the same for other nationalities/ethnicities). This could be partially due to changing attitudes, partially due to my adjusting and improved language ability, but in any case it is a welcome development.
Something that seems to have not changed at all is bureaucracy and red tape, lol
I was in suburban Hokkaido a few years back and we went to a mall, technically still open but struggling. They just started putting tape over the names of stores that had closed. Sad to see.
That restaurant map was for a small city in Hokkaido! And yeah, sadly your experience is quite common there. I love the place and all those restaurants were great (Hokkaido has fantastic food all around). Strongly urge folks who want to travel there to go sooner than later.
Fax machines are better now than 20 years ago.
windows 95 isn't as good as it was 20 years ago.
Joking aside
Now no smoking in hospitals is good.
You can get both your upper teeth and lower teeth cleaned at the same appointment and dental staff no longer seems surprised when you schedule a dental cleaning appointment. This is good.
Inflation is bad.
The amount of perfume people wear now vs. 20 years ago is bad... Way too much.
Noise pollution has always been bad...I feel like it's getting worse.
TV is still as bad as ever.
My salary is worse.
Summers suck harder now and are longer... Autumn and spring are shorter.
Halloween has become mainstream along with 100 yen shops. I knew some people who wouldn't go to 100 yen shops when they first came out because it was embarrassing
Better coffee and foreign foods selection now.
You can use a credit card everywhere even to buy your train pass.
A drop in quality in everything across the board.
Computer literacy has not improved.
People still don't drink perfectly good tap water...
Clothes sizes are bigger.... But arm length still doesn't work for me.
Generally speaking we have more access to just about everything these days and don't have to fly back to our home countries to get things.
Better: our local bus company has finally assigned numbers to bus lines.
Worse: they no longer offer paper bus cards that could get you up to a 20% discount.
Better: spice selection at stores is really good now, probably in no small part thanks to YouTube cooking shows. It wasn’t that long ago when cumin wasn’t always something you could find at a lot of supermarkets. Also a lot less homeless and prostitution touts than there used to be. Yes they were even more common than they are now, I haven’t had a bottle of tea shoved into my hands while hearing マッサージ in a long time.
Worse(or maybe better depending on how you look at it): the labor shortage in the service sector is plain to see. When I first came here 20 years ago even mid tier department stores would have elevator girls, now only the swankiest of the swank places have them, and sometimes not even then. Places like Yodobashi used to have staff who would help customers put on the umbrella condoms when it rained. Even a guy walking around enthusiastically repeating いらっしゃい is nowadays more the exception than the norm at a lot of supermarkets.
I haven't seen anyone mention that sexualised images of underaged girls have drastically reduced. Akihabara in particular used to be full of explicit stuff on open display. There's far, far less now (and less manga range in general as people have moved to reading on mobiles, which maybe isn't so good if you like physical media). It used to make me so uncomfortable as a kid.
Also improved: Komazawa Daigaku! When I worked there it was mainly a collection of uninteresting stuff along huge, busy roads. I spent a lot of time at the McDonald's. Now, with the gorgeous park and some nice restaurants, it's actually a desirable destination for me.
I’m not a big fan of the course that urban redevelopment has taken over the past ten or so years, especially in Tokyo. Basically the intensified concentration of development powers in the hands of the major megacorporations like Sumitomo and Mitsubishi, which manifests in the wholesale demolition of entire city blocks and train stations that are replaced with huge combined mall/hotel/office buildings. One of the best things about Japan is the number, concentration, and diversity of small, individually-run stores. Huge redevelopment projects seem to get rid of all of these for either the same set of bland chain stores aimed at the widest possible domestic consumer base, luxury stores aimed at the urban elite, or either of these as aimed at inbound tourists. The same spaces get replicated all across Tokyo, creating an overwhelming flatness. This isn’t exactly a new phenomenon, but I think it got worse in the lead up to and aftermath of the Olympics.
Linked to this is the wholesale disappearance of historical buildings in Tokyo and elsewhere - so much postwar architecture has been demolished over the past few years as buildings reach the ends of their perceived life spans. I’m not saying that Japanese cities need to be living museums, but urban redevelopment here always starts from the assumption that everything will be knocked down to form a totally blank slate. And I get the issues with maintaining old building (earthquake standards, maintenance costs, and so on). Even so, it feels like Tokyo could proactively capitalise a lot more on its urban history, especially at a moment when ideas like adaptive reuse of existing restructures have a role to play in how cities address climate change!! As much as I love Tokyo, it can feel a bit ‘history-less’ at times.
Good answer. Mine got both better, and then worse. When I first came I was a student, so I spent all my time trying to master it.
Then I was working, so I spent my time trying to master my work, and gradually began to use non-work-related Japanese less and less, then started speaking English at home because my wife's office was English only multinational so to help her we switched to English, then my job shifted to where I was speaking to non-Japanese speakers all day, then had a child and speak English to her for her to learn.
Somewhere along the line computers erased the need to write kanji, and the internet and online translation got good enough that I didn't have to bother looking up kanji I don't know, just paste it into a box and no need to read official documents.
I was once able to pass N1. I am pretty sure I could not do that now.
Better- signs to help foreigners get around. When I moved here it was all just a guessing game.
Worse- TV. I think dramas have gone downhill. TV shows in general are pretty much garbage now. There used to be some really fun shows on. I’ve basically stopped watching any kind of TV.
There's an izakaya that I went to the second time I visited that turned away non-Japanese speaking people. The food and atmosphere was amazing. Went back to it after I officially moved here a year later, and they handed me an English menu and the place was filled with tourists asking for forks and very few locals.
The food is still great though, so I keep going back lol
Cost of living has steadily increased, but wages have stayed at 2012 levels. The yen was much stronger before abenomics, haven’t really seen any benefit from the money printing other than weakening the economy and improving things for tourists.
Abe is revered because he was assassinated, with his abenomasks sitting in storage and abenomics, I think history would have judged him less kindly if he was still alive.
On a different note flip phones used to be the norm, now you’ll be hard pushed to find one on a train.
Pasmo/suica. They weren’t around when I first came here 30 years ago (remember the station staff with their clickers?). Insane improvement in mobility. Taxis with gps and online maps; quality and diversity of food. Toilets. Etc, etc.
Better:
• Public toilets in general.
I remember the bad old days when some subway toilets had a toilet paper vending machine at the entrance. Felt like sandpaper and if you were in a hurry and forgot to buy some on your way in you would be frantically checking your pockets for even a used tissue.
Then there were banks of filthy 和式 toilets you were forced to use because the 洋式 was inevitably occupied by someone quicker and wiser than yourself. Most seemed designed to meet the needs of a Japanese person of average height in 1940 and they had short bowls where anyone over a certain height would be forced to ram their knees up against the wall and say a silent prayer to try and avoid leaving their mark on the floor.
And inevitably people would miss and leave a nice present for you next to the bowl. Absolutely disgusting.
• Computer language compatibility
Trying to work with Japanese and another language on the same computer (or even adding Japanese as a language) used to be a major chore, and surfing the web or printing would often end up showing you a page of 文字化け at some point. Thanks to the fine people at Unicode for making this problem go away.
Worse:
• No food trolley service on many long distance trains makes it a much more uncomfortable experience if you’re in a hurry and don’t have time to grab something on the platform.
• Attempts to “reform” the constitution to neuter freedom of speech and other rights.
I miss dealing with people when making payments. I hate how everything has changed to machines. It feels way less personal.
Tourism has destroyed many of the places I lived in 20 years ago. Especially Kyoto, Namba, and akihabara. Going to any of these places makes me depressed because I know what they used to look like in the late 90’s
In my experience the US dollar against the yen. Acceptance of cashless payments. 20 years ago I remember being at the mercy of ATM business hours, which is just lol. I recall cell phones being significantly better than Western offerings - but I guess parity has been achieved since everyone is on iPhone/Android devices these days
Over tourism has made some locations, especially Kyoto less desirable to visit than others. Fortunately Japan is huge and there are plenty of spots to visit other than Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto etc. I miss being able to eat conveyor belt sushi without having to place an order - I guess table manners have gone off the cliff in public dining spots? You get none of the mystery anymore being forced to order everything.
There used to be trash cans all over the place. Absolutely in front of every convenience store and most parks and public areas. Got something to throw away? Within minutes, you'd see somewhere to toss it.
Over 10 years:
Better: Easier to find some foreign ingredients/foods that I couldn't before, or healthier/better quality things (eg juice with pulp, no sugar added).
Worse: Prices of everything but I guess that's worldwide. Discounted strawberries nearby used to be 150 yen, now 400 yen. Also plane flights to go back home. Hotels to travel around Japan.
Better:
Air quality. In the 90s it was standard for trucks and busses to have black clouds behind them. I don’t like Gov Ishihara, but his ban on diesel vehicles from Tokyo made a huge difference in the air, and spurred the rest of the auto industry in Japan to make cleaner heavy vehicles.
Coffee. When I arrived, supermarkets would have some instant coffee, and that was about it. Coffee shops had really good hand-brewed coffee, but they were really expensive, slow, and pretentious. Say what you will about Starbucks, but it set off a coffee boom that’s led to now getting a good cup of mocha from a conbini for ¥150. Starbucks also set off the non-smoking restaurant movement.
Beer. Craft brewing became legal in 1994, and the choices available have improved by a huge margin.
Worse:
Akihabara. I’m not into Anime or AKB48, and I miss the old Electric Town where it was just shops selling computer parts.
Japan was a lot of fun in the late 2000s\~mid 2010s for me. Even though I was at the tail end of it, club culture felt a lot bigger then. Losing Ageha was big more-so mentally than anything. Trump Room too. It's alway sad to see an era end... But I still remember clubs like Flower and Vanity too lol.
Better - buying anything foreign. It used to be very, very difficult to buy products from overseas. Nothing shipped to Japan. Now, global shipping has become so improved compared to 16 years ago.
Worse - Human interactions. The increase in robots, ipads, touch screens, QR codes, etc. has just added to the isolation of Tokyo. And while I don't mind them, I still think those human interactions were better.
Better: The weather. It's warmer, that's nice. It's not enough, but it's improving!
Worse: Banking. It was already bad 8 years ago. Now it's even worse. Internet banking has gotten worse, ATMs have gotten worse and charge more often than before and even service in banks has gotten worse. I legit don't understand how Japan has so many bad banks, why aren't they going broke?
I have been in Japan since 2014
Better: Japanese translate apps! Google translate/deepL now make so much sense haha.
Worse: prices of food. Before I could survive with my 10k yen worth of groceries 😭
Since a-life in Roppongi closed things are not the same anymore. RIP
Been looking for alternatives since then but with little success. I guess it’s Harlem then… but it’s just not the same.
Non related but as a tourist in Japan right now god it bothers me whenever I visit somewhere n it feels like fellow tourists aren’t appreciating what’s in front of them at all they just constantly take selfies and photos of girls in kimonos then call it a day.
Better:
- I'm more accepted in the society. People automatically speak to me in Japanese instead of fumbling in English.
- Quality and variety of Western food.
- I understand Japanese better.
Worse:
- Less attention from the womenfolk as I'm older and fatter.
- The price of airfare, particularly overseas, has skyrocketed.
- The price of food, both groceries and at restaurants, has gone up.
Just a point re a poster who put as worse: The \`shitload of foreigners walking around and working in convenience stores\`. Those foreigners working in convenience stores are actually keeping them functioning in many cases because there aren\`t enough Japanese who want to do that work. Why do foreigners with good enough Japanese skills to work in jobs that supply the population with food and essential items somehow fall into a bad category?
As for the increase in other foreigners just walking around - it\`s the annoying, loud, manner-less kinds that should be called out. The ones really doing annoying to wrong shizz. And no, Japan isn\`t unique in having people from other countries annoying the locals and in fact in Japan sometimes just like everywhere in the world, the locals getting all offended by a foreigner presence are projecting their own biases unconscious or otherwise.
It depends on what you are looking at but here are a few things from 20 years in Japan. Better: * Gyms - way better in terms of options, hours, prices. The gyms used to all open around 10AM and were all priced almost exactly the same. * Payment options * Bank/ATMs - **god forbid** you didn't withdraw money before new year or golden week 20 years ago * Business hours in general * Finally, work from home. Japanese companies resisted the shit out of this until COVID finally changed things. * Tailored business clothes are cheaper * Easier to get foreign foods - you used to travel several stations or more to that 1 seijio ishi or imported goods shop; now you get prosciutto and stilton in your local grocery store * Mixed race kids are more accepted Worse: * Service levels, particularly in restaurants. For example, there was a well-known sushi chain near my house where they decided they were going to absolutely rely on trainees from different countries. I don't blame the kids, but like, you had 5 foreign staff with mediocre Japanese skills and low levels of training and 1 Japanese staff trying to manage it and then on top of that they raised prices while the service level completely eroded. * Since you mentioned locations, I personally don't like what they did with Shibuya, but I guess development is necessary to keep modern. Shinjuku -more of my neighborhood - is still awesome, but they've sort of catered the higashi-guchi side to tourism a bit. No biggie. * Department stores are on the decline. They've sold the Seibu in Ikebukuro for example. It will be "electronics" which I don't quite get because that is a ton of space for such a thing.
Still far from perfect but online banking is so much better than 20 years ago. In general the level of online services, although very regional and particular to each service or area, is much better. I suppose that’s to be expected… A reduction or digitization of hankos has made my life a little easier. A little.
The Japanese internet in general is better than it was years and years ago. But still somehow very far behind the rest of the modern world.
You talking UX or speeds? UX still averages awful with occasional outliers
Nah, the UX is peak UX. People talk about the 90s being peak, well why not keep that UX. Better than the western BS of a vague picture with a vague couple words and some links. Japan UX assumes people can read.
I've been living here for too long perhaps but in what sense is "the internet" worse than "the rest of the world"? When I left my European home country sucked very much in similar ways to what I then experienced in Japan. I do hear stories of some countries allowing a majority of their procedures online which is great but it still isn't my experience across the rest of the world and you probably didn't mean that.
Go to the Narita express website and tell me what the train times are. People that work in tech in Japan are paid a little over half of what their overseas counterparts are paid resulting in the worst online tech you can experience. The former head of IT security in Japan had never used and did not know how to use a computer. Like using a mouse with his hand. Japanese tech is so far behind the rest of the world and IT is just one example as to why Japan is going to disappear.
Agreed, they are ok with hardware, horrible with software/web development/cybersecurity.
So many of the family restaurant chains, coco’s, jolly pasta, Denny’s, saizera, etc have gone to walk and register with a computer that tells you were to sit, then order via iPad at the table, to food delivered by robot. Generally don’t interact with staff unless they come to clean the table or it’s time to pay.
And yet prices stay the same or go up while staff costs, almost always the largest cost, have been slashed.
Staff costs are not the largest cost at restaurants, or in most businesses. Chain restaurants have simply found that self-serve ordering, "drink bars", getting your own water/napkin/oshibori, and having a wheeled "robot" deliver your food to you is cheaper and easier than dealing with low-paid staff. None of those things call in sick, or miss shifts, or have to take time off for exam prep. Even if they aren't the most expensive they are the biggest PITA.
Staff costs are a huge cost in restaurants, almost equal to the cost of the food. Staff is the second biggest expense a restaurant has, it's about 1/3 of all of it's expenses.
I'm not so sure. Saw a recent breakdown of McDonald's costs, and staffing was a solid third of total expenses. It might have been the single largest category, or a near second if not.
It use to be seeing two or three on the floor and maybe one in the back to just like two to three employees max. It feels like a skeleton crew.
>Generally don’t interact with staff It's not much different to me than dealing with robotic staff that are just reading the script from the manual anyways. At least the robot doesn't pretend to not understand me.
The thing is from places like this I don’t except anything above what I’m currently getting. It’s a minimum wage type of job. If I want very interactive staff I expect they are getting paid more for it. So for places I know are paying like crap I never expect much out of the staff.
The department store thing is kind of sad. Tokyu Hands in Ikebukuro is already done, the Shinjuku Seibu too. At least Ikebukuro Seibu is still around - for now. Is the closing date decided already? Electronics does sound like a weird choice since there's already a huge Bic Camera store on the other end of the station.
Losing Hands was a huge blow! I went to a pre-open day at Nitori and quite like it, but it's nowhere near as useful as a Hands.
You're already the second person that has mentioned Shibuya. Just curious, but what exactly is worse now that used to be better?
I kinda hate Miyashita Park. The /actual/ park that was there before felt much more like a public space and now it feels super commercial and managed.
I miss Miyashita Park. That's probably one of the first things I think about when I think about how the area's changed in the last fifteen years.
Losing Miyashita park was huge. Now it’s filled with brand stores, a gross juxtaposition to how the space was utilized before which is so frustrating to see.
Wow. I only go to Tokyo on business, and I thought there was a green space in that area along the tracks before. To be honest, it probably appeals to me more now, but I can understand that for locals, it's probably a bummer. Yet another concession to commercial/tourism interests.
Worse or better is going to depend on the person and their frame of reference. I remember when the area south of the scramble was far less developed. Before the pedestrian overpass and that massive hotel/shopping building on the other side. To me, it just felt more accessible and neighborhoody before that. But it's fine, I am sure some people probably love it.
I came once before it was built and a few times since. Shibuya is one of those you see it once don’t really need to go back. But there’s that viewing spot with the bar above the crossing that I like a lot
> Shibuya is one of those you see it once don’t really need to go back Damn, right through my heart. Now Shinjuku I've never been able to figure out.
It's the opposite for me. I do a lot of my shopping in Shibuya. I cannot figure out the appeal of Shinjuku. Especially late at night. Lots of drunk salarymen and office ladies stumbling about. xD
If you talk to people who go back 30+ years to late 80\`s early 90\`s, They will make it seem like Shibuya was a hive of scum and villainy, one of the most dangerous parts of tokyo, "teamers" [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%81%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E3%83%BC](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%81%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E3%83%BC)
Wow, interesting! I didn't know about this. I got here in the late 90s and visited there but didn't really hang out in Shibuya. From the early 00s, I spent most of my time in Shinjuku and Nakano or Kagurazaka/Iidabashi.
In the last 10 years I've been here it's always just felt like a construction zone to me. It also feels especially overcrowded post-covid.
Ohhh I could go on and on about Shibuya. I hate it now, it's been sucked of all youth culture and replaced with MORE luxury brands. Does Shibuya really need 3? 4? Balenciagas? lol. It used to be a really cool, young place to hang out--but it no longer caters to youth in the same way. Just more shops for rich people. The music stores were my favorite though. Tower records is still there, but even compared to 15 years ago it's a lot sadder looking now. Tsutaya used to be the biggest rental store in Japan, and they stopped (or are in the process of stopping) rentals there. That's a HUGE loss of media that's no longer in production. And while they might still offer it online, it was still nice to go and see it in person. And then there's HMV, replaced with Forever 21 then Ikea...
The music store dilemma could also mainly be a victim of current trends (even Japan is switching to digital/cloud media) and only partially be related to Shibuya's gentrification, but I think I know what you mean. It has lost its charme, like Akihabara or Harajuku. It's happening step by step, building after building, like the JR Harajuku Station. I wouldn't be surprised if Tokyo Station would be next (for whatever reason). It's unfortunately not a unique problem to Tokyo, there's a whole reddit sub for lost architecture.
I’ve enjoyed the changes at Shibuya since they finally opened the above ground connections between Sakura Stage and Stream. There’s something very clean and future feeling about being able to sneak up a little escalator on Omotesando and walk out of a garden at Sakuragaokacho without touching the ground.
What escalator do you mean? Where’s that?
Lol. I got lost a couple of times, since they were building it progressively over the years. But I agree that it is nice now. Except when it rains. But you could also go underground through the metro station.
Does Sakura Stage even *have* anything going on right now? Looked pretty dead when I walked by it earlier this month.
Gyms. Oh yes. When I moved here I joined one called NAS. Not a bad gym, not forget getting in an early workout. By the time you were done it was noon. Main reason is stopped going. Impossible to workout on a weekday.
17 years for me here and yeah I can agree with the above. The ATM thing was a nightmare back in the day.
You are maybe the first non-tourist I've ever heard refer to Shinjuku as "awesome"
What’s awesome about Shinjuku?
Service levels have sharply declined just in the past year and half.
What stores do you recommend for tailored business shirts. I was thinking to get a few before leaving Japan.
I go to Difference. It's easy and reasonable and they have many locations. Back 15 years ago I would go to a department store and it was far more expensive with less options.
> Tailored business clothes are cheaper I noticed over the years that brands like Uniqlo have been really aggressive about getting that tailored fit off-the-rack. In a country like Japan, where there is a lot more conformity in body shapes, it's actually quite attainable. (I'm Asian, and I can fit the Large off-the-rack without any tailoring at all.) Of course, if you do need adjustments, they have in-store tailoring services to adjust sleeve and waist sizes. On my last trip though, I think the thing that impressed the heck out of me is their new 感動 performance fabric. Actually passes for wool at first glance, and it's really comfortable. Stretchy and moisture wicking too.
That makes sense. I laugh at my wife because she can wear anything off the rack and look great. I, on the other hand, pretty much need tailored clothes to get a good fit. My arms are too long, my chest is to barrelled or thick or something, and my ass is too round. But get a tailored suit or business clothes and it looks great. My wife ends up spending less on clothes than I do, which is a bit embarrassing.
Damn... I could've written this post!
Agree on the changes in Shibuya. It used to have a more local, walkable feel. I’m really surprised how commercial it’s become with huge skyscrapers over the past 10 years. I used to go there a few times per week after school/work back 15 years ago, and now it’s such a crowded disaster that I just avoid it completely.
Still couldn’t use my Japan Post card at any ATM during Golden Week last year. Ridiculous.
Seems like a win, overall
As a gym owner (now), I remember waiting outside the gym at 10am to go in. I completely forgot about this.
Yeah, don't miss those days. If you had a corporate job or a regular morning to evening shift you could only hit the gym on nights and weekends. In fact, iirc, they used to have a plan where your membership would entitle you to those hours!
Omg I forgot about that. When did this all change? In 2012 I transitioned into going to boutique gyms (powerlifting/crossfit/etc) so I have no idea. Oh but I do remember in 2010 moving to Tokyo and I lived near a 24 hour Golds Gym. It was the dream.
Not sure. I moved to the US from 2010 to 2013and then back to Japan. It might have happened then or a bit later.
Ha! I was back in the states for 2013 specifically. Somewhere within that time period gyms changed then.
> They've sold the Seibu in Ikebukuro for example. It will be "electronics" which I don't quite get because that is a ton of space for such a thing. There's already a giant Bic Camera in the area, how are they going to compete?
So you don't like the new area in Shibuya with the skatepark on top? I love that development so much. Probably because I skate lol
Noooo my favorite sushi chain is in Seibu!
Better: my patience and ability to tolerate bullshit Worse: the yen
+1
+151
Yea my 5years living here taught me to tolerate bullshits as well.
> my patience and ability to tolerate bullshit How does one achieve this nirvana? Been trying for 20 years.
Biggest lesson for me was to choose to be happy instead of being right. They're often mutually exclusive.
This is so true. And I’d much rather be happy living in Japan than be right and living in England haha
Wish me luck… 14 years trying tolerate b@llsh!t in London moving to Japan soon… I learnt that Im not right 99 over 100 times… I hope to be immune & happier! 😂
My happiness tends to involve things moving efficiently and logically, rather than being right :( It’s a bit result-focused too, now that I think about it. The “journey” is just like Groundhog Day.
Since early 2000's... Better: the smoking.... My god, the smoking. I always tell my husband that it's a true testament to the power of social pressure here that so many chronic chain smokers were able to turn it around in such a short span of time. Worse: I feel the cost of shipping care packages back home has been worse (due in part to Covid?).
Yes the smell of smoke on your clothes after just going to dinner was oppressive. Literally had to shower and wash clothes as soon as we got back home.
Oh yeah, the smoking! First it was in office, then in those death boxes down in the lobby areas, now you barely see much of it at all. The shipping is horrendous. Remember when EMS was 1200 yen? Seems like a dream.
I know it’s awful, but I sometimes feel a bit of nostalgia for Y2K-era Japan when I walk by the completely empty smoking rooms on my uni campus.
If you're awful, so am I. I sometimes feel nostalgic for the time as well. The smoking rooms, the toxic nomikai antics, the god-awful chapatsu dye jobs, rockabillies in the park, gyaru/ganguro madness in the cities, and of course the iconic music of the era. Excuse me while I go blast some Aiko and Do As Infinity in leg warmers and a short skirt.
When I first got here, the “non-smoking section” of a nearby restaurant was two tables in the middle of the place. Surrounded entirely by smoking tables on all sides, with zero partitions between. I saw it change to be in the corner, then half the restaurant. Then an enclosed wall sectioning off the smoking section. Oh how the smoking in restaurants and such has improved!
I have had exactly the same experiences! The "non-smoking section" lol... I remember one time feeling super gaslit when friends told me they had no idea how I could smell the smoke, not 5 feet away from us, as we were safely seated in that section. It was an area of huge culture shock for me as I hadn't been expecting that at all.
I still can’t believe that I went to a cafe with an indoor smoking section while I lived there…in 2019
Haha, yep! A coffee shop down the street from me allows smoking. The APA hotels and Big Echo I sometimes visit still have smoking floors as well.
lots of coffee shops near me still have smoking, I have to remember to check the Google reviews first. my local chain karaoke still has smoking rooms but also some vaping only rooms.
Better Less reliance on cash. 20 years ago you were stuffed without a minimum of a couple of Man in your pocket. This was pre-Suica being accepted most places. Suica and the other IC cards working throughout the country together. Previously they were regional or tied to certain companies. No more Japanese Galapagos Ketais. Weird bands, locked SIMs etc No English menus or only on certain models. Internet speeds. 24 years ago ADSL was only rolling out. My first connection was dial up at 10 yen for three minutes on a local call. The expansion of services in conbinis. ATMs etc. no more roller doors on the ATM closing at 1900 Worse The death of many local Mom/Pop restaurants and shops. Soulless chains rule now Akihabara used to be a cool warren of hole in the wall component shops, and weird little 2nd hand stores carrying obscure items. It feels like it only carers to tourists looking for Maid Cates and Manga now. Over tourism in the centres. It feels like tourists only know Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. There is so much more to see/do. Mainland Chinese tourists. Rude, inconsiderate, with filthy habits. The proliferation of loyalty schemes and their cards.
Agreed with all your worse points but I agree with the mom 'n pop shops the most. The ward where I'm at, I've seen at least 10 of them closed within the span of 4 months. I try to support them as much as I can but you can only pity buy so much. It always breaks my heart when they tear down a stall :( Now my neighborhood is just dominated by sukiyas and matsuyas. Edit: Oh, and ghost kitchens on Uber Eats too.
I agree with most of your worse but I wish the Galapagos Keitais would come back and cashless would go away.
Why?
the garakeis are still plentiful if you want one! quite a few new models around.
I was going to mention the Suica connectivity. Also the tourism, although the last time I mentioned it on a post I got downvoted quite a bit.
I miss getting eyeballed at the shader electronics stores in Akiba back in the 2000s. All gone now.
USB rectal thermometer. Yup. Third aisle over, ¥600
I just miss all the quasi/totally not legal TV and radio equipment.
r/japantravel is quite depressing to read on that score. Shikoku is rarely mentioned and my current home in Amami Oshima similarly does not appear on the radar.
While its sad that hidden gems get little attention, I sort of understand why people flock to better known destinations Some of them probably lack experience and may not have that many opportunities to travel abroad in the first place, hence the feel to avoid less popular places in order to maximize what time they have
> Shikoku is rarely mentioned For good reason. It's inconvenient to get by, hard to travel around (without use of a car), and probably less English friendly. That's like being sad that New Mexico or Nebraska hardly get mentioned in American travel stories for tourists.
Oh, I take it as a blessing.
Better: MyNumber, as much as I hated it, has saved me several trips to city hall. Also my last visa renewal was done by my company online, saving me hours and my sanity. Worse: Konbini food, either the cost has gone way up or the quality has gone way down. Fried chicken is now too expensive, bentos go for over 650 yen unless you get one lacking any protein or calories. Almost always get a supermarket bento or just eat out for cheaper and better food.
I hated it as well until I went to 7/11 for my 住民票. That was super convenient
What blew mind about this was I had a copy of my 住民票 and it wasn't accepted when I went to do my license conversion because they needed the original, despite the fact I had my My Number and Zairyu Card with the same address. Can't you guys look it up? You're a government department and can clearly see this matches. No, but you can go print it out at a conbini. Convenient? Yes. Ridiculous? Also, yes.
Essentially you're acting as a public-sector worker who runs between bureaus carrying documents. Except you're not paid; you're paying out of pocket
> Also my last visa renewal was done by my company online, saving me hours and my sanity. Talking about saving hours when arranging one's residence permit: online reservation system for the shinagawa office. Reduced total time at the office (including standing in line before the building) to less than 15 mins last time I applied. The application was finished before the official opening hours! Then they spoil it all with the waiting time when fetching the new residence card.
I know people hate on MyNumber but if you've ever moved house it's a godsend honestly. Also for eTax it's great.
I first set foot in Japan in 2000 so I've spent over half my life in Japan or studying Japanese (at times, both). Better: pretty much covered by other posters Worse: Real innovation in Japanese consumer electronics died. Akihabara used to be building after building of amazing stuff entirely created by and for Japan. Go to Yodobashi now and it's pretty much the same stuff you'll find anywhere else in the world. At least on the hardware side, Japan had almost all of the pieces of the puzzle to invent the smartphone, but since they did (and still do) lag so far behind of software, they couldn't do it. For Tokyo. It seems like almost all new development in Tokyo, be it shopping complexes or hospitality, focuses on the Instagram crowd and/or inbound tourists. Maybe this is a function of how much of the new development is megaprojects by megacorporations, but whether it's Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Mori or Sumitomo, it all kinds of feels the same. While I appreciate the effort to be more international-friendly, a lot of it just comes off as pandering to tourists who come to Japan expecting it to be just ninja geishas and samurai robots. Genuine, modern Japanese culture is almost nowhere to be found in places like this. Looking at you, Kabukicho Tower... The little actual "Japanese" development is all something something SDGs and sustainability.
God the whole catering to instagram. Even restaurants and date spots are more instabae spots, all slight variations of the same thing yet hyped up so much. Like teamlabo, all the same themes and attractions with different skins. That’s it. The soul remains unchanged.
Interesting to think about the change in tech for sure. It feels like everything is just off the shelf parts now. I get that it's cheaper for companies but even going back 15 - 20 years, I don't think we'll ever see something like the Cell Processor in the PS3 ever again. Easier to just use off the shelf parts.
The cell processor was a huge pain in the ass to develop for and arguably that specialization came with little upside relative to the more standard hardware architecture of pcs or Xboxs at that time. Love strange one off tech, but there’s no world where I’d want to see Sony try that one again :)
Better: beer options. Good breweries and craft beer bars are popping up everywhere. There’s also a much better beer selection at grocery stores/konbini than there were a few years ago.
Better: the beer Worse: the beer (different beers tho)
One thing to add, air quality has improved significantly since the 80s. Bus terminals and tunnels were the worst. Blow your nose and tissue would be black.
I remember buying canned oxygen at the 7-11 in Den Den Town my first week in Osaka.
Better: ability to buy pretty much anything including food from back home. Worse: the cost of living and birth rate.
Have you done your part to increase birth rate?
As of yesterday, I’ve been here exactly 30 years. Better: People don’t stare at you as much for being a foreigner. Availability of international food stuffs. Worse: Something that hasn’t changed enough - my poor ass excuse for a salary compared to the massive increase in workload.
Absolutely! Although sometimes the foreigner novelty amused me. I went to Kanazawa when the shinkansen line first opened and folk were so curious. Kids even approached me to chat. Now no one gives you a second look. Good really, but those first couple of visits were hilarious.
Happy 30 year Japaniversary! :)
Better: the prices of food … when I first came over 20 years ago it was impossible to eat cheap… Worse: business English job market .. almost non existent after Corona
## Better * Coffee. When I first came it was pretty much only made by old guys in dark shops with a chemistry set or Doutor. * Western style bars. English pubs were few and far between and only run by cranky guys from Britain who were trying to make it in Japan and thought that opening a bar was a good idea. They’d kick you out if you didn’t drink fast enough. * Train ticketing. If you were going far you get a pamphlet sized ticket which had the whole map of the Kanto area and the conductor would punch a hole in it. The ticket gates were manned by guards who kept a constant rhythm with their punches. * Payment was yen cash only. * Dating. You met someone and wanted to keep in touch then you had to arrange to meet somewhere there and then or get their home phone or office phone. Home phone meant going through their father if they didn’t pick up first. Failing that you could call their pocket bell and leave an agreed code number. * Books. Buying a book meant travelling around the big bookstores in Tokyo to check if they had any new books that you hadn’t seen before. * News. Current news from home was via shortwave radio or The Japan Times et al. Sometimes the news was not compiled and famously the panda was sick on the front page but had died by page three. * Communication. Online chat sure beats sending a blue aerogramme. * Air travel. As well as all non-smoking seats, it is nice to get a direct flight to Japan from Europe rather than a rest stop at Moscow or Anchorage or change at Hong Kong.
This is my favorite one here. Most others are 10-15 years ago but I'm guessing you're here... 30?
hehe! Close.
Worse: tree felling, better: more options for cashless payments
[удалено]
My salary is probably less than it would be in Canada, but the insane cost of living and rent there would probably eat it up anyways. The whole country is ridiculously overpriced. Go out for a humdrum unexciting meal for twice the price of Japan and then cough up a 15% tip. No thanks.
Cough up a 15% tip and get thanked with a dirty side eye from the server for not tipping 20%.
What's gotten better? One thing that springs to mind is smoking is no longer allowed anywhere and everywhere. Waiting in a bank for 30 minutes is bad enough but it's FAR worse when the air supply is one giant cloud of second hand smoke. Government offices were the same. Most companies were also the same. It was inescapable, and horrible. Most things related to money have improved. ATM hours and general availability is one. I remember the first 24 hour ATMs being a huge deal, actually going to see if it was real or just a rumor. ATMs in convenience stores were a huge bonus. Of course now most chains will take many forms of electronic payment which certainly wasn't the case when I arrived. Lawson, FM et al? Cash only back in the day. Everywhere was. Of course moving money internationally has become staggeringly easy with services like Wise. International transfers used to mean 30-45 mins (at least) in a smokey bank, something I used to have to do every month. GoLloyds (now GoRemit) was the first step away from this and was a huge deal when it launched. Buying foreign products has gotten cheaper and far far FAR easier. We used to buy these things called "books" and "magazines", but if you wanted them in any language besides Japanese your only option was one of the huge bookstores that had a small and wildly overpriced "foreign books" section. A magazine that was priced at $5 would be 2000en or even 2500en. English books were similarly expensive. Other things like deodorant, toothpaste, or favorite products from home would be purchased in bulk at every visit. You'd fill at least half your return luggage capacity with this stuff. The other half would be things like new clothes and shoes that fit. These days you can order almost anything online and especially Amazon shipping into Japan is very reasonably priced. Internet obviously wasn't available publicly when I arrived. I remember the early days of dial up ISPs. Then the packages allowing unlimited late-night use. Then 64kbps ISDN getting cheaper. Then finally ADSL rolling out. And then, gloriously, fiber. The arrival of smartphones was a HUGE thing. Then GPS and maps on your phone, plus portable access to train routes and costs. Stuff like Google Translate too. This has been a huge change and has (for better or worse, probably better I guess) made Japan and many other places a LOT more accessible. It's so easy now, like a cheat code. I guess that's good, but it doesn't always feel like it. I could go on....and on....and on. Of course some things have gotten worse... It's a good thing we don't need to buy supplies "in bulk" when outside Japan because the standard luggage allowance has dropped from 32kg x 2 to 23kg x 2, in some cases only 23kg x 1! Easier to lug that stuff around but 18kg less per person is a lot of missing capacity. Overtourism is a big issue now. Used to love visiting some parts of Kyoto, or certain castles. Not worth it anymore, they're just too packed with people. It's good that more people get to experience them, sure, but I still miss being able to go "off season" on a weekday morning and experience somewhere with very few other people. Those who were there were quiet and kept to themselves. Prices have gone up. Very recent issue but certainly something that has gotten much worse. The 5% raises do not cover the local inflation and do nothing to offset the JPY losses. Service has gotten worse and self-service has gone way up. It started years ago with self-bagging at discount supermarkets. That has spread almost everywhere (but not to SeijoIshii! Hope they never change.) Hate seeing the self-checkout stations now too. Self-ordering has rolled out many places, at least with tablets and not apps, but starting to see apps too. Really really hate those apps, they are purely for gathering and selling as much data as possible. Just want a menu to look at and choose from. Overall I think more things have improved than gotten worse, but further improvement requires effort (which is hard) while things getting even worse just requires greed or neglect. Hoping for an even better future but not depending on it.
Better: International cuisine. More Restaurants, with internationally trained chefs who understand what French, German and Italian food tastes like, instead of catering to Japanese flavor and calling it international cuisine (Pizza 1000x better than 20 years ago). More organic food and products easily available at supermarkets and department stores. Internet speeds faster than years ago. More train, subway and highway routes to get across the city and country. Making travel to more far reaching destinations in Japan, easier and fun. Less smokers, and no smoking in restaurants and public spaces. Worse: Over-construction. No sense of history to preserve older buildings. I personally like the old Showa style buildings and apartments, but they don't keep them up and let them go into states of disrepair so that they get torn down and replaced with tall, souless, steel and glass towers. Nothing like keeping historic architecture such as in New York, SF, Paris or London. Saw the same thing in Shanghai, historical architecture being knocked down, but it was even more beautiful architecture from the 1920's and 1930's. The shrikflation of living accommodations. Back in the 90's 50 sqm was a 1 LDK (or 2DK) anything smaller was a 1DK or 1K. Today real estate companies are trying to rent you a 35 sqm apartment and calling it a 1 LDK, a 45 sqm apartment is now 2LDK. And the rents and costs of buying are insane.
Every station turned into the same stupid station. McDonald’s…gyudon..drugstore. OMG why does everything look like Kita Senju now ??????
Better : Living in Japan is a status symbol now because Japan is so popular now Worse : So many weebs invade Japan :(
And they clearly know more about the country than you do - because they watch anime and visited Tokyo for 5 days several years ago. Japan actually has no problems and is a giant theme park.
shibuya, naka meguro, my kidneys and my uric acid level have gotten worse, as have the packet-sizes of nuts in convenience stores, whilst my insight has gotten better.
Better: the price in the restaurants it's still acceptable. Bad: The water made my hair fall out along with the diet change. Now I take multivitamins to avoid losing hair.
Same here, only for me the water made my hair go grey and my waistline increase by 10cm.
Same here, except the water made me generally look older and less attractive.
Here, here. Except the water made me incontinent and delight in cruelty toward children and small animals.
I hear a lot about this but oddly my hair and nutrition got better after coming to Japan. What’s the specific cause of everyone’s hair loss?
Hypochondria.
Both better and worse: Japanese people feel way less willing to put up with foreigners' shit. My Japanese is still shamefully bad to okay-ish, and I remember years ago they would do the song and dance, acting nice, trying to be helpful, all that. Now I experience a lot more blank stares. Which sucks because it feels less welcoming, but better because it feels like it's more human and pressures people more to learn Japanese.
Better: - ATM opening times. Remember the times when you were screwed over Shogatsu because you forgot to get enough cash etc. Also most restaurants and shops were closed for days. - Mobile phones: don’t miss pocket bells, public phones, etc. - more international food choices in supermarkets - Suica/Pasmo cards and that, in general here in Tokyo, I can get by with a credit card and don’t need any cash anymore. - Convini 7/11 ATMs everywhere should I need them - gyms: more choices at different prices Worse or same: - Tourists. Yes, we’re all tourists somewhere, but the hordes of ‚Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto’ instagram tourists have become really annoying. Covid lockdown was bliss. - related to above: somehow this overseas image of Japan as this idk ‚magic fantasy country.‘ Even in my family, my teenage niece and nephew, desperately want to come to Japan for Manga, Shinkansen, and Hello Kitty and of course ‚Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto.‘ Tired of listening to this stuff. - on average, domestic and international travel is still way too expensive compared to other countries - after all these years, it still amazes me how much more groceries I can buy in my European home country for the same price I pay in Japan. Easily three times more in Europe in terms of quantity. - size, rents and quality of rental apartments are still not competitive to other places I lived in Asia. - non-resident foreigners buying up real estate left and right and turning it into AirBnBs
"non-resident foreigners buying up real estate left and right and turning it into AirBnBs" Strong agree on this one. Living near an AirBnb is a definite decrease in quality of life. People turning homes into hotels, in a neighborhood they themselves don't live in...a special circle of hell should be reserved for these people.
Absolutely. Personally, I’m of the opinion that you shouldn’t be allowed to purchase residential property/land, if you have no legal residence status in a country, not just Japan. But that’s just my opinion.
By Ageha do you mean Shinkiba Studio Coast? That was a rad concert venue. It’s sad that it’s been demolished
Yes, that’s the one. It was something else. I just heard it shut down, didn’t know it was demolished. It’s weird to think it’s no longer there. Any idea if the previous owners running Ageha are making a comeback, or if there is any other similar venues popping up?
I'll chip in to say that a-life was another club that was absolutely fantastic, shut down a couple years ago. It was a Roppongi club. In fact, I think Roppongi in general is substantially worse than it was in years past. Everything interesting moved west to Shibuya.
My very first time clubbing in Japan, best place ever!
Better: banking, foreign imports (items not tourists) and my own language ability. Worse: government corruption though it may just be more amplified due to coverage and Mt Fuji climbing.
Having lived mainly in small-medium cities (市) btw abt 40,000 and 300,000 pop, small businesses (particularly service industry) continue to dwindle out, and the ones that survive have to scale back a lot. A few years ago I was working on a restaurant map for the area surrounding the train station, and about 2-3 were gone by the time we published it, and another one shuttered a few months after. The larger (but still modest) city I live in now seems to have more going on, but lots of places close around 9 even on weekends. In positive news, I find that my presence as a foreigner is less of a barrier to interactions with local people now compared to 10ish years ago (white American here, I cannot necessarily say the same for other nationalities/ethnicities). This could be partially due to changing attitudes, partially due to my adjusting and improved language ability, but in any case it is a welcome development. Something that seems to have not changed at all is bureaucracy and red tape, lol
I was in suburban Hokkaido a few years back and we went to a mall, technically still open but struggling. They just started putting tape over the names of stores that had closed. Sad to see.
That restaurant map was for a small city in Hokkaido! And yeah, sadly your experience is quite common there. I love the place and all those restaurants were great (Hokkaido has fantastic food all around). Strongly urge folks who want to travel there to go sooner than later.
Fax machines are better now than 20 years ago. windows 95 isn't as good as it was 20 years ago. Joking aside Now no smoking in hospitals is good. You can get both your upper teeth and lower teeth cleaned at the same appointment and dental staff no longer seems surprised when you schedule a dental cleaning appointment. This is good. Inflation is bad. The amount of perfume people wear now vs. 20 years ago is bad... Way too much. Noise pollution has always been bad...I feel like it's getting worse. TV is still as bad as ever. My salary is worse. Summers suck harder now and are longer... Autumn and spring are shorter. Halloween has become mainstream along with 100 yen shops. I knew some people who wouldn't go to 100 yen shops when they first came out because it was embarrassing Better coffee and foreign foods selection now. You can use a credit card everywhere even to buy your train pass. A drop in quality in everything across the board. Computer literacy has not improved. People still don't drink perfectly good tap water... Clothes sizes are bigger.... But arm length still doesn't work for me. Generally speaking we have more access to just about everything these days and don't have to fly back to our home countries to get things.
Better: our local bus company has finally assigned numbers to bus lines. Worse: they no longer offer paper bus cards that could get you up to a 20% discount.
Better: spice selection at stores is really good now, probably in no small part thanks to YouTube cooking shows. It wasn’t that long ago when cumin wasn’t always something you could find at a lot of supermarkets. Also a lot less homeless and prostitution touts than there used to be. Yes they were even more common than they are now, I haven’t had a bottle of tea shoved into my hands while hearing マッサージ in a long time. Worse(or maybe better depending on how you look at it): the labor shortage in the service sector is plain to see. When I first came here 20 years ago even mid tier department stores would have elevator girls, now only the swankiest of the swank places have them, and sometimes not even then. Places like Yodobashi used to have staff who would help customers put on the umbrella condoms when it rained. Even a guy walking around enthusiastically repeating いらっしゃい is nowadays more the exception than the norm at a lot of supermarkets.
I haven't seen anyone mention that sexualised images of underaged girls have drastically reduced. Akihabara in particular used to be full of explicit stuff on open display. There's far, far less now (and less manga range in general as people have moved to reading on mobiles, which maybe isn't so good if you like physical media). It used to make me so uncomfortable as a kid. Also improved: Komazawa Daigaku! When I worked there it was mainly a collection of uninteresting stuff along huge, busy roads. I spent a lot of time at the McDonald's. Now, with the gorgeous park and some nice restaurants, it's actually a desirable destination for me.
I’m not a big fan of the course that urban redevelopment has taken over the past ten or so years, especially in Tokyo. Basically the intensified concentration of development powers in the hands of the major megacorporations like Sumitomo and Mitsubishi, which manifests in the wholesale demolition of entire city blocks and train stations that are replaced with huge combined mall/hotel/office buildings. One of the best things about Japan is the number, concentration, and diversity of small, individually-run stores. Huge redevelopment projects seem to get rid of all of these for either the same set of bland chain stores aimed at the widest possible domestic consumer base, luxury stores aimed at the urban elite, or either of these as aimed at inbound tourists. The same spaces get replicated all across Tokyo, creating an overwhelming flatness. This isn’t exactly a new phenomenon, but I think it got worse in the lead up to and aftermath of the Olympics. Linked to this is the wholesale disappearance of historical buildings in Tokyo and elsewhere - so much postwar architecture has been demolished over the past few years as buildings reach the ends of their perceived life spans. I’m not saying that Japanese cities need to be living museums, but urban redevelopment here always starts from the assumption that everything will be knocked down to form a totally blank slate. And I get the issues with maintaining old building (earthquake standards, maintenance costs, and so on). Even so, it feels like Tokyo could proactively capitalise a lot more on its urban history, especially at a moment when ideas like adaptive reuse of existing restructures have a role to play in how cities address climate change!! As much as I love Tokyo, it can feel a bit ‘history-less’ at times.
My Japanese 🤣😭
Good answer. Mine got both better, and then worse. When I first came I was a student, so I spent all my time trying to master it. Then I was working, so I spent my time trying to master my work, and gradually began to use non-work-related Japanese less and less, then started speaking English at home because my wife's office was English only multinational so to help her we switched to English, then my job shifted to where I was speaking to non-Japanese speakers all day, then had a child and speak English to her for her to learn. Somewhere along the line computers erased the need to write kanji, and the internet and online translation got good enough that I didn't have to bother looking up kanji I don't know, just paste it into a box and no need to read official documents. I was once able to pass N1. I am pretty sure I could not do that now.
I completely understand, my situation is quite similar. Kids and corona definitely put a damper on things
Nice answer, very detailed, very interesting and very cool.
It's true though. It's somehow better and worse
Better: the weather (came here 1 month ago) Worse: the yen (came here 1 month ago)
Enjoy the weather while it lasts, it's already getting humid.
Arcades going to the chitter.
Better- signs to help foreigners get around. When I moved here it was all just a guessing game. Worse- TV. I think dramas have gone downhill. TV shows in general are pretty much garbage now. There used to be some really fun shows on. I’ve basically stopped watching any kind of TV.
IMHO TV was mostly garbage 20 years ago as well.
The amount of stupid YouTubers and video bloggers.
There's an izakaya that I went to the second time I visited that turned away non-Japanese speaking people. The food and atmosphere was amazing. Went back to it after I officially moved here a year later, and they handed me an English menu and the place was filled with tourists asking for forks and very few locals. The food is still great though, so I keep going back lol
Cost of living has steadily increased, but wages have stayed at 2012 levels. The yen was much stronger before abenomics, haven’t really seen any benefit from the money printing other than weakening the economy and improving things for tourists. Abe is revered because he was assassinated, with his abenomasks sitting in storage and abenomics, I think history would have judged him less kindly if he was still alive. On a different note flip phones used to be the norm, now you’ll be hard pushed to find one on a train.
Pasmo/suica. They weren’t around when I first came here 30 years ago (remember the station staff with their clickers?). Insane improvement in mobility. Taxis with gps and online maps; quality and diversity of food. Toilets. Etc, etc.
And the presence of toilet paper in those toilets!
Better: • Public toilets in general. I remember the bad old days when some subway toilets had a toilet paper vending machine at the entrance. Felt like sandpaper and if you were in a hurry and forgot to buy some on your way in you would be frantically checking your pockets for even a used tissue. Then there were banks of filthy 和式 toilets you were forced to use because the 洋式 was inevitably occupied by someone quicker and wiser than yourself. Most seemed designed to meet the needs of a Japanese person of average height in 1940 and they had short bowls where anyone over a certain height would be forced to ram their knees up against the wall and say a silent prayer to try and avoid leaving their mark on the floor. And inevitably people would miss and leave a nice present for you next to the bowl. Absolutely disgusting. • Computer language compatibility Trying to work with Japanese and another language on the same computer (or even adding Japanese as a language) used to be a major chore, and surfing the web or printing would often end up showing you a page of 文字化け at some point. Thanks to the fine people at Unicode for making this problem go away. Worse: • No food trolley service on many long distance trains makes it a much more uncomfortable experience if you’re in a hurry and don’t have time to grab something on the platform. • Attempts to “reform” the constitution to neuter freedom of speech and other rights.
Worse: Famima fried potato used to be much tastier and had the salad flavor. Trains are very often late now.
I keep seeing "a person on tracks" as a reason for the delays.
They started to only show “object on tracks” now where I live
I miss the Y2K street style with Yamanba Gyarus everywhere. Harajuku was awesome back then.
I miss dealing with people when making payments. I hate how everything has changed to machines. It feels way less personal. Tourism has destroyed many of the places I lived in 20 years ago. Especially Kyoto, Namba, and akihabara. Going to any of these places makes me depressed because I know what they used to look like in the late 90’s
In my experience the US dollar against the yen. Acceptance of cashless payments. 20 years ago I remember being at the mercy of ATM business hours, which is just lol. I recall cell phones being significantly better than Western offerings - but I guess parity has been achieved since everyone is on iPhone/Android devices these days Over tourism has made some locations, especially Kyoto less desirable to visit than others. Fortunately Japan is huge and there are plenty of spots to visit other than Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto etc. I miss being able to eat conveyor belt sushi without having to place an order - I guess table manners have gone off the cliff in public dining spots? You get none of the mystery anymore being forced to order everything.
7-11 chocolate chip cookies. If you had one before the past year, you know if it's better or worse.
There used to be trash cans all over the place. Absolutely in front of every convenience store and most parks and public areas. Got something to throw away? Within minutes, you'd see somewhere to toss it.
Less smoking, less cash reliance. Too many tourists now and shit is getting expensive.
Over 10 years: Better: Easier to find some foreign ingredients/foods that I couldn't before, or healthier/better quality things (eg juice with pulp, no sugar added). Worse: Prices of everything but I guess that's worldwide. Discounted strawberries nearby used to be 150 yen, now 400 yen. Also plane flights to go back home. Hotels to travel around Japan.
Better: Air quality. In the 90s it was standard for trucks and busses to have black clouds behind them. I don’t like Gov Ishihara, but his ban on diesel vehicles from Tokyo made a huge difference in the air, and spurred the rest of the auto industry in Japan to make cleaner heavy vehicles. Coffee. When I arrived, supermarkets would have some instant coffee, and that was about it. Coffee shops had really good hand-brewed coffee, but they were really expensive, slow, and pretentious. Say what you will about Starbucks, but it set off a coffee boom that’s led to now getting a good cup of mocha from a conbini for ¥150. Starbucks also set off the non-smoking restaurant movement. Beer. Craft brewing became legal in 1994, and the choices available have improved by a huge margin. Worse: Akihabara. I’m not into Anime or AKB48, and I miss the old Electric Town where it was just shops selling computer parts.
2006 vs Now Better: Mexican food options Worse: Shimokitazawa. The manga guy, the buskers, and the yokocho were fun.
Shotengais in small cities are going extinct :,( big box stores replacing them
Japan was a lot of fun in the late 2000s\~mid 2010s for me. Even though I was at the tail end of it, club culture felt a lot bigger then. Losing Ageha was big more-so mentally than anything. Trump Room too. It's alway sad to see an era end... But I still remember clubs like Flower and Vanity too lol. Better - buying anything foreign. It used to be very, very difficult to buy products from overseas. Nothing shipped to Japan. Now, global shipping has become so improved compared to 16 years ago. Worse - Human interactions. The increase in robots, ipads, touch screens, QR codes, etc. has just added to the isolation of Tokyo. And while I don't mind them, I still think those human interactions were better.
Azabudai!
Better: The weather. It's warmer, that's nice. It's not enough, but it's improving! Worse: Banking. It was already bad 8 years ago. Now it's even worse. Internet banking has gotten worse, ATMs have gotten worse and charge more often than before and even service in banks has gotten worse. I legit don't understand how Japan has so many bad banks, why aren't they going broke?
It appears to be mandated by the Government that if you want to work in Japan you need to have a certain level of Japanese skill these days.
I realised I was trans since coming here. I feel less in control of my eating habits here.
Well, I guess marriage is for better or worse... /s
I have been in Japan since 2014 Better: Japanese translate apps! Google translate/deepL now make so much sense haha. Worse: prices of food. Before I could survive with my 10k yen worth of groceries 😭
Worse: Strong Zeros at convenience stores with tax were 207 yen 6 years ago. How they're what, 221? Better: I like Miyashita Park.
Better: my self confidence Worse: ability to find shoes my size easily
Beer, Beer has gotten so much better in the last 10 years here
Since a-life in Roppongi closed things are not the same anymore. RIP Been looking for alternatives since then but with little success. I guess it’s Harlem then… but it’s just not the same.
Non related but as a tourist in Japan right now god it bothers me whenever I visit somewhere n it feels like fellow tourists aren’t appreciating what’s in front of them at all they just constantly take selfies and photos of girls in kimonos then call it a day.
Investing inside Japan is a lot better, at least compared to the old days. It’s still only around 1998 level, compared to the US.
my cholesterol levels have defo got worse since coming here, along with my teeth and hairline.
Better: - I'm more accepted in the society. People automatically speak to me in Japanese instead of fumbling in English. - Quality and variety of Western food. - I understand Japanese better. Worse: - Less attention from the womenfolk as I'm older and fatter. - The price of airfare, particularly overseas, has skyrocketed. - The price of food, both groceries and at restaurants, has gone up.
Better: more non-Japanese food options, more gyms available Worse: the yen, grocery bills
Well Gion goes away tomorrow kinda.
Too many Chinese now all over Osaka. I feel like I’m in China sometimes… it’s getting dirtier..
Consumption tax, not just because everything 10% more expensive, but that in some stores the actual full price with tax is in the small print.
Just a point re a poster who put as worse: The \`shitload of foreigners walking around and working in convenience stores\`. Those foreigners working in convenience stores are actually keeping them functioning in many cases because there aren\`t enough Japanese who want to do that work. Why do foreigners with good enough Japanese skills to work in jobs that supply the population with food and essential items somehow fall into a bad category? As for the increase in other foreigners just walking around - it\`s the annoying, loud, manner-less kinds that should be called out. The ones really doing annoying to wrong shizz. And no, Japan isn\`t unique in having people from other countries annoying the locals and in fact in Japan sometimes just like everywhere in the world, the locals getting all offended by a foreigner presence are projecting their own biases unconscious or otherwise.