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Misconception number 1: cheating is acceptable, or, everyone in Japan cheats! Of course that
is not true! Cheating is just as bad in Japan as anywhere else. The numbers are actually
pretty similar. In America, between 20-30% of men will cheat at some point in their lives,
whereas between 15-20% of women will cheat. For Japan the numbers are a little bit harder
to get because they don't have quite as many scientific studies, however on average about
20-30% for men and somewhere between 12-25% for women. And that number drops a lot for
the younger generations. So for people under 30, that's only about 20% of people who will
cheat. So generally, that's roughly around the same numbers as America. I think there
are two reasons this might be a misconception, and one would be because people tend to talk
about their negative experiences. Why would you write a blog post about, "Hey, my boyfriend
hasn't cheated on me!" Why would you ever do that? No one would do that. So of course
you're going to read all of the negative stories and that makes it seem like more negative
things happen. The second thing would be that Japanese people have different ideas of what
they consider to be cheating. I'm going to show you a survey of 3,000 people broken into
men and women that shows what they consider cheating. The number one thing is of course
having sex with someone else. The second would be going on vacation with someone. But, if
you go down to 15% for men and 26% for women, that says FUUZOKU NI IKU, which is prostitution.
So, only 1/4th of women and 1/6th of men consider prostitution to be cheating in Japan. Now,
direct penetration prostitution is illegal (that doesn't mean it doesn't happen), but
because of that, when you say FUUZOKU in Japan, there are a lot of things that could be. That's
a broad spectrum. And because I know you guys are going to ask, Jun does consider that cheating.
And I think he was more surprised than I was to find the numbers that low than I was. Misconception
2: It's rude if you DON'T slurp your noodles. Or, slurping your noodles is a compliment
to the chef. Neither of those are true at all. You do not ever have to slurp your noodles
in Japan. There are only two types of noodles that you would slurp as well, and those would
be soba or udon noodles. And the reasons that Japanese people slurp their noodles are because
A) That's just how their culture grew up; it never became something that was unacceptable.
B) Most of the time when you're eating these noodles, you're getting soup that was just
previously boiling so it's very hot. It's actually really difficult to eat the noodles
without slurping them because they're so hot. And it's considered good to eat them as quickly
as possible before they soak in the soup for too long and become soggy. And C) Some people
say that it makes the noodles taste better because you're mixing air with it on your
tongue, sort of like wine tasting (I've heard). Misconception 3: Japan is an anime safe-haven.
So if you absolutely love anime, you are just going to fit right in in Japan! That unfortunately
is not true. I think Japan actually discriminates against nerds more than we do in America.
America has sort of undergone a nerd revolution, so being nerdy in America is actually pretty
fine these days. Maybe some people will still give you a hard time, but not in general.
Most everyone has something about them that's nerdy these days. But in Japan being a super
nerd about something, or being otaku, is really still bad. Of course you'll be able to find
friends and you'll still be able to go to conventions and fit in with some people, but
in general society if you go outside looking like an otaku, or if you talk to people like
an otaku, or you hoard figures in your room and have posters all over the place, you're
kind of going to be looked down on by general society. Misconception 4: Japanese people
believe that blood type determines your personality. This is a misconception because it's very
overexaggerated. Japanese people view blood types the same way that we view horoscopes
here in America. Most people just think of it as something fun and silly. Of course,
everyone has that friend they know that is really into horoscopes and truly believes
them. Maybe you know a couple people or something like that. So that is true in Japan, too.
Some people really do believe in it. But in general, it's just for fun. And no, companies
do NOT ask for your blood type when you're applying for a job!! I think that's a story
of it happened once somewhere and then a foreign newspaper picked it up and they were like,
"HEY LOOK AT THIS CRAZY THING ABOUT JAPAN THIS HAPPENS TO EVERYONE IN JAPAN COME READ
THIS NEWS ARTICLE!!" And no, it's really overexaggerated. That does not happen. Jun said that if someone
ever asked for his blood type in an interview that he would no longer want to work for that
job. So that is not common, at all. And misconception 5: Japanese people eat [blank]. There are
actually a lot of parts to this so I'm going to go through all of them. Japanese people
eat cats or dogs. No! Not even... at all! That one is really out of the ballpark. Japanese
people eat live cephalopods. This is kind of an overexaggeration. They do have some
live dishes, but in general these are dishes where they have killed the animal, so it IS
dead. But it's "freshly" dead and so it still has the electrical impulses that can make
its muscles move around. The most common one that we see is the dancing squid dish, or
dancing octopus/dancing cuttlefish, whichever one they use, and the animal there is already
dead. What happens is once you pour the soy sauce on the animal, that causes muscle spasms
and it makes it look like the animal is still alive. And those aren't common, either. That's
kind of like a novelty in Japan. It would be like going to one of those heart attack
cafes in America and eating one of those giant burgers where if you eat the whole thing you
get it for free. So maybe some people do that but generally not very seriously. Japanese
people eat dolphins. This one is another one that's REALLY overexaggerated. Most people
in Japan do not eat dolphins, do not want to eat dolphins, do not approve of killing
dolphins at all. Most Japanese people view dolphins as a really cool animal that you
would go to see in an aquarium, or something like that. Jun had no idea that Japanese people
ate dolphins at all. There's only one place in Japan that organized dolphin hunting still
happens, and that is in the small coastal town of Taiji. Every year they hold a dolphin
drive hunt where they capture dolphins, primarily to sell for entertainment, but a small portion
of that is also sold on the market as food. However, the vast majority of Japanese people
have never eaten dolphin. Japanese people eat whale. Yes, this one does happen. This
is still uncommon. A lot of people do not eat whale at all. You guys know how much Jun
likes cooking--he has NEVER seen whale sold in his city, ever. Most Japanese people, if
they've had whale, they've had it in KYUUSHOKU as a child. KYUUSHOKU is your school lunch.
So it was something that they were kind of force fed as children and not something that
they chose to eat. Some people still do choose to eat whale, and that is true. But it's still
uncommon. Okay fine, but Japanese people eat raw fish, and that is really weird. Fair enough.
Raw fish can be considered weird by plenty of people. However, there are a number of
people these days, especially the younger generation, who also think raw fish is weird,
and they don't eat it. So, as a foreigner if you're going to Japan and you find raw
fish kind of weird and you don't want to eat it, no one's going to blame you because some
Japanese people don't eat raw fish, either. Same goes for natto, which is fermented soy
beans, or really anything else that looks like strange food in Japan. Even if Japanese
people eat it themselves, most of them would recognize that it's kind of a strange food
or a lot of people might find it gross so they would completely understand if you don't
want to eat it. Okay, so this is just a really quick overview of all of these things. I didn't
want to make this video too long. So if you have anything else you want to say we can
discuss it down in the comments. I put all of my sources for everything I said down in
our description as well. Thanks for watching, guys! Bye!