Shibuya itself has been totally ripped up and reconstructed over the past few years, and people are tripping over themselves to appeal to western sensibilities as much as possible. Please stop with the orientalist hyperbole

The US and Europe have historical preservation societies. Some people like it, some are satisfied by it, some go farther afield. I don’t think it’s “orientalist” necessarily to be interested in historical preservation of other cultures.

Is an interest [in] eastern philosophy orientalism?

I once heard it described that Shintoism is the undercurrent in Japanese society and industry in the same way that Calvinism is the undercurrent in America. Few practice it but everyone knows it subconsciously. There are a couple of famous books that look at Zen through the lens of arts like garden design or archery. I see a similar pattern in Chinese crafts and martial arts, vis a vis daoism, Confucianism, or ch’an (zen).

I’m sure someone not steeped in Christianity would see the same thing in our culture. But it’s like asking a fish to describe water.

In one of your previous comments you wrote: I've lived in Japan for many years and its essentially a western nation with a stronger social conformity / shame culture.

I have also lived in Japan and I don't know how you could believe that is true. Westerners usually experience culture shock when visiting Japan.

Japan is 98% Japanese by population.

I've lived in Japan for many years and its essentially a western nation with a stronger social conformity / shame culture. The sheer volume of Japan praise on HN is confusing to say the least.

I think shame is a really useful thing in the context of society and something I feel a lot of Western cultures would benefit from. I've never understood the "don't X shame me" thing, there are a huge number of things that people should feel shame for that I think western societies have normalised.

I haven't lived in Japan but I've spent a considerable amount of time there. I accept that Japanese people are much more socially conformist, but it's interesting from a visitor's perspective as I've always felt the cities there feel a lot less homogenised in a lot of ways. Tokyo has always felt far more of a city of people doing interesting and creative things than London, to me at least.

The US is at a point where it's far more of a shame-driven society than Japan.

One wrong move and you, your family, and your employer are trending on twitter and national news and apologizing for your entire existence while everyone publicly announces that they're cutting ties with you.

Japan has incredibly strong defamation laws, where half the stuff that hits twitter in the US would land people in trouble in court in Japan for trying to ruin someone's reputation (even if it's justified).

Before that there was the lawsuit culture.. I wonder if it faded.

You got the woke culture to thank for.

I never lived in Japan, I know about a few issues (from hikkikomoris, suicide rates to good old mafia) but there's something fascinating about that country. Tell me if I'm wrong but their sense of aesthetics, minimalism, precision is special.

I argued with a colleague who worked for a japanese import/export company, he said they were crude, dumb and sleazy.. mostly succeeding by hiring hard working foreigners. That's one viewpoint, but I've also seen documentaries about early semiconductor industry in japan, and while they lifted a few patents, they did do their own share of hard work to turn them into workable devices (to the point where Japan became a reputable country in the field, from audio to computing).

Same goes for animation, Akira was a masterpiece of detail. The gaming industry was great. Ancestral toolsmith (famous katana blacksmith process).. samurai code.

More recently the manufacturing paradigm (toyota/lean).

There's a lot to love from there.

Define western nation? System? Culture?

HN people are filled with Westerners fascinated by Asian culture, and then get disappointed once they realized that Asia being Asia and do not want to have the West problems by introducing diversity and PC talk.

Most Western nations could use more social conformity and shame culture to reduce antisocial behavior. I mean, that's the main reason why Japanese cities are so clean and safe compared to most European cities.