"Real Japan" doesn't exist.

Added: 2026-05-08

[00:00:00]What is good everyone? Welcome to the channel. My name is Paul. I make videos about Japanese society, life, and culture from the viewpoint of a long-term foreign resident. I've been in Japan for over 20 years. You hear the phrase real Japan used quite a bit in social media influencers or vloggers, travel vloggers especially, will be talking about finding the real Japan or I went to the real Japan. And I realize, yes, it's just marketing. They're trying to raise intrigue, like they're going to show you something special that no one else knows about or they're going beyond what is the normal experience that you might have if you come to Japan. So, I get it. It's marketing. But every time I hear that phrase, it just bothers me on a certain level because it kind of implies that there are things here in Japan, in the society, and the culture that are not Japan. like it's somehow like window dressing or there's surface level things here in the society, but that's not really what Japan is. And I think there are definite biases that people have versus like what is Japanese and what is not. And that's what I want to get into today. Like I want to address this idea of there being a real Japan or there being a notreal Japan or are there levels to it? Basically, my thesis though is there's no such thing as the real Japan. Namely, because I'm going to be upfront and say it's all the real Japan. There's no fake Japan here. It's just coming down to what you yourself believe is really Japanese or not. And you know what? That's fine. I mean, if you want to have your personal opinions about that sort of thing, that's all well and good. But I'm going to argue that there is no such thing as the real Japan. The first thing I believe is going on here is the romanticizing of Japan. that there's this idealized image that it's the emperor and geisha and samurai and old ado era and kabuki and sumo and it's kind of the dream Japan we all kind of have in our heads if we're coming from abroad that the reality of Japan is this image that you know has been sold to us by media has been sold to us by Japan itself through its cool Japan campaigns and you know soft power abroad and that's very much a reality that there's this image that there's this idealized Japan that you can somehow go and find if you go to this area where there's old ado era buildings, you'll get the feeling of old ado Japan. Or if you head to this particular area where there's this amazing craft that has been preserved for decades, well, you're seeing the real Japan.

[00:02:41]I mean, you could definitely have those experiences here and have a a wonderful time searching for these unique places, but I feel like it's not really fair to pick and choose. Like, why is an old ado post town in Nagano more authentic than a pachinko parlor in Tokyo?

[00:03:02]They're both Japan.

[00:03:04]We have these biases though that oh Japan is this old image that we have in our brain and you know pachinko is modern and it's garish with its neon lights and it's noisy and smoky and wahh you know we just kind of discard that from our mind is that's this modern thing that is not really Japan but it's part of Japan Yankee culture the kind of uh rebellious youth booth.

[00:03:34]That's Japan. The Voluzoku bike gangs.

[00:03:37]That's Japan. Japan is also the Takarakuji. People going and lining up to buy lottery tickets. That's Japan.

[00:03:45]Probably a illustration we could make is a woman who is a geisha in Kyoto working and doing the old Japanese arts of music and conversation and entertainment is Japanese, but also is the cosmopolitan woman in Tokyo whose hobby is to find new cute European bakeries.

[00:04:08]That's also Japan and those are two Japanese people. So our bias is to one over the other, but the reality is they are both Japan and it's going back or falling back on this romanticization of what Japan is or what Japan should be. I mean like this. You can kind of look at this old Japanese minka with the traditional fence there and gate and think now that's real Japan. Or you know we're going to pass by a kind of a concrete block building here in a moment. That's part of Japan too.

[00:04:57]So, we have our bias, we have our romanticizing, but it's all real Japan. And here's the thing, there are definitely more women in Tokyo interested in European bakeries than there are geisha in Kyoto.

[00:05:12]So if anything, the modern Japanese person in Tokyo is more Japanese than the few, at least by volume, is more Japanese than the few crafts people keeping some obscure craft alive that 99% of Japanese have never heard of or don't know anything about. Or quite frankly, even if they've heard about it, probably don't really care. They might think, "Oh, it's great that's being preserved, but I mean, I'm not going to go do that craft or go help preserve it.

[00:05:44]Uh, I'm just going to live my life and go to this uh cute little European cafe over here." But it would be ridiculous to say that they are not Japanese or that them wanting to do that is not Japanese. Another thing that's going on here besides the romanticizing is there is a sort of phenomena where you are possessive over your Japan experience and the Japan that you've seen. Like if you have been involved in some really obscure things or you know have taken part in these craft work or entertainment things that have been kept alive for centuries. If you go see a Kabuki play for instance, or you collect Ukioa like I do, Japanese woodblock prints, you might get this sense that like I understand the real Japan because I'm doing these things.

[00:06:29]And you take a sort of pride in that.

[00:06:32]I've called this out on the channel before. I call it the my Japan syndrome.

[00:06:36]Uh my Japan is more authentic than yours and my Japan is better than yours or my experience has been more Japanese than yours. Yes and no. I mean, sure, you've had these unique experiences, and that's fantastic. And I hope everyone who comes to Japan, either as a tourist or who comes to live here, has some amazing unique experiences that you can tell some wonderful stories and relay things to people and peique people's interest, that's all great. It's fantastic. But if you start labeling or putting on a layer that is saying this is more authentic or this is more Japan, I think it's taking it a bit too far.

[00:07:16]Feel free to disagree. Let me know in the comments down below whether you think I'm totally out on a limb here and that there is a real authentic Japan that we can hunt for and seek and pachinko is a modern bastardization that has nothing to do with real Japan. um by all means post that down below and we can have a conversation. I do enjoy engaging with the comments. So yeah, feel free to agree or disagree as you wish. So ultimately my point here is this.

[00:07:44]You should find your Japan. You should find the things that you care about that you find uniquely interesting to you and are authentic to your Japan experience.

[00:07:55]It's one of the reasons why I encourage people to get away from the normal tourist paths rather than just getting the same Lawson's Fuji picture that everyone else got.

[00:08:06]Go find your Japan or your real Japan in a possessive you've had this unique experience that only you can say that you've done exactly these things. That's totally fine. But to sell it to others as this is the real Japan, therefore you should do this. That's when it's taking it a bit far. And the idea that you can just pick and choose what is Japanese or not based on your own bias or the romantic image you have in your head is not right. Basically, the 22-year-old Saturday man in Tokyo who has no particular hobbies and just works a lot is just as Japanese as the 62-year-old craftsman keeping some kind of obscure paper making or woodworking alive out in the countryside somewhere. You often hear people talk about, "Oh, Tokyo is not the real Japan. Oh, you're just in Tokyo, so you're not really talking about Japan. That's another problem.

[00:09:09]Tokyo is Japan. Tokyo is Japan just as much as a little dinky town in the middle of Kyoto Prefecture called Washi Town. Uh, which I drove through by accident once long, long ago. Long story. But yeah, tiny little town in the middle of nowhere with no street lamps.

[00:09:28]Why is that more authentic or more Japan than Tokyo? They're different. Feel free to argue that Tokyo is very different from the rest of Japan. It is, but variety across the country, like that shouldn't be a shocking fact or something that we're surprised by. Maybe Tokyo is not Japan.

[00:09:49]Or rather, Tokyo is not all of Japan, but it is Japan, if you get my drift. If you're not picking up what I'm putting down, well, I guess the best way I can describe it is try to take Japan as a whole. Try to take Japan as not just the series of things that you understand about it, but everything about this place, the people, the culture, the society, everything that goes on here is just as Japanese as anything else. Me personally, out here in Yamanashi Prefecture in the mountains, this is more my Japan.

[00:10:25]And this is more authentic to my particular Japan experience. And I love this place. I love this area.

[00:10:34]But like my friend Tracy at Weekly Fascination Channel or John over at Ohaz Channel, Tracy's in Tokyo, John's in Nagagoya.

[00:10:46]I mean, we all have our Japan and our Japan experience and they're all valid in their own way and unique in their own way. So yeah, I don't know why this bothered me so much. Just it just seems so fake to me to think like, oh, there's this real Japan that's just hiding around the corner or that the experience you've had by, you know, going to Shibuya Scramble is, well, that's the fake Tokyo, Japan, or something like that. Um, it's not a competition. It's not a competition. it is just enjoy the place where you're living. Enjoy the place where you're visiting and realize that you know Japan is just a diverse place both in its people, its food, its cultures, its local atmospheres and traditions and everything else. And it's also the old and the new and you have to take it all as one part and parcel of the thing that is Japan.

[00:11:48]picking and choosing and trying to label different levels of authenticity. Uh it's kind of an exercise in futility. I mean, just look at famous food like sushi and tempura. Well, tempura is originally modified from Portuguese recipes and sushi comes through Korea to Japan originally. They're not originally Japanese. Ramen. Ramen. You ask Japanese people, is ramen Japanese or Chinese?

[00:12:16]and you'll get a 50/50 vote. Well, ramen in Japan is different than Chinese ramen. It's been definitely modified to be more Japanese in its way. And I would say tempura, sushi, ramen, and anything else that has been imported from abroad and become part of Japanese society, uh, yeah, that's Japanese, too. If it's something that the Japanese have adopted and made a part of their society and their culture, um, you can talk about its roots. You can talk about where it came from. But I don't know. As soon as you I guess there's levels to that. Maybe it's a foolish thing to say that everything imported is automatically Japanese.

[00:13:02]Sushi and tempora have been here a very, very long time. So maybe that's uh not the best example. But ramen, ramen really became a thing in the Showa era after the war. So, it's not all that long ago that it became part of Japanese society or a cultural dish here.

[00:13:24]Maybe maybe that's a topic for another day, like parsing something that Japan has imported and what we could argue is really Japanese or not Japanese. And if we can come up with a set of criteria to determine something like that, I think that's a different topic. But my point stands that Japan can import things and make it their own and then that also becomes part of Japan and part of Japanese cuz I think ask pretty much any tourists on the streets of Tokyo these days uh what are the Japanese foods, the Japanese foods that they want to eat while they're here and ramen is going to be high on the list. No one's saying, "Well, I want to have some of that Chinese ramen while I'm in Japan.

[00:14:05]Anyway, that's the end of my little rant today. I haven't gone on a full cultural rant in a while. Uh, I've been more level-headed in my more recent topics, but that was fun. Felt good to get that off my chest. Hope you enjoyed my perspective. And again, feel free to disagree in the comments. Do what you got to do. Um, I always appreciate any kind of engagement. Like, subscribe if you haven't done that. I mean, if you made it to this point in the video and you haven't hit the like button or subscribe, what are you doing? And I hope to see you in my next video. Check out sponsors below if you want to help the channel directly or become a channel member. But at the end of the day, the like and subscribe and sharing the video are the best ways to get my channel to grow and help me to continue doing what I'm doing. Thank you so much for watching and I will catch you on the next one. Peace.

[00:15:01]The first thing that causes this real Japan idea, I believe, is romanticizing Japan. Like there's some image of Japan from the past or image of, oh, a cat.

[00:15:14]I don't think I got it on camera. That's the thing about cat lovers. If you see a cat any time of the day, it makes you happy. Um, even if it's the 10th cat you've seen that day, it'll still make you happy.

[00:15:26]Damn it.

[00:15:28]It is just ridiculously beautiful out here.

[00:15:40]I've never actually walked through this specific neighborhood before and uh I've only touched maybe a small portion of this valley that I'm in. So, I think I'll definitely be back. This is beautiful.