I have made two visits to Japan. My father traveled there extensively in the 70's and we often had Japanese visitors at our house.
I was certainly with the differences and the similarities. Here is a good example. Everywhere in the world we seem to be having trouble with under-age people and alcohol. In Japan, alcohol is available from vending machines. I cannot read Japanese but is there a declaration on the BUY button saying, I declare that I am of alcohol drinking age.
In Australia, we have major problems with alcohol and everyone who sells alcohol has to have a Responsible Service of Alcohol certificate (including the check out clerk in the supermarket). So we could never have alcohol sold via vending machines. Seems that Japan has an order that deals with this differently.
Vive la difference.
It's funny, I've been wondering about that lately, too. I haven't seen many beer vending machines on the street lately, and when I have bought beer out of them in the past, I didn't pay any attention to whether they had a way to distinguish whether I was a minor or not. I want to say that they didn't, but I'm not sure.
I know that the beer vending machines on boats and at onsens and bathhouses don't require any proof of age before you make a purchase.
The vending machines that sell cigarettes here require you to have a card that proves your age. You scan your card and then you can buy cigarettes. Obviously, if you knew anybody older than you who didn't smoke, you could just ask them to make a card and give it to you. Then you would be able to buy cigarettes. I don't know how many minors actually do this, though.
It seems incredible that these machines aren't taken advantage of, doesn't it.
Always fun to have eyes open for the subtle differences - and for the big ones. Beer vending is big for me - tells me there is a level of self control we do not see in our societies.
Keep up the lookout for this sort of thing - I love it.
Will do.
And, actually, I just remembered a TV show that I saw recently about the differences between Japanese and Chinese culture. A Japanese TV show set up a box in a park in China and a box in a shopping mall in Japan. Both boxes had a curtain covering a hole in the box and a sign that said don't look inside this box. Many people in China stopped and looked in the box, but only two or three people in Japan did. Many people in Japan looked at the box with apparent curiosity but ended up walking away without looking in the box.
The point of the show was to say that people in Japan are wary about taking risks and disobeying commands. I suspect this has something to do with why more minors don't buy beer out of vending machines. I also think the structure of schools over here has a lot to do with this too.