sometimes when i'm thinking about authority and state coercion and freedom, i am reminded that i was (and felt) more free in Japan than in America but my husband, who is Japanese feels (but isn't actually imo) more free here.
we have more legal restrictions; they have more cultural and social ones (that didn't apply to me as a gaijin). i think.
@Pyrrh a lot of things can happen, frombullying (even of adults) to being unable to move up at work (the pressures on salarymen especially are huge, altho it's changing a little now, I think). the social expectations around marriage, too, i think have led to pretty much all married people being gravely unhappy and young people not marrying, not having kids, rejecting it all -- but at least when i was there, without finding new/better ways to have relationships that they (like all humans) desire
@argumatronic in egypt i never felt free because of social norms , tradition and family but here i don't feel free because everyone is trying to improve me without knowing me
@argumatronic similar experience!
@argumatronic that's a fascinating perspective. what happens to people native to japan who choose not to bend to the rigid social structure?