Why have Japan related subreddits on reddit become so terrible? (2024)

I don't know how many people on here have used or use reddit but if you have, would anyone agree that the quality has freefalled to the floor? There's a couple different subreddits (forums basically) with Japan being the main one, Japan life (living in Japan), Japan travel, and moving to Japan among the bigger ones. Honestly the moving to Japan one is probably the most helpful of the bunch but the rest are just unusable.

The main Japan forum doesn't allow any posts or discussion regarding any topic covered by the other forums, so can't post about travel there or moving or life within the country. This causes it to be nothing more than posts about news articles and tabloid articles. The general environment in the the forum is of extreme negativity and constant, incessant complaining about everything related to Japan. While I don't pretend that anyone needs to like everything about Japan, the users there do the opposite. Everything is problematic about the place - the food, the culture, the customs people have at work and in private life, the Olympics, the politics (I've never seen people more involved and concerned about japanese politics than the non Japanese citizens on he Japan subreddit who just constantly crap on the LDP for whatever reason), behaviors of people, work life , etc etc etc.

And the worst part is that the other forums are so overmoderated and the moderators are so controlling that you can hardly post anything anywhere. For example the Japan life forum has a rule that only those living in Japan can post. While my wife and I don't live in Japan, half her life is still in the country and she lives in the country half the year and half the year in my home country. When asking questions regarding taxes, my post was deleted and I was banned because I didn't physically live within Japan, even though my family has to deal with issues of someone living in Japan. Doesn't make any sense. Just today I made a post asking people recommendations on placed to visit in Yamanashi prefecture and my post was deleted because Japan guide exists and I can find information there. So why even have a forum?? The forums used to be really great 6 years ago when they weren't so overmoderated but I feel like they're just useless now.

Is it just me or has anyone else been driven away from these subreddits and reddit as a whole because of nonsense with these moderators and general negativity and complaining from users?

Join this: RetireJapan - Index page

Lots of good info on it. I believe the owner is not Japanese also.

Lothor said:

Thanks for making the effort to write that very interesting post. The quality of moderating on Japan related sites varies enormously and it has a strong influence of the quality of the site. There's a well known news site about Japan that is moderated to death and I gave up posting on it after I received multiple emails where I was made to feel like an eight year old boy being told off for being naughty by his least favourite aunt.
Of course, please ask away on this site. If in the highly unlikely event that you get less than impeccable answers, the Tokyo Expat Network page on Facebook is very helpful - and also well moderated!

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Thanks for our reply. I've found a long great info on this website and in the past when I've asked a question I've received friendly and informative answers. Very happy to be here. And yes the Facebook groups surprisingly seem to be really good. Just recently we had to navigate the labyrinth of covid regulations coming into Japan and the "return to Japan" Facebook group was incredibly helpful.

Snicket said:

Thanks for our reply. I've found a long great info on this website and in the past when I've asked a question I've received friendly and informative answers. Very happy to be here. And yes the Facebook groups surprisingly seem to be really good. Just recently we had to navigate the labyrinth of covid regulations coming into Japan and the "return to Japan" Facebook group was incredibly helpful.

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Thanks! There's a good ethos of 'be kind!' on the Japan related FB groups. If someone makes a request about Olympic tickets, people who are against the games are encouraged to scroll on rather than launch into a tirade about the games.

This place is great but it's just missing the critical mass of participation it needs. These kinds of forums have mainly been co-opted by Facebook but each FB forum depends heavily on the administration which often veers into complete dictatorship. All of these groups require moderation to be effective but heavy-handed moderation can really kill them as you noted.
I was on one FB forum which was dedicated to historical photos then all of a sudden one day it changed into an anything goes site for memes or other bizarre pics after the owner snapped. His post:

What I've noticed is that there seems to be those who believe other foreigners, "lessen their own experience", as if they're not part of WE to begin with.

The better than everyone type have been here awhile usually. The community here is very transient. People come and go, over the years it gets harder to keep meeting people with an open mind. The general isolation in Japan is hard enough for Japanese, it can wear down long term foreign residents quite harshly as well. They become less tolerant and less receptive to people.
The other ones are the people who never made it past the wall. Moving to a new culture has a few phases, once everything is not new and exciting, things start clashing with your original values. Some people try to live in the foreign bubble and never open themselves to accepting things in the culture here. They get angry, they complain about Japan, but for one reason or another they are stuck here. So they take it out on everyone around them.
A lot of non-Asians in America who are super attracted to Asian culture are awkward, passive aggressive people. My personal impression has been they are awkward but blame western/American culture for making them feel awkward instead of making the effort to be less awkward, and think that Asian culture and people are more in tune with their natural disposition. Which is fine, right? Maybe they truly are more gentle and thoughtful, but in my experience, they're not really the most benevolent people. They have a lot of baggage and pent up anger.
People definitely are assholes everywhere, and I don't know about the ratio, but the assholes in the foreigner population in Japan seem to love taking a condescending holier-than-thou attitude more than other ******* populations, in my experience.
A few reasons (horrible generalizations, but isn't each cliché rooted in truth?):

• A surprisingly large number of people willing to leave their own country behind were not too well integrated/happy there in the first place, otherwise they wouldn't have left. Take whatever made them unhappy at home, and then combine that with the bad parts of culture shock (which can keep dragging on for years in a place like Tokyo). Bam, unhappy assholes.
• Each country attracts its own special kind of expats. Lots of people being interested in Japan are also interested in some form of nerd culture (anime, games). Often, these people tend to have not the best social skills.
• In the "foreigner living in Japan community" on reddit, you only see the loners and leftovers. The people who productively worked on integrating and succeeded doing so won't go to weekend bar meetups, but spend time with their family and circle of Japanese friends instead.

It's important to state that not everybody behaves according to those preconceptions, but it happens often enough that that's how I've explained it for myself.