This is a great article. I used to visit Japan a lot in the 2010s, and even considered moving there because I liked it so much, and the company was fine with it. Even had a job lined up.

Then they told me how much the local CEO makes - it was less than half my CA salary.

Yeah, it's really well written. Especially the part about how recently some tourists from America come here with their valuable USD and enjoy a week or two of shopping, eating out and walking around, then to romanticize just how amazing life is in Japan. Living here is a much different reality to being a tourist here.

I think it's easier to "self-insert" as a "Hey, I could totally live here," while a tourist in Japan, than, say, a tourist in Mexico.

Japan is quite a wonderful place, but there's a lot of unseen work and sacrifice that gets put into making it wonderful. It is a country with very different priorities than the USA, for example, but it isn't magic.

All of my Japanese friends work 2-3 jobs, never seem to sleep, and are constantly drunk when off the clock (it seems). I always say Japan is the greatest country in the world, unless you’re Japanese.