Bullying in general is famously widespread in Japanese schools and credited for at least part of the high youth suicide rate. It's generally a big issue that's not effectively dealt with, even beyond LGBT youth.

Unless the stats have changed significantly in the past, the youth suicide rate in Japan is much lower than in USA and Canada.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for youths 10-19 in Japan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCAx7N12IvI
Listen to Foxxxxy.

last edited at May 7, 2016 11:16PM

Bullying in general is famously widespread in Japanese schools and credited for at least part of the high youth suicide rate. It's generally a big issue that's not effectively dealt with, even beyond LGBT youth.

Unless the stats have changed significantly in the past, the youth suicide rate in Japan is much lower than in USA and Canada.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for youths 10-19 in Japan.

True, but that doesn't really tell us much on its own—death by natural causes is very low for that group, which leaves homicides, suicides and accidents. It also tells us nothing about how that compares to other countries.

For example, this article argues that Japan has an unusually high rate of suicides for young people, but defines "young peple" all the way up to 35. But you can also see here that Japan has lower overall mortality rates, with the higher suicide rate being offset by a lower accident rate.

First, when I posted before I was lazy and just used some 2004 statistics from here, which is why I made a caveat about them not changing. But I was curious about what they looked like today, so I pulled that data from WHO's database for 2011 for Canada, US and Japan:
(2011, because for some reason we don't have more recent stats on Canada). And from that, I got:

http://puu.sh/oKjpS/ea78757875.png

What you can see here is that Japan's suicide rates for 10-14 year-olds are below those of Canada and the US, and is between them (but still low) for 15-19, which was my main point—comparatively, Japan does not have unusually high rates of teen suicide. What it does have are unusually low rates of death by accident (presumably because teens aren't driving), as well as a much lower homicide rate, and thanks to that suicide is left as the leading cause of death.

This is particularly remarkable given that overall, Japan has nearly double the suicide rate of the US and Canada. However, Japan's perceived suicide problem may actually be an artifact of miscounting in other countries. We know that suicides are often not reported as such, and suicide by deliberately crashing an automobile may be the biggest source of this—in fact, current research indicates that the latter might be skewing North American statistics in a very big way. Meanwhile, car ownership is incredibly low for early age brackets in Japan, and it's entirely possible that this has led to an increase in other forms of suicide, particularly by train.

(Edited for clarity)

last edited at May 8, 2016 6:15AM

In my experience when I visited Japan over the last few years, I have found that most of the time I am a foreigner first; and only then, as a far distant second, a woman. Admittedly, I am just north of 5.9 (1.76), and while my build is quite slender by European standards, I guess may seem a bit intimidating to your average Japanese person. Basically never had any issues with harassment in Japan, but realise that my experience is far from the typical daily interaction of Japanese women in particular.

In my own experience in Japan, it seems most japanese are wary of foreigners, so they tend to leave them alone. Knew a guy there who was of the asian type despite having been born and raised in europe. Couple of time some japanese tried to mess with him and get him into a fight before learning he was a foreigner and apologizing, leaving him alone.

Also, where you're from seems to affect their reaction toward you. Many japanese were kinda cold/cautious toward me at first, but after learning I was french, they'd get much more friendly.

But yeah, as much as I love japan, that country still have a lot of social issues. :/

Bullying in general is famously widespread in Japanese schools and credited for at least part of the high youth suicide rate. It's generally a big issue that's not effectively dealt with, even beyond LGBT youth.

Unless the stats have changed significantly in the past, the youth suicide rate in Japan is much lower than in USA and Canada.

(Higher than in France, though. Lower levels of drug use and less access to firearms might be driving this.)

^It can also suck a lot for foreigners.. Especially women, who are considered as "easy" by average japanese men and routinely harassed with little to no reaction from authorities. The mere fact of being a foreigner who stands out is "asking for it".

...I think you're confusing Japan with Egypt? Japanese men tend to intimidated by (white) foreign women.

I think you're mistaken about japanese men. Maybe they are intimidated in "formal" interactions, but in the street or on trains, foreign women are fair game. Police wouldn't budge for a native, so even less for a foreigner.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2013/10/23/voices/japan-no-safe-country-for-foreign-women/

last edited at May 8, 2016 4:30AM

I think you're mistaken about japanese men. Maybe they are intimidated in "formal" interactions, but in the street or on trains, foreign women are fair game. Police wouldn't budge for a native, so even less for a foreigner.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2013/10/23/voices/japan-no-safe-country-for-foreign-women/

This is one person writing about two incidents. It sounds like they were quite personally upsetting for her, and it's not surprising that she doesn't feel safe in Japan anymore—in the same that victims of home robberies stop feeling safe in their house, victims of assault stop feeling safe out alone, etc. But it says nothing about the country as a whole.

Edit: I suppose I can elaborate. The general consensus from foreigners, both men and women, is that they feel safer in Japan than they do almost anywhere else. Crime statistics suggest that they are justified in feeling that way. Of course, that doesn't mean there is no crime, and that foreigners are not sometimes deliberately targeted, and there have been complaints about police not being helpful in some of those cases. But I have never seen any statistics to suggest that foreign women are less safe in Japan compared with other countries or compared with Japanese women.

last edited at May 8, 2016 4:49AM

There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Statistics can only work with events that are reported.

last edited at May 8, 2016 4:53AM

The bitter irony is that Japan has historically had a relatively open relationship with LGBT matters, but the more they opened themselves to the west, the more restrictive their perspective has become

What do you mean by that? :O

Throwing Wikipedia into the fray: "Sodomy was first criminalized in Japan in 1872, in the early Meiji era, to comply with the newly introduced beliefs of Western culture and Qing legal codes. But this provision was repealed only seven years later by the Penal Code of 1880 in accordance with the Napoleonic Code."

If you read the Tale of Genji, for instance, it becomes quite clear that there was little thought or inhibition when it came to same sex relationships. They were not seen as anything particularly out of the ordinary. This is actually pretty much consistent with the original views in many other Asian countries, as Buddhism is quite open in that regard. Christianity on the other hand...

Although you've got things like the history of Kabuki showing that the open acceptance of sexuality in general, be it gay or straight, was on a bit of a rocky path even before the opening of Japan.

Also, the Genji also openly depicts pedophilia, incest, and rape, among other things, and none of them in a particularly negative light, which is important to keep in mind when discussing it as being pro-homosexuality.

I really do find it hard to wrap my head around how "Who's attracted to who", is such an issue across the globe, both historically and nowadays... =_=

It's just that asians in general, and japanese in particular, dislike the open display of this kind of preferences.

They are aware it exists, they don't think anything of it, except when it's openly displayed. Then, they feel compelled to conform and voice the common view that it's "disgusting".

You can be gay as much as you like, but if you display your difference, then you're a nail that sticks out.

Western societies are not that far ahead. Many states in the U.S. criminalized (and still do?) sodomy until recently.

Hopefully, the new generations will eventually learn to accept these differences as same-sex unions become more common.

last edited at May 8, 2016 12:26PM

In western countries it's because religion poisoned the well so to speak, so it's really hard to escape that. Asians it seems to just be a conformity issue and less because a "holy" book told them it's wrong.

Nya-chan posted:

It's just that asians in general, and japanese in particular, dislike the open display of this kind of preferences.

They are aware it exists, they don't think anything of it, except when it's openly displayed. Then, they feel compelled to conform and voice the common view that it's "disgusting".

You can be gay as much as you like, but if you display your difference, then you're a nail that sticks out.

Western societies are not that far ahead. Many states in the U.S. criminalized (and still do?) sodomy until recently.

Hopefully, the new generations will eventually learn to accept these differences as same-sex unions become more common.

True, traditional japanese beliefs don't like even straight couples showing their affections to each other in public. It's gotten much more lax in recent years with that, but not with non-straight couples.

It's just that asians in general, and japanese in particular, dislike the open display of this kind of preferences.

They are aware it exists, they don't think anything of it, except when it's openly displayed. Then, they feel compelled to conform and voice the common view that it's "disgusting".

You can be gay as much as you like, but if you display your difference, then you're a nail that sticks out.

Western societies are not that far ahead. Many states in the U.S. criminalized (and still do?) sodomy until recently.

Hopefully, the new generations will eventually learn to accept these differences as same-sex unions become more common.

To be fair, the U.S. isn't the exactly the best example of the "progressive western society".