What is the difference between Japanese and Western youth?

Have you ever wondered what life is like for a Japanese teenager? What is the difference between Japanese and Western youth? In this article, we will try to compare the two lifestyles.

Try to consider that this topic is relative and does not represent all young people. We are fully aware that each human being is different from one another. Therefore, we will highlight words in bold to emphasize that we are not referring to everyone.

Japanese teenagers are completely different from Westerners to the point of being unrecognizable. While some may imagine that Japanese youth are mature individuals, they could be completely mistaken.

Some young people simply sleep, shout, or cause trouble in the middle of the classroom, sometimes even more than in the West. They are young and do crazy things like in any country, despite having glaring differences.

The behavior of Japanese vs. Western youth

Western youth tend to be disrespectful, rebellious, and do what they want without thinking about the consequences. In Japanese culture, being rude or disrespectful is something terrible and brings negative consequences for both the young person and their entire family.

Western teenagers have much more freedom regarding their social life. Japanese youth, on the other hand, cannot do anything wrong, as it harms their social life and even their job prospects.

It is obvious that there are rebellious young people who manage to do wrong without being harmed. Absurd things happen in the school life of Japanese teenagers, such as Ijime.

Some Japanese youth have immense freedom and do what they want, only being home at night.

Japanese teenagers tend to be more childish than Westerners. They enjoy cute things, anime, play games, and have reactions that are not very common among Western teenagers.

In Japan, you are only considered an adult after the age of 20.

Some Japanese youth feel very uncomfortable talking to adults. They stay quiet, listening, and rarely speak. Probably to avoid doing something wrong, but among young people, they open up.

Other curiosities about Japanese teenagers

In high school, Japanese students tend to dedicate themselves strongly to their studies to enter university and the job market. During this time, things are taken very seriously, and their routine becomes completely focused on studying.

Japanese youth tend to study a lot, but in their free time, they go out in groups to shop or go to karaoke. They usually enter into relationships only in high school.

Apparently, Western teenagers seem to consider themselves superior to others, with a certain authority, thinking they can do whatever they want. Both young and adult Japanese tend to lower themselves before others as a sign of respect and humility.

The current modern Japanese culture is to be individual and express oneself. This contradicts traditional Japanese culture, which greatly discourages individuality. This is one of the reasons why we should not try to imagine that Japanese youth follow a standard.

Even though many Japanese teenagers isolate themselves on the internet and social media, in some cases, Westerners are spending more time talking on their phones than the Japanese themselves, who do not use Line as much as we use WhatsApp.

Despite the Japanese having a reputation for being perverted, the morals of Japanese youth are much higher compared to Westerners. This is evident in conversations with friends or in romantic life. We can see this in anime and manga, where even a kiss takes a long time to happen.

Final considerations about Japanese and Western youth

Teenagers tend to have different subcultures. To conclude, below we will leave some articles that talk a little about these subcultures.

• Lolita – Getting to know the loli and their style
• Gyaru – Discover the independent style in Japan
• Bosozoku – Japanese rebellious youth
• Japanese Personalities – deredere + Character List

Of course, there are many other factors in Japanese culture that differentiate Japanese people from Westerners. Things like education, respect, humility, and positive characteristics are well displayed in Japanese society, whether some like it or not.

I personally prefer to live in a society full of rules, morals, and enforced education than to live in a country that preaches a false freedom of expression that is responsible for much misfortune and allows evil to run rampant.

Japan offers many more options for healthy fun for Japanese teenagers. Perhaps this is one of the key points for Japanese people not being so interested in wrong things that harm others emotionally or physically.