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Tag: Japanese Social Norms

Does It Feel Weird To Be Naked in an Onsen? - Metropolis Japan

Does It Feel Weird To Be Naked in an Onsen?

What the Japanese bathhouse can teach us about body image

Are Trains in Tokyo Safe for Women? A List of Women-Only Cars in Tokyo - Metropolis Japan

Are Trains in Tokyo Safe for Women? A List of Women-Only Cars in Tokyo

How to ride public transport safely and report an incident

Japan in New York - Metropolis Japan

Japan in New York

Japanese culture outside of the archipelago

Is Japan’s Cultural Aversion to Public Noise Suppressing Its Birth Rate? - Metropolis Japan

Is Japan’s Cultural Aversion to Public Noise Suppressing Its Birth Rate?

Is Japan’s silence pushing families away?

“They Ripped Up My Resignation Letter”: 1 in 5 Japanese Workers in Their 20s Turn to Resignation Agencies - Metropolis Japan

“They Ripped Up My Resignation Letter”: 1 in 5 Japanese Workers in Their 20s Turn to Resignation Agencies

Young workers turn to resignation agencies for their mental health

Based in Japan: What’s Wrong with Sex Education in Japan? - Metropolis Japan

Based in Japan: What’s Wrong with Sex Education in Japan?

An interview with sex ed teacher June Low

Japan Now Allows Joint Custody After Divorce—Here’s What Actually Changed - Metropolis Japan

Japan Now Allows Joint Custody After Divorce—Here’s What Actually Changed

A landmark revision to Japan's Civil Code took effect April 1, 2026, ending a sole-custody system that had been in place for over a century

Being Chinese in Japan - Metropolis Japan

Being Chinese in Japan

Interviews with Chinese residents in Tokyo 

So I Married a Japanese Man…and These Are the Questions I Get - Metropolis Japan

So I Married a Japanese Man…and These Are the Questions I Get

Intercultural relationships come with plenty of rude assumptions.

Shibuya to Introduce ¥2,000 Littering Fines and Mandatory Trash Bins for Restaurants - Metropolis Japan

Shibuya to Introduce ¥2,000 Littering Fines and Mandatory Trash Bins for Restaurants

Shibuya City will introduce on-the-spot littering fines

Based in Japan: Would You Renovate an Akiya in Tokyo? - Metropolis Japan

Based in Japan: Would You Renovate an Akiya in Tokyo?

How Anton Wormann is reviving abandoned houses with a nod to tradition

Things Women Cannot Do in Japan - Metropolis Japan

Things Women Cannot Do in Japan

And why those rules exist and persist

Scrambling Through Shukatsu - Metropolis Japan

Scrambling Through Shukatsu

Japan’s daunting system of job-hunting for new graduates

Fika in Tokyo: How a Swedish Coffee Ritual Is Helping Professionals Feel Less Alone - Metropolis Japan

Fika in Tokyo: How a Swedish Coffee Ritual Is Helping Professionals Feel Less Alone

Intentional slowness to replace transactional networking.

What Is Japanese Tradition? — Editor’s Letter - Metropolis Japan

What Is Japanese Tradition? — Editor’s Letter

Should Japan stay “traditional”?

Why Do Birth Rates Plummet Every 60 Years During the Year of the Fire Horse? - Metropolis Japan

Why Do Birth Rates Plummet Every 60 Years During the Year of the Fire Horse?

Debunking an old, sexist myth

Why So Many Japanese Married Couples Sleep in Separate Beds - Metropolis Japan

Why So Many Japanese Married Couples Sleep in Separate Beds

Exploring sleep culture, relationship dynamics and how space shapes intimacy in Japan

Matcha or Macho: The Performative Male - Metropolis Japan

Matcha or Macho: The Performative Male

There's so much more to him than being a meme

Why Do 84 Percent of Women in Japan Think Cheating is Healthy? - Metropolis Japan

Why Do 84 Percent of Women in Japan Think Cheating is Healthy?

Understanding infidelity in Japan

Inside vs. Outside: Japan’s Unwritten Rule of Space - Metropolis Japan

Inside vs. Outside: Japan’s Unwritten Rule of Space

Why uchi and soto still shape how people connect, communicate, and move through everyday life in Japan

Why Does Japan Drive on the Left? - Metropolis Japan

Why Does Japan Drive on the Left?

A journey from samurai practicality to British train operations

Why Does Japan Have So Few Trash Cans? - Metropolis Japan

Why Does Japan Have So Few Trash Cans?

A surprisingly clean mystery

Why Do Japanese People Think Fish Don’t Have Feelings? - Metropolis Japan

Why Do Japanese People Think Fish Don’t Have Feelings?

Exploring cultural views, science and sushi in the fish-and-feelings debate

Growing up in Japan as a Westerner With Joshua Thomson - Metropolis Japan

Growing up in Japan as a Westerner With Joshua Thomson

Based in Japan: Japanese? British? Aussie? Kiwi? Just Joshua!

This Japanese Walking Trend Boosts Fitness in Half the Time - Metropolis Japan

This Japanese Walking Trend Boosts Fitness in Half the Time

Backed by science and TikTok hype, Interval Walking Training is transforming everyday walks in Tokyo

How “Sex Toy” Brand TENGA Is Changing Sex Talk in Japan - Metropolis Japan

How “Sex Toy” Brand TENGA Is Changing Sex Talk in Japan

This iconic “pleasure item” is pushing the conversation forward and normalizing masturbation

Decoding Tokyo’s Urban Design: Why Tokyo Works - Metropolis Japan

Decoding Tokyo’s Urban Design: Why Tokyo Works

Understanding how urban design makes this city work

Mi Kasa Es Tu Kasa? The Unspoken Rules of Umbrellas in Japan - Metropolis Japan

Mi Kasa Es Tu Kasa? The Unspoken Rules of Umbrellas in Japan

From unspoken etiquette to environmental headaches—what’s really going on with umbrellas in Japan?

Why Does Japan Use So Much Plastic? - Metropolis Japan

Why Does Japan Use So Much Plastic?

Why is Japan so behind other countries, and how can it change?

Her Body, Not Her Choice: Do Women in Japan Need Consent From Their Partner to Get an Abortion? - Metropolis Japan

Her Body, Not Her Choice: Do Women in Japan Need Consent From Their Partner to Get an Abortion?

The issues and human rights violations surrounding abortion in Japan

Based in Japan: Life as a Married Gay Couple With Seigo & Bren - Metropolis Japan

Based in Japan: Life as a Married Gay Couple With Seigo & Bren

A Japanese/American love story

Why Japanese People Don’t Say “I Love You” - Metropolis Japan

Why Japanese People Don’t Say “I Love You”

Unpacking the quiet ways love gets expressed in Japan

Is Same Sex Marriage Legal in Japan? - Metropolis Japan

Is Same Sex Marriage Legal in Japan?

The courts say it’s unconstitutional, but same-sex couples still can’t legally marry in Japan

Can Japan Embrace Multicultural Coexistence? - Metropolis Japan

Can Japan Embrace Multicultural Coexistence?

Uzbek-born bar owner and politician Babakhodjaeva Orzugul is challenging exclusion in Japan—one policy, one conversation at a time

When Can Japan Have a Military Again? - Metropolis Japan

When Can Japan Have a Military Again?

Breaking down what’s next for Japan's military future

Review of “Too Big To Care: Adopt Sustainable Business Practices or Embrace Defeat” by Glen S. Wood - Metropolis Japan

Review of “Too Big To Care: Adopt Sustainable Business Practices or Embrace Defeat” by Glen S. Wood

Can big business be kinder to society?