When people discuss Japan being a homogeneous society, that typically refers to it being a very ethnically uniform society.
I really, really don't see how that connects to... payment systems. Surely you're not trying to claim that what people actually mean typically is that Japan is homogeneous in every arbitrary way possible, right? That's a bit too much even for a strawman, even if I factor in the kind of forum this is.
> When people discuss Japan being a homogeneous society, that typically refers to it being a very ethnically uniform society.
Even if you ignore tourists that's not really true of Tokyo either. Japan doesn't collect ethnicity statistics though - the numbers for this you may have seen are misreadings of something else.
> Surely you're not trying to claim that what people actually mean typically is that Japan is homogeneous in every arbitrary way possible, right?
That's absolutely what people online think about Japan, they think it's a stuffy collectivist society where everyone agrees with each other and there are no immigrants.
> Even if you ignore tourists that's not really true of Tokyo either. Japan doesn't collect ethnicity statistics though - the numbers for this you may have seen are misreadings of something else.
Which is all very interesting, but remind me, how does this tie into payment systems again?
> That's absolutely what people online think about Japan, they think it's a stuffy collectivist society where everyone agrees with each other
... and then they play the latest Yakuza and wash that down with a few episodes of Tokyo Revengers? It'd would appear that one generalization doesn't beat another.
> and there are no immigrants.
YouTube has been overflowing with thinly veiled grifts lately about how everything in Japan is going to shit right now, and how it's because of the damn tourists and immigrants (heavily peppered with false crime rate figures and false immigration statistics of course).
Still, pretty unrelated to payment systems. I can't shake the feeling that this is the exact same type of conflict sowing one can see under more mainstream topics. Vague mention of something, then a massive tangent, and all of a sudden we're discussing deeply controversial political topics. If you're not doing this with malicious intent, you might be in an unhealthy loop that I'd advise you try quitting. This is not helping anyone, which is what I intended to be my point.
I would say that the common image of Japan is that it's a weird place that only works because it's full of Japanese people.
Whereas I would like to promote the idea that it's a normal place containing normal people (…many of them Chinese tourists, lately), and you can have the good things they have too if you simply copy their policies. Or in other words, there's no need for conflict.
I don't know if payment systems are one of those anymore though. FeliCa is the best because it's so fast, but any kind of tap to pay is IME fine. Certainly better than having to use a ticket machine or buy a special card or work out change to give to the bus driver.
I really, really don't see how that connects to... payment systems. Surely you're not trying to claim that what people actually mean typically is that Japan is homogeneous in every arbitrary way possible, right? That's a bit too much even for a strawman, even if I factor in the kind of forum this is.