This is not surprising, as the Japanese (as a whole) have always romanticized the West, but it is telling.
More than a 100 [Japanese] expatriates a year are sinking into a state called "the Paris syndrome" which is characterised by feelings of persecution or suicidal tendencies, according to the mental health facilities of city hospitals, according to a study in the Liberation newspaper said.
Part of their clinical depression stems from having to reconcile their romanticism about Paris with reality, psychiatrists said.
"Magazines are fuelling fantasies with the Japanese, who think there are models everywhere and the women dress entirely in (Louis) Vuitton," Mario Renoux, the head of a French Japanese Society for Medecine was quoted as saying. After a relatively short period of only three months or so, Japanese immigrants expecting to find a haven of civilisation and elegance instead discover a tougher existence with many problems dealing with the French.
I've personally seen this in Japan with "Sex and the City." There's a whole cohort of women who want to move to NYC to live life like those women in that TV show. It's frankly astoundingly naiive to think that life in NYC is anything like what is depicted on that show. Just wait until they get to Manhattan and find out that a 6-figure salary barely gets you a 1 BR apt in Chelsea, let alone a closet full of Manolos.
Paris is the City of Blight for culture-shocked Japanese [news.yahoo.com]
The French are pretty French, too, and don't cotton to foreign ways. You can accept France or not, but France isn't going to bend to meet your considerations. People like to bitch about the U.S., but if you want real intolerance you have to go abroad where our notions of cultural acceptance seem quite alien. All that melting pot stuff from high-school civics is real - and it doesn't exist in any meaningful way in any other society, including France, Japan, GB etc.
There's a very good reason why most of the literature from the romantic between-the-wars period that was written by the expats enjoying the libertine Rive Gauche lifestyle there is centered around the expat community, and not French culture. These folks were by and large well equipped for such an immersion, but weren't necessarily "part" of French society, and weren't going to be.
Europe in general is prone to the formation of ethnic enclaves, and I think that France (and Germany), with its strong cultural identity is probably more prone to this than many other places.
Also, the cultural foundation of Japan is just about as far removed from liberal (classical, not modern leftism) Western thought and cultural tradition as you can get.
Remember Gen, you're mostly American (although you do have some Japanese tendencies - not many, but some).
As a final note - this dovetails nicely with the "Lost in Translation" discussion. You could make one from the Japanese perspective, set in Paris, and I almost guarantee it would be a hit, but for the fact that I'm not Japanese and can't speak to their interest in seeing how uncomfortable an alien culture makes their people.
Out.
cdg
Wow...
Mr. Gates, to speak to your comment on the same level as it sits on, I say to you this:
You must be american.
:p
(Apologies Gen. This comment made me ill.)
in Eastern Europe - we have the same problem with France = mother of ALL cultural events. (?)
France is a "marketing case"; like beaujolais nouveau, democracy, liberte, egalite and Chanel no 5.
but look at french panintings of XIX and XX century - mostly inspired by Japan (japanese drawnings, way of using pen..)
and other influences...
France (Christian is right) is strong with cultural identity; but this is TOTALLY MIXED culture.
My remarks shouldn't make anyone ill; they are just observations, but without all of the dishonest sugar-coating that gets thrown around all the time. If you go from a tightly-wound culture to one wound-up in another direction, you'll have trouble adapting, and you'll not get much accomodation from your new culture. Rejecting historically observable events and trends, or ignoring broad trends in favor of a fascination with small-scale curiosities that meet your point of view, is very dangerous when evaluating cultural events. You might not like the facts, but they sit there demanding acceptance.
Japan has historically been a pretty rigid culture, and significant vestiges of that remain. France, while far from rigid in the same sense, still has its own idiosyncracies, and they are very, very strong. Talk to a Frenchman, and after discarding all of the culturally sensitive nonsense, you'll see the point. The French are a proud people, and they defend their culture aggresively. I'm not assigning a value to such behavior, but it doesn't lend itself to accomodation, any more than I would be accomodated by the Japanese in the broadest sense.
And I thought my "Lost in Translation" bit was apt.
cdg
There was some discussion about this over at Marxy's blog as well. http://www.pliink.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=290
Having lived in France for 15 years, I'll have to agree with Mr. Gates on that one. I still love France tho' ^^
The USA is unique, in that people are all treated the same, with regard to their culure or country of origin. What matters before anything, whether in the US, Japan, France, Afghanistan, or Nigeria, is the $$$$.
But of course, you already knew that.
And if you're gonna go abroad, at least find a place with some sun.