Essay on the state of Japan's development

May 2024

INTRODUCTION:

Hello. My name is LuLu. But you probably already know that. ‘Cause, y’know. Over this essay I will be writing about why Japan is a good country or not. I am writing this before I finish the essay, so I have not decided if Japan is a good country or not.

I have just lived in Japan, (for a bit less than two months, but it is still considered living) so this is not purely based on research. It is also based on personal experience, from:

Tokyo. (2 weeks and one day.)

Kyoto. (3 weeks and one day.)

Osaka. (2 days.)

Beppu. (2 weeks and one day.)

Hakata. (3 days.)

And a Japanese ferry.

I have also lived in Yearavan, Armenia (Caucasus) and Amman, Jordan. (Middle East) which are both much more poor and less organized countries. So I will be comparing them, even if I do not write it down.

I hope you find this essay interesting and helpful. You may now move on to the rest of this essay. Thank you.

ACCESS TO GOOD HEALTH CARE:

America: health care can cost from $4.5 TRILLION DOLLARS, to $13 thousand dollars per person for health care each year in America in 2022.

China: health care in China normally costes 6,044 yaun, or 844 USD per person each year.

France: health care normally costs 40 euros per month, or 45 USD. On an average, health care costs 1036.51 USD per year. Men typically pay less than women, but past the age of 45, they pay more.

Russia: per year, health care costs about 1.5 trillion Russian rubles, or 51128775000.00 in USD.

Out of the whole world, Japan is considered the 13th best place for health care by this very fancy website:  https://immigrantinvest.com/blog/best-healthcare-countries/  under;

Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Israel, Belgium, and Switzerland.

And on an average it is said to be very fair and equal. Japan’s health care costs around 5,000 to 10,000 yen, or 45 to 90 USD with health insurance at a clinic. A trip to the hospital is typically 10,000 to 15,000 yen, or 90 to 140 USD. Health insurance is 35,000 to 40,00 yen per month, or 330 to 370 USD.

In Kyoto, there was a hospital near our Airbnb. It was big and tall, clearly able to hold a lot of people. It’s lights were running much after dark, so you can tell it still had service at night and probably

Japan ranks 4th for longest life expectancy under;

Monaco, Hong Kong, and Macau.

Tying in age with;

Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Singapore, Italy, Vatican City, and South Korea. And if you were paying close enough attention, you would notice that every single county in that lineup is in Eurasia. Asia and Europe are the most rich continents, above North

America. 136035 is the number of money both of them have made together.

Moving on, if you see what I’m hinting at is that maybe people don’t go to the hospital or doctor very often. That giving the doctors time to improve. https://vanguardmedgroup.com/often-get-checkup-family-doctor/#:~:text=How%20Often%20Americans%20See%20a,doctor%20two%20times%20per%20year says that the average American goes to the doctor 4 times a year. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-how-often-people-go-to-the-doctor-by-country/ says that the average French person goes to the doctor 6 times per year. But the same website proves my hypothesis wrong, saying that the average Japanese person goes to the doctor 11 times per year. Having it rank second for highest visits to the doctor; under South Korea. It says that the reason people go to the doctor so often is because of Japan's decrease in population. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-20-countries-with-the-lowest-fertility-rates-in-2024/#:~:text=Understanding%20Fertility%20Rate&text=Taiwan's%20fertility%20rate%20is%20estimated,the%20lowest%20in%20the%20world says that Japan ranks 16th for lowest fertility rate per woman under:

Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Ukraine, Hong Kong, Macua, Moldova, Puerto Rico, Italy, Spain, Poland, Montserrat, Mauritius, Herzegovina, and the British Virgin Islands. The average child born per woman is 1.26. So you can see why there is a famous decrease in the population of Japan.

LOW UNEMPLOYMENT RATES:

Amarica: America has about 327,000,000 people that are employed, with 7,000,000 people being unemployed. Which makes the percentage of unemployment 4.1%.

China: in 2023, the amount of unemployed people was 10,000,000. The population of China is about 1 billion. The percentage of unemployment in China is 4.67% in 2023.

France: there are around 2,000,000 unemployed people in France, with the population being 68,000,000 people. Making the percentage 7.31%.

Russia: the population of Russia is 143.8 million in 2023, and the percentage of those people that are unemployed is 3.87. The number of unemployed people in Russia is 1.9 million. In other words, Russia is doing an amazing job at keeping their people wealthy and employed. Keep up the good work besties!

As a capitalist country, people need jobs to get money, and from what I’ve seen, I think they’re doing a good job at helping their citizens do so. If you’ve been to Japan, you know there are lots and lots of shops, stores, and malls. And they can be pretty expensive too. What you take away from that might be a bit different than what I'm about to tell you.

What I take away from it is that the people of Japan can afford these things. By, of course, their jobs! The stores also open up new jobs for people. Not only that, but they open up more experiences. There is a wide variety of things to do and buy in Japan. Though, you might be thinking; “well, maybe people are able to buy things because it’s cheap in Japan!” (That was meant to be read with a very squeaky and annoying voice). And I say back to that “nu-uh.” Though Japan’s currency is very weak, its people know that. Like in Vietnam you could get a banana smoothie for like, 2 USD. This is because Vietnamese currency is the second weakest currency in the world, under Iranian riel. It was so weak, it did not stand a chance compared to the Euro, Jordanian Dinar, or even the Kuwaiti Dinar. But the yen is a different story. The yen isn’t really that weak. One USD is about 155.26 yen. (Basically 150 yen). Getting back to the point, yen being weak doesn’t mean it's a non-expensive country. The most pricy places in Japan are: Tokyo Metropolis, Kanagawa, Hokkaido, Chiba, and Kyoto. Fukuoka, Osaka, Sapporo (Hokkaido), Kochi, and Okinawa Are the least expensive cities.

OUTSIDE INCLUSION:

America: America is not very racially diverse, having 58% of its population being non-Hispanic white. 12 out of every 20 people in America. That being said, it's very LGBTQI+ and gender inclusive. It is ranked 44th on gay friendly countries by this wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay-friendly America's gayest state being DC, which does not explain why I feel so out of place there.

China: Although over 92% of China's population belongs to the Han race, China is a surprisingly racially diverse place. Other main racial groups are: Tibetans, Mongols, and Uyghurs. In LGBTI+ terms, the Chinese government does not allow gay marriage because of traditions in China clashing with LGBTI+, but the Chinese government actually decriminalized homosexuality in only 1997. And for gender equality? Females make up 60.5% of the Chinese workforce, which is surprising considering the one child law starting in 1979 and ending in 2016, in 2016 the law wasn’t actually removed, but changed to the two child law, being removed in July 2021.

France: France is considered to be a very racially diverse country, even though 68% of the population is white. All things considered, the natives were Germanics that settled there in the 9th century, which were white. Another big ethnic group being Hispanics, taking up 23% of the population. France ranks 7 for best countries in Europe to be part of the LGBTQI+ community in, by:https://www.statista.com/chart/14141/the-best-countries-to-be-gay-in-europe/

Russia: 53.57% of Russia’s population is female, and 55% of their workforce is women. Although being homosexual was decriminalized in 1917, having same sex attention is frowned upon in Russia and pro-homosexual groups are deemed “extremist” and banned. in addition to that, Russia is one of the many many countries in Asia that has a law prohibiting same sex marriage. And 77% of Russia is Eastern Slavic.

98.5% of the country of Japan is Japanese. And though that is true, Japan is very welcoming to visitors. In 2024, 38.6 million tourists came to Japan, the most visited area in Japan is Tokyo. Other popular tourist destinations include; Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, and Sapporo.

To put it in simple words, almost all of Japan is asian. But that’s not very fun. In 2017, the racial makeup of Japan looked like this:

Japanese: 97.9

Chinese: 0.6

Korean: 0.4

Other (Filipino, Vietnamese, and Brazilian): 1.1%

Although the modern country is peaceful, for almost all of Japan's history it has housed slaves. But the import and export of slaves was prohibited because of Japan  being a cluster of islands. There is a Chinese document from the 3rd century about a slave being exported from Japan, though the rules of this transaction are unclear. These slaves were called “Seiko” or “生口.” This translated into “living mouth.” The

name for a slave in Japan changed in the 8th century into “Nuhi” or a “奴婢.” Slavery was abolished in 1590, although there were laws sent out about slavery in the 700s. Despite what I said, apparently some of the first Japanese people to enter Europe were female sex slaves from Nagasaki. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a samurai and former Daijō-daijin, used these instances to prove the negative impact christianity had on Japan. This ended up in the dismemberment of slavery in Japan. Sadly, Toyotomi Hideyoshi did not live to see much of his accomplishment, dying 18 years later at the age of only 61. The use of slaves was brought back during World War Two, when Korean women were used as sex slaves, or the more commonly used term; “comfort women.”

If you’ve been to Japan, chances are you know the religion of Shinto. Shinto is a Japan-born polytheistic religion, responsible for 70.5% of Japan. Though Buddhisim, created in northeast India, landed in the position of the second official religion of Japan. Responsible for 65.2% of Japan's population. Christianity, created in Judea (Israel), makes a small appearance, accounting for 1.5% of Japan. Other religions make up 5.9% of Japan's population. Buddhism and Shintoism are often considered 100% of Japan, as many Japanese people practice both religions. This shows that Japan’s only domestic religion allows its followers to practice other religions along with it.

Although same-sex marriage is tolorated by most of the Japanese community, it is not legal do to the Japanese government defining “marriage” as a male and a female, instead of a male and a male or a female and a female, because of the reproductive system. *cough* *cough*surrogate *cough* *cough.* Sorry, I have a bit of a sore throat. As I was saying, this definition of marriage restricted the legalization of same-sex marriage. Turning our attention to the website;

https://www.equaldex.com/equality-index?continent=Asia

On the home page, the equality index section, it says that Japan’s LGBT friendly level is 55. To be more elaborate, a 100 is a very LGBT friendly country, and 0 is a country that supports LGBT rights in no way possible. In the gay marriage section, Japan is labeled “banned,” with no date of legalization. Though same-sex marriage has never been legal in Japan, homosexuality was decriminalized all the way back in 1880. (It is not clear when Japan decriminalized homosexuality, there are accusations that it was decriminalized in 1880, 81, and 82 from my brief research.) In this selection of countries (America, China, France, Russia) Japan’s decriminalization date is second only to France, which is the first country ever to decriminalize homosexuality. Shown in;

https://www.equaldex.com/region/japan,

Japan ranks 55 for LGBT support in Asia. On transgender terms, changing your gender has been legal in Japan since 2022, though it is not completely like Columbia, New Zealand, or Pakistan. To be legally transgender in Japan you have to have surgery. Identifying as non-binary or a third gender is not legally recognized in Japan. And sadly, intersex infant surgery is not banned in Japan, meaning that medical procedures will be performed on new-borns to make them meet gender expectations. All in all, Japan is not very good with the LGBT community, have laws prohibiting same-sex marriage, and a not very good relationship with the transgender community.

If you have lived in Japan, or even just visited Japan, you’ve most likely been welcomed into or grew up in a very traditional country. (That being Japan.) This makes Japan have very traditional career roles. Meaning most males have jobs, and most females stay home and take care of their child or children. This being said, Japan has pretty good gender equality. According to;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_Inequality_Index, Japan ranks 17th in GII (Gender Inequality Index), and 19th in HDI (Human Development Index) in 2019. Actually, in ancient Japan, the men did work more, but the men talked like their wives were goddesses, and the women talked like their husbands were trash-monsters. Around 45% of the Japanese workforce is female, accounting for about 54.2% of Japanese women. I feel that Asia has given Japan a bad rap in the category of gender equality, especially the Middle East. This might be just because female babies are more likely to be born, but 51.4% in 2022. And Japan NEVER had a one child policy, instead having pronatalist forces. For the safety of Japan’s future, it’s better to stay that way since Japan’s yearly population growth has gotten below zero. This image was posted on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_Inequality_Index#/media/File:Gender_Inequality_Index_2019.svg (2019).

This image shows that Japan is one of the two only countries in Asia that is 0.00 - 0.09 with the UAE (United Arab Emirates). Though the UAE is considered to have better gender equality.

This being said, there are allegations that gender equality in Japan is quite poor, that Japan ranks one of the last developed countries regarding gender equality, that Japanese women face harassment in multiple aspects of life, that gender inequality in Japan is creating a mental health crisis, and even so far as to say gender equality in Japan is worse than in Saudi, which is just straight up wrong. So, let’s delve into the worse side of Japanese gender equality. In the 2023 UN (United Nations) gender equality report, Japan ranked 125th out of 146 countries. This might sound bad, but in the 2024 report Japan got itself together and moved up to 118th place. But Japan still has the worst gender equality out of the seven nations. (I mean, I don’t think it’s possible to surpass Canada or Germany.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Gender_Gap_Report#/media/File:Global_Gender_Gap_Report_2020.png shows an image of the 2020 UN gender equality report. Find your eyes on Japan in said image. The color of Japan is orange, meaning it’s number is 95-125 (about the same as Guatemala, Belize, or China). Fumio Kishida was the prime minister of Japan from October 4th 2021 to October 1st 2024, in the time he was prime minister he promoted and supported gender equality. Although Japan has never had a female president, there have been 2 female officers; Toshiko Abe and Junko Mihara. Abe appeared in September of 2005, while Mihara was elected in July 2016. The main reasons gender equality in Japan is weak is because of traditional Japanese gender roles, persistent biases in workplaces, and issues in economic and social systems. Hold on a second, what do I know? I’m not a full grown woman, neither am I Japanese. Actually, most of the people writing on these websites are men! We don’t know anything! Literally, we don’t have any proof about stuff like “gender equality in Japan is good,” or “gender equality in Japan is bad.” Meet these Japanese women who actually live what they’re talking about, at; https://grapeejapan.com/44420 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWcS_7JjO-4&t=14s

(Note: if you’re having hard cheese while reading subtitles, a tip is to slow the video down using the settings button in the corner.)

CONCLUSION: 

If you were reading this essay, you were probably hoping to find an answer to the question; “is Japan a good country.” But at the end of this, I’d say it’s more complicated than that. Japan has been a really bad country in the past, slavery just being a part of Japan, treating Korea and other countries really badly during World War Two, and much higher gender equality to women in the Asuka period. All that being said, Japan is very much on a path to redemption. Japan is just now rebuilding its military after September 2nd, 1945, and only to protect itself. Not to cause any harm. And by region, Tokyo is considered the most equal city, being the capital. So to ask the question “is Japan a good country” is to ask something that can not be answered. It depends on multiple things, like who you’re asking, what period, and what region. Everything changes when you slide those factors, because Japan is an old and big country. It also depends on what’s your main focus. For example, if you want to know if Japan is good with gender equality, you would see Japan as a different place as if you were asking; “is Japan good at keeping its people employed and keeping a good economy.”

So, I’d say Japan is not a good country. But it’s better than most countries. No country is a good country, no matter what. If I were to say “Japan is a good country,” I would just be flat out lying. Japan is a nice place to live, and has a very valued economy, but that doesn't mean it’s a “good country” just because it has a better economy or is a better place to live than let’s say Eritrea. You could say that Japan is the best country on earth, that every god or Buddha or universe came together to make the perfect country and name it Japan. You could say all of that, and still Japan is not a good country.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Japanese healthcare costs:

https://www.internations.org/japan-expats/guide/healthcare#:~:text=Japan%20Healthcare%20Costs&text=However%2C%20in%20general%2C%20if%20you,(180–460%20USD).

Japanese health insurance costs:

https://www.internations.org/japan-expats/guide/healthcare#:~:text=Health%20Insurance%20Cost&text=The%20average%20cost%20of%20health,the%20public%20health%20insurance%20coverage.

unemployment rate in america:

https://www.bls.gov/cps/

https://www.stopshowingoff.com

Number of children in Japan:

https://fortune.com/2024/05/04/japan-economic-outlook-child-population-fresh-record-low-14-million/#

The exact population of Japan (LIVE):

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/japan-population/#google_vignette

Slavery in Japan:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Asia#:~:text=In%20an%20area%20of%20present,was%20anachronistic%20had%20become%20widespread

Religion in Japan:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Japan

POPULATION:

The population of Japan is around 123,390,937 as of the end of 4:52 PM on January 20th. (Yes, I found a live number of how many people there were in Japan). For 43 years straight, the population of children under 15 in Japan is 14.1 million. Meaning if I rub my two last brain cells together hard enough, I can say 89.2% of Japan is 15 and over, meaning if I go through mitosis and add another brain cell to rub, I can say that equals 101.7. (I lied, my mom did that last math problem. Thank you mommy).

JAPAN IS NOT A GOOD COUNTRY.

Fundraising Activity

May 2025

We raised $50 each for our cause - Lulu is donating to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and Mona to the Crisis Text Line. 

Fundraising Message:

Everyone has causes that they feel very strongly about and want to protect. Us too. We think mental health awareness and healing is worth knowing about and worth caring for. 

In school, we were assigned a fundraising project and we took it to heart to help people in need. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the Crisis Text Line are organizations that we picked to support. 

Please visit our fundraiser pop up store to show your support and awareness.  The fundraiser will last until May 25. Thank you for caring!

Opposition Position Democracy Debate Notes

ANTI DEMOCRACY:

• If you went to elementary school, chances are you’ve experienced what I like to call “the full punishment.” This is where a few students do something bad, and the teacher punishes the whole class. And this is exactly what democracies are doing. A few people vote for one person, and the whole country has to deal with that person for the next couple years. 

• For example, let’s say I voted for Mitt Romani in the 2008 election, but Barack Obama wins the election. (And just remember, this is an example.) Me and every other person that voted Romani is forced to live with Obama as our president for the next four years. *stand up and frown >:[.*

•     Plus, there aren’t really a bunch full democracies. Actually, 46 democracies are flawed democracies, making up the majority of democracies. Only 25 countries are full democracies. And the purest democracy? *pull up map of the region around Switzerland.* Tiny. 

Thank you for listening to my presentation. *stand up and bow.*

NGO mission statement 12/3/24

We’re in Gaza! (My NGO name)

____________________________________________________________________

Who my NGO helps: 

The people trapped in Gaza Strip, the people that have already evacuated Gaza Strip, and the people that have family in Gaza Strip.

What my NGO does:

It would advocate for Gaza becoming its own independent country, not owned by Palestine or Israel.

Why my NGO does what it does:

So the Gaza war stops. If Gaza is its own country, it can bring peace between Israel and Palestine. Its sovereignty will be respected by other countries that have been trying to take its territory, and become its own special area.

What my NGO values:

A place where Palestinian and Israeli people can live in peace. It is important to me that people can live in a place were there is no one trying to have the land.

What my NGO wants to accomplish:

For Gaza Strip to become its own country and to stop the Gaza war. 

—————————————————————————————————————

Thank you.

Government infographic project October 8, 2024

Fun Religion game. (global studies game containing facts of the Shinto and Buddhist religions). (I am sorry i couldn't finish it in the time frame, the next half will also not be coming out in 2050). 10/31/24