Expats in Japan

Waiting to pray at a shrine for the first time this year

I'd like to take this opportunity to vent about something that's been slowly driving me insane since coming to Japan to live in 2009.

I don't know if this is true of all countries, and I don't know if it's just me feeling this or not, but does anyone else get put off by the sheer snobbery and superiority complexes of other expats?

Even in magazines geared toward expats in Japan, I've noticed the absolute snootiness with which the magazine refers to newbies to the country.

At a company I used to work for, anyone who had just arrived in the country was called "fresh off the boat" and considered like a newborn, but with disdain.



Expats who have been here over 20 years, I have found, have stopped puffing out their chests to declare they're experts of Japan. By that point, they just seem too tired to.

No, it's usually the sweet spot of living here between 5 to 10 years when that snobbery reaches a fever pitch. These mid-term expats will waste no time in commenting on your surprise at something in Japan (such as the need to take your slippers off to use a different pair in the bathroom) with something along the lines of, "Aw you're so cute because you don't know anything."

If you find something interesting, or if you believe something is possible (for example, dating a Japanese person), this mid-term expat will swiftly destroy that hope or that joy with such fleeting phrases as, "Ah, I remember when I was that stupid and thought such stupid things were possible."

Condescension is the method of choice in beating out any sense of hope anyone living here for less than five years may still have within them, so that these poor people will either go back to the country they came from or turn into bitter mid-term expats, themselves, compelled by divine revenge to then pass on the gloom to  newly arrived people.

If I may ask, expat people living in Japan, could you just stop? Unless the new person is at risk of losing their life or getting into some serious trouble, why not just let them experience Japan in their own way, free of your pompous commentary on how new they are to it all?

Is there really a need for the antics of being a snob? Why is not knowing everything about Japan the equivalent of being an idiot?

I am willing to bet that most mid-term expats (and any other snobbish expat) don't know absolutely everything about Japan either. I don't know everything about my home country, so I never came here with the personal expectation to figure out all of Japanese culture.

Yes, it's important to keep an open mind when abroad, because almost as annoying as the snobbish expats are the expats and tourists who say things like, "Well in my country, we would never do this."

However, there is a line between an open mind and making it all a race the way people do with video game levels.

There is no need for the pressure to know absolutely everything or risk ridicule. Let's lighten up, people.

Thank you.