Some problems living in Japan?

Question:

Aside from the small homes, crowded streets, cramped busses/subways, high expenses etc., any other major drawbacks of living in Japan?

Answer:

Problem: "Gaman" ---Kind of suffering in silence, not complaining. Just enduring.


Japanese stubbornness--All countries are like this, but they pick one negative quality and run with it, turning it in to a positive. In Japan the ideal is "Gaman--" gaman is originally a good thing--kind of a perserverance even when times are tough. Saving up money to send your kids to college, battling illness to overcome cancer, working hard to have the best basketball team in the league, etc. etc.
Yet gaman means to endure hardship. Like if there is a crooked politician, or corporations make monopolies and rip people off. If the government lies to you, you gaman. If your employer works you like a slave, or your boss is flirting with your wife=gaman. If you come from a home with domestic abuse=gaman.
Basically it means letting powerful people walk all over you. Like the military elite that started WW2, or the corporate chieftains of the 1990's and 2000's, who stay rich on government handouts while working people cannot pay just to send their kids to college.

Instead of addressing a problem, Japanese are quick to be fatalistic about it. Instead of thinking "Let's see how we can accomplish this?" " What can I do make this happen?" For them its more like "Oh well, guess I'd better dream smaller." "I'm mediocre. Gosh."
The fact that women don't have kids anymore is part of this. Women are tired of gaman-ing. They have to gaman at work for their bosses, and even though they work as many hours as their husband, they are expected to keep the house in order and the kids in line with almost no help from dad. Dad lives with mommy and grandma does all the stuff in the house, often complaining about the lazy daughter-in-law, who may be pulling in more money than her husband, but the mother-in-law harps on her because she is tired when she comes home from work.

So I think "gaman" is a lot like Sports, electronics, porn, and food in the USA; it is a way to keep the masses quiet so really crappy politicians (Like Mr. Kan) can stay in power and use tax money to buy Jameson single malt scotch and spend weekends in Rome with their mistresses, all the while encouraging everyone to "gaman."