About THE JAPAN FAQ
The Japan FAQ was started in 1996 during the infancy of the popular internet to address questions that many were asking about seeing and living in Japan. There really are few other countries that immediately bring up such extremes from people describing the place. On the one hand, there are countless youths portraying Japan as one gigantic Candyland, a country that somehow solved all social problems making a perfect land of joy and harmony, and living in Japan is going to realize all your cotton candy dreams. On the other is the opposite extreme – Japan is one racist hellhole, and all the Japanese are conniving, two-faced xenophobic snakes ready to use you up and spit you out.
Needless to say, neither of these two extremes are accurate.
The FAQ is an attempt to answer some of the most common questions while addressing many of the misconceptions that some people have about Japan. It has contributions from several ex-pats living in Japan for over a decade, with some input from Japanese themselves.