Forget cars and consumer goods, Japan's latest great export is lazy young bums
Japan has become known around the world for its sturdy exports ... cars, electronics, gadgets and even its raunchy manga.
But now, according to Spa! (1/31), the Land of the Rising Sun is sending out what it calls sotokomori -- lazy, young bums who travel overseas and congregate only with other like-minded Japanese who draw on the almost national trait of being hikikomori, or withdrawing from the world.
Sotokomori are almost exclusively in their 20s or 30s, making quick cash through high-paying jobs, then head off to live in cheap haunts overseas. But instead of broadening their horizons and learning more about other lands, these Japanese only hang out with their fellow countrymen, almost always at Japanese-owned businesses and spend their time talking about their homeland.
"In Japan, you can pick up a quick 1 million yen working part-time and then using that money to fund a long-term stay in a country like Thailand, Cambodia, India or Nepal, where the prices are cheap," travel writer Yuji Shimokawa, who coined the sotokomori tag and has followed the trend for a while, tells Spa! "These people who go overseas and then become hikikomori are the sotokomori tribe. They have no interest in traveling, or the towns or country that they're living in. There're loads of these people who don't even leave the rooms they're staying in for days at a time."
Sotokomori numbers, particularly the 20- and 30-somethings are skyrocketing.
"Sotokomori have virtually turned Bangkok into their own 'hallowed ground.' They can stay in cheap joints, eat at streetside stalls and generally lead a fairly decent lifestyle for 300 Baht (around 900 yen) a day," Shimokawa says. "All they do, though, is hang out with other Japanese in front of convenience stores or laze around in fast food joints, Internet cafes or manga libraries."
One of the main reasons blamed for the development of the sotokomori are the so-called "Japanese lodgings" that are basically backpackers' hotels which have popped up throughout the Khao San district of Bangkok.
"There are about 10 Japanese backpacker places in Khao San, with women making up around 30 percent of the customers. As customers, sotokomori are fantastic -- they normally pay their room charges and, because they're introverted, don't cause too many problems with other guests," Eiichiro Arahata, operator of a "Japanese lodging" in Khao San, tells Spa!
There seems to be specific types who become susceptible to the lures of becoming sotokomori.
"Most of the women do temp work, or had been in some sort of specialized profession. The guys are more likely to be the types who've suddenly quit their jobs and fled to get away from everything. A common trait is that once you've become sotokomori, it's hard to get out of the habit," travel writer Shimokawa says. "They sit around drinking beer, talking about their friends who've gone back to Japan and found work and bad-mouthing all the people they used to work with back in Japan."
An official from the Japanese Embassy in Thailand points out that 80 percent of trouble involving Japanese in the Land of Smiles emanates from the Khao San district, making the backpacker district a risk. But Shimokawa argues that the very nature of the sotokomori sees them unlikely to fall prey to the unscrupulous.
"Sotokomori have almost nothing to do with the people from the country where they're staying. They only associate with other Japanese," Shimokawa tells Spa! "And because they only have shallow relationships with the people they do come into contact with, the likelihood of them getting caught up in some kind of trouble is fairly low. (By Ryann Connell)
Mainichi shinbun January 26, 2006
not a bad idea
900 yen is a bit under 9 USD right? Hmm...
I'm intrigued!
the only thing i worry about is water pollution in thailand, and nepal
CIA factbook
THAILAND
Major infectious diseases:
Definition Field Listingdegree of risk: high
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea and hepatitis A
vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, Japanese encephalitis, and plague are high risks in some locations
animal contact disease: rabies
water contact disease: leptospirosis
note: at present, H5N1 avian influenza poses a minimal risk; during outbreaks among birds, rare cases could occur among US personnel who have close contact with infected birds or poultry (2005)
enjoy your AIDS
This is pretty clearly anti-japanese racist propaganda from said countries.
>>5
so is that, thats not very nice, considering, im Thai
Nice?? It's the CIA Factbook! Don't let your hepatitis A do the typing!
The possibility of living so cheaply is absolutely intiguing. As long as there are internet connections, lots of (cheap) food, and a life without responsibility, I could see a lot of American slackers picking up the idea.
I wonder how hard it would be to get the fulfil the legal requirements necessary to live in the said countries.
I don't know how feasable it is, but the idea of not having to work and still being able to live quite a comfortable life is really appealing to me right now.
>>9
seconded, but the thing is im afraid of suffering from a bad illness, or consuming AIDS from the water. But im sure there are ways to avoid the diseases, most likely the sotokomori would have some sort of survival guide on the internets somewhere, since they have the experience. Or could there be other countries like Thailand or Nepal that have less diseases?
>>10
Well, if someone were to go there and actually carry this idea out, being careful to only ingest bottled (or otherwise purified) water would definantly be necessary. I\'d assume that could be some sort of guide available, but, if so, it would be in Japanese. I do think it would be very possible to create communities of American \"lazyasses\" overseas, though.
I don\'t know if there are many other (decent) places where one could live quite as cheaply as some of the quotes I saw when I did a search for \"sotokomori\" (about $3.00 for lodging and $.90 for food/drink is absolutely amazing), but I do know that living in eastern Europe would be relatively cheap for an American. I\'m assuming that some place like Kiev (Ukraine) or any decent sized city in Russia would fit at least some of the criteria a potential sotokomori would find appealing.
Hostel 2: Thailand