Japan is Sometimes Overly Precise
October 30, 2021•246 words
A while back, the morning news in Japan did a piece on "how much is too much reclining" in trains and planes. The result was, most people in Japan felt that 40.4 cm (15.90551 in) was the max they wanted someone in front of them to recline. In typical Japan News fashion, they measured distances and angles, and got a cute little girl to say when she felt uncomfortable when the man in front reclined. (What burns my cookies is when the person in front of you reclines violently and suddenly.)
Anyway, this sort of detail is typical in Japan, and it's something my western friends and I find rather humorous. For example, they go into incessant detail about wind speed and hectopascals of barometric pressure, compleat with demonstrations from poor schlub in the field going "yep, this gale force wind is realllly hard to walk in". I, for one, expect my news broadcast numbers to be reported with six decimals of precision. :-p
Of course many Japanese are aware of this tendency, and have done some excellent comedy taking the piss regarding it. Here are a couple funny examples:
- The Japanese Tradition, Tea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe0idflAic4
- The Japanese Tradition, Dogeza Apology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG6oT5kYI0Y
- The Japanese Tradition, Onigiri Rice Balls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeaN4pJeIfk
I promise, those are meant to be comedy, despite the assertions from the "experts" in the comments section. (God save us).