50 Illustrations Showing The Cultural Differences Between Japan And Other Countries

Eva is a comic artist who studied in Tokyo from 2010 to 2014. During her stay in the country, the artist noticed many cultural differences between her home country and Japan. To deal with this sudden cultural shock, Eva started creating funny comics about it.

The artist hopes her comics will not only help foreigners understand the Japanese culture better but inform people about the changes they need to make in their behavior when visiting Japan. Between 2012 and 2015, the artist posted over 300 comics to her Facebook page – check out some of the best ones in the gallery below!

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#2 Eating Noodles

Slurping noodles to eat in Japan is perfectly fine and it is said that they will taste better too.

#3 No Service Charge And Tips

#4 Picking Up Your Own (And Others) Trash

#5 Station Masters

#6 Baths

Japanese enjoy taking hot baths too, especially hot spring baths. (monkeys are there for humor, you won’t get to dip with any, sorry!)

#7 Fruits

Anybody bought the expensive Japanese fruits before? Like the melon or the insanely priced grapes…

#8 Japanese Service

#9 Tattoos

If the tattoo is small, it can be covered with plaster to enter into the public bath houses or swimming pool.

#10 Toilets

The toilets are always wet in Malaysia and there’s always no toilet papers.

#11 Celebrating Christmas

Strangely Japanese celebrates Christmas not with turkey and ham, but with KFC…

#12 The Last Stop

If you fall deep asleep on the bus in the US, it may be your last stop…

#13 Vending Machines

There are vending machines almost everywhere, even at places where life-forms doesn’t seem to exist.

#14 Getting Off The Train

#15 Curry

#16 Stairs

There is a great number of staircases and very few escalators and lifts at smaller train stations.

#17 Kids After Finishing Their Food

#18 Smartphones

You can’t turn off camera shutter sound on Japanese smartphones due to privacy and upskirt photo taking.

#19 Clean And State-Of-The-Art Japanese Toilets

#20 Seven Wonders Of Japanese

The 7th wonder can be found on my FB or blog.

#21 Hairdresser

#22 Train Etiquette

#23 Designated Smoking Area

#24 Office Toilet

I went to a Japanese company for an interview before I decided to leave Japan. When I went to the ladies toilet, I saw a nice wooden locker cabinet mounted on the wall with small compartments. I know Japanese are very particular about hygiene but to see a locker for toothbrushes and sanitary stuff is a whole new world for me…

#25 Active Elderly

#26 Sayonara

“Sayonara” means goodbye but has a sense of finality to it, so don’t use it to your clients!

#27 Sushi Rice

Somehow sushi rice will fall off when you eat outside of Japan…

#28 Kids In Trains

#29 Muscle Training

You’ll get to train your muscles in Japan because there’s a lot of stairs, not many escalators, and lifts! So imagine all the luggage you have to carry up and down while transiting to the airport to train stations and in-between hotels…

#30 Japanese Speak English

Based on the real story at a sushi restaurant…

#31 Impressive Customer Service

#32 Hiking

I really feel like melting recently…

#33 Bus Drivers

#34 Giving Way To Those Who Really Need To Use The Lifts

#35 Shinjuku Station

It is a place where Google maps fail and all hope is lost to find the specific exits…

#36 Introducing

We only network with a plate full of food in our hands.

#37 Cyclists Are Considerate

#38 Accurate Weather Forecasts

#39 Comic Conventions

#40 Convenient Stores

I often go to convenient stores to buy bento, snacks, cakes or vegetables when I was in Japan. Sometimes I will pass by their adult magazine section and wonder if I should play a prank by browsing through it and see the reaction of customers and staff. But I wasn’t brave enough and abandoned the idea…

#41 Promotion

Japanese companies do not let employees specialize in one skill but instead be a Jack of all trades. So even if the employee graduated from an engineering school, they will place him in sales. During the promotion, they may even transfer a sales assistant manager to Human Resource!

#42 Safety

#43 Recycle

Though it’s good to recycle…

#44 Takeaway

I heard that no take away of leftovers from restaurants and buffet was allowed because of a major food poisoning that happened some years ago. Caterers and restaurants did not want to be liable if anything happens. Bento is ok because they have an expiry date and storage instructions on the packaging

#45 Amazing Japanese Women At Shibuya

#46 Final Decision

Although Japanese love to have meetings to gain a common consensus, they also may decide important things among themselves and simply let the employee know their final decision without discussing with them.

#47 Drawing Session

I was surprised when I attended a life drawing session in Tokyo and all the artists flipped their pages as soon as a break was announced. Perhaps the Japanese do not like to show off their work and prefer to keep things to themselves…?