RResidents in Japan

Weekly Complaint Thread – 27 November 2025

  • November 26, 2025

It's the weekly complaint thread! Time to get anything off your chest that's been bugging you or pissing you off.

Remain civil and be nice to other commenters (even try to help).

  • No politics
  • No complaints about users of JapanLife

by AutoModerator

32 comments

  1. I am of the opinion that people who hold their IC card on the ticket gate reader for as long as humanly possible while passing through the gate should be publicly flogged.

  2. Folks—and I’m looking at *you*—30 centimeters in front of the wicket is not the place to stop, put down your bags, and start digging through your backpack for your train pass. Similarly, when someone from the line of 20 people behind you asks you politely to move out of the way, anger is not the appropriate response.

  3. I caught up with someone for the first time in a long time. Since I don’t use facebook, insta, etc., it’s not unusual to not get mail from someone in a while. Well, the news update definitely had a lot of less-than-stellar news.

    The reason I wasn’t hearing from one, my former bandmate, neighbor, and good friend, is because they died earlier this year. That hit hard.

    Another in that circle also recently died.

    My last living grandfather nearly died the other day. He’s getting closer to 90 so it’s not unsurprising but, still, not the news I want to hear.

    There’s a lot more than that going on, but that’s enough for one week. Obligatory fuck cancer (and many other things).

  4. I know this is a very human trait and not just for Japanese people, but since it deals with Japanese language I feel like this is Japan specific.

    Anyone else experience(ed) this when learning Japanese? Japanese people will discourage you and actually suggest things that are counter to your language learning benefits/growth. For example, maybe you might mention something you learned or picked up and the book is interesting to you. But then the Japanese person might be like we don say that/we don’t use that word (notice the we) or that’s too hard. You don’t need to read something that hard.

    But it’s literally in a book I bought on a shelf in a book store. It’s not something esoteric.

  7. As much as I love my sharehouse, how difficult is it for people to understand the ゴミ当番rules. How difficult is it to read a fucking picture manual that children would understand and just do stuff accordingly. Why do I, the only gaijin of the house have to be the mother of the house, gently telling people off (gentle parenting here) and ending up doing their duties for them? I mean, other option would be to not do it, but I don’t want garbage to pile for weeks…

  8. New foreign neighbors putting out rubbish the night before pick up and, not covering it with the netting to stop pests breaking up the bags.

    They put the bag literally next to the netting!!!
    So, every rubbish day the bags are destroyed and trash spread all over.

    Slowly the area near my place is looking like the third world the new neighbor comes from…

    Meanwhile the Japanese neighbors seem to be looking at me.

  9. More pink ribbons signaling dozens of trees to be cut down in my neighborhood in the coming months. All the 100+ sad stumps are reminders that this once nice and green area is now a grey wasteland, and will be made more grey and sad as the beautiful and big trees are cut, but neither the stumps nor the accommodating patches on the sidewalk are ever removed. And then, come summer, city hall is gonna warn about heatstroke, as if they’re not responsible for removing as much shade as they possibly can. 

    I miss cities where trees are cherished and accommodated. 

  10. the ginkgo trees are all afire in yellow, it’s so beautiful..wait I’m supposed to be complaining. my local konbini stopped carrying sugar-free monster, ugh

  11. Not really a complaint about about Japan but I’m just upset with myself. I’m an interpreter, but the last few weeks I’ve been struggling. I’ve had to ask my Japanese co-workers to repeat themselves a few times, because I couldn’t make out what they were saying. For some reason I’ve also been having trouble understanding what people are saying in English too.

    My wife had a baby earlier this year, and I’ve been up most nights helping her with feeding and changing diapers, running more errands etc. I’m glad to help, but now I’m tired more than usual and its impacting my work.

    I was going to the pool four times a week as a sort of stress release, but for the last three months the local high school and swim club has been booking ALL the lanes EVERY day from 17:00 to when the pool closes (the only time I can usually go). Been stress eating more too and wasting too much time on Youtube. Feel like I should be doing something more productive with my rare free time, but I’m not. Just in general I’m a little disappointed with myself.

    I better understand the trope of the tired dad sleeping in-front of the TV though so that’s somethin’ I guess.

  12. 2 houses are about to be built in my neighborhood. Someone rang the doorbell at 8pm last night and said he was with so and so company and 工事について順番にご案内しております so I thought “oh they must be just about to start construction tomorrow or something”

    Answered the door and got a 10 minute sales pitch for solar panels… no worries though he apologized about 20 times for it being 8pm and 5 degrees outside so I guess that makes it ok…

  13. For no reason I picked up a warhammer kit to paint some miniatures for fun. Now I want more warhammer.

  14. I have one colleague who says “expecially” and another who says “even more busier”/”even more bigger”. We’re all English teachers.

  15. Two chief complaints from me this time.

    First, some students from my school recently harassed/verbally assaulted me on the way to the station after school and said some absolutely horrific things and I genuinely feared for my safety. Reported it to my school and we have CCTV of the incident. Students were interviewed but none of them fessed up to saying the one sexual remark that was the most disgusting. The student who I know for a fact said it (because I was looking at him when he said it and he’s also on the verge of expulsion for sexual incidents like this) claims that he remembers everything else on the walk home except those specific 5 minutes and thus cannot remember anything that happened. So, of course, magically they are exempt from punishment because “the chief culprit cannot be proven” and it just reminds me of why so many women have such horrid lives in Japan. If this is the way that they want to educate young boys on how to live as adults in the future, then I see why there are so chikan and deviant perverts out there.

    Second, I’ve been seeing so much dog shit on my walk to work lately. It’s really disturbing. I don’t know who is doing it but it’s not a small dog but not a big dog either, it’s a medium size dog. It’s just shocking me since normally Japanese people are pretty clean about dog mess. Also, the new people moving into the apartments are also not putting their trash under the netting and every morning it’s a damn mess with the crows and it’s just disgusting seeing food and trash thrown everywhere every morning, on top of avoiding the dog shit on the side of the road. It’s exhausting and ruining an otherwise peaceful walk to work in a suburban area. It’s a shame.

  16. I cried at work once because my coworker is a raging bitch and now she constantly asks me if I am going to/did cry. I frequently get asked “you cry?” Like lady in the three years we worked together I only cried once and heaven forbid my eyes look a little funny for any reason like yawning or being sleepy. Just leave me alone I’m not crying over you telling me the daily schedule lol.

  17. My Joy Con2s were not responding when connected to the console, so I sent them in for service. Nintendo tested them and “could not replicate the issue” but they found that my ZL/ZR buttons were broken…???

    So they’re sending me a new set of JoyCon 2s, but now I feel the problem may have been the actual console itself… and I’m going to be out of a console for a week or so. Ugh.

    Edit: the votes on this post are wild. I was up 5, then down 2, then up 2, now down to 0.
    JoyCons got people messed up.

  18. My Japanese has hit a brick fucking wall despite working in an all Japanese environment, all-Japanese hobbies, and a partner who can’t speak English. With direct, transactional communication I’m at high B1, perhaps even B2. When it comes to indirect communication, abstract ideas, complex sentences, or anything that relies on subtext (pretty much everything at the professional level) my understanding is worse than a fucking toddler’s.

    I mean, I get tasked with filling out a form with improvement ideas for our PDCA cycle and yet when this is explained to me they use every goddamn word except “write your improvement ideas on this form.” So I have to ask them explicitly what they expect me to do. “Well, just think of ideas for improvement and write them here.” Okay. Why **the fuck** did you not get straight to that fucking point and instead waste my fucking time with an explanation that did not fucking say that?

  19. With the recent account location revelations from Twitter, I am convinced that 90% of hate speech online is written by bots or poor people in modernizing countries. I can’t go on any website without reading about a foreigner carrying five suitcases, talking loudly on their phones, and going off a checklist on how to disrespect people.

    I can’t stand this obsession! Please don’t be an asshole in any country.

    Had to block my debit card due to fraud and now I cannot buy anything on the Black Friday sales. This is probably a blessing in disguise, but I refuse to admit it.

  20. I am tired of Japanese CEOs/seniors talking about irrelevant things during meetings. Had my annual review meeting and every single time my CEO talks to me he feels the need to mentor me on my life and advise me on things that are irrelevant to me being an employee in his company. He knows that my dad owns a business (cuz he asked bout what my fam does during an interview 🚩), so he now thinks that I will succeed my dad’s business (I won’t) and I need his wise wizardly knowledge. It is not harmful per se (mostly cuz I make sure to unplug during these streams of consciousness and just bow and say occasional *hai*), but I just find it to be so naïve an silly, cuz whatever he is saying is like a content of the most basic self improvement book ever or worse some motivational crap your divorced alcoholic unc posts on social media. Given that he is a massive nepo baby (he is coming from generationally powerful and influential family) it makes it even more cringe and idiotic.

  21. Now in japanese company, recently the management changed from japanese to foreigners, it’s annoying in a sense that the culture is more valuing visibility over actual employee contribution.

  22. Costco membership ran out so Uber prices are jacked up, but don’t have time to go to my nearest to pay the membership fee. Guess our thanksgiving meal is more expensive.

    —–

    Cats had an ordeal a few weeks back. Paper bag caught on screw tail’d cat’s tail and scared the shit out of him, so he bolted around the house and our other cat bolted because of the noise of the paper bag. After it was all said and done, both cats were bleeding from back paw. We took them to the emergency vet, they ripped their nail off (respectively), so we had them remove the exposed nerve so the nail and nerve would come back in. Again, both cats.

    One cat seemed to be healing fine but the other’s foot was swollen and hot to the touch so we took him to the vet and got medicine. Took a week of medicine and now he’s fine. Other cats no longer fine and continues to lick at the wound, essentially keeping it open, so I have to take her back…

    It’s been about 100,000 yen between the two of them over the course of a month, all because one decided to fuck around with a paper bag… Love my cats, love them both, but they’re dumb sometimes and when they’re dumb it stretches everything else out… Kinda hard not to be frustrated.

  23. Round two:

    The cost of groceries has gone up to the point that I can’t get below 600yen per serving without sacrificing my nutritional needs. Everything that’s cheap requires me to eat twice as much of it to get what I need, thereby defeating the purpose of it being cheap.

  24. When I’m cycling on the road, abiding by the rules, why do some motorists think they have priority even when it’s my right of way? It absolutely pisses me off. Then they just act as if they didn’t see me with absolutely no acknowledgement.
    Not only is it annoying but it’s super dangerous.
    Not too big of a deal, but it feels like the same shit different day kind of scenario.

  25. last week someone kept coughing without covering his mouth next to me on the train, and i think i caught whatever virus he carried with him that day. i’m on sick leave now, it’s been miserable, lots of tasks at work neglected, weekend fun plans cancelled. wear mask folks.

  26. not only did I get my flu shot late this year, it was also more expensive and WAY more painful. last year was a burning kind of pain as it went in, this year was like a straight-up stabby kind of pain, like they were injecting knives into me.

    and while I usually get zero symptoms afterwards aside from maybe a slightly sore arm, this year I have mild pains all over my body. ugh. am I just getting old??

  27. I hate the monthly songs in junior high school English classes. Especially if it’s a bad song and it gets stuck in my head.

  28. Company shifted from a half foreigner/half Japanese employee count to 99% Japanese and only really looking to hire Japanese. When I started my team all spoke English and now everything is in Japanese. I was berated and told that certain things outside of my control (in the control of management) were my fault and I should be working harder. Then was told I should find a job elsewhere. Not fired since they have no grounds really, but they did say they’re gonna cut my bonus and try to lower my salary.

    So yea, desperately job searching and am stressed out of my mind. Good times…

  29. i ordered a camera, and am now wondering if this is actually mindless consumption/shopping to get a little bit of yay, rather than a true intention of developing a new hobby.

  30. Woke up late for my tour… arrived late to meet clients.. tour went well but full on my face almost because there were these cement blocks all over the place… sigh

  31. I’ve always found it amusing that if you call a Japanese person out on their bad behavior some of them completely shut down. Blank stare, unresponsive, mute, absolutely stunlocked. Like they’ve never been confronted before in their lives.

    A brief list of times this has happened off the top of my head:

    * A kid constantly kicking my seat on an airplane, I turned to ask the parent if they could stop it. The dad just stared at me wordlessly.
    * A young guy hit me with his bicycle and he fell off it. I asked him wtf he was doing. No apology or anything.
    * A woman crashed her cart into me in the supermarket since she was staring at her phone and walking. Again no apology. (variations of this one have happened more times than I can possibly remember)
    * A guy cut in front of me in line. I told him where the end of the line was. He turned into a statue.
    * I was riding the train with some friends and a large man halfway sat on top of a girl and slammed his bag into the person on the other side. He was completely oblivious to all of this and fully ignored everyone complaining at him.

    Once I noticed this pattern I started asking if they understand Japanese, which usually causes their mouth to open like a gaping fish but again no words ever come out.

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