YouTube comments. We all know how stupid, ignorant and offensive these are. However, the "make reference to the previous poster's nationality / mother / manhood-size" regulatory standard never translated into Japanese, it seems.
The comments on this Bøowy video are all as adorable as said band is awesome, i.e. to a significant degree.
The top comment is "What a lovely song", the bottom one is "I heard this for the first time in 15 years. It brings back memories and it really is good."
There is a line in No Country For Old Men (the book, at least), in which the old sheriff says something like (and I paraphrase), "They asked me where all this violence starts. For me, it starts when people stop saying "Sir" or "Ma'm". That's when a society starts collapsing."
Living in Japan as I read this, I really kind of saw his point. A lot is made of the Confucian Filial Piety Sempai-Kohai yadayadayada hierarchical structure of Japanese homes, schools, jobs, society. And it's true. It's there, for sure.
Like, you'd normally address your older siblings by that title: Older Bro, Older Sis. And if you are the older one you can call your younger sibs by their name only. Similarly 1st graders have to bow to second graders in school because they're older.
Yeah, it seems ridiculous, and to a large extent it is. And all the respect for your elders thing which goes right through to university and research does stifle creativity and new ideas. And all the bowing that takes place in even a ten-minute morning assembly is more than enough reason so many old ladies are so hunchbacked, calcium deficiency notwithstanding.
But seriously, a little manners never hurt anybody. I fucking can't stand it when someone says, "I'm me, and I am not going to hide my personality or change who I am for anybody." Well, you know what, that officially makes you an arsehole. Most of us are not wonderful people. Hiding the nastier side of our characters, even when we can get away with flaunting it with impunity, i.e. on the interwebs, is a sign of class.
And of course, as per below, the opposite is pretty much a sign of, well, the opposite.
PS: I started this post a while back, which is why the top comments on YouTube have changed since then. The new ones are just as fluffy though. On the topic of societal structures, though, fuck the "company as family" concept. I work to get paid, which is why I finished my current job yesterday. I can't wait to be a mere employee again and not some co-accomplice to my own not-getting-paidness. And yes, maybe one day I will do the unclassy thing and write all about it here. But not as long as I am in Japan.