Differences Between Japan and the UK

It's the summer holidays! What better time for obsessive blogging?

Since I have been teaching English to mainly Japanese people, I have been asked countless times with varying degrees of perfection in the grammar, "What is the UK like?"

The answer comes out with a bit of waffle but is effectively summed up by "Er, I dunno, I just come from there."

So then we look at the reason I am in Japan. In comparison there appears to be less violent crime. There is still the sensationalism in the media of extremely violent and/or bizarre crime. But I've never had anyone try to mug me in Japan. I've been mugged once in Sunderland and had three attempts that were unsuccessful. If, in an Un-Understand first, we check the United Nations data for deaths by assault for 2005-2006, it does appear that the UK is more violent that Japan, with a UK rate of 0.7 per 100,000 people compared with 0.5 per 100,000 for Japan.

Japan also has a lower infant mortality rate, which is a significant social indicator. Japan has a rate of 3.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. The UK has 4.8. As I mentioned, this is a massive social indicator; Zambia has a rate of 94.6 deaths per 1,000 live births. (All data for the years 2005-2010). So the UK and Japan are comparable, but Japan fares slightly better.

"Ah, but England is a very beautiful country!" my students would say at this point. Perhaps. It's the whole Peter Rabbit country myth, where the UK is still a green island, with one city only - London - where everyone commutes by a red double-decker bus and every man wears a bowler hat and carries a black umbrella.

The UN data shows that the UK had a forested area of 11.9% in 2007 compared to Japan's 68.2%. That Japanese figure is staggering: a relatively small archipelago, much like the UK, but with over 5 times as much forest. I looked at Google Maps just to check this out.

Japan looks like it has about 30% -40% grey on it's map:


大きな地図で見る

Wheres the UK has about 50% grey, and it's nearly all England south of the Peak District and east of the West Country.


大きな地図で見る

"Oh, but Marc, you're just slating England."

Absolutely not. There are some fantastic things about England. We help more refugees (and others of concern to the UNHCR. The UK had 306702 by the end of 2008, whereas Japan had only 5880. I know this is because it's more likely that refugees have a greater likelihood of some English language experience than Japanese language experience, but still!

The UK government spent a greater proportion of GDP on education in 2005-2008. Britain spends 5.6% compared to Japan's 3.5%. Cuba's was 13.3% though.

Other highlights of both countries:

Japan
Cheaper to eat out. Public transport reliably good. Technological innovation. I see more people reading books.

The UK
Better music. Free museums. I see fewer people playing video games in public.

References:

UN Data for Cuba, Japan, the UK, Zambia.
The above embedded Google Maps.
My own experience.