I take part in Model United Nations which is a worldwide debating model of the United Nations. The conferences I attend are often international and sometimes there are delegates from Japan. These delegates are between the ages of 16-18 and mostly female. There was about 14 girls and 3 boys. Whenever they delivered speeches they were quite shy as they were speaking in English, a second language but would not cry during the speeches but after once they had sat down. It would not just be the one who delivered the speech that would cry but also her friends. I would ask '大丈夫？’　and they would respond politely saying they are fine. This happened multiple times over 2/3 days with them.

Is this something that happens often with young (or all?) Japanese people? Is it just females? Was it a rare occurrence?

I don't know whether there's a crying culture in Japan or not, but it's quite common that women (and some men) cry when they feel overwhelmed. Crying has a naturally calming effect, you see. If they said they were fine, they probably were and just needed some time to settle back down emotionally.

Its probably normal. Japanese feel violated when they are 'forced' to give a personal opinion. It is way to stressful for them LOL

It's normal. Every year when the school festival closes, half of my students are in tears and the other half are busy shouting "がんばって!".

It's usually a way to express strong emotion, being moved to tears. It seemed odd to me when I first saw it, especially seeing adult men silently weeping during something, but I was told that it wasn't a sign of weakness, and in fact speaks to their manliness that they are so moved they shed tears while staying stoic. I'm not exactly sure how that works, but...

Yes, they do have a crying culture. Watch any Japanese school sports championship (they show the high school baseball championship on TV every year). Both the winners and losers always cry.

I don't think it has anything to do with being overwhelmed (in a negative way) or stressed. Rather, it is an expression of "having gone the distance," so to speak. It's like when Rocky Balboa lasts twelve rounds against Apollo Creed. Even though he lost, he cries in a positive way because he made it through to the end. He's crying because he made it because of all the efforts in the gym, the sacrifices he made, the people who supported him, the obstacles he overcame, etc. Imagine that, but just with a group of people.

The occurrence is so common in Japanese culture that I think people would be unnerved if a team didn't cry after a school sports championship or similar event. People would think the team didn't actually make an effort or lacked any sense of camaraderie, as if to say they didn't think the event was important and they didn't care for their teammates and wouldn't miss them during the off-season.

Edit: watch any anime where some team makes it to some big event, and you'll see what I'm talking about. The great thing about anime is that typically unspoken emotions are often narrated in the first person, which lets us peek into Japanese cultural norms that would be difficult to learn of otherwise.

Stepping down a couple levels, I can definitely say Japanese kids--boys and girls--cry a hell of a lot easier than American kids. Of course my sample size is tiny, but I've seen dozens of kids cry over trivial things while their classmates just sort of shrug and ignore it. This seems to clear up a bit by high school, but at younger ages it's a weekly event for me. And man is it hard trying to calm a kid down when you barely speak their language!

I cry during Japanese movies.

It is the reverse, the problem is a sexist "culture" stereotyping people who cry as weak, or crying as "abnormal" or a "problem" that needs solving.

visualsense Wrote:It is the reverse, the problem is a sexist "culture" stereotyping people who cry as weak, or crying as "abnormal" or a "problem" that needs solving.

There's nothing negative about saying that a particular society has a crying culture. It's comparable to saying that the UK has a football club culture. Yes, the attribution may be made in a negative tone or context, but that doesn't mean we can't have an objective discussion about the cultural differences between the football culture in the UK and elsewhere. And I don't see any negative tone or context in the OP, so I take it that the OP just wants to understand the cultural context of crying in Japan.

In any case, as with most things, I think it's foolish to wholly embrace or disdain any particular emotion. Each can be helpful or destructive. There are certainly cases where I judge crying to be disdainful, e.g. an airline pilot bursting into tears when flying an aircraft. In other cases, crying can be cathartic, intimate, joyful, and so on. There are more options than just a crying culture vs. a sexist culture.

visualsense Wrote:It is the reverse, the problem is a sexist "culture" stereotyping people who cry as weak, or crying as "abnormal" or a "problem" that needs solving.

You definitely misinterpreted what I wrote. I am far from sexist and do not think crying is either abnormal or a problem.

P.S. Thank you for the amazing, insightful replies everyone!

visualsense Wrote:It is the reverse, the problem is a sexist "culture" stereotyping people who cry as weak, or crying as "abnormal" or a "problem" that needs solving.

I think I get what you said. Instead of them having crying culture, it's us (the western society in general) that consider crying is for the weak, and for the women.

visualsense Wrote:It is the reverse, the problem is a sexist "culture" stereotyping people who cry as weak, or crying as "abnormal" or a "problem" that needs solving.

Every culture has different opinions about when it's appropriate to cry, and gender is often one of the factors that plays a role (even in Japan). Nobody and no culture is right or wrong about who should cry and when.

Whether gender plays a role in determining when it is appropriate to cry in a particular society has very little to do with the economic, political, or social well being of men or women in that society. Of course, it happens within the social sphere, but that doesn't mean it plays a serious role in the social well being of a gender or sex. It doesn't. So, no, it's not sexist.

Givala Wrote:I think I get what you said. Instead of them having crying culture, it's us (the western society in general) that consider crying is for the weak, and for the women.

Interesting to think about, the idea that crying makes you look weak as permeated in the west is a fairly recent notion. Historically, crying was actually seen as manly because it shows you give a damn.

I did a little research into this a few years ago actually; I should see if I can't dig up my old sources for those who are interested in reading more on the topic.