Pithy.. if at all accurate.

Since several here have fixations on the er, ummm schoolteaching scene, anime and other kewl inexplicable tics and habits of the joint..

(Finally.. got straight a phrase I misremembered, and which appeared seminal in a particular Japanese exchange; thought it was ~ 'nigata ga nai'. Nobody had anything but Huh?! for that one) It was [phonetically]

Shigata ga nai
It. Can't. Be. Helped.

Surely the simplest very-definition of resignation.
And that was the overall social situation depicted by the {name uncaught} guest.

One other quip re the angst (simultaneously with noting the absence of any psych vocabulary which might interpret such words) was another gem: it was suggested by one Sage that, most-all Japanese need to become acquanted with the thought..

There is something called a "Choice" (to be made) and
Responsibility (for the consequence of choice.)

I, of course have no basis for an opinion re above -- just reporting the Interesting assertions, mostly confirmed by callers-in with some, to many years experience living there.

Anent the absence of a 'psych' vocabulary - indeed, absence of -iatrists:
it seems there is little acknowledgment of what 'depression' -TheWord- might connote, let alone the possibility -?-that the whole fucking culture just may have been Living That - ever since having their US investments eaten by Trump-grade Kapitalistichiskaya sharks, back in the early '90s.
Response to those losses, still being paid-off? Stoically, Of Course -

Shigata ga nai.

[I'd have thought closer to those fleecings: gehabt kindern!]

Comments on the suicides among students
("We didn't know little Hari was so sad..")
- who, it seems are sometimes: 4-5 strangers who meet VIRTUALLY, on IM {*cough* *hack* *cough*} -- drive somewhere 'together'-- and light a charcoal briquette.

Appears to be a living "I no verbs" acting out (and even "I no nouns"?) like
angst, existential non-hope; an absence of any 'spiritual' model around which to hang one's id, ego or even super- while watching {passively/politely} the parade go by.

Ah well, no more Fucked-up than Manic Consumerism here - and a damnsight less dangerous to the rest of the world.. just a variant of the Void within every shopper who waits outside in the snow overnight - to score a Sale; pays on the remaining un-maxxed-out CC, then puts the swag with the unopened 50 pairs of shoes and 8 battery-operated DVD players .. in the closet. (Or in the newly purchased 'storage organizer' set -- in the 3 car garage, now down to ~1-car-width between boxes.)


So then - it isn't just-US driving selves crazy! {whew?}
At least, having no ambition for 'choices' - they aren't trying to Rule the World nor fantasizing about Arma Geddin It On fer Gawd and Just Plain Goodness. Thanks, Japan - for That!