Concrete buildings and the lack of urban planning
Not something I know much about, but the buildings I saw when in Japan were quite nice.
Lack of respect of nature (concrete all along the coast, hills, few parks in cities, etc.)
Japanese people don't respect nature? That's not the vibe I got. I saw some beautiful parks in Hanamaki.
It seems to me that Japanese people respect nature far more than Chinese do. Look at what happened recently in China, a wonderful breed of Dolphin went extinct!
Non-buried electric lines everywhere
Not something I noticed, but not a problem.
Lack of thermic isolation and central heating in houses
Yeah, the lack of air conditioning while I was there wasn't the greatest.
5-month-long muggy summers (except Hokkaido and Tohoku)
It felt pretty hot and humid I must say. Actually about the same as where I live.
Natural disasters (earthquakes, typhoons...)
I fear for Japan because of those things, but it doesn't particularly make me fear for my life.
Lack of preservation of the historical heritage
I don't? Doesn't seem to be that way.
If so that's sad. Japanese history is quite a precious flower.
Political corruption (amakudari system, government using postal savings...)
Yeah, that kind of bugs me. Makes Japan seem even more dark and mysterious though. I do wish there were less corruption though.
Police checks on non Japanese (e.g. gaikokujin torokusho)
Sorta sad, but I kinda understand where they're coming from.
People pointing or staring at foreigners, or saying "gaijin, gaijin !" or "Hello America !"
That's not too bad. Not everyday you get to see a foreigner. America would be appropriate considering I am an American.
Doesn't bother me. Infact it seems kinda cute.
People telling you that gaijin come to Japan to make money, when salaries are higher in your country
That bugs me. Definitely. I mean, I'm from a first world country just like Japan. So going to work in Japan definitely isn't for the money.
Assumptions that foreigners in Japan commit much more crimes than the Japanese
It makes me sad. Though I can understand the stereotype. Japan does seem to have less crime than alot of countries.
Assumptions that almost all foreigners living in Japan cannot speak Japanese
I think that's a fair assumption considering Japanese has only 130 million speakers. I mean, it's quite hard to learn Japanese outside of Japan, so they probably figure you didn't know any before hand, and are just learning a little coming in.
Remarks inspired by jingoism (4 seasons, farmer vs hunter, etc.)
What the heck is with that four seasons thing anyway? All countries have a Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Well, maybe not all, anywhere tropical is pretty hot much weather all year round. But thinking that your country is the only one with four seasons is kinda naive.
Ignorance about the rest of the world (cultures, geography, history...)
Not a big deal. America does quite a bit of that too.
General denial or downplaying of war atrocities
Not really actually. It's similar to the way depictions of African American slaves as happy being slaves doesn't bother me.
Discrimination in general (toward women, young people, foreigners, burakumin...)
Incredibly terribly sad.
The education system (school + juku + homeworks and they still do not learn anything)
Engrish seems to be proof that their education system does not work well enough. I dunno what it is, but it needs fixing.
The exceptional Japanese ability to copy what China or the West did/does
I feel no jealousy towards Japan's amazing ability to copy from others and improve the copy. Go Japan!