Do Japanese prefer money above all ?

[qchan]

When I first read the posts here, I thought people here were feeling too negative about being interested in money. So in my last post, I wrote the positive side about it. I couldn't understand why you were feeling strange about it, but after reading about the tv program and people talking about money openly, I begin to understand. I didn't think it strange before you pointed out, it was normal for me.

I thought maybe difference between Westerner thinking rude to talk about money and Japanese talking about it openly, comes from whether your from country of Christianity or not. I read in a book that Christian society concidered commerce and financial business as negative things historically. But in Japan those business were encouraged since fifteen century. In Osaka (a commercial city), there's a greeting 「もうかりまっか？」「ぼちぼちでんな。」("mookari makka?" "bochibochi den na" - it's Osaka dialect). It literally means, "Are you making a lot of money?" "Well, just so-so.". It's a greeting same as "How are you?" "Fine, thank you.". This may be sound very rude greeting for Westerners...

So one of the reason why Japanese interested in money and talk and ask about it a lot is maybe because Japan isn't a Christian country. We don't have negative feeling about being interested in money, compared to western people. When Japanese talk or ask about money we don't mean to be rude, just asking it from simple-minded curiosity.

From Westerner point of view, Japanese are too interested in money, and from Japanese (my) point of view, Westerner are feeling too negative about being interested in money.

Originally posted by Maciamo
If you don't know what to talk about with Japanese people, money is always a good topic, for they don't get bored to hear how much cost whatever you have ever bought or imagined to buy in your life.

And for Japanese, even though you don't know what to talk about with Western people, you shouldn't talk about money because it's very rude for them.
These kind of cutural differnce are very interesting, and I really enjoy learning about it. This topic is very interesting for me.


kirei na me, Mandylion - Thank you. I wasn't sure if my English was making sense. I feel relieved.