Looks pretty similar to what I'd expect to a regular European town.
What are you comparing it to that you see such a drastic difference?
What are you comparing it to that you see such a drastic difference?
Eastern europe in general less. Norther europe more.
Western and southern europe is mixed. Graffiti I have seen quite a bit, but broken glass or other types of vandalism are sadly common, too.
So, what you wrote stands true for smaller places, but large cities are now very clean. Not quite Japan-level, but close, and certainly much cleaner than anything in western Europe.
Dresden for example has always working elevators and the stations are looked after regulary.
The small towns? It can take weeks, before a broken elevator is fixed, or a public toilet reopened. (If there is one at all in the first place) Until then you have to step over pee and shit.
Europe is not one country, and even within the same country, there may be big differences between regions, and within the city itself. Naples and Geneva for example are like polar opposites.
Japan is very uniform by comparison, and about as clean and well maintained as the best European cities, I'd say the US is about average by European standards, but with less variation. The general, very rough idea with Europe is that the further north you go, the cleaner it is.
Way more than in NYC or Boston today, it reminded me of NYC when I was a kid in the 80s.
Sure, because there are worker rights and we do not keep people working at night unless there's a reason.
> Japan is notable because there’ll be people everywhere and things will still be clean
What do you mean people will be everywhere? There are people as well in regular European towns and it's clean as well.
Same for Sunday Closures. What's so special about Sunday apart from old religious concerns?
In countries with a high development index, the employment law usually prohibits 7 day long working weeks, and there is a provision of at least one day off (granted, since employment laws vary across jurisdictions, there is no universal rule).
The situation is different for small businesses and self-employed as they are the masters of their own fate (so to speak), e.g. if a cafe owner decides to run the cafe 7 days a week and work there in person themselves, that is their choice.
And then govt decided to stop for brownie points with church.
Sundays off are about workers rights, little to do with religion.
And you can still work on Sunday - in businesses that are allowed to be open (gastro, petrol stations, certain shops).
Why did they all happen to pick Sunday?
Weekend is only two days long, so it's not like you have a lot of options.
(Of course, my point is, Sunday is the day off, the last day of the week, and the "core" of the weekend, exactly because of the dominant religion.)
That's a ridiculous answer. People work at night in Japan because there is a market for that.
Part of this is low wages, but the population density also means you can easily find people who'll work the night shift. Or sometimes the store owner does it.
But no, they aren't like Europeans who think workers should have the right to work five hours a year.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/AVHWPEJPA065NRUG
China is probably the better example for long work hours right now.
Stop reading tabloids
It's much better than 0 outside benchmarking, so I've learned to just let these threads roll on.