Illustrator says one group loves Uniqlo, asks women to split the bill on dates.

Japan is often described as a largely homogeneous society, and in relative terms that’s not entirely inaccurate. That said, even Japan itself realizes that its social norms are often different from many other parts of the world, which is something Japanese Twitter user @ma_u2134 tried to highlight.

@ma_u2134 tweeted out a series of illustrations comparing Japanese and foreign men, contrasting them in four ways. For each of the paired drawings, the Japanese man is shown on the left, and the foreign man on the right.

https://twitter.com/ma_u2134/status/991528507602751488

The differences @ma_u2134 claims are:

1. Japanese men: Care deeply about fashion (shown wearing brand-name shirt, jacket, sunglasses, and hat).
Foreign men: Don’t really think fashion is all that important (shown wearing a T-shirt from low-priced casual brand Uniqlo)

2. Japanese men: Usually pay for their dates (shown telling the restaurant cashier “Put it all on my credit card.”).
Foreign men: Often split the bill (shown telling his date “Let me have half the total.”)

3. Japanese men: Want a cute woman
Foreign men: Want a sexy woman

4. Japanese men: Think that cleaning and cooking are supposed to be done by women
Foreign men: Share the cleaning and cooking duties

@ma_u2134’s illustrations quickly earned a large number of comments from other Twitter users:

“Is it that Japanese guys want to foot the bill, or that Japanese women are good at making them pay for everything?”

“[Regarding point 3] I guess that’s because a lot of Japanese guys have a Lolita complex.”

“Aren’t there also differences in physique?”

“It might sound nice to say ‘Foreigners don’t worry about fashion trends,’ but isn’t caring about trends a matter of individual freedom.”

“About the fourth point, since Japanese companies make employees work so long, isn’t it best if a dedicated housewife, who stays home all day, handles the cooking and cleaning?”

Though the tweet has racked up tens of thousands of likes, it’s worth pointing out that @ma_u2134 (who, from his profile picture, seems to be a guy himself) doesn’t claim any first-hand knowledge of or experience with dating foreigners. As such, his analysis isn’t accurate in all cases, as evidenced by comments from other Japanese Twitter users such as:

“I prefer ‘cute’ girls, but aside from that I match up with all the foreign guy characteristics.”
“Wait, I’m Japanese, but looking at this…am I still Japanese?”
“I don’t care about fashion, I pay for my date, I care more about a girls personality than her appearance, and I do my share of the chores. So what am I?”

Maybe it’s best to just look at people on an individual basis, though I’ll readily admit to being a foreign guy who owns a ton of Uniqlo T-shirts.

Source: Twitter/@ma_u2134 via Hachima Kiko

Follow Casey on Twitter, where his weekend plans include putting away his winter Uniqlo shirts and taking out his summer Uniqlo shirts.