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Answerman - Why Do All The Kids Want To Move To Tokyo?

As an Australian, let me say: no we don't. Sure you will get a handful of people who want a quieter, more relaxed environment, but they are the exception, not the norm. Most of the reasons discussed for Japan hold true enough here, except you've got slightly more choice of cities, and none of them are the nation's capital. As for "surrounded by friendly warm people" in rural areas, that depends how white, Christian, and conservative you are.

Not quite. While it's true that the cities directly on the border of LA proper function largely as districts/wards, anything further than about 20 minutes away from the city limits acts very much as its own city. Especially because mountains and hills often physically separate them from LA. Places like Rancho Cucamonga have their own cultural and economic infrastructure, distinct from LA's. While many people there do work in LA, it also has its own workplace and entertainment infrastructure comparable to geographically distinct medium-sized cities. The places in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area don't really function that way, as infrastructure-wise and culturally as well they're pretty much indistinguishable from Tokyo.

Those sort of medium-sized suburbs having their own infrastructure is very much a mostly American oddity. I lived around Hamburg, Germany for a while, and that sort of thing doesn't exist there. The closest cities of over 100k population to it are 45 minutes away across swaths of farmland, and all the neighboring towns to Hamburg of 10-30k are all dependent mostly on Hamburg's infrastructure. I lived in a town on Hamburg's border named Ahrensburg, and aside from 2-3 grocery stores and maybe 10-15 other shops (mostly food places), there's pretty much nothing else there. Everyone there goes into Hamburg to do anything with their free-time. Ahrensburg couldn't survive without Hamburg, whereas Rancho Cucamonga still has all the infrastructure needed to survive on its own if anything happened to LA. Mid-sized suburbs and commuter cities that have their own fully-functional infrastructure are quite uncommon outside the US, and are different functionally than wards of mega-cities like Tokyo are.

Those sort of medium-sized suburbs having their own infrastructure is very much a mostly American oddity. I lived around Hamburg, Germany for a while, and that sort of thing doesn't exist there. The closest cities of over 100k population to it are 45 minutes away across swaths of farmland, and all the neighboring towns to Hamburg of 10-30k are all dependent mostly on Hamburg's infrastructure. I lived in a town on Hamburg's border named Ahrensburg, and aside from 2-3 grocery stores and maybe 10-15 other shops (mostly food places), there's pretty much nothing else there. Everyone there goes into Hamburg to do anything with their free-time. Ahrensburg couldn't survive without Hamburg, whereas Rancho Cucamonga still has all the infrastructure needed to survive on its own if anything happened to LA.

Ah, so it's not popular in Australia? (Come to think of it, most of the people I've had who tell me they desire to move to the countryside here in the United States ARE white and Christian, though it's hard to tell their political alignment.)

My impression reading all the stuff on this site concerning rural towns in Japan is that they by and large do not get modern technology or modern culture. This means they want to keep people in their communities but they don't seem to know how to do it, or they're willing to do it only using traditional techniques.

This article seems to be mixing metropolitan area's and cities together.

Japanese cities
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Japan

Top 5 by population
Tokyo - 8,637,098

I frequently hear people complaining about how city life is just too complicated and people want to go live out somewhere slow and remote when they retire.

And no, Rancho Cucamonga doesn't have the infrastructure to survive on it's own in it's current form if something happens to LA - in a city of 175k it's largest employer is less than 1k people! (And it's not like there's a lot of such businesses - on the list of top 25 employers, by the time you get to number 7 you're at 500 employees.) Economically, it's completely and entirely dependent on its proximity to LA and the jobs to be found there.

It's not exactly hard to figure out lol

I'm an Australian living in Japan (and definitely don't want country life, nor do man Australians lol - mot of us want suburbs, but not country, since that's just dust lol). I live in a rural, but better than some, area. It's got mountains and nature and stuff, but not much else. My hometown in Australia (about an hour out from Melbourne) has 20k more people in a smaller area, but so SO many more facilities! Numerous movie theatres, swimmable beaches, cafes, take out, shops, bowling, everything!

Many of my coworkers can barely use a computer for printing or putting images on an SD card onto a computer. Most of them are under 50. Some do, sure, but in my town, it's not common to keep up with trends or technology. People keep trying to get tourists/young people involved in Japanese culture (traditional stuff, like pilgrimages) and just don't get that kids are into smart phone games and boy bands and like fashion. We literally have a uniqlo and a shimamura in my town, unless you're looking for a suit. I get giddy every time I go to a big city and see clothes made in the last few months instead of the last few years and am floored every time I see stylish people because I simply don't see it here.

But speaking of that, my town doesn't have a whole lot in the way of traditional things to keep people here. A few festivals throughout the year (3? 4?) but most of the nicer ones, or ones with history are a few towns over. At our festivals, most people get really drunk and kids can play a few festival games. So if people travelled to other ones, they'd need better transport systems or not drink, or stay overnight. We're small enough that it's still easy to know a hell of a lot of people even if you don't go out often. That can be really nice if there's a community vibe, but gossip can carry fast and in a place where image means everything, it's not great.

And when they get there they probably will dislike it. No matter where you live, people take the advantages for granted and complain about the disadvantages. If you see someone enthusiastic about city (or country) life they likely are either new to it or have newly returned. In the US, fortunately, it is not an either or issue. You have cities of all sizes and proximity to other areas. While some find their place remote from the conditions where they grew up, most are more comfortable with what they know.

Where I live lacks access to the narrow release of Japanese movies in theaters. I would have to drive four or five hours to Washington DC to see them. However, this is a lack I can deal with. You couldn't pay me enough to deal with even the traffic in the DC area (it gets horrible as far out as Manassas).

Are there a lot of rude drivers in DC as well?