The Asianist

Maybe too many Japanese saw the film "The Beach" one time too many.

Behold, the phenomenon of lazy Japanese bums in Southeast Asia:

Sotokomori are almost exclusively in their 20s or 30s, making quick cash through high-paying jobs, then head off to live in cheap haunts overseas. But instead of broadening their horizons and learning more about other lands, these Japanese only hang out with their fellow countrymen, almost always at Japanese-owned businesses and spend their time talking about their homeland.

"In Japan, you can pick up a quick 1 million yen working part-time and then using that money to fund a long-term stay in a country like Thailand, Cambodia, India or Nepal, where the prices are cheap,"

It's as if social trends in Asia are about 10-20 years behind those of Europe and the U.S. I think the Japanese are now going through the "be-yuppie-make-money-go-hippie" phase.