yam@sighyam
Japanese and Thais have been fighting on Twitter all day. Here’s the tea lol:
A Thai man at a 7-11 attempted to buy a box of instant ramen. He opens it, pours hot water, and then goes to pay. Why? Because in Thailand this is common, as Thais live in a high interpersonal trust society and people can be trusted to pay for things at shops.
For added clarity, this practice is mostly done with noodles to save time and not much else.
However, in Japan, people are expected to pay for noodles before opening them. A Japanese 7-11 cashier corrects him. No problem. The man pays. Great learning experience. The video is shared online in case other Thais don’t know.
A Japanese nationalist account reposts the video: many Japanese netizens harshly criticise the Thai man, with many being racist and xenophobic, even attacking the man for not knowing how to insert cash into the machine, calling him backward, a country bumpkin, and stupid, etc.
Thais reacted by criticising the Japanese for their uptightness, saying how when Japanese tourists make mistakes, the Thai mindset and approach are to act calm and reasonable. Thais are confused why it’s so hard to adopt an “it’s okay” mindset, especially when no harm was caused. In Thailand, this is a quintessential mindset that Thais live by.
The Japanese side responds and basically says it doesn’t matter… you’re in Japan, and the Thai man is practically stealing.
Thais respond by saying, okay, understood but who attempts to steal and then goes to pay?
Thais then pull out receipts of all the times Japanese tourists have behaved badly in Thailand, pointing out that bad behaviour stemming from moral bankruptcy like discrimination, sexual assault, and theft is more common from Japanese tourists than from Thais, with many cases making headlines over the past few years alone.
Comments about Thailand being backward because the Thai man put the cash note in the wrong way were also met with confusion from the Thai side.
In Thailand, QR payments and e-wallets are the default payment methods, and most Thais now adopt this new-gen banking tech. Japan is still a cash heavy society and relies on older infrastructure habits.
It’s worth writing that not every Japanese comments are attacking the Thai man. Many are being reasonable and those who have travelled to Thailand have been pushing back against other Japanese netizens comments.
