I watched this recent video by Dogen about how immigrants should adapt to Japanese life etc.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_tXp5sFlHQ

One of the things I found odd was that he mentioned “eating while walking” as one of the offensive behaviors foreigners should stop doing. Many of the other examples made sense to me, but for this one - I never thought this was “rude”, rather “odd”. Thinking about it, I had a few conversations about this over time, but never got negative vibes for it (at least directly). Might be that people don’t want to tell me it’s rude, but I also got no negative opinions about it from people who lived abroad for a while (and thus are maybe better at communicating with foreigners) and/or are usually more upfront with me.

So my current understanding: It’s odd but not rude. Thankful for any further insights.

  • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppetEnglish
    -1•2 days ago

    I can’t say why for sure, but the Japanese place a lot of importance on ceremony for mundane tasks, adding order and meaning to every day life. Eating is an important part of life, and I’ll bet that they don’t appreciate people taking it casually. It’s just a guess, but it’s a guess based on my understanding of Japanese culture.