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Help Isn't Always Appreciated In Japan

While helping someone with a task is often seen as a polite thing to do in the West, the same isn't necessarily true in Japan. Helping someone in Japan can sometimes be viewed as an attempt to take their job, so it's best to just allow them to do something themselves. This might be due to the fact that employment is highly competitive in Japan — and many other parts of Asia.

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It might also just be because people in Japan prefer to do tasks on their own. Either way, you don't want to give someone the impression you're after their job.